Newspaper Page Text
March 8, 2023
sReporter
Page 7A
MURDER
Continued from Front
market offI-75 in Atlanta.
Then Inv. Mercer Bush
interviewed two truckers
who had dropped Willfong
off at the truck stop. One
of them showed deception
on a lie detector test but
he was not thought to be a
suspect and has since died.
When Mansfield reopened
the case in 2019, Marys
then 84-year-old mother
Cory Willfong told him
she had a dream that her
daughter was getting into a
tractor-trailer with a truck
driver who killed her.
The challenge was that if
the killer was never arrest
ed for anything else, and
never submitted his DNA
to genealogy services, DNA
alone couldn’t ID the killer.
So Mansfield reached out
to DNA International in
Miami, which builds family
trees from DNA samples.
Mansfield found the semen
sample in its original jar in
the MCSO evidence locker
and drove it to Miami on
Sept. 12,2019.
DNA International used
the sample to identify a
second cousin and a fifth
cousin to the killer. It was
a start.
Next, Mansfield turned
to the FBI, where special
agent Tim Burke opened a
case on the murder on Jan.
7,2021. Building on the
killers family tree created
by DNA International, the
FBI worked to hone in on
a match. And on June 30,
2022, Burke told Mansfield
that the DNA had matched
with three brothers in
Indiana. Two of them were
truck drivers.
Now Mansfield had to
decide which one of the
Padgett truck drivers was
the likely suspect. Mans
field said he chose Larry
Padgett because he fig
ured the killer would be
someone with no criminal
record, and someone who
was driving trucks as far
back as 1989.
“Mr. Larry had been un
der the radar,” said Mans
field, “he had a lot to hide.”
But they didn’t want to
spook the suspect. So the
FBI obtained a surrepti
tious warrant to secretly
take the hand-held CB ra
dio from his tractor-trailer
to get DNA from his saliva.
The radio microphone was
sent to the GBI crime lab.
And at 3:55 p.m. last
Monday, Feb. 27, Mansfield
was sitting at his desk at the
sheriff’s office in Forsyth
when he got an email from
the GBI that gave him a
chill and made the hair
stand up on the back of his
neck. It was him.
The chances that the
semen DNA did not
match the saliva DNA
found on Larry Padgett’s
trucker radio mic? One in
200,000,000,000,000,000,
000 (200 quintillion), said
Mansfield.
“I’m not a math guy” said
Mansfield. “But I called
some people and they said
that’s a pretty high num
ber.”
Mansfield said his only
regret is that when he tried
to find Mary’s mother to
tell her the news, he real
ized she had died on March
21,2021. But at the time,
said Mansfield, he would
have had nothing to tell
her. He did, however, call
Mary’s brother and let her
know. His only question
was, “was it a trucker?”
Mansfield wouldn’t say
much about his interview
with Padgett. He said too
many people have worked
too hard on the case to say
anything to jeopardize a
conviction. But he did say
that Padgett remembered
picking up Mary. Other
sources hinted that Padgett
indeed confessed. Mans
field said cases solved by
DNA genealogy rarely go
to trial because the evi
dence is airtight. Mansfield
did get a saliva swap from
Padgett and sent it to the
GBI crime lab for further
positive identification.
Mansfield said he spoke
to Padgett’s wives and
children, and they were all
shocked. Padgett had lived
in Washington, Ind. his
whole life, and had a mod
est home on 19 acres.
Mansfield said a lot of
people deserve credit for
solving the cold case, espe
cially Freeman for reopen
ing it.
“He could have let this
case sit,” said Mansfield.
“She’s not from here. No
body would have cared. But
he said let’s get on it.”
Mansfield said it’s a result
the whole county can be
proud of.
“Monroe County should
be commended and ap
plauded for doing this. I am
glad I was a part of it.”
Mansfield said he felt
relief as much as anything.
“If you don’t think there’s
pressure on you when the
high sheriff assigns you to
a case,” laughed Mansfield.
“He kept asking when are
we gonna make an arrest.”
Freeman said it’s a good
feeling.
“We got our man,” said
Freeman. “It’s very satisfy
ing”
It’s not Mansfield’s first
encounter with an un
solved case. He was a
Monroe County investiga
tor back in the 1990s when
he and then sheriff John
Cary Bittick were featured
on “Unsolved Mysteries”
for their efforts to solve
the murder of two Mercer
students at Lake Juliette.
That case was also solved
using DNA technology and
the killer Andy Cook was
executed in 2013.
But the Mary Willfong
case is the first ever in
Monroe County solved
using DNA genealogy tech
nology and is one of the
first such cases in Georgia.
Mansfield also made
progress on another mur
der cold case he was as
signed. In March 2020, he
was able to identify a mur
der victim who had been
found four years before
Mary Willfong’s murder, on
March 11,1985. A Monroe
County school bus driver
had found the body of a
6-foot-5 black man in the
middle of Mays Road with
two gunshots to the back of
the head. Mansfield said af
ter he reopened the case file
he found a fingerprint sam
ple in the evidence that had
never been entered into the
state network. It identified
the victim as Maurice Free
man Long after matching
with fingerprints from a
trespassing arrest in Atlanta
three months before his
death. Mansfield found
Freeman’s brother to let
him know. Freeman had
been born in Little Rock,
Ark. on March 13,1964.
Freeman’s late parents had
spent a lot of money with
private investigators trying
to find out what happened
to him.
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