California serial killer on death row confessed to 1986 cold case homicide, authorities say

Los Angeles (CNN) — Following a happenstance case break, detectives in Southern California found the person responsible for an unsolved 1986 homicide of a 19-year-old woman – a serial killer already on death row, Los Angeles county sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

Cathy Small was working as a prostitute in February 1986 when she was killed, her roommate told law enforcement at the time, sheriff’s Lt. Patty Thomas said at a news conference. Small told her roommate she was meeting a man named Bill who would give her $50 to drive with him from Lake Elsinore to Los Angeles, and she left their home that night wearing a nightgown, Thomas said.

Reading a newspaper days later, her roommate learned of a woman stabbed to death in South Pasadena. Fearing it might be Small, the roommate contacted police and was able to identify her. Investigators were not able to solve the crime, however, and the case went cold.

Some 33 years later, in October 2019, a coroner investigator was checking out the death of a man just across the street from the scene of Small’s killing when he found in the man’s home several items that raised concern, Thomas said. They included “numerous photos of women who appeared to have been assaulted and held against their will, possibly by the decedent,” and a newspaper article about Small’s death, Thomas said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant and DNA testing was done on some of the items from the man’s home to see whether they were a match to Small, but they were not. Though investigators initially considered the dead man a suspect, they concluded he was not connected to Small’s case and was not linked to other crimes.

But upon examining Small’s case file due to the article found in the man’s home, sheriff’s investigators learned that items of evidence in Small’s case, including a sexual assault kit, had never been DNA-tested. In August 2020, Small’s clothing was tested and the results uploaded into a federal database, where detectives connected William Suff to the case, Thomas said.

Suff was on California’s death row at the San Quentin prison, having been convicted of 12 murders in Riverside County. Suff was known as the Riverside Prostitute Killer, or Lake Elsinore Killer.

In May 2022, Suff was transported from San Quentin to Los Angeles, where he confessed to killing Small, Thomas said.

“Detectives interviewed him for two days. Over seven hours, he confessed and discussed in detail the murder of Cathy Small,” Thomas said. “He also discussed and admitted to some of the previous murders in Riverside County.”

Thomas said Suff met Small at a computer repair shop where he worked. They arranged for him to pick her up later that night. Once in his vehicle, Suff told investigators, an argument ensued and he became enraged when she knocked his glasses off his face.

Suff said he retrieved a knife he kept in the vehicle and stabbed Small multiple times in the chest, according to Thomas. As she sat in the front passenger seat, he pushed her out of the car and onto the street and drove away.

At the time of Small’s killing, Suff was out on parole from Texas, where he had been sentenced to prison for the 1974 death of his 2-month-old daughter, Thomas said.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has declined to prosecute Suff in Small’s case because of his age – he is 73 – previous convictions, and pending death sentence, Thomas said. CNN is working to determine whether Suff is represented by an attorney.

“We understand the pain and loss experienced by the victims’ families and our community. This decision does not diminish the severity of the crimes but recognizes that additional charges would not alter the current circumstances or bring further justice,” the district attorney’s office said in a release Tuesday.

“Our focus remains on supporting the victims’ families. We thank LASD for bringing some needed closure to the victims’ family, and our bureau of victim services stands ready to offer support. We extend our deepest condolences to all those affected.”

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