Robert Frederick Carr

Little is known about his early life, but Robert Frederick Carr III was born on December 22, 1943, in Virginia. According to his confession, he had a troubled childhood, reportedly being forced into prostitution at 11-years-old and stealing cars as a teen.[3] As an adult, he moved to Connecticut, where he would ultimately start a relationship and get married, as well as getting a job fixing TVs. Carr would later admit that when having sex he would fantasize about committing rape and murder.[3]

In late 1972, Carr temporarily visited Florida. While in Miami, Carr strolled around Biscayne Boulevard. On November 13, 1972, he picked up 11-year-olds Mark Payton and Todd Wilson, who were hitchhiking from North Miami Beach. The inside back doors in the car were dismantled, thus Carr kidnapped the boys and took them to a secluded location, where he raped and strangled both boys to death. After the murders he drove the car with the boys bodies in the trunk to Mississippi and Louisiana, where he subsequently buried one of each in each state, respectively.[3]

Both boys were subsequently reported missing by their parents when they had not returned home, but their bodies would not be located limitedly. A few months later, Carr picked up, raped and later killed 16-year-old Tammy Ruth Huntley. In 1973, Carr was convicted of rape in Connecticut, but was paroled in 1976. Upon his release in Connecticut, he remained in the state, where he would kill his fourth and final victim, raping and killing 21-year-old Rhonda Holloway, before burying her body in a rural area.[4]

On May 30, 1976 Carr committed another sex attack, this time raping a hitchhiker whom had gotten into his car at knife point. During the attack, a Metro police officer during a routine checkup stumbled upon the car, and witnessed the rape, arresting Carr and taking him into custody.[2][5] Once in interrogation, Carr surprised detectives by blurting a confession to all four murders he committed.[3] He explained the crimes in great detail, things only the killer would know. Carr, along with detectives David Simmons and Charles Zatrepalek, along with deputy medical examiner Ronald Wright, went on a state long mission to uncover the bodies.[4] Both the disappearances of Payton and Wilson attracted high publicity, but by the time of Carr's confession neither one of the boy's bodies were located. In Addition, Carr admitted responsibility in dozens of rapes of young boys and girls. Carr was forced into a life sentence after pleading guilty, meaning he would be spared the death penalty. He attended some of his sentence at a state mental hospital, but was kicked out after it was found he was hoarding wire cutters and pliers.[3] Afterwards he began mailing letters to prosecutor Ed O'Donnell, who had previously worked on the case.[3]

On July 6, 2007, Carr died at the Union Correctional Institution from unspecified causes.[2]

• List of serial killers in the United States

Edna Buchanan (December 6, 2015) Carr: Five Years of Rape and Murder