Carrie Ann Jopek was just 13 in 1982 when she went missing. Her body turned up a year later, buried under a porch, and until now, her death had remained a mystery. But now a 50-year-old Milwaukee man, Jose Ferreira, has been arrested for her murder more than 30 years later. Ferreira was charged with second-degree murder last week after calling Wisconsin’s WISN 12 News and confessing to the crime.
Ferreira was only 17 at the time of the murder, which he says occurred at a house party that Jopek had skipped school to attend. The two had been headed down to the basement to make out, when Jopek suddenly changed her mind, telling him that she “didn’t think it was a good idea.” Ferreira then apparently lost his temper and pushed the girl down the flight of steps, which caused her to break her neck.
It was then that Ferreira buried her body under the porch of the home where the party took place, where it was eventually discovered during repairs.
“His story was very detailed — disturbingly so,” Chris Gegg, the station’s news director, said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press on Sunday.
Gegg didn’t elaborate about those details, but said the station called police because of “several red flags.” Ferreira was later arrested in the case, which had long been dormant.
It’s unknown how much time Ferreira will receive, but it’s clear that he’s likely been living in a guilt-ridden hell for the past three decades over what he did. Police initially had questioned Ferreira when witnesses spotted him crying over the grave where Jopek’s body had been discovered, but eventually released him over lack of evidence.