Police Release Sketch Of Victim In 1972 Laurel Murder

LAUREL, MD -- The sketch above shows the woman who was murdered in Laurel in 1972, and police say it was drawn by her confessed killer, serial murderer Samuel Little.

Police released the drawing in the hopes that it would finally help detectives figure out her name. They believe she was one of around 90 women who Little admitted to murdering in the country in the 1970s.

A Texas Ranger contacted law enforcement in D.C. in October indicating that convicted serial killer Samuel Little murdered someone in the D.C. region sometime in the early 1970s, which prompted Prince George's County Police Cold Case Unit detectives to head to Texas to interview Little, according to a report from the Prince George's County Police Department.

Little, now 78, faces multiple life sentences for murders in California and Texas.

"During the interview, Little told our investigators specific and previously unreported details about an unsolved murder in Laurel that likely took place in the summer of 1972," the report states. "In December of that year, a hunter found the skeletal remains of the victim in a then wooded area off of Route 197 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway."

A medical examiner determined the victim was between 5'2"-5'6", had dirty blonde or reddish hair, and was around 19 years of age. Authorities have been unable to identify her.

"Samuel Little provided PGPD detectives key pieces of information that is narrowing the search for her identity," the report states. "According the Little, he picked up the victim at a bus station on New York Avenue in the District of Columbia. Little says the victim indicated she was recently divorced and from the Massachusetts area. She may also have been a mother."

Cold Case Unit detectives are now working with the FBI, Massachusetts State Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department to try to identify her.

Images via PGPD