The FBI has released a series of haunting portraits drawn by a US serial killer of his alleged victims in a bid to find out who they are.
The agency released 16 images on Tuesday, drawn from memory by Samuel Little, who told authorities they are some of the 90 people he killed over three decades.
A spokesman told CNN: "We are hoping that someone - family member, former neighbour, friend - might recognise the victim and provide that crucial clue in helping authorities make an identification.
"We want to give these women their names back and their family some long awaited answers. It's the least we can do."
Little drew the pictures while serving three life sentences for other murders.
The 78-year-old has confessed to around 90 killings to date and the FBI is working with the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Texas Rangers, and dozens of state and local agencies to match Little’s confessions with evidence from women who turned up dead in states from California to Florida between 1970 and 2005.
Last year he began drawing portraits of his victims during interviews with investigators.
Now the FBI has published the images alongside a map with corresponding pinpoints of victims who have not yet been identified or have not yet been corroborated by police.
Little was arrested at a Kentucky homeless shelter in September 2012 and extradited to California, where he was wanted on a narcotics charge.
Once Little was in custody, Los Angeles Police Department detectives obtained a DNA match to Little on the victims in three unsolved homicides from 1987 and 1989 and charged him with three counts of murder.
For these crimes, Little was convicted and sentenced in 2014 to three consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole.
Little claimed innocence throughout his trial — even as a string of women testifying for the prosecution told of narrowly surviving similarly violent encounters with Little, an FBI statement said.
While in prison, Little's name came up in the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, known as ViCAP, in connection with a series of unsolved murders across the country.
One killing in Odessa, Texas looked especially relevant, the statement added.
Little made his confessions during a subsequent police interview with Texas Ranger James Holland and two FBI crime analysts in California in May 2018.
Authorities have confirmed 34 killings so far with more pending confirmation but there are still a number that remain uncorroborated by law enforcement.
Investigators say that Little remembers his victims and the killings in detail but he is less reliable when it comes to remembering dates.
