Frank Little Jr. finally received the peace he needed after the human remains discovered in Twinsburg in 1982 have been identified as those of the late guitarist.
Little, who famously became part of the R&B band The O'Jays, was last known to have lived in Cleveland. Sources also believed he was last seen alive in the mid-1970s. Although the remains have been confirmed to be his, no details about his disappearance or death were ever known.
Still, the DNA Doe Project - who identified the remains and did the genealogical research - revealed that the manner of death was a homicide.
News 5 Cleveland recalled how the partial remains were first discovered in a garbage bag behind a now-closed business area on Cannon Road, Twinsburg. A former worker recovered a skull in the snow before the authorities found other body parts inside the garbage bag.
Twinsburg detective Eric Hendershott said, "It's definitely nice that we can give some answers to the family and hopefully they have some sense of closure. He had a life, and ultimately he ended up here in Twinsburg, with his life taken by another."
The new development came 40 years after the remains were found in 1982.
Frank Little Jr.'s Life Remembered
Before the discovery, Little - who was born in Cleveland in 1943 - famously became The O'Jays' guitarist and songwriter. He also joined the US Army for two years and became part of a deployment to Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
The lead singer of the R&B group, Eddie Levert, described Little as a "sentimental, loving, and passionate" person.
"He could have been a great entity in the music business, but he was in love and love drove him back to Cleveland," Levert said.
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Little moved with The O'Jays to California in the 1960s but did not stay for too long. They eventually lost track of him over the years and were only shocked when they heard the murder of their former bandmate.
His daughter passed away earlier this year, while his son has not been located nor identified.
Meanwhile, one of his remaining cousins from his home state, Margaret O'Sullivan, said that she was asked whether they had any missing relatives. When she told the authorities about Little, she informed them they never knew what happened to him in the past years.
After identifying his body, Hendershott revealed that they will now focus on finding out who killed the musician.
