SC 'Spree Killer' Suspected In Florida Double Murder

WINTER HAVEN, FL — A South Carolina man who allegedly boasted that he wanted to be a serial killer was taken into custody early Tuesday morning following a double murder and overnight manhunt that ended in a police standoff, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

Thirty-five-year-old Stanley Eric "Woo Woo" Mossburg was taken into custody by SWAT officers shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday. He had been barricaded alone in a home on Avenue C NE near 16th Street NE.

"Mossburg said the two he murdered in the Winter Haven area were number seven and eight," Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters, adding that Mossburg was also suspected of holding a man captive for hours.

"He's what we call a spree killer," Judd said. "This is a man that said he enjoys killing."

The sheriff's office could not immediately confirm whether Mossburg was suspected in eight murders. The FBI defines the term "spree murder" as two or more murders committed without a cooling-off period. It is the lack of a cooling-off period that marks the difference between a spree murder and a serial murder, according to the FBI.

"We know that he murdered two people earlier here and he murdered one in Greenville, Tennessee before going to his sister's house in Spartanburg," said Judd. The sheriff said both of the Florida murder victims as well as the Tennessee murder victim had been slashed with knives.

Mossburg allegedly poured bleach over the Florida victims and turned the air conditioner down to minimize odors.

Judd said Mossburg allegedly opened fire on deputies at least twice during the standoff at a home off Dundee Road. "We don't have the exact total number of rounds that was shot at our deputies but it's going to be someplace around seven or eight," Judd said.

The sheriff's office said deputies found Mossburg under a pool table that collapsed during the police breach of the home through the garage. Mossburg was taken to Winter Haven Hospital for treatment of police K-9 bites.

Judd said Mossburg was suspected of killing a man and woman in their Winter Haven home Sunday night but spared a third person who lived at the home with them.

"When he arrived home, this man was in his house," Judd said, pointing to a photo of Mossburg. "This man said to our live victim: 'I'm not going to kill you because God told me not to,' but he held him captive all night long."

At one point during the manhunt, Judd said Mossburg returned to within one block of the double murder scene. The sheriff advised residents who had firearms and knew how to use them to keep them close by as his deputies searched through the night.

Carrie Horstman of the sheriff's office said the home where Mossburg had been holed up belongs to an acquaintance.

Mossburg had an outstanding warrant for first-degree murder from Greene County, Tennessee and is suspected in the double homicide that occurred in unincorporated Winter Haven.

The Tennessee murder occurred at a laundromat on Oct. 1 in Greenville. Judd said the wife of the male victim called police when her husband did not return from doing laundry and she received a "vile, ugly, nasty text" on her husband's phone that Mossburg is suspected of sending. Police found the man's body the following day outside the laundromat in a pool of blood.

Horstman said the SWAT team maintained an overnight perimeter in the area of 15th Street through 17th Street NE.

"We hope and pray there are no more victims, that he's just bragging," added Judd.