Sam Little, 78, was arrested by police on Drug charges in 2012. DNA acquired during his detention connected him to three murders in the 1980s. Last year, he confessed to 90 more

A woman who was attacked by 'America's most prolific serial killer' has opened up about her terrifying near-miss.

Laurie Barros, then 22, was working as a prostitute in San Diego, California when Samuel Little attacked her and left her for dead in a pile of trash in October 1984.

Speaking a Channel 4 documentary called 'Confessions of a Serial Killer' Laurie describes in detail how Little allegedly got her in a headlock and bundled her into his car before dumping her at a trash disposal site.

Little, 78, already convicted of three California murders and long suspected in numerous other deaths, claimed in November he was involved in about 90 killings nationwide spanning nearly four decades.

He often targeted vulnerable women like Laurie, who he approached while she was out working one night.

Laurie Barros, 22, was working as a prostitute in San Diego, California when Samuel Little attacked her

Little had a history of criminal dealing before he began his alleged murder streak in the 1970s (pictured: Little is detained in Washington DC, 1972, for illegal possession of a handgun)

'He pulled up behind me I could hear something I think I might have just froze in place well he'd already got out of his car and put me in a headlock and shoved me in his car,' she told Channel 4.

'I can remember my shoes getting yanked off and pretty much just him pushing my head down on the back seat so I'm laying down.

'He had taken my nylons off and he used those to tie my wrists up behind my back I tried to go along with that and act like it was normal like I was enjoying it.

'He came down on my neck with thumbs like that and I'm like, "I'm screwed". He says "I like it when you swallow", and I don't have any recollection after that. That's when I was out for good.'

Laurie said she woke up around five hours later at an 'illegal dump site' and walked miles to find a payphone and get her friend to come and pick her up.

Police say Little is in poor health and they're conducting daily interviews to extract as much information from him as possible (pictured: Little leaves court in Odessa, Texas, December 2018)

'It was exactly 30 days later I believe that he had attempted to murder the next girl, in the same place, in the same way, and the police actually caught him in the act.'

Asked why she has chosen now to open up about her ordeal, Laurie said: 'I owe more to those women than to just run away'.

’I've always wrestled with that, why me? Why didn't I die? I didn't deserve to live. And a lot of times I wished I hadn't. I remember saying to myself as if I’m praying to god, god tell my parents I'm sorry for getting killed.'

In February this year it emerged Little has started painting pictures of some of his victims - and the FBI needs help identifying them.

Historic DNA evidence resulted in him sentenced for the murders of three women in 2014, but by November last year Little told authorities he'd actually killed nearly 100 more women.

If his claims are proven to be true, Little will go down as one of the most prolific serial killers in history.

So far investigators have managed to link Little to 36 of his claims, spanning the width of the US, from LA to Washington DC. 20 of those victims were murdered in Los Angeles

So far, investigators have managed to confirm 36 of his slayings, which span the length of the country from LA to Washington DC.

But in a bid to close a litany of long-cold cases, the FBI has started releasing the doodles Little has been painting of his victims in his cell.

Most of his confirmed kills were identified to be drug addicts, prostitutes or transgender women - whom Little would strangle and often dump their bodies in dense wooded areas.

With no trace of a gunshot or stab wound, police would often mistakenly rule the cause of death to be an overdoses or an accident, and failed to open a murder probe as a result.

Little was arrested in 2012 in a homeless shelter wanted on drug charges in California.

Police tested his DNA and he was connected to three unsolved murders across 1987 and 1989, including the death of Audrey Nelson.

Little is said to be in poor health and investigators are conducting daily interviews to extract as much information from him as possible.

Little has been doodling the faces of some of his victims in his cell, using watercolors, chalk and pencil

Confessions of a Serial Killer was on Channel 4 last night and is available to watch on 4OD by clicking here