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Sunshine State KILLER was there the whole time... · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Around three am on September fifth, nineteen eighty one, a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: woman drove through a housing development in Lakeland, Florida. With
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: her was her two friends, who had both agreed to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: spend the night at our duplex.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: And for this woman this.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Was a massive relief because the idea of spending a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: night alone in her house right now was just terrifying
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: because the night before there had been a murder committed
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: right nearby. But before we get into today's story, if
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: in story format, then you've come to the right place,
• 0:30
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• 0:33
  Speaker 1: even four times a week. So if that's of interest
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to you, please sneak into the like Button's house and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: hide open cans of tuna in all their events and
• 0:41
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• 0:42
  Speaker 2: The heat at full blast.
• 0:44
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• 0:49
  Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. Just before eight pm on
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: September third, nineteen eighty one, thirty one year old Linda
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Slayton stood in her kitchen in Lakeland, Florida, staring into
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  Speaker 1: her covered it was almost completely empty except for a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: few cans of beans and a bag of flour, and
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: seeing this gave Linda a pitner's stomach because she knew
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: she would somehow have to turn these sparse ingredients into
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  Speaker 1: a meal for her kids. Linda was a single mother
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: of two boys, Jeff who was fifteen and Tim, who
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: was twelve, and Linda didn't have very much money, and
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: so in order to take care of her kids, she
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: had to be resourceful, like, you know, finding a way
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to make food with whatever ingredients she had. And she
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: also would like make her kids their own clothing, anything
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to save money. Now, up until a few weeks ago,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the family had lived in Alabama, but Linda had moved
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to Lakeland specifically because she had a lot of family
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and support there, and so Linda had hoped that, you know,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: because of that support, that you know, her and her
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: son's lives would you know, improve quite a bit, it
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: wouldn't feel like such a struggle all the time anymore.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: But so far, the move to Lakeland had just been
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: more of the same. You know, Linda couldn't find a
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: steady job, so she and the boys had been relying
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: on government assistants and food stamps, which never seemed to
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: be enough to keep these two teenagers well fed. And tonight,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Linda's youngest son, Tim was about to be dropped off
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: after being at football practice, and historically he was very
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: hungry after practice, and so she really wanted to have
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: dinner ready for him. And on top of that, Linda
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: was hopeful that Tim and her other son, Jeff would
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: eat fast enough that they would have enough time to
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: make it to a neighbor's housewarming party later that night.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: So all the neighbors around Linda were basically as new
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: as she was, since the complex they lived in had
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: only been open for about three weeks. It was the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: sprawling development with about eighty one story duplexes, technically government
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: subsidized housing, but it felt more like classic suburbia since
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the units were on cul de sacs with neat lawns
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: where all the kids would go outside and play. Now,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Linda's sister also lived in this complex, so Linda already
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: knew at least one person. But to Linda, you know,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: making friends of her own was also pretty important to her.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: She was an outgoing person by nature, and also she
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: was newly single and wanted to take her mind off
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: her ex boyfriend. Until recently, Linda had been dating this
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: guy named Brendan Fowler, who had been great at first
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and was even the one who told her about this
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: apartment complex, but he'd started to get really controlling and possessive,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and just two days ago Linda had finally ended things.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: But believe it or not, Linda actually felt sort of hopeful.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: You know, she had believed that by leaving Alabama and
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: moving to Florida into this complex, that that would sort
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: of be the refresh that she and her kids desperately needed.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: The truth was, you know, it sort of seemed like,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: actually the true reset had been the breakup with Brendan
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: couple of days earlier, like it all needed to happen,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: all this big change in order for their lives to
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: really get on the right track. And so, feeling optimistic,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Linda looked into the cupboard at her limited ingredients and
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: suddenly realized she could actually do a quick bean cast
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: roll with just these couple of things. So she grabbed
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the cans and the flower and she got started. About
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: a half an hour later, Linda pulled a beautiful golden
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: brown cast roll out of the oven and set it
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  Speaker 1: on the counter to cool, and that's when her older son, Jeff,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: wandered into the kitchen to see if dinner was ready.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Linda told him it was, but they needed to wait
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: for Tim to get home from football first. And when
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: she said that, Jeff sort of blew up at her.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: He said he was really hungry right now, and there
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: was basically no food in the house and so he
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: couldn't even eat anything else to tide himself over, Like,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: come on, let me eat now. Jeff's reaction made Linda
