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Fifth victim of serial killer who hid his crimes in plain sight is identified 40yrs on after he tortured & slayed women
HUMAN remains found at the home of a notorious serial killer have been identified as belonging to a woman who vanished over four decades ago.
The remains of were discovered at the home belonging to the family of convicted murderer Billy Mansfield Jr. after his brother Gary Mansfield tipped Florida police off after a drug bust in October 2020.
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Hernando Country Sherriff's office said the remains belong to Theresa Caroline Fillingim, who disappeared from Tampa aged 17 in 1980, her sister Margaret Johns told .
Margaret said a cold case detective reached out to her in July 2021 and told her they were looking for someone who "may have lost a sister" in 1980 in Tampa or Hernando Country area.
Officers visited Margaret in Cape Coral to establish a timeline and collect a DNA sample, to help provide closure. The DNA sample came back positive.
"He said that is the first cold case that he's ever had that's gone that far: to be able to completely deliver the remains to the family," John explained.
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Teresa's remains are currently at the Hernando County medical examiner's office and are expected to be delivered to the family at a designated funeral home.
"The sad part of it is my whole family never knew what happened to her. My dad dies without knowing, my mom died without knowing... my sister died without knowing."
Mansfield killed four Florida women and girls and a Californian woman between 1975 and 1980, and buried the bodies of four victims at the Spring Hill home family home.
Three of his victims have been identified as mother-of-three Rene Abbey Saling, 29; Sandra Jean Graham, 21, and Elaine Louise Ziegler, 15.
Mansfield's murders came into sight after the body of Saling was found near a campsite where the Mansfield brothers were staying in California.
The discovery prompted a search of the junkyard surrounding the family's mobile home in Weeki Wachee Acres area of Spring Hill.
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The skeletons of Graham and Ziegler's were discovered at the home, as well as a partial skeleton.
Two other women, whose remains were found at the property where Gary and their father William Mansfield Sr. still live, remain unidentified.
Court documents documented the torture that took place at the Spring Hill house - described by neighbours as the "House of Horrors", as well as the involvement of all three Mansfields in the sexual abuse of the victims.
Mansfield - a then 25-year-old electrician - was convicted and sentenced in 1982. He is currently in a California healthcare facility serving four life sentences.
At the time of his arrest, Mansfield's dad was serving time in prison for sexually abusing dozens of young children - with one girl aged just nine months when the abuse started.
The serial killer's son, also named Billy, said he believes there may be "a lot more" bodies hidden at the property.
"Personally, I think there’s a lot. I just can’t see someone gonna stop at one. And if there’s four and five, you ain’t stopping at one, you ain’t stopping at four and five," he told .
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