For nearly five decades, she was known only as 'Macon Jane Doe,' her story a cold case filed away in the records of the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. But in 2023, through the persistent work of investigators and advancements in forensic science, her name was finally returned to her: Yvonne Pless. A young woman of about 20 years old, her life was cut short in 1977, her partial skeletal remains discovered in a wooded area off Riverside Drive, north of Arkwright Road in Macon, Georgia.
For 46 years, her family was left without answers, unaware of her fate.
The breakthrough in the long-unsolved mystery came from a source as dark as the crime itself: the confessions of Samuel Little, the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history. Before his death in 2020, Little confessed to the murders of 93 women across the country between 1970 and 2005. In 2018, he told investigators that he was responsible for the deaths of two women in Macon. One of those women was Fredonia Smith, killed in 1982. The other was an unidentified woman he killed in 1977.
This confession prompted Bibb County investigators to travel to Texas in 2019 to interview Little. His statements matched the details of the 'Macon Jane Doe' case. With this confirmation, the case was officially closed, but the victim's identity remained unknown. In 2022, investigators turned to forensic genetic genealogy. With the assistance of Othram, a company specializing in this technology, a DNA profile was built from the skeletal remains. This led them to a relative of the then-unidentified victim, who in turn connected them with her remaining family members.
The family of Yvonne Pless was then notified that their loved one, who they had not known was deceased, had been identified. The suspect in her murder, Samuel Little, died in a California prison at the age of 80. While he was convicted of eight murders, he was linked to at least 60, with Yvonne Pless being one of his earliest confirmed victims.
