In March of 1974, Leola Etta Bryant, a 51-year-old African American woman, vanished after she was last seen at the Midway Bar on Reynold's Avenue in North Charleston, South Carolina. Her family reported her missing to the North Charleston Police Department, but the case went cold, leaving her loved ones without answers for decades. The mystery of her disappearance began to unravel in October 1977, when workers clearing brush in a wooded area off Highway 52 in Goose Creek, just north of
Charleston, discovered scattered human remains. At the time, investigators could only determine that the remains belonged to a Black female, but her identity and cause of death remained unknown. For nearly 50 years, she was known only as the 'Berkeley County Jane Doe.'
A significant breakthrough in the case came through the confessions of one of America's most prolific serial killers, Samuel Little. Before his death in prison in 2020, Little confessed to the murders of 93 women across the country between 1970 and 2005. He told investigators that he had met a woman at a nightclub in North Charleston, strangled her, and left her body by the side of Highway 52. This confession prompted Berkeley County Sheriff's Office cold case investigators to re-examine the case of the unidentified remains.
Advances in forensic technology played a crucial role in finally giving Leola Etta Bryant her name back. In 2020, her remains were sent to the University of North Texas for Human Identification, where it was determined the victim was likely an African American woman between 30 and 60 years old. A facial reconstruction was created, and eventually, through investigative genetic genealogy, authorities were able to locate potential family members. This led to the positive identification of the remains as those of Leola Etta Bryant. The details of her disappearance aligned with Samuel Little's confession, confirming her as one of his many victims. As the perpetrator, Samuel Little, died in prison, there will be no trial for her murder.
