DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA – A long-standing murder case has finally been solved after 43 years, thanks to the confession of a serial killer currently serving time in California. Billy Mansfield Jr, 68, admitted to kidnapping and killing 18-year-old Carol Ann Barrett during her spring break trip in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Barrett disappeared from the Treasure Island Motel on March 23, 1980, and her body was discovered the following day in Jacksonville, nearly 90 miles away from where she was last seen. Despite the trail running cold for many years, the Cold Case unit at the sheriff’s office decided to review the evidence in 2017, which led to Mansfield Jr. being identified as a potential suspect.
After two years of intense investigation, Mansfield Jr. ultimately confessed to murdering Barrett, but the State Attorney’s Office of the 4th Judicial Circuit decided not to prosecute him on the 43-year-old case. Currently serving a life sentence in California and four concurrent life sentences in Florida for other murders committed between 1975 and 1980, Mansfield Jr. has admitted to burying four victims in the grounds of his family home in Spring Hill, Florida, before traveling to California, where he raped and murdered another woman.
In a chilling revelation, the Hernando County Sheriff’s Department found four bodies buried on Mansfield’s family property in 1981, one of which was only recently identified in 2022 thanks to genetic genealogy testing. Mansfield pleaded guilty to the murder of his California victim to avoid the death sentence in Florida and has been collaborating with officers in other states on other cold cases. This case serves as a reminder of the relentless pursuit of justice, even after many years have passed.