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: pretty mad, but at the same time, it didn't really
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: surprise her. I mean, Jeff had been talking back to
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: her a lot lately, and the two of them seemed
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to fight all the time. Linda knew he was sort
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: of just being a ti teenager and he was really hungry,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: you know, and so he's testing her limits. But she
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: was just getting really sick of it, and so before
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: she could even really think about it, she snapped back
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: at him and said, well, if you don't like it here,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: you can leave, And at that Jeff literally stormed out
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: of the house and slammed the door behind him. Linda
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: went to the window and watched her son pick up
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  Speaker 1: his bike and pedal off down the road. After that,
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  Speaker 1: Linda sighed and walked over to her phone and called
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: her mom. She assumed, you know, Jeff, her son, would
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: go to her parents' house since they lived nearby, And
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: when Linda's mother picked up, Linda warned her that Jeff
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: might be there soon and he'd likely want to eat.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Her mom said that was fine and they would drop
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: him back off after dinner. Then her mom said she
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: actually was glad that Linda called because another letter came
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and as soon as Linda heard that, she felt this
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: wave of anxiety come over her because she knew what
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: kind of letter she was talking about. So Linda's ex
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: husband and Tim and Jeff's dad, Frank Slayton, lived back
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: in Alabama. He was a violent, abusive, alcoholic and they'd
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: been divorced for seven years, but Frank had never stopped
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: harassing Linda after they broke up, and since Linda and
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the boys had moved to Lakeland, he had been mailing
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: threatening letters to Linda's parents saying that Linda had ruined
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: his life. And so now Linda was thinking like, no
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: matter how many fresh starts she started, that Frank was
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: always going to screw them up. He was never going
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  Speaker 1: to go away, and so after taking a calming breath,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Linda told her mom on the phone to just rip
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  Speaker 1: the letter up.
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  Speaker 2: She didn't even want to read it.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Not long after she hung up, her younger son Tim
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  Speaker 1: came in the front door. He was all sweaty and
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: dirty from football practice, and right away Linda asked him, Hey,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: did you thank your coach for giving you a ride home?
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: And Tim said yes, I did, so Linda. She didn't
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  Speaker 1: have a car because she couldn't afford one, and so
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Tim's coach always had to give him a ride. But
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  Speaker 1: Tim said, you know, I thanked him, like always, and
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  Speaker 1: so Linda told him to hurry up and eat because
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: they had to go next door to the neighbor's party.
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  Speaker 1: Hours later, after eleven pm that evening, Linda and Tim
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  Speaker 1: walked home from the party through the dark apartment complex.
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  Speaker 1: There were seven other people who had been at the party,
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  Speaker 1: and it had been a lot of fun.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Everybody just drank.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Iced tea and played cards while they talked about the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: perks of living in this great new complex, like the
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  Speaker 1: great business district across the street, and how responsive the
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  Speaker 1: maintenance team was.
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  Speaker 2: So Linda was glad they went.
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  Speaker 1: She was also exhausted and her sister always came over
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  Speaker 1: for coffee in the morning, so she needed to go
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  Speaker 1: to bed now or she would never wake up. However,
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  Speaker 1: when she and Tim got back to their unit and
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  Speaker 1: opened up the door, Linda froze because there was already
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  Speaker 1: somebody inside. For a second, she thought it might be
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  Speaker 1: an intruder, but then she realized it was actually just
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  Speaker 1: her older son, Jeff, who had come back. He was
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  Speaker 1: standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a
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  Speaker 1: sort of I'm sorry expression.
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  Speaker 2: On his face.
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  Speaker 1: Tim saw the situation and immediately disappeared into the second
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: bedroom to give his mother and brother some space. Linda
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  Speaker 1: went to join Jeff in the kitchen, but Jeff didn't
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  Speaker 1: say anything, so Linda spoke first and reminded him that
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  Speaker 1: it was not good to go to bed angry. However,
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  Speaker 1: Jeff still didn't say anything, and Linda knew from experience
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  Speaker 1: with her son, you know, it was better not to
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  Speaker 1: force Jeff to talk, so she decided she would just
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: give Jeff a minute, and she began washing the dishes. Finally,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: after a few moments, Jeff mumbled that he loved his mom,
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  Speaker 1: and Linda smiled. She felt relieved they could just move
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  Speaker 1: on from this. She said it was all good and
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: that she loved him too. Then they both said good night,
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  Speaker 1: and Jeff went over to the cot in the living
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  Speaker 1: room where he slept, and then Linda, wrapped up in
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  Speaker 1: the kitchen, turned off the lights and headed into her
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  Speaker 1: own bedroom, closed the door, and she went to bed too.
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  Speaker 1: The next morning, at eight thirty am, Linda's sister, Judy Butler,
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  Speaker 1: walked up to Linda's duplex.
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  Speaker 2: It had coffee.
