A Florida decide sentenced a serial killer to life in jail on Tuesday, after police stated he confessed to the cold case killing of a Daytona Beach woman who vanished greater than three many years in the past, her physique by no means discovered, in response to the Florida Office of the State Attorney.
Michael Townson, 53, pleaded responsible to first-degree homicide of Linda Lois Little, and gained’t be eligible for parole till serving no less than 25 years, in response to the State Attorney of Florida’s 7th Circuit.
“This defendant is a confessed serial killer,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza stated in a press launch. “I hope the plea brings peace to the family during the Christmas holidays.”
Little, 43, labored as a waitress on the Chart House restaurant on South Beach Street, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. She completed her shift round 1 a.m. on Oct. 11, 1991, and rode off on her bicycle, stopping at a bar alongside the International Speedway Boulevard Bridge. She was seen a number of hours later at a close-by 7/11, however never showed up for work the next day.
A narrative within the News-Journal on the time stated investigators discovered no proof of foul play, however Little’s household was sure she wouldn’t have left with out telling them. The household distributed 3,500 fliers and gave them to truckers to distribute all through the nation. Lamar Advertising additionally put up billboards, in response to the newspaper.
Townson was indicted by the Volusia County Grand Jury in October after he admitted to Daytona Police that he killed Little. He advised officers he was in Daytona Beach for his birthday in mid-October 1991, when he met Little on the 701 Club Bar contained in the outdated Texan Hotel, in response to the state legal professional’s workplace. He stated the 2 left in Townson’s automotive and acquired into an argument. Townson advised police he hit Little and choked her, then drove north on I-95, admitting he acquired off on the second exit in Georgia and put her physique behind a dumpster in a rural space.
The state legal professional’s workplace stated a current test of unidentified our bodies in Camden County didn’t flip up a match for Little. But Townson was proven an image of Little and stated there was “no doubt” that was the girl he had murdered in 1991. Police stated different components of the story lined up with the case.
Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty in opposition to Townson if he entered the plea by Dec. 26, in response to the plea settlement, reported by the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Townson advised police he deserved to be in jail, and that he has “a hatred for women,” the Dayton Beach News-Journal reported.
This is the confessed serial killer’s second homicide in Florida, the state legal professional’s workplace stated. At the time of his confession, Townson was already serving a life sentence in Brevard County, Florida for beating Sherri Carmanto to loss of life with a metal pipe inside her Titusville residence in 2007. In 2020, he requested to talk to Daytona Beach police, and confessed to killing Little, in response to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Little’s sister, Wanda Hinson, stated in a telephone interview with the Daytona Beach News-Journal she is hopeful that others with information will comply with Townson’s instance and are available ahead to assist households who’ve misplaced family members.
“The way I look at it, I’m hoping that somebody else sees his story and that they will admit and give (closure) for other families,” Hinson stated to the newspaper. “He wanted to get right with God is what his statement was and in doing that, we got the information that we’ve been praying for.”
Townson additionally allegedly admitted to killing multiple women across the South, in response to Memphis CBS station WREG. He agreed to an interview with the station inside jail in 2019.
He advised WREG he was staying in a money motel in Memphis round Christmas 1993 when he met Allean Michelle Branch. He stated Branch agreed to assist him discover medicine, however he couldn’t management himself.
“We were just fooling around,” Townson advised the station. “Next thing you know, I just snapped. I remember a little more. It’s not like it’s the first time, when I completely blacked out.”
Townson advised WREG he didn’t know what triggered him, however he took her out of the automotive, and put her, her footwear and her bag on the facet of the highway.
Townson admitted to killing a second girl whereas in Memphis, however that sufferer hasn’t been recognized, in response to WREG.
During the interview, Townson advised WREG at a younger age he was bodily and sexually abused by his stepfather, in addition to household mates and tried to run away at one level.
He admitted he beat a girl to loss of life after doing medicine together with her, close to a park in Orlando, Florida in 1988, however didn’t bear in mind her identify, in response to WREG. He later advised the station he’d killed “probably nine” people, saying the murders occurred in Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee. Police are nonetheless wanting into lots of his confessions.
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