JENNINGS — A suspected serial killer accused of slaying three women in California in the late 1980s does not appear to be linked to several unsolved murders in Jeff Davis Parish, authorities said.

Officials said Tuesday there is no evidence to link Samuel Little, whom police describe as a transient with multiple arrests in several states over more than five decades, to the murders and that he was in a Florida jail for grand theft when three of the local murders occurred in 2008.

Authorities in several states, including Louisiana, have looked at Little as a possible suspect in several cold cases, including the deaths of eight young women in Jeff Davis Parish.

Chief Criminal Investigator Chris Ivey said the Sheriff’s Office received information on Little’s arrest in February, after he was captured in Louisville, Ky., by U.S. marshals.

He said investigators made inquiries into Little and his travels during the period from May 2005 to August 2009.

“We cannot find any indications that Little traveled into the Jennings area during that period of time, and was actually incarcerated in California in 2005 and 2007,” Ivey said.

Little was arrested in Lake Charles for possession of a crack pipe last May.

A multi-agency investigative task force assigned to investigate the deaths of eight female victims in Jeff Davis is continuing to investigate the cases, he said.

“We look at all leads involving suspects with similar criminal behavior that are identified and or arrested by other jurisdictions,” he said. “We appreciate the information provided to us, on news involving suspects picked up in other areas and will aggressively investigate the information obtained.”

Between 2005 and 2009, the bodies of Necole Jean Guillory, 26; Brittney Ann Gary, 17; Crystal Shay Benoit Zeno, 23; Laconia “Muggy” Brown, 23; Whitnei Charlene Dubois, 26; Kristen Gary Lopez, 21; Ernestine Daniels Patterson, 29 and Loretta Lynn Chaisson, 28, have been found dumped near canals or roads, mostly in rural areas surround by rice fields or woods.

Guillory’s remains were found along a heavily traveled section of Interstate 10, just east of Jennings.

No one has been convicted in any of the deaths.

A suspected serial killer accused of slaying three women in California in the late 1980s does not appear to be linked to several unsolved murders in Jeff Davis Parish

Damian Dovarganes