In the spring of 1973, a young Black woman named Sarah G. Brown was navigating life as a single mother in the vibrant city of New Orleans. On April 16th, after finishing her shift at a Canal Street restaurant, she began her usual journey home, walking toward the bus stop. This evening, however, would be her last. Sarah, a mother of one son, vanished without a trace, leaving behind a community plunged into mystery and a family grappling with a devastating loss.
The only clue left behind was her purse, discovered discarded on Carrollton Avenue, offering no solace or answers as to her whereabouts.
For decades, Sarah Brown’s disappearance remained a painful cold case, a story of a woman who was there one moment and gone the next. Her family, friends, and investigators were left with haunting questions and no leads. The hope of finding her alive dwindled with each passing year, yet the desire for justice and closure never faded. The mystery of what happened to Sarah Brown was a wound that refused to heal for those who knew and loved her.
The chilling truth finally began to surface in 2018, 45 years after Sarah’s disappearance, from an unlikely and terrifying source. Samuel Little, a man who would come to be recognized as one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history, began confessing to a multitude of murders as he sat in a Texas prison. Among his litany of heinous crimes, he spoke of a victim in New Orleans in 1973. He recalled her name might have been 'Sarah' and that she possibly worked at a restaurant. Little’s detailed confession and a sketch he drew of his victim strongly matched the physical description and circumstances of Sarah Brown’s case.
According to Little, he offered Sarah a ride that fateful evening, an offer she initially refused. He then abducted her by force. Little confessed to driving her to a field outside of New Orleans where he killed her, leaving her body where she fell. Her remains have never been recovered. Samuel Little was convicted of numerous murders and was ultimately linked to the deaths of as many as 93 women across the country between 1970 and 2005. He died in prison in December 2020, taking with him the precise location of Sarah Brown’s final resting place, leaving her family with the painful knowledge of her fate but without the solace of a proper burial.
