Linda Lois Little was 43 years of age when she went missing in 1991. Now, over 30 years later, her killer has come to light. A 53-year-old “confessed serial killer” in Florida was handed his second life sentence after police say he admitted to the cold case murder of Little.
The killer, Michael Shane Townson pleaded no contest to one count of first-degree murder in the 1991 slaying of Little, according to authorities, Law and Crime reports.
Citing court documents, the publication reported that Circuit Court Judge Dawn D. Nichols handed down a sentence of life in prison with the possibility for parole after serving at least 25 years.
Townson is already serving a separate life sentence after he was convicted of murdering a woman in Brevard County in 2007.
Prosecutors said that Townson told detectives he was in Daytona Beach for his birthday in mid-October 1991 when he met “a woman named Linda at the 701 Club bar inside the old Texan Hotel.” Townson said that he and Linda left the bar in his car and then “got into an argument.”
“Townson stated that he ‘backhanded’ Little and choked her,” the release states. “After he realized he had killed her, Townson told detectives that he drove north on Interstate 95 and got off on the second exit in Georgia. The defendant then disposed of Little’s body behind a dumpster in a rural area.”
When investigators showed Townson a photograph of Little from just before she went missing, he told them that there was “no doubt” that she was the woman he murdered in 1991, prosecutors said. They also noted that Townson’s story lined up perfectly with the timeline and other facts in the case.
