Serial killer confesses to killing teen kidnapped from Florida hotel during spring break in 1980: police

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A convicted serial killer has confessed to killing a teenage girl who was visiting Central Florida from out-of-state for spring break more than 40 years ago, according to police.

Billy Mansfield Jr., 65, admitted to murdering 18-year-old Carol Ann Barrett in 1980, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) announced Thursday morning. He would have been 24 at the time of her death.

On March 23, 1980, Barrett came to Daytona Beach, Florida, from Zanesville, Ohio, with a group of high school friends. Around 2 a.m., Barrett was kidnapped by an unknown person from the now-demolished Treasure Island Motel in Daytona Beach Shores.

Carol Ann Barrett (Photo via Jacksonville Sheriff's Office)

Her body was later found the next day, more than 100 miles north by a passerby along Interstate 95 near Pecan Park Road in Jacksonville, Florida.

Investigators interviewed her friends who had been in the motel room at the time of the abduction and a police sketch of the suspect was created.

Barrett's death was ruled a homicide following an autopsy, JSO said. After years of work by Jacksonville and Daytona Beach detectives, the case became cold. 

JSO's cold case unit reopened Barrett's case in Aug. 2017 after reviewing all available evidence.

They developed a person of interest – Mansfield – in 2020, who ultimately became a suspect in the teen's murder, officials said. 

After multiple interviews, in Sept. 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, police said.

The State Attorney's Office in the 4th Judicial Circuit will not seek prosecution as Mansfield is currently in a California prison serving a life sentence for murder, as well as four concurrent life sentences in Florida for murder in separate cases, according to JSO.