The murder of Linda Lois Little

No physical evidence and no witness solved this case; a man in prison did. For 29 years Daytona Beach police had almost nothing. Little had vanished after leaving her waitressing job on a bicycle, investigators found no evidence of foul play, and the family's fliers and billboards produced no leads. Police Chief Jakari Young said there were little to no leads for 29 of the 31 years since she disappeared. Michael Townson had been convicted by a Brevard County jury of beating Sherri Carmanto to death with a steel pipe and was serving a life sentence. In 2020 he was transferred to the Tomoka Correctional Institution in Volusia County and, according to police, asked to speak with Daytona Beach detectives, where he confessed. Young said Townson had become religious in prison and that the Lord had placed it on his heart to confess. WFTV reported that the conversation took place in January 2020. Detective Sgt. Dave Dinardi told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that some people want attention, so police had to verify whether the confession was legitimate. Police said his account included details only the killer would know and that they withheld some of them, including how Little died and where her body might be. Prosecutors said Townson admitted striking and fatally choking her after meeting her at a Daytona Beach hotel bar, and that he left her body near a dumpster in rural Camden County, Georgia. Checks of unidentified bodies in that county found no match. A grand jury indicted him on October 24, 2022, and on December 20, 2022 he pleaded guilty as part of a deal that spared him the death penalty. Sources differ on the year of the Carmanto killing (2007 or 2008) and on the name of the bar where Little was last seen.