The LAPD announced that Samuel Little, a 72-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, has been charged with three cold-case murders from the 1980s.

Cops said in a statement that they're investigating the possibility that he could be connected to “other Los Angeles area cases.”

The three homicides Little has been charged for include, according to the statement, …

… the 1987 murder of Carol Alford and the 1989 murders of Audrey Nelson and Guadalupe Apodaca.

The Los Angeles Times got a jump on the story this afternoon.

The paper says the victims' bodies were found southeast of downtown and that the suspect allegedly targeted victims, such as prostitutes, with “high-risk lifestyles.”

Credit: LAPD

Credit: LAPD

The Times says Little is being investigated as a possible serial murder suspect: He has been arrested for murders in Florida and Mississippi but had yet to be successfully prosecuted.

He lived in Los Angeles and San Diego in the 1980s, the Times says.

The LAPD, meanwhile, says DNA evidence helped solidify its case:

DNA evidence cases were linked to him through the California Department of Justice's DNA Combined Internet Index System (CODIS) offender databank earlier this year on the Audrey Nelson and Guadalupe Apodaca cases.

The latest case, the one involving victim Alford, was connected to him via DNA on Nov. 27, cops say.

Little was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky on September 5 based on an L.A. drug warrant from 2009. Cops say he waved extradition and joined our own jail system in October.

Says the LAPD:

Cold Case detectives continued building the murder investigations while Little awaited court disposition on the narcotics charge.

… Cold case detectives are continuing to work with other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation in areas where Samuel Little has been known to frequent. Other Los Angeles area cases are still being reviewed for a possible connection to Little.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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