A mystery plaguing authorities in Ohio has finally been solved—sort of. For decades, the whereabouts of musician Frank Frankie” Little Jr. have been widely unknown. He worked as a member of the now-classic group The O’Jays as a songwriter and guitarist, but disappeared sometime in 1982. Like many missing person cases that are decades old, Little’s case was one of the thousands that are filed away with the cold cases or the unsolved, but reports state that his remains have been identified.
On February 18, 1982, a garbage bag was located in Twinsburg, Ohio behind a store. Inside, police found human remains and later determined that they belonged to a Black man between the ages of 20 to 35-years-old.
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The DNA Doe Project worked on the unidentified person case and when testing the remains, it matched with a sample given by a close relative of Little’s. “There were distant DNA matches that were from South Carolina that we reached out to and they were willing to help out and provide family trees,” said Detective Eric Hendershott of the Twinsburg Police.
Reports state that Little worked with The O’Jays in the 1960s and later had to leave California where he was with the group after he was deployed to Vietnam to fight in the war. Once that was over, it was expected that Little would return to the R&B group but he never showed up. He reportedly decided to go home to Cleveland, but his family told authorities that they never saw him. When his relatives couldn’t track him down they reported him missing.
“If we get anyone who knew him in life, especially in the 70′s, who he was living with, who his associates were, that would be useful information in this case,” Hendershott said.
Unfortunately, there is very little known about Little’s movements or the company he kept. Little’s case is being investigated as a homicide. He reportedly had a daughter who passed away in 2012 and although he is said to have a son, police have yet to identify him.
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