In the summer of 1982, in Macon, Georgia, a young 18-year-old woman named Fredonia Smith vanished after leaving her home on Washington Avenue to go to a local store. A missing person's report was filed on July 10, 1982. Nearly a month later, on August 19, 1982, the grim discovery of skeletal remains in the backyard of a home on Magnolia Street brought a tragic end to the search. The new homeowners stumbled upon the remains while clearing an overgrown area of their recently purchased property. Investigators were able to tentatively identify the remains as Fredonia Smith based on the clothing and jewelry found at the scene.
For decades, the case of who was responsible for Fredonia Smith's death remained a painful mystery for her family and the Macon community. The initial investigation determined that she had been strangled to death, but no suspect was immediately identified. The years turned into decades, and still, there were no answers. It wasn't until 2018 that a breakthrough finally came in the form of a confession from a man already imprisoned for other heinous crimes.
The resolution to Fredonia Smith’s case came from an unexpected source: one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history, Samuel Little. While in a California prison, Little began confessing to a staggering number of murders committed across the country over several decades. Among his numerous confessions were two homicides in Macon, Georgia. Bibb County Sheriff's Office investigators traveled to Texas, where Little was being held, to interview him. Little provided specific details about the 1982 murder that only the killer would know, confirming he was responsible for strangling Fredonia Smith.
With Samuel Little's confession, the long-unsolved murder of Fredonia Smith was officially closed, bringing a measure of peace to her remaining family. Little, who confessed to over 90 murders, died in prison in 2020. The resolution of the case, though decades later, finally provided answers and a sense of closure to a community that had long wondered about the fate of the young woman who had simply gone out for ice cream and never returned.
