On Death Row, Serial Killer Admits New Murder

William Suff confesses to 1986 murder of Cathy Small and 'other killings' in California
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 14, 2024 9:18 AM CDT
Convicted of a Dozen Murders, Serial Killer Admits to More
Photos of William "Bill" Suff.   (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department)

For nearly 40 years, the murder of 19-year-old Cathy Small, last seen leaving her California home in 1986, went unsolved. Only recently, family learned she was killed by a prolific serial killer. William "Bill" Suff, who's on death row in California for killing a dozen people in Riverside County between 1989 and 1991, confessed to killing Small before dumping her body in a South Pasadena cul-de-sac, police said Tuesday. The statement said the 70-year-old admitted to the murder in May 2022, but did not explain why the revelation wasn't made public earlier. Small's body was found Feb. 22, 1986. She was wearing a nightgown and had died from multiple stab wounds and strangulation, per the New York Times.

Small's housemate said she'd been working as a prostitute and left home in a nightgown the day before her body was discovered, saying a man named Bill was paying her $50 to drive with him to Los Angeles. A 2020 DNA test linked Suff and an unknown man to the murder, says Lt. Patricia Thomas of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Suff ultimately confessed to detectives in May 2022. He said Small gave him her phone number when she visited a Riverside County computer repair shop where he worked. He said he called her later that day, asking her to drive with him to "pick up his boss" in Pasadena, and picked her up shortly after. The pair made it to Pasadena but then argued, Suff said.

Suff said he stabbed Small in the chest in the front passenger seat of his car, then pushed her body out of the vehicle and drove off. He'd been paroled to California in 1984, a decade after he was convicted of killing his 2-month-old daughter in Texas, Thomas notes, per the Los Angeles Times. "Suff also admitted to other killings in Riverside County but authorities did not immediately provide details on those cases," per the outlet. Known as the "Riverside Prostitute Killer" and the "Lake Elsinore Killer," Suff will not be charged with Small's murder as he was already sentenced to death in July 1995. But "we believe we're bringing a sense of long overdue justice and closure to the victim and her family," including two children, says LA County Sheriff Robert Luna. (More serial killer stories.)

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