the 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.

On Monday, March 24, 1980, Carol’s lifeless body was discovered by a passerby in a ditch line along I-95 near Pecan Park Road in Jacksonville, Florida. Following an autopsy, Carol’s death was ruled a Homicide. Tragically, the case went “cold” after years of work by detectives with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office along with the original jurisdiction.

In August 2017, Carol’s case was revisited and ultimately re-opened by members of the JSO’s Cold Case Unit after reviewing all available evidence.

In 2020, a person of interest that had been formulated, Billy Mansfield, Jr. (white male, 65), was ultimately identified as the suspect in Carol Barrett’s murder. Mansfield would have been 24 years old at the time of Carol’s Murder.

In September 2022, after multiple interviews spanning two years, Billy Mansfield advised that he was in fact the suspect in the police sketch completed following the abduction. He went on to confess to the abduction from the Daytona Beach Shores hotel, as well as to her murder shortly thereafter.

The State Attorney's Office in the 4th Judicial Circuit was consulted with throughout the course of the follow-up investigation. Following the more than quarter-century investigation into Carol’s murder, it has been determined the SAO would not seek prosecution as Billy Mansfield will remain in prison in California on one life sentence for Murder, as well as four concurrent life sentences in Florida for Murder in separate cases.

Billy Mansfield continues to cooperate with detectives in other jurisdictions regarding additional Cold Cases.