Hillsborough, N.C. — A North Carolina man who would have been eligible for parole in November after serving a life sentence for killing a girl has pleaded guilty to raping and killing another girl.

Multiple media outlets reported that George Richard Fisher, 61, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Orange County court in Hillsborough to first-degree murder in the death of 7-year-old Carrie Wilkerson, of Carrboro, in 1984. He also pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and first-degree arson.

Fisher was serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting and killing 8-year-old Jean Fewel, of Chapel Hill, in 1985.

District Attorney Jim Woodall says Fisher would have been eligible for parole soon if not for the new convictions.

Carrie was found strangled and sexually assaulted inside her burning home in Rocky Brook Trailer Park in Carrboro on Feb. 22, 1984.

In 1985, Jean was kidnapped while walking to school in Chapel Hill and later found hanging from a tree near Finley Golf Course.

Woodall said that Fisher had long been a suspect in Carrie's death, but it was only new DNA testing not available during the original investigation that presented enough evidence to charge him.

Carrie's stepmother, Norma Shivers, said that Fisher was her best friend's husband.

"We knew who it was. They just didn't have the evidence," Shivers said. "I've known it all along."

When Fisher was indicted in June, Rebecca Lowery, Carrie's mother, said she had lost hope that the case would ever be solved.

"It's eaten me. I'm so thankful now," she said. "I want to see him – and for him to see me – and know this has not been forgotten and to know he is not getting away with this."