Post by LadyBlue on Aug 17, 2011 17:49:03 GMT -5
Sisters Joy Little and Wanda Hinson have been searching for answers that are 20 years overdue.
It will have been two decades this October since 43-year-old Linda Little was seen riding her bicycle before she mysteriously vanished. The case has baffled authorities as scant information trickled in regarding her disappearance. Now the family is trying to revive awareness about a case that is becoming bitterly cold. Recently, Joy Little had a billboard placed off International Speedway Boulevard seeking information about Little's whereabouts.
"After 20 years we would like to know what happened," said Joy Little, who along with Hinson is Linda's younger sister. "I would like to have some peace."
From what family members and investigators have been able to determine, Little went missing sometime Oct. 11, 1991. Police say Little got off work from the Chart House on South Beach Street and rode her bicycle across the Broadway Bridge and stopped at Matey's Brig, a bar on the road, now known as International Speedway Boulevard.
Hours later, Little was seen by two workers at a nearby 7-Eleven early that morning.
That was the last known sighting of Little.
When she didn't report for work the next day, Little's coworkers became worried and filed a missing person report. Little was 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighed about 150 pounds and had reddish brown hair. She was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and black leotards.
Joy Little, Linda's younger sister who lives in North Carolina, said when she was notified her sister was missing, she feared the worst.
"We all knew that something was wrong," she said. "I was preparing myself for some really bad news, but I was never prepared for no news."
Daytona Beach Police Deputy Chief Steve Beres said the days after Little vanished, authorities received few viable tips and no evidence was left behind to even link the disappearance to foul play.
"There's no telling what happened," he said. "We had nothing to go on."
Crews searched the surrounding area -- land and water -- but nothing was found. Frustrated by the progress of the investigation, the family inundated the community with 3,500 fliers and hired a psychic to help find Little, who was a single mother.
Nothing turned up, family members said.
"It was like looking for a needle in a haystack," Hinson said.
According to the FBI National Crime Information Center, there are nearly 90,000 active, open and unresolved missing person cases in the U.S. Beres said Little's case is also one of the most frustrating for Daytona Beach police.
"We're at a standstill until we have someone come forward with information," he said.
No one has been ever been officially labeled a suspect or person of interest in the case, though some have been questioned about Little's disappearance.
Hinson and Joy Little said they have always had suspicions their sister may have been murdered by one of Florida's most notorious killers -- Oba Chandler -- who is on death row for drowning an Ohio woman and her two daughters.
After the bodies of the Ohio family were found, authorities believe Chandler and his wife moved from the Tampa Bay area to Port Orange when investigators started an intensive search for the killer. Chandler wasn't arrested until 1992, meaning he may have been in Volusia County at the time Little disappeared.
Hinson said she was at her sister's apartment complex days before she went missing and remembers two men working out of the back of a pickup. Hinson said she can picture Chandler as one of the men. Linda Little went missing on Chandler's birthday.
"Every day I am more and more convinced it was him," she said.
Beres said police at one time attempted to question Chandler about Little's disappearance, but he refused to answer any questions.
"There was nothing that linked him to anything," he said.
Though on death row for the Tampa deaths at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Chandler has maintained his innocence. An attempt to contact Chandler for this article was unsuccessful.
Joy Little said as the investigation continued, the family learned Linda Little was dating a married man from New Smyrna Beach. Authorities later discovered the man and Little had planned a romantic getaway to celebrate their one-year anniversary, but the plans were broken off when the man decided to go deep-sea fishing with a friend.
But hours before her sister went missing, she had told friends at Matey's Brig that she was going on a trip with her boyfriend, Joy Little said.
Beres said investigators also questioned the man, but there was nothing to tie him to the reason Little had gone missing.
In 1996, a man called the family claiming he had seen seen Linda Little in North Carolina, Hinson said. The man refused to give his name and was not heard from again.
Now with each passing day, hopes fade for the family. But their memory of Linda remains strong. Joy Little described her sister as fun and interesting and someone everyone enjoyed being around. Hinson said Linda always "marched to her own beat." Linda Little left behind her parents, three siblings, one son and a grandchild. Her father died a year after she went missing.
Mike Parrish, Linda Little's son who was 25 years old when she vanished, said he still remembers her laugh.
"I think about her every day," he said.
Anyone with information about Linda Little's whereabouts is urged to contact the Daytona Beach Police Department at 386-671-5100 or Crime Stoppers at 888-277-8477.
So far, no tips have come in since the billboard was put up, but that doesn't mean the family is giving up on their search.
"I've never grieved for her," Joy Little said. "I've worked on her behalf because that's what I feel I'm supposed to do. I'm trying to get to the bottom of questions that have gone unanswered."
Hinson said in the past she has run down bicyclists who have resembled her lost sister. She said she still has a slim hope of one day finding Linda Little alive.
