US Serial Killer Confesses To Kidnapping, Killing 18-Year-Old Woman 44 Years After Case Went Cold

Decades after committing the crime, a convicted serial killer on Thursday admitted to murdering a young woman in Florida, US, in 1980. According to Fox35, 65-year-old Billy Mansfield Jr. confessed to killing 18-year-old Carol Ann Barrett in 1980. He would have been 24 at the time of her death. "Cold Case Homicide Investigation Ends," Jax Sheriff's Office (JSO) wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday. 

According to the post, on March 23, 1980, Ms Barrett came to Daytona Beach, Florida, from Ohio, with a group of high school friends. The same day, she was kidnapped by an unknown person from the now-demolished Treasure Island Motel in Daytona Beach Shores. "After interviewing Carol's friends that had been in the room at the time of the kidnapping, a police sketch of the suspect was completed," the cops wrote. 

Cold Case Homicide Investigation Ends

On Sunday, March 23, 1980, 18-year-old Carol Ann Barrett was visiting Daytona Beach while on Spring Break from Zanesville, Ohio with a group of high school friends. At approximately 2:00 a.m., Carol was abducted by an unknown assailant from… pic.twitter.com/vOtaJW6bXV

— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) January 25, 2024

Ms Barrett's body was found the next day, more than 100 miles north by a passerby along Interstate 95 near Pecan Park Road in Jacksonville, Florida. Following an autopsy, her death was ruled a Homicide. Officials in 2017 said that Ms Barrett had been fatally shot, "execution" style, and there was no indication she had put up a struggle. "Tragically, the case went "cold" after years of work by detectives with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office along with the original jurisdiction," JSO wrote on X. 

The case was reopened in 2017 after reviewing all available evidence. The cops developed a person of interest - Mansfield - in 2020, who ultimately became a suspect in the teen's murder, officials said. After multiple interviews, in September 2022, Mansfield stated he was the person in the police sketch and went on to confess to kidnapping her from the hotel and killing her shortly after. 

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Police said despite confession, authorities decided against pursuing prosecution against Mansfield as he is currently in a California prison serving a life sentence of murder, as well as four concurrent life sentences in Florida for murder in separate cases. He is continuing the cooperate with investigators on other cold cases, cops said. 

According to The Guardian, Mansfield had spent most of his life in legal turmoil in connection with sex crime charges. He was convicted of murdering five women in California and Florida. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1982. During the initial investigation, cops found that he buried four bodies in the backyard of his Florida home before travelling to California, killing the fifth victim and being arrested.