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  Speaker 1: Together every morning since they moved to the neighborhood, so
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Judy expected to knock on her sister's door and go
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: right in like she always did. But this time, after
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  Speaker 1: she knocked, nobody answered, so Judy waited and then knocked again,
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  Speaker 1: and when there was still no response, Judy reached down
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  Speaker 1: and tried to open up the door, but she found
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: it was locked.
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  Speaker 2: This had never happened before.
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  Speaker 1: Linda always answered the door or at least called out
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: in response, but Judy wasn't really worried. She just assumed,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: you know, that Linda must have overslept her something. So
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Judy decided she would just go home for an how
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and let her sister have a few minutes, and eventually
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: she would call to check in on her and make
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: sure she was okay. However, as she walked away from
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the home, she noticed something strange on the side of
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Linda's house. One of the back windows was missing a screen,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and Judy knew that that particular room was Linda's bedroom
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: and it hadn't been like that yesterday, so seeing it
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: now made her feel kind of uneasy, and so she
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: went over to look inside, and when she looked inside,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: she saw her sister fast asleep in bed. And for
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: a second, Judy, he was relieved, you know, because this
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: confirmed that this is all this was her sister had overslept,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: that's that. But then Judy realized there was something off
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: about Linda, like the way she was positioned just seemed wrong,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: and when everything clicked for her, she staggered backwards and
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: began to scream. By nine am on September fourth, nineteen
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: eighty one, a crowd of reporters and police officers surrounded
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  Speaker 1: the duplex in a Lakeland, Florida, housing complex, where a
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: woman had reported.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Seeing a dead body.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: In the middle of all the activity, Sergeant Edgar Pickett
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: of the Lakeland Police ducked under some crime scene tape
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: and headed to the Holmes Walkway with a bag of
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: equipment slung over his shoulder. So Pickett was actually just
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: a year away from retirement after two decades as a detective,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and for the last few years he'd been the head
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: of Lakeland's crime scene Unit, which meanti oversaw the collection
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: and documentation of evidence at crime scenes, and so he
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't the lead investigator on this case, but when it
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: came to forensic analysis and fingerprint collection, he was the
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: best they had. He'd already been briefed on the situation
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and knew that this was very likely a homicide, and
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the victim had been identified as thirty one.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Year old Linda Slayton.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Linda had been found in her bedroom by her sister,
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  Speaker 1: who had asked a nearby maintenance worker to call nine
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: to one one. Pickett also knew that when the first
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: responder got inside the house, they found that Linda's two
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: kids were still asleep and appeared to have no idea
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: their mother was deceased in the next room, which Pickett
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: knew would give investigators somewhat of a timeline to start with.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Linda was clearly awake when her kids went to sleep,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and must have died sometime during the night while her
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: kids were still sleeping.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: As Pickett walked up the walkway, he.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Passed by two teenage boys sitting in their pajamas on
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: the ground. He assumed these must be the sons, and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: one of them just sort of stared ahead, seemingly in
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: complete shock, while the other sort of sobbed into his
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: brother's shoulder. Pickett wasn't sure if anybody had spoken to
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: them yet, but he knew they would likely be really
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: helpful in focusing his search for evidence. Since they lived
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: in the house, they'd know the habits and patterns of
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: everybody who lived there and might be able to tell
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: him if anything seemed out of place, So Pickett made
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a mental note to make sure to check in with
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the investigators inside about that. Then he looked at the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: house and took a deep breath. Pickett liked to get
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: a sort of first impression of the crime scene before
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: he did any actual collections, so before he would go in,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: he would walk around the entire house and sort of
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: assess the building. He had been told that all the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: doors were locked when the police first got there, and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: from what he could see the bedroom window with the
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: missing screen was the only sign of a potential break in,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: so he took out his kit and spent some time
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: dusting around that window area for Prince, but he didn't
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: find much there or any noticeable shoe impressions in the outside.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: And then when he finally headed inside, Pickett quickly moved
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: past all the officers and detectives that were already in
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: there and went straight to the bedroom and the first
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: thing he saw when he got inside was Linda's body
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: on the bed with a metal coat hanger wrapped around
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: her throat.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: The sheets around her were covered.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: In blood, and she was shirtless and the bottom of
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: her dress was pulled up, and when Pickett got closer
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: he saw where the blood had come from. There were long,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: very deep scratches on Linda's neck, which he guessed were
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: from her nails, so she tried to pry the hangar away.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: He'd have to wait for the autopsy, but it was
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: clear from her wounds that the hanger had been used
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: to strangle her, and considering she was partially naked and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the positioning of her clothes, he guessed she had also
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: been likely sexually assaulted. Pickett stepped back and looked around
