American convicted serial killer pleads guilty in unsolved 1991 killing of Linda Lois of Florida

Daytona Beach police solve 31-year-old cold case, Michael Townson charged with first-degree murder

By Edward Era Barbacena

Though the terrors of the infamous white serial killers in the United States have declined since the early 2000, the horrendous crimes committed by them still hunt us up to these days.  Many of the cases that were considered unsolved are slowly having  clear conclusions.

A man already serving life in prison was indicted Monday on a charge of first-degree murder in the cold-case killing of a woman who vanished three decades ago in Daytona Beach, according to a press release from the State Attorney's Office. 

Michael S. Townson, 53, was indicted in the killing of Linda Lois Little, according to the press release from 7th Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza's Office. 

Townson is already serving a life sentence for beating Sherri Carmanto to death with a steel pipe at her home in Titusville in 2007, according to the release. A Brevard County jury convicted him of the killing in 2008.

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Townson is serving his sentence at the Charlotte Correctional Institution in Punta Gorda.

"It is extremely gratifying to solve a 31-year-old murder," Larizza stated in the press release. "I hope it brings some measure of peace to the victim's family.

What happened to Linda Lois Little?

Little was last seen on Oct. 11, 1991, in Daytona Beach. The 43-year-old woman worked as a waitress at the Chart House restaurant on South Beach Street. She finished her shift at around 1 a.m. and rode off on her beach cruiser bicycle across the International Speedway Boulevard Bridge, stopping at a bar along the road. She was seen a few hours later at a nearby 7-11 that morning.

But that was it.

Little didn’t show up for work the next day. And she was never seen again. 

Little, a North Carolina native, had lived in the Daytona Beach area for two years. 

A story in The News-Journal stated that investigators at the time had not found evidence of foul play. 

But Little’s family was certain she would not have left without telling them, and printed and distributed 3,500 fliers, even giving them to long-haul truckers to distribute throughout the country. Lamar Advertising put up billboards with the flier information.  

The family also hired a psychic and offered a $5,000 reward for information.  

But none of that helped find the missing woman. 

In 1996, a man called the family claiming he had seen seen Linda Little in North Carolina, but the man refused to give his name. He was never heard from again.

Little was survived by her mother, a grandchild and three siblings.  

Her sister, Wanda Little, who kept searching for years, described her sister as "a very strong woman," according to the story.

In a press release issued Monday, the Daytona Beach Police stated praised the collaboration of the State Attorney's Office and also stated: "If not for the hard work and dedication from the Daytona Beach Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division, it would have not been possible in developing a suspect in this case."