Frankie Little Jr. played guitar with The O’Jays, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band best known for their hit “Love Train.”
Twinsburg Police DepartmentFrank “ Frankie ” Little Jr. was murdered in the late 1970s or other 1980s .
One night in February 1982 , employee at a political machine shop class in Twinsburg , Ohio , endure to dump shavings in the woods . There , they retrieve dead body parts in garbage bags . Police have now name those remains as belonging to Frank “ Frankie ” Little Jr. , a guitar player last see in the 1970s .
“ It ’s definitely nice that we can give some answer to the kin and hopefully they have some sentience of closure,”said Twinsburg Detective Eric Hendershott . “ He had a life , and ultimately he ended up here in Twinsburg , with his life take by another . ”
Twinsburg Police DepartmentFrank “Frankie” Little Jr. was murdered in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
police force identify Little through DNA . They first tried to do so in 2009 , whenSgt . Greg Feketik reopen the caseand ran Little ’s deoxyribonucleic acid through the FBI ’s DNA database . Though this produced no hit , police force adjudicate to try again in 2019 .
“ I was bright , ” Hendershott said , note he ’d observed how DNA helped last come together the Golden State Killer case . “ I was never certain or sure-footed . ”
He reach out to the DNA Doe Project , which works to use deoxyribonucleic acid to identify John and Jane Does nationwide . They build a deoxyribonucleic acid profile of small and manage to track down his living family extremity .
Twinsburg Police DepartmentA reconstruction made from Frankie Little’s remains.
“ It ’s amazing , ” tell Margaret O’Sullivan , Little ’s full cousin . “ We ’re beaming that we have closing now . We experience he ’s deceased . ”
The mystery surround Frankie Little Jr. ’s death first started in 1982 . Then , employee at a clientele on Cannon Road in Twinsburg constitute his skull in a garbage grip in the Wood .
“ When they saw the skull , they did n’t believe it was human , ” Hendershott said . “ They point it around . ”
When the employees apprize police , a subsequent lookup of the field revealed more body parts in garbage bags . The bones , constabulary thought , seemed to be a few years old .
They later influence thatthe stay belongedto an African - American male , 20 to 35 twelvemonth old , approximately 5’6″ tall , possibly with teen kyphosis , a curvature of the spinal column . Because of blunt force trauma injuries — and the disposal of the remains — police suspect they had a homicide on their hands .
But beyond that , investigators had little to engage . “ There was n’t even clothing – just bones in a garbage bag , ” Hendershott explained .
It was n’t until this twelvemonth , 40 years later , that police were able to identify Little through DNA .
Twinsburg Police DepartmentA Reconstruction Period made from Frankie Little ’s continue .
Born in Cleveland , Ohio , in 1943 , Little spent time in the U.S. Army and as a guitar player and songwriter for the R&B lot The O’Jays . In the 1960s , he indite a number of songs for the stripe including “ Do the Jerk ” and “ Oh , How You Hurt Me . ”
“ He came with us when we first ventured out of Cleveland and traveled to Los Angeles,”the band saidin a statement .
Known for their hit “ Love Train , ” The O’Jays were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2005 by Justin Timberlake . The institution called them “ the tiptop of Seventies soul euphony . ”
But small , they state , was only with them in the early day of the band . “ [ He ] was in dear with a char in Cleveland that he miss so much that he soon come back back to Cleveland after a short amount of clip … [We ] wish his family and friends closure to what looks like a very sad story . ”
According to the police , Frankie Little was last love to be live in the mid-1970s when he lived in Cleveland . From there , it ’s unclear what incisively happened to him or how he ended up in Twinsburg , about a 30 - minute drive off .
But investigators are hopeful that his murder can be solved . With Little ’s identity in the end in script — and his remains given to his relatives for interment — they ’ll retain to inquire his mysterious death .
“ Part of the mystery is over with , ” Hendershott say , “ but we have no idea how he get there , how he disappeared , or where he lived toward the end of his life . ”
The tec intends to encounter out .
After learn about the unresolved murder of Frankie Little Jr. , learn how police used a bantam amount of DNA to solve the execution ofStephanie Isaacson . Or , see howChristine Marie Salleycracked an unresolved murder by upload her DNA to GEDMatch .
