Jose Ferreira Junior pled guilty in the 1982 murder of 13-year-old Carrie Jopek.

Charges were amended to attempted second degree sexual assault and use of force and false imprisonment.

Investigators said Ferreira admitted to pushing Jopek down a flight of stairs.

She hit her head and he sexually assaulted her while he thought she was unconscious.

Later he realized her neck was broken and buried her body.

Seventeen months after Jopek disappeared on September 2, a neighbor of Jopek’s family dug up a patch of found to repair a back porch. Jopek’s body was found.

Another neighbor called police on September 6, 1983 to report Ferreira standing in the backyard acting strangely near where the body was found. Police questioned the defendant on September 7, 1983, but he denied any knowledge of Jopek’s disappearance.

In October 11, 2015, the defendant’s wife walked into the lobby of West Milwaukee Police station and told police her husband had called her and said he was responsible for killing a female and burying her.