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the room, trying to decide where to start. He needed
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: to find as much forensic evidence in this room as possible,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: so the first thing he did was trying guess what
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: happened and how the killer might.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Have interacted with the crime scene. That way, he could follow.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Their sort of imagine path with more intention. He figured
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the killer must have come in through the open window
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: since that was the only entrance into the house that
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: was obviously tampered with. Linda's purse and jewelry were still
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: on the dresser, and the drawers were all closed as
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: opposed to open and rifle through, so it didn't seem
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: like the killer had touched any of that stuff, which
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: also meant this likely was not a robbery gone wrong.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: In fact, it seemed like the first and only thing
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: the killer had done was coming through the window and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: attack Linda, because aside from the bloody bed, Pickett didn't
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: see any signs of a struggle, so Linda was likely
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: caught off guard by a very fast attack and unable
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to really fight back quickly because if she did, the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: room would be a huge mess. But then Pickett caught
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a glimpse of Linda's closet, and he noticed the clothes
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: were all hanging on metal hangars that looked identical to
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: the one that was around Linda's neck, and that's when
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: it hit him. The killer must have at some point
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: been in the closet hiding. He supposed the killer could
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: have broken in first and then grabbed a hanger once
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the attack started, but that would have taken too much
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: time and also given Linda a chance to get off
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the bed or fight back, or yell out and maybe
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: wake her sons up. It was much more likely that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the killer had broken in earlier, hid in the closet,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: and then waited until Linda was in her bed asleep
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: to come out and attack. If Pickett was right about that,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: this became definitely a premeditated, thought out murder, which meant
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the killer must have either known Linda personally or had
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: been watching her, since they would have known when to
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: sneak into the room and not be detected. At this point,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Pickett took out his gear and began thinking how he
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: was going to begin looking for evidence.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: He figured he would start at.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: The window and spend some time there, and then he
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: would go to the closet. Those would be his two
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: primary areas, and so once he had that plan in mind,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: he went to the window and he began looking for evidence,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: and sure enough, after only a few minutes of dusting,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: he smiled because there on the ledge was a very clear,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: well defined handprint. The following afternoon, over twenty four hours
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: after Linda's body had been found, Pickett sat in the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: precinct's fingerprint lab comparing two sets of prints with a
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: magnifying glass. He'd been at it for hours already, so
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: his head was pounding. After processing the crime scene yesterday,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Pickett had gone back to the station to review the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: evidence he'd collected, and while he was there, he decided
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: he would go check in with the detectives to get
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: an update on the case. And what they would tell
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: him is they had spoken to the neighbors as well
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: as Linda's family, and they did have a few solid leads.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: And a timeline.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: According to Linda's kids, the older son, Jeff, got dropped
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: off at home at about nine thirty pm after being
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: with his grandparents. Then Tim, the younger son, and Linda
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: had gotten back from a neighbor's party just after eleven pm.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: They all went to bed around midnight, and neither of
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the brothers heard anything until the police woke them up morning.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And all of this had led the investigators to agree
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: with Pickett's initial interpretation of the scene that Linda's attack
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: was very fast. It seemed like she had not been
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: able to even scream or it would have woken up
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: her sons. The autopsy report had also come in and
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: it confirmed Linda died from strangulation and was sexually assaulted.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: The medical examiner had also been able to collect seamen
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: from Linda's body, which meant they were definitely looking for
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a man here, and since this was now clearly a
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: sexually motivated prime, it meant that anybody Linda had been
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: romantically involved with was now suddenly a top suspect. After
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: speaking with Linda's family, the detectives discovered that Linda had
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: two serious ex partners. She had her ex husband, Frank Slayton,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and an ex boyfriend named Brendan Fowler. Frank apparently had
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: abused Linda when they were married and still sent her
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: very threatening letters, and Brendan was apparently very possessive with
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a bad temper, and Linda had broken up with him
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: just two days before her murder, and so some officers
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: were already out looking for both of these men, and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Pickett was eager to get both of their prints, But
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: for now, Pickett was actually more focused on Linda's neighbors
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: when the detectives had done their canvas. Initially, the neighbors
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: they spoke to had confirmed that Linda and her younger
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: son Tim were indeed at that party, and since these
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: neighbors were some of the last people to see Linda alive,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: they weren't just witnesses, they were suspects. And so Pickett
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: had collected fingerprints from all the men at that party
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: who didn't have an alibi for the period of time
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: after Linda went home, and that's what he was working
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: on now, comparing those prints to the print he had found.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: On the window sill.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: So far none were a match, but they had also
