A Florida man confessed to the 1991 homicide of a waitress in an opportunity encounter at a bar, allegedly admitting that he killed her after growing a “hatred for girls,” officers stated Tuesday.
Michael Townson, 53, allegedly confessed to killing Linda Short time he was serving a life sentence for the 2007 slaying of one other girl, Daytona Seashore Police Chief Jakari Younger instructed reporters.
A Volusia County grand jury on Monday indicted Townson on a cost of first-degree homicide, Younger stated.
Townson admitted to different killings in central Florida and Tennessee and is taken into account to be a suspected serial killer, Daytona Seashore Police Detective Dave Dinardi stated at a information convention.
Authorities are investigating these circumstances, and Towson has not been charged, Dinardi stated.
Townson confessed to Little’s killing in 2020 after he “discovered God” and was transferred to a correctional facility in Volusia County, the place Daytona Seashore is positioned, Younger stated.
He instructed investigators that his father and grandfather sexually abused him as a toddler, Younger stated. He blamed his mom and different girls in his life for not defending him, Younger stated, including: “In consequence, he developed a hatred for girls.”
Little, a 43-year-old North Carolina native, had lived within the Daytona Seashore space for 2 years and was working as a waitress when she vanished after her shift round 1 a.m. on Oct. 11, 1991, The Daytona Seashore Information-Journal reported.
Little and Townson met at a lodge bar in Daytona Seashore throughout what Dinardi known as a “random assembly sadly on the fallacious day on the fallacious time. It seems Linda simply met the fallacious individual.”
“They have been having fun with just a few drinks,” Dinardi stated. “One thing occurred that in his phrases induced him to snap.”
Little’s physique has not been discovered, Dinardi stated. He declined to supply further particulars concerning the killing or the investigation however stated there have been particulars Townson shared that led authorities to imagine the confession was reliable.
In 1991, Townson was dwelling in Orlando and would journey to the world to go to the seaside, Dinardi stated.
Talking on the information convention, Little’s sister, Wanda Henson, expressed gratitude for the confession and stated it supplied closure.
“I do know that is loopy,” she stated. “I actually wish to thank Townson for letting the household know what occurred.”
“I’ve forgiven him,” she added.
In a separate case, Townson admitted to fatally bludgeoning a childhood good friend, Sherri Carman, on Jan. 16, 2007, in Brevard County, court docket information present.
She was on a settee in Townson’s front room when he struck her with a heavy steel pipe and hammer, in accordance with a transcript of Townson’s plea and sentencing listening to.
Townson stated he’d grow to be livid along with her as a result of they’d intercourse and she or he later instructed him she had AIDS, however an post-mortem revealed that she did not have the virus, in accordance with the transcript.
Townson pleaded responsible to first-degree homicide and was sentenced to life in jail with out the potential of parole, in accordance with the plea settlement.
