| Mass murderer Billy Mansfield may have had visions of returning to Florida for a parole hearing but it looks like he will remain in a California prison for a long time. At a recent parole hearing Mansfield, now age 51, would not comply with psychological testing requirements required by the California Parole Board, said Det. Mike Nelson of the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office. Mansfield, who killed young women and buried their bodies in his parents’ yard in Weeki Wachee, started serving a life sentence in 1982 for the murder of Renee Saling in Santa Cruz, CA. Also, Judge L.R. Huffstleter sentenced Mansfield to four life terms for his Florida murdering spree that began in the 1970s. Mansfield “didn’t admit to the Florida killings but he did plead guilty,” said Nelson. In California, it took a second trail to get Mansfield convicted for killing Saling, Nelson added. Nelson is now trying to identify two bodies whose bones were recovered along with Sandra Jean Brown, 21, of Tampa, and Elaine Zeigler, 15, of a KOA campsite near Brooksville. The bodies were dug up on the Mansfield property after Mansfield was arrested in California. Though years have gone by since the slayings, there is so much you can do now with new DNA developments, Nelson said. During Mansfield’s Hernando County trial, several witnesses testified that they knew of the goings-on at the Mansfield property at the time of the slayings. Actually, notice of the Mansfield killings came out by accident when a witness in an unrelated trial mentioned that Mansfield had buried bodies in the family yard. After four bodies were dug up at the Mansfield property and Mansfield was brought to trial, several witnesses testified that Mansfield picked up “girls” and took them to an old green bus located on the Mansfield property, raped them, killed them and then buried their bodies in the family yard. During the initial investigation authorities said that if they started arresting people for withholding evidence they would have to add a new wing to the jail. There are “all kinds of rumors and speculations” that Mansfield may have buried more bodies in areas of Hernando County, but with any substantial evidence “we’d be back on the property digging,” Nelson said. Nelson said Mansfield has come up twice before for probation hearings. This year Mansfield’s mother attended, Nelson confirmed. A phone number for Mansfield’s parents Virginia and Billy Mansfield Sr. Could not be located. According to Attorney Jimmy Brown, who prosecuted Mansfield for the Florida murders, Mansfield was up for parole last year but it turned out to be a “non started”, which means there wasn’t even a hearing, Brown said. According to Nelson, the Florida Parole Board “has been in touch with him” but a hearing here is “way down the road”. It is not likely that Mansfield will ever get out of prison alive, said Nelson. “If he does he will be in excess of one- hundred years old.” Some of the victims’ families here do keep watch on the case, he added. Mansfield has been housed at several prisons since beginning his life-sentence for killing Saling. He is currently at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, CA; a spokesman there didn’t return my phone calls. Prisoners are moved about in California sometimes at their own request and sometimes for population reasons, Nelson said. |
| Crime Beat Murders In The Swampland & Other Stories that happened in Florida's Coastal Swamplands By Patricia Lieb Back to Murders In The Swampland at FL Crime |
| Weeki Wachee killer Billy Mansfield not coming home soon |
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