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: gotten blood samples from the neighbors, and so.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Pickett would have to test those as well.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: So in nineteen eighty one, DNA testing didn't exist yet,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: but investigators could figure out somebody's blood type through bodily fluids,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: so Pickett and his team could test those samples against
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the genetic material found on Linda's body.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: And rule out si suspects that way.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: But Pickett had another reason for wanting to be diligent
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: when it came to testing the people who lived in
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the complex. It was because after Linda's murder, like in
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the last twenty four hours, there had been signs that
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the killer might actually still be in the area. At
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: three am that morning, one of Linda's neighbors had called
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: in to say a stranger had broken into her house,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: and even though that person was gone by the time
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the police arrived, they could see her back door had
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: clearly been forced open, and then another neighbor had called
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: in to say that the screen on their window was
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: pride open as well. None of them were violent assaults
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: like Linda's, but the timing was very suspicious, and it
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: made Pickett wonder if there was a serial predator living
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: in the complex. The department had ordered some patrols in
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the area, and Pickett was supposed to get fingerprints for
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: whoever they got calls about.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: So he was working with this.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Radio right next to him. Pickett leaned back in his
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: chair to give his eyes a rest. He knew he
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: was getting pretty tired and would need a break soon.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: But just seconds later, a detective barge into the lab
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and told Pickett they needed him on standby for fingerprinting
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: because they just brought Linda's ex boyfriend Brendan in for questioning.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Moments later, Pickett was standing outside of an interrogation room,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: listening as some detectives spoke with Brendan Fowler inside. Even
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: though he couldn't see Brendan, Pickett could tell by his
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: voice that he was not happy to be here. He
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: sounded argumentative and defensive as he insisted he really had
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with Linda's death, and when he was
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: asked about where he was the night she died, he
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: had an alibi. He said he was at home with
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: his family and he stayed there the whole night. He
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: even gave detectives his mom's phone number and said they
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: should call her to confirm it. Pickett heard the detectives
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: confer and hushed voices. Then they asked Brendan if he'd
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: be willing to take a polygraph test and let them
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: take his fingerprints, and to picket surprise, Brendan said, yeah,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: go ahead. And as soon as Pickett heard that, you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: based on experience, he went right inside the room and
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: got Brendan's fingerprints before Brendan could change his mind. On
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: September eleventh, so one week after Linda's murder, Pickett sat
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: down at his desk and opened the newspaper, and what
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: he saw made him cringe. The Lakeland police chief had
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: just given an interview where he admitted they would not
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: be making an arrest now or in the next few days,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: and reading that in print reminded Pickett of just how
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: little they had in this case. None of the neighbor's
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: prints had been a match to the one picket had
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: lifted off the windowsill, and they'd tracked down Linda's x husband, Frank,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: but found that he was in Alabama on the night
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Linda was killed. As for Linda's ex boyfriend, Brendan, he
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: had seemed pretty guilty at first because during his polygraph
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the results had been inconclusive and his alibi didn't check out.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: His family had said he was home at one point
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: on the night Linda was killed, but they all went
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: to sleep and couldn't say for sure if maybe he
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: left or not. But when Pickett had looked at his princes,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: he had no choice but to clear because they clearly were.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Not a match.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: So now Pickett knew the entire investigative team was scrambling
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: for leeds, which was why Pickett was not surprised by
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: what he saw when he looked up from his paper.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: He saw a detective leading a suspect out of a
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: precinct interrogation room after clearly questioning him. And it was
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Linda's own fifteen year old son, Jeff Slayton, and he
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: was obviously crying. Pickett had heard that Jeff was being
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: looked into as a suspect in his mother's murder and
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: had already been questioned a few times. Detectives had started
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: getting interested in him when a few of Linda's family
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: members mentioned that, you know, Jeff and Linda had been
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: fighting a lot before she died, And when investigators looked
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: back at the crime scene photos, they realized Jeff's caught
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: in the living room shared a wall with Linda's room,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: so it was strange she hadn't heard anything on the
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: night she had died. But as far as Pickett knew,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Jeff had a reasonable explanation for all of this. He
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: had said that he and his mother's fights were not
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: that serious, you know, when they did fight the night
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: she died, but it was over some argument over what
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: time dinner was, and he said he had no idea
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: why he didn't wake up when she was attacked, because
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: he wished he had so he could have gone in
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: there and helped her. And also, Jeff had taken and
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: passed a polygraph test, but for some reason, it seemed
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: like the investigative team was not done with Jeff, and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Pickett just sort of felt bad for the kid because
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: he thought it was very unlikely at this point that Jeff.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Was his own mother's killer.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Pickett had kids of his own, and from his own experience,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the fights Jeff was having with his mom just seemed
