A cold-case homicide from 1986 has been resolved with a confession. Nineteen-year-old Cathy Ann Small of Lake Elsinore was found dead on February 22, 1986, lying in the middle of a road in South Pasadena. She was wearing only a nightgown and had multiple stab wounds and signs of strangulation. Initially unidentified, she was listed as Jane Doe No. 17 until a former roommate recognized a newspaper article and identified her a few days later.

He said Small had been working as a prostitute and the night before her body was found she told him she was meeting a man named Bill who paid her $50 to go to Los Angeles. Key evidence from the original investigation, including a sexual assault kit and the victim’s clothing, was not tested for DNA until decades later. Those samples matched William Lester Suff, who confessed to stabbing Small after an argument and leaving her body on the road. Cathy Small was a mother of two; her sister described her as protective and loving.

Does anyone have information about Cathy’s time in Lake Elsinore or who she knew in 1986?