A serial killer convicted of the murders of 12 women has confessed to the cold case murder of a 19-year-old mother in Southern California in 1986. 

Cathy Small, 19, was found stabbed to death on a street in South Pasadena in February 1986, but her case went unsolved for nearly four decades. 

“We believe we’re bringing a sense of long overdue justice and closure to the victim and her family,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a press conference this week.

William Lester Suff, known as the “Lake Elsinore Killer” and the “Riverside Prostitute Killer” admitted in 2022 to murdering Small after his DNA was found on her clothing, saying she “enraged” him by knocking his glasses off his face during a fight, Lt. Patricia Thomas said during Tuesday’s briefing. 

Suff told investigators Small had first met him at a computer repair shop where he worked and agreed to drive with him from Lake Elsinore in South Pasadena for $50.

After he stabbed her repeatedly in the passenger seat of his car, he admitted to tossing her body on the sidewalk and driving away, Thomas said. 

Suff, who is on death row at San Quentin in California, also admitted to other unsolved cold case murders in Riverside County, Thomas said, but didn’t identify the victims. 

Investigators realized DNA collected from the crime hadn’t been tested, and, when it was, Suff’s DNA was found on her clothing. 

Suff began killing in the 1970s and was convicted in the death of his 2-month-old daughter in Texas in 1974 and sentenced to 70 years, but he was paroled in 1984 and moved back to California. 

Luna said Suff’s confession underscores “the power of modern forensic science; two, the amazing, relentless work by our Los Angeles homicide bureau detectives, which I keep on saying are the best in the country at what they do; and then the collaboration and partnership between agencies.

“Amongst everything else we’re talking about today, you always got to remember when we’re talking about something as significant as this, we’re talking about a victim who lost her life and the family who will never forget that. And I know we never forget that, and that’s what makes the teamwork here so amazing.” 

Thomas also read a letter written by Small’s younger sister, who was 10 at the time of her murder but couldn’t be at the news conference because she lives out of state.

“My sister Cathy Small was not a statistic,” she wrote. “She was a protective big sister, a loving mother and a good daughter. Cathy was funny, smart and caring. She had a big heart and would do anything for anyone.”

Small’s sister said the 19-year-old taught her how to swim, ride a bike and play cards. 

“Whenever I stayed with my big sister, she took me to church,” she continued. “Cathy was talented, but her life was cut short before she could even begin to make her own dreams come true.”

She added that Small, who was working as a sex worker at the time of her murder, was trying to get sober and had stopped using drugs, “but before she could take another step forward her life was ended.”