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: sort of like typical teenage behavior now, squabbling with their parents,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: it's pretty normal. And it also just didn't line up
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: with the evidence. Pickett was absolutely certain that the attacker
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: broke in through the window, which didn't make sense for
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Jeff if he was sleeping right next door in the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: living room, and Pickett had personally checked Jeff's prints against
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the one he lifted from the window, and he.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Knew it was not a match.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: As the days turned into weeks, Pickett was starting to
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: become convinced that the killer might be somebody without a
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: personal connection to Linda, you know, maybe it was even
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: a stranger. He knew that murders by strangers were much
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: more rare than murders committed by a relative, partner, or friend,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: which was why he assumed the detectives.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Weren't pursuing it.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: But through his forensics, Pickett had now eliminated pretty much
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: everybody in Linda's life who had a motive or opportunity
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: to kill her. And Linda was a very attractive young
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: woman who was very outgoing, you know, Pickett thought it
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: was possible the killer could be a stranger who had
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: only interacted with her once and then sort of became
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: fixated on her. It seemed possible, and so after Pickett
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: watched Jeff leave, he tried to go back to the newspaper,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: but he kept thinking about Linda. He'd been sure this
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: case would be solved quickly by forensics, but now he
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't sure if it would be solved at all, and
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: that worry only got stronger and stronger as the months
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: went by, and fewer and fewer leads came in, and
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: before long a whole year had passed and it was
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: actually time for Pickett to retire, and when he left
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the precinct for the last time, he sort of had
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: a pitt in the stomach because he had a feeling
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: that without him, Linda's case was going to get put
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: on a shelf and forgotten. One afternoon in the fall
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: of two thousand and one, so two decades after Linda
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Slayton was murdered, Detective Brad Grice sat in his office
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: at the Lakeland Police Department reading over Linda's cold case file.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: For the last four years, Gryce had been sorting through
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the department's cold cases and choosing which ones to reopen,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and this had been a really slow process because he
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: had to do that and juggle his active caseload. So
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: even though he'd technically been working on Linda's case for years,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: he was just now starting to really dig into it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: But the delay didn't worry him too much, since the
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: whole reason this case appealed to him was because he
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: was sure he could solve it quickly because it.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Had DNA evidence.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: So back in nineteen eighty one, when the murder actually happened,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: the genetic material that was found on Linda's body was
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: only good for eliminating.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Suspects through blood type.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: But now in two thousand and one, Bryce could use
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: that same material to create a full DNA profile of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Linda's killer, and he intended on reaching out to everybody
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: involved in the original investigation to get their DNA to
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: test against this new profile. But before he did this,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: he wanted to familiarize himself with the suspects from nineteen
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: eighty one. So there was Linda's ex husband, Frank Slayton,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: who had abuse Linda repeatedly during their marriage, and even
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: though they had been divorced for years, he was apparently
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: still sending her all these threatening letters around the time
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: of her murder. And then her more recent romantic partner,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Brendan Faller, was known to have a bad temper and
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: seemed very controlling of Linda, and they broke up only
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: two days before her murder, so he could have still
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: been furious about it. The neighbors at the party Linda
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: had gone to were also suspects. Everybody in that group
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: knew when Linda was heading home, so somebody could have
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: maybe followed her and then into her bedroom before she
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: went to bed. And then finally Jeff Slayton, Linda's oldest son,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: was actually in the house during the murder. His brother
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Tim had been too, but Jeff actually admitted to getting
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: in a big fight with Linda earlier that same day. Now,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: all of these suspects had been cleared through fingerprints, alibi
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: or polygraphs, but christ knew that DNA testing was way
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: more accurate than any of those methods of elimination, and
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: so basically, even if they'd been ruled out for one
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: of those three things, DNA overrode that, And so he
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't gonna let these previous eliminations cloud as judgment. He
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: had already decided that, you know, basically, no matter what,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: he was just gonna focus on whatever the forensics told
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: him and not be biased. But for now, he just
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: wanted to kick things off by speaking with the two
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: people who'd known Linda better than anybody else, or sons,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Tim and Jeff. A few days later, Bryce walked into
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a meeting room at the precinct. He'd been told Jeff
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and Tim Slayton were waiting, and as soon as he
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: saw the brothers, he just started laughing because he realized
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: he knew Jeff Slayton. They had bowled together for years,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: but it hadn't occurred to Grice that this Jeff was
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: that Jeff and Jeff recognized Gryce at the same time,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: So they spent a while talking and laughing about what
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: a crazy coincidence this was. And so when Gryce finally
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: sat down with Jeff and with Tim at the same time,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: you know, Gryce's first line of questioning was actually just
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: pretty emotional. It just was like, hey, how are you
