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A serial killer currently on death row for a dozen murders has now confessed to the brutal slaying of a 19-year-old woman – finally solving a case that had gone cold for almost 40 years.
Cathy Small, a young mother with two small children, was found stabbed and strangled in the middle of Bank Street in South Pasadena, California, back on February 22 1986.
She was wearing a nightgown and had suffered multiple stab wounds.
Small was only identified days later, when her roommate called police after reading reports of a body being found, fearing it could be her. The roommate told police that she was working as a sex worker in the Lake Elsinore area at the time and that he last saw her when she left to accompany a man named Bill, who was paying her $50 to drive with him to Los Angeles.
For four decades, her murder remained unsolved.
Now, notorious serial killer William Lester Suff – also known as the Riverside Prostitute Killer or the Lake Elsinore Killer – has confessed to her murder.
In a press conference on Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced that Suff, now 70, admitted in May 2022 that he killed Small and dumped her body in the southern California street.
The break in the case came following the death of a 63-year-old man who was living across the street from where Small’s body was found.
Inside his home, investigators had found “several disturbing items” including photographs of women who appeared to have been assaulted and held against their will and a newspaper article about Small’s murder.
The discovery led detectives to reopen the case in 2019 and test DNA evidence from the man’s home.
While the man’s DNA was not a match, the probe led investigators to learn that none of the evidence from the murder scene had ever been tested, including the sexual assault kit and victim’s clothing.
A new analysis identified two other men whose DNA was discovered on Small’s clothing – one of them belonging to Suff.
During around seven hours of police interviews, Suff confessed and revealed graphic detail about her murder, Lieutenant Patricia Thomas said on Tuesday.
He explained that he had been working at a computer repair shop which Small walked into, giving him her phone number.
Suff called her to go ask her to go with him to pick up his boss from Pasadena, but on the journey he became enraged as Small had knocked his glasses from his face, grabbing a knife and stabbing her multiple times before pushing her body out of the car and fleeing the scene.
Suff was already on death row after being convicted of murdering 12 women in Riverside County between 1989 and 1991.
LA County Sheriff’s deputies said on Tuesday that he had previously been convicted in 1974 for the murder of his two-month-old daughter in Texas.
He was sentenced to 70 years in prison, but had been paroled to California in 1984 – where he began his killing spree.
On 9 January 1992, Suff was arrested during a routine traffic stop. He was then tied to the serial killings. In 1995, he was found guilty of 12 murders and was sentenced to death.
Small’s sister Deanna Larson has now spoken out after the case was solved.
In a letter thanking detectives for solving the case, she paid tribute to her sibling: “Cathy was talented, but her life was cut short before she could even begin to make her own dreams come true.
“I will always miss my sister Cathy. Nothing will bring her back. Bill Suff is where he’s supposed to be, and he can no longer hurt anyone.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said at the news conference that “Cathy had a family who cared about her deeply.”
“It is horrifying that her life was taken away so violently in such a tragic way. Today, we stand before you to announce that justice will be served for Cathy and her family,” she said.
“Although almost four decades have passed, law enforcement never gave up on this case.”
Barger also expressed hopes that other cold cases will continue to be solved.
