Robert Frederick Carr

Serial Killer

Robert Frederick Carr: Serial Killer and Predator

Overview

Robert Frederick Carr III was an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist and sexual predator whose known crimes stretched from Florida to Connecticut and across the Gulf Coast during the 1970s. Carr confessed to four murders: those of 11-year-old friends Todd Payton and Mark Wilson, 21-year-old Rhonda Holloway, and 16-year-old Tammy Ruth Huntley. His victims were typically people he believed he could overpower or manipulate, and several were encountered while hitchhiking or accepting transportation from him. Carr was born on December 22, 1943, in Virginia. As an adult he lived for periods in Connecticut and Florida and worked at jobs that included television repair. People who later dealt with him described a man whose ordinary appearance concealed an extremely dangerous predator. Carr deliberately used friendliness, conversation and offers of transportation to lower the suspicions of people he targeted. The known murder chronology began with the disappearance of Payton and Wilson in November 1972. Carr was subsequently imprisoned in Connecticut for an unrelated sexual offense, but after being paroled in October 1975 he returned to violent offending. During the following months he killed Rhonda Holloway in Connecticut and Tammy Ruth Huntley after taking her from the Miami area. His crimes finally came to light after police caught him committing another sexual assault in Miami at the end of May 1976.

The Disappearance of Todd Payton and Mark Wilson

On November 13, 1972, Todd Payton and Mark Wilson, both 11 years old and from the North Miami Beach area, disappeared together. The boys had been hitchhiking when they encountered Carr. He offered them a ride and succeeded in getting both children into his automobile. Carr had modified his vehicle in a manner that made escape difficult. Accounts of the investigation described interior door hardware that had been disabled so a passenger could not simply open the rear door from inside. Investigators later learned that Carr sometimes traveled with supplies that could help him maintain control over victims for extended periods. Instead of taking Todd and Mark where they intended to go, Carr began traveling with them outside Florida. During the trip he sexually assaulted the boys and maintained control over them through threats and intimidation. Carr eventually strangled Todd. Mark remained alive for a period afterward, and Carr later acknowledged killing Mark approximately four days after Todd. The two children were buried at remote locations along Carr's route through Mississippi and Louisiana. Contemporary and later accounts agree that one boy was buried in Mississippi and the other in Louisiana, although published descriptions have sometimes conflicted over which burial location belonged to which child. For that reason, the individual burial states should not be treated as certain without the original investigative records. Todd and Mark remained missing for more than three years. Their families had no way of knowing that the boys had been carried hundreds of miles from South Florida and murdered. It was only Carr's 1976 confession that finally allowed investigators to determine what had happened to them. ...

Confirmed Victims: (4)

Tammy Ruth Huntley Age: (16), Date of Death: 1976-04-07

Robert Frederick Carr - Wikipedia