In the spring of 1994, a young woman named Gwendolyn Faye Simmons, aged 23, was reported missing in the Little Rock, Arkansas area. A month later, on May 15, 1994, her skeletal remains were discovered by two men driving through a swampy field just east of Interstate 440 in North Little Rock. The condition of her remains was so advanced that it was initially difficult to determine if they were human.
For years, the cause of Gwendolyn's death remained a mystery. Investigators were unable to determine if she had died of natural causes or was the victim of a homicide. The case grew cold, leaving her family without answers for over two decades. The passage of time did little to erase the questions surrounding her final days and the circumstances that led to her body being left in such a desolate location.
A significant breakthrough in the case would not come for 27 years. The resolution was ultimately found in the confessions of one of America's most prolific serial killers, Samuel Little. Before his death in late 2020, Little confessed to 93 homicides across the country, providing details that only the killer would know. One of those confessions was for the murder of a woman in Arkansas, which investigators were able to link to Gwendolyn Faye Simmons. Based on the information provided by Little, the North Little Rock Police Department officially closed her case. While the FBI still categorizes her death as an 'unmatched confession,' for local law enforcement, the confession brought an end to the long-standing investigation into who was responsible for her death.