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: guys holding up after this horrible thing? And for the
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: next few minutes, the mood got pretty heavy as the
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: two brothers spoke honestly about how terrible the last twenty
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: years had been. After their mother had been killed, they
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: both said they were terrified that, you know, they were
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: going to get hurt too, because the killer was never caught.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: They felt like, you know who's next. Jeff said he
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: slept with a knife under his pillow and he eventually
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: got so depressed he dropped out of high school, and
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Tim admitted he also struggled, but he.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Took a different path.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: He relied on his football team and friends for support
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: and kept pictures of all of them around his room
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: to remind himself to stay positive. After that, the brothers
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: shared what they could remember about the night their mother
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: had died, but it was obvious to Gryce that Tim
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: and Jeff didn't really have any information he didn't already
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: have inside the case file, So instead of continuing to
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: question them about details of the case, Gryce explained that
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: this murder was going to be solved through DNA and
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: because of that, he needed to collect samples from every
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: person involved in this case, which included both of them.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: The brothers looked surprised for a moment, but then said,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: of course. So Gryce stood up and said he would
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: send a tech inside, but before he left, he promised
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: them that he would find their mom's killer, and he
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: was not going to retire until he did.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Later that month, Gryce sat.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: In front of a screen in the station's computer lab
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: reading a police report from nineteen eighty two. Since speaking
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: to the two Slaton brothers, Gryce had collected DNA from
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: dozens of people who were involved in the case from
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, Jeff, Tim and also Linda's x's husband
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Frank Slayton, her ex boyfriend Brendan Fowler. He'd also tested
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: the blood samples that the original investigators got from Linda's neighbors,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: but none of them matched the DNA profile for Linda's killer,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: which was disappointing because it meant that Gryce had to
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: basically start from scratch. But when he had gone back
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: to the case notes, he noticed the mention of break
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: ins around the complex shortly after Linda's murder, and it
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: made him wonder if Linda was killed by a serial
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: predator who was in the area at the time, and
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: if that was true, then this person would not have
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: just hurt Linda, they would have other victims too. So
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Gryce had run the killer's DNA through the FBI's database,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: and when it didn't match anything in there, he had
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: reached out to the county Sheriff's department to see if
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: they could send him any cases that felt similar to Linda's,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: and they had sent over the report that he was
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: reading right now, and it felt incredibly promising.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: So in nineteen eighty.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Two, a year after Linda's murder, a man named Jimmy
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Omer was arrested for climbing through a ten year old
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: girl's bedroom window, then assaulting and strangling her. And according
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: to his file, Jimmy had this long history of home
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: invasions and very violent behavior and as soon as Gryce
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: finished reading the report, he jumped up and went to
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: go find one of his officers. He wanted to dig
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: up as much information on Jimmy as he possibly could
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and see if maybe they could go track him down.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: About a month later.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Bryce sat at his desk staring at his phone in
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: anxious anticipation. He was waiting for an incredibly important call,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: one that would confirm whether Jimmy Elmer was Linda's killer.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: After doing a background check on Jimmy, Gryce had found
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: out that Jimmy actually knew someone who lived at Linda's
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: complex and was literally staying with them when Linda was killed. Now,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Jimmy was not alive anymore, but they had gotten in
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: touch with his mother, who gave them her DNA which
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: they were testing now. So this DNA would not be
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: an exact match to the killer's DNA, but it would
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: show if she was at least a relative to the killer.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: And as Gryce waited for the lab to call, his
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: heart was pounding because, for the first time since he'd
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: picked up Linda's case, everything finally made sense. Now Jimmy
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: was this violent serial home invader who had probably seen
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Linda while staying at his friend's house and maybe stalked
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: her until he saw an opportunity to attack, and then
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: after he killed her, he must have compulsively kept breaking
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: into other homes to find more victims. Just then, the
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: phone rang and Gryce picked it up, and he could
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: feel his mouth going dry as he heard it was
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the lab on the other side. He was going to
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: get an answer here, but just a second later they
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: told him it was not a match. Gryce's stomach dropped,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: but he thanked them anyway, and he hung up.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: He couldn't believe it.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Despite all the suspects and forensic evidence that they had,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: this case was once again at a dead end. Still,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Ryce kept pushing forward as the months passed by. He
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: would regularly find new suspects and eventually clear that. He
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: also kept sending the killer's DNA profile to the FBI
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: to run it through their database in case any new
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: additions were added in that could be a match. But eventually,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: over a decade passed by and Chrys still had not
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: been able to match anybody to the killer's DNA, and
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, his own health began to decline and
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: he finally had to make the call. He hoped he
