JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) said it has identified the man responsible for abducting and murdering an 18-year-old woman who was found dead in Jacksonville nearly 44 years ago.
On Sunday, March 23, 1980, at approximately 2:00 a.m., college student Carol Ann Barrett who was visiting Daytona Beach while on Spring Break from Ohio was abducted from the Treasure Island Motel, in Daytona Beach Shores and murdered. Barrett’s body was found in a ditch line along I-95 near Pecan Park Road in Jacksonville.
Recommended Videos
Despite JSO dedicating years of work to solving Barrett’s murder, along with having a description of her killer provided by witnesses and a police sketch of the suspect, Barrett’s case went “cold.”
In August of 2017, Barrett’s case was re-opened by JSO’s Cold Case Unit, and in 2020, a person of interest was discovered: Billy Mansfield Jr., who would’ve been 24 at the time of Barrett’s murder.
Mansfield is already serving multiple life sentences in a California prison.
Following police interviews that spanned over two years, JSO said Mansfield eventually confessed to abducting Barrett and later murdering her, and he was the man depicted in JSO’s police sketch.
Throughout the follow-up investigation, the State Attorney’s Office in the 4th Judicial Circuit was consulted with and decided it would not seek prosecution because Mansfield is already in prison in California serving a life sentence for multiple Florida murders.
Mansfield, now 65, remains in full cooperation with detectives in other jurisdictions regarding additional cold cases, according to JSO.