"It's crazy, but after 20 years I still look," Hinson said.
tinyurl.com/3kxuo2e
It will have been two decades this October since 43-year-old Linda Little was seen riding her bicycle before she mysteriously vanished. The case has baffled authorities as scant information trickled in regarding her disappearance. Now the family is trying to revive awareness about a case that is becoming bitterly cold. Recently, Joy Little had a billboard placed off International Speedway Boulevard seeking information about Little's whereabouts.
"After 20 years we would like to know what happened," said Joy Little, who along with Hinson is Linda's younger sister. "I would like to have some peace."
From what family members and investigators have been able to determine, Little went missing sometime Oct. 11, 1991. Police say Little got off work from the Chart House on South Beach Street and rode her bicycle across the Broadway Bridge and stopped at Matey's Brig, a bar on the road, now known as International Speedway Boulevard.
Hours later, Little was seen by two workers at a nearby 7-Eleven early that morning.
That was the last known sighting of Little.
When she didn't report for work the next day, Little's coworkers became worried and filed a missing person report. Little was 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighed about 150 pounds and had reddish brown hair. She was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and black leotards.
Joy Little, Linda's younger sister who lives in North Carolina, said when she was notified her sister was missing, she feared the worst.
"We all knew that something was wrong," she said. "I was preparing myself for some really bad news, but I was never prepared for no news."
Daytona Beach Police Deputy Chief Steve Beres said the days after Little vanished, authorities received few viable tips and no evidence was left behind to even link the disappearance to foul play.
"There's no telling what happened," he said. "We had nothing to go on."
Crews searched the surrounding area -- land and water -- but nothing was found. Frustrated by the progress of the investigation, the family inundated the community with 3,500 fliers and hired a psychic to help find Little, who was a single mother.
Nothing turned up, family members said.
"It was like looking for a needle in a haystack," Hinson said.
According to the FBI National Crime Information Center, there are nearly 90,000 active, open and unresolved missing person cases in the U.S. Beres said Little's case is also one of the most frustrating for Daytona Beach police.
"We're at a standstill until we have someone come forward with information," he said.
No one has been ever been officially labeled a suspect or person of interest in the case, though some have been questioned about Little's disappearance.
Hinson and Joy Little said they have always had suspicions their sister may have been murdered by one of Florida's most notorious killers -- Oba Chandler -- who is on death row for drowning an Ohio woman and her two daughters.
After the bodies of the Ohio family were found, authorities believe Chandler and his wife moved from the Tampa Bay area to Port Orange when investigators started an intensive search for the killer. Chandler wasn't arrested until 1992, meaning he may have been in Volusia County at the time Little disappeared.
Hinson said she was at her sister's apartment complex days before she went missing and remembers two men working out of the back of a pickup. Hinson said she can picture Chandler as one of the men. Linda Little went missing on Chandler's birthday.
"Every day I am more and more convinced it was him," she said.
Beres said police at one time attempted to question Chandler about Little's disappearance, but he refused to answer any questions.
"There was nothing that linked him to anything," he said.
Though on death row for the Tampa deaths at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Chandler has maintained his innocence. An attempt to contact Chandler for this article was unsuccessful.
Joy Little said as the investigation continued, the family learned Linda Little was dating a married man from New Smyrna Beach. Authorities later discovered the man and Little had planned a romantic getaway to celebrate their one-year anniversary, but the plans were broken off when the man decided to go deep-sea fishing with a friend.
But hours before her sister went missing, she had told friends at Matey's Brig that she was going on a trip with her boyfriend, Joy Little said.
Beres said investigators also questioned the man, but there was nothing to tie him to the reason Little had gone missing.
In 1996, a man called the family claiming he had seen seen Linda Little in North Carolina, Hinson said. The man refused to give his name and was not heard from again.
Now with each passing day, hopes fade for the family. But their memory of Linda remains strong. Joy Little described her sister as fun and interesting and someone everyone enjoyed being around. Hinson said Linda always "marched to her own beat." Linda Little left behind her parents, three siblings, one son and a grandchild. Her father died a year after she went missing.
Mike Parrish, Linda Little's son who was 25 years old when she vanished, said he still remembers her laugh.
"I think about her every day," he said.
Anyone with information about Linda Little's whereabouts is urged to contact the Daytona Beach Police Department at 386-671-5100 or Crime Stoppers at 888-277-8477.
So far, no tips have come in since the billboard was put up, but that doesn't mean the family is giving up on their search.
"I've never grieved for her," Joy Little said. "I've worked on her behalf because that's what I feel I'm supposed to do. I'm trying to get to the bottom of questions that have gone unanswered."
Hinson said in the past she has run down bicyclists who have resembled her lost sister. She said she still has a slim hope of one day finding Linda Little alive.
"It's crazy, but after 20 years I still look," Hinson said.
tinyurl.com/3kxuo2e