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: would never have to make He picked up the phone
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and dialed Jeff Slayton's number, and when Jeff picked up,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Christ said he did need to retire and he still
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: had not found his mother's killer. In June of twenty nineteen,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: four years into retirement, Christ sat on the deck of
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: his Florida home reading a newspaper. He was deep in
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: an article when his cell phone rang, and when he
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: looked at the ID, he was surprised to see it
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: was from the Lakeland Police Department. He had not gotten
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: a call from them in years, so he immediately picked
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: it up to see what they wanted, and when he did,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: the person on the other end introduced himself as the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: detective who had taken over the Linda Slayton case. The
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: detective said they knew Gryce was retired now, but they
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: figured he would want to hear this. They said they
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: had hired a genetic genealogist to track down family members
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: of the killer based on the DNA profile that Grice
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: had ordered, and through that process they had finally been able.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: To get a match.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: And after they did, they also managed to get the
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: suspect's fingerprints, and those prints did match the pom print
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: that the head of the crime scene unit, Sergeant Edgar Pickett,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: had taken at the original crime scene thirty eight years earlier.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Chrys sat up and listened intently as the detective finally
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: told him who Linda's killer actually was, and when he
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: heard the name, he couldn't believe it that suspect had
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: been so close the whole time. Based on DNA forensic
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: evidence and thirty eight years of police investigation, the following
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: is a reconstruction of what police belief happened to Linda
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Slayton in the early morning hours of September fourth, nineteen
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: eighty one. The house was all quiet as the killer
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: waited patiently inside of Linda's closet. Hours earlier, when Linda
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: was out, the killer had removed that screen from her
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: bedroom window and crept inside, and then they had hid
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: in this closet until she had come home. The killer
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: had been watching Linda for a while now and finding
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: ways to get close to her and her family, but
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: Linda never really acknowledged them or paid any attention to
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: them at all. Tonight, though, the killer was determined to
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: show Linda that she was not the one in control.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: They were and now the killer stood in the dark closet,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: holding their breath as their heart pounded, and as they
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: listened to Linda open her bedroom door and walk inside,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: and the killer continued to wait anxiously as they listened
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: to the sound of Linda getting ready for bed and
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: getting changed. And then eventually they heard the sound of
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: the springs of the bed compressing as Linda laid down
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: to shut her eyes for the night. And then after
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the killer was sure Linda was in bed, the lights
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: are off, it's quiet in the room. They waited even longer,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: just to make sure Linda was asleep and her children
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: were asleep. And then finally, when the killer felt like
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: they had waited long enough, they grabbed a coat hanger
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: off the hook in the closet and then burst out
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: of the door. And then before Linda could do anything,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: make a sound, even react. I mean, she's totally caught
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: off guard, the killer was on top of her and
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: had wrapped the coat hanger around her throat. Linda struggled
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: and clotted her throat to try to get this thing
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: off of her, but the killer was so much stronger
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: than her and there was nothing she could do.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: It didn't take.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Long for the killer to have their way with Linda,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and then after they were done, they strangled her until
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: she was dead. And once the killer was done, they
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: hopped off the bed and just climbed right back out
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: the same window they had come in through and wandered
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: off into the night, and the killer would get to
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: replay this crime over and over in their head all
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: day the next day until it was time for football practice.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: It would turn out Linda was murdered by her son's
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: football coach, Joseph Mills. Joseph was a fixture in Tim's
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: life and would drive him to and from practice every
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: day because Linda didn't have a car. But while Tim
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: saw Joseph as a mentor in his life, Joseph had
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: apparently just developed a total fixation on his mother, and
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: during all those trips to her house to drop off
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: her son, Joseph was planning out how and when to
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: attack her back In nineteen eighty one, Joseph was interviewed
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: by police over the phone a day after Linda's murderer,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: but he was never really considered an actual suspect. Instead,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: after Joseph murdered Linda, he just continued to drive her son,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Tim to and from football practice, and Tim would even
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: very tragically begin to rely on Joseph for you know,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: emotional support grieving the loss of his mother. But it's
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: to her killer.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: He just didn't know.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: And then even more tragically, you know, as time went
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: on and Linda's case went cold, one of the pictures
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: that Tim hung in his bedroom to remind himself to
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: stay positive was of his football team. Tim had no
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: idea that his mother's killer was literally standing right behind
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: him in the back row in that picture. In December
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, Joseph was charged with first degree murder
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: and sexual battery and was eventually sentenced to life in
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: prison without parole. Thank you so much for watching. Let
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now, so click
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: here and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: see you