Latest / Crime and Horror / State-KILLER-was-there-the-whole time

Transcript

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
Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
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
Speaker 1: then turn on the heat at full blast. Also, please
0:44
Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so
0:47
Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our uploads. Okay, let's get
0:50
Speaker 1: into today's story. Just before eight pm on September third,
1:13
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, thirty one year old Linda Slayton stood
1:17
Speaker 1: in her kitchen in Lakeland, Florida, staring into her covered
1:20
Speaker 1: it was almost completely empty except for a few cans
1:23
Speaker 1: of beans and a bag of flour, and seeing this
1:26
Speaker 1: gave Linda a pitner's stomach because she knew she would
1:29
Speaker 1: somehow have to turn these sparse ingredients into a meal
1:33
Speaker 1: for her kids. Linda was a single mother of two boys,
1:37
Speaker 1: Jeff who was fifteen, and Tim, who was twelve, and
1:40
Speaker 1: Linda didn't have very much money, and so in order
1:43
Speaker 1: to take care of her kids, she had to be resourceful, like,
1:46
Speaker 1: you know, finding a way to make food with whatever
1:49
Speaker 1: ingredients she had. And she also would like make her
1:52
Speaker 1: kids their own clothing, anything to save money. Now, up
1:55
Speaker 1: until a few weeks ago, the family had lived in Alabama,
1:59
Speaker 1: but Linda had moved to Lakeland specifically because she had
2:02
Speaker 1: a lot of family and support there, and so Linda
2:05
Speaker 1: had hoped that, you know, because of that support, that
2:08
Speaker 1: you know, her and her son's lives would you know,
2:11
Speaker 1: improve quite a bit, that it wouldn't feel like such
2:13
Speaker 1: a struggle all the time anymore. But so far, the
2:15
Speaker 1: move to Lakeland had just been more of the same.
2:18
Speaker 1: You know, Linda couldn't find a steady job, so she
2:20
Speaker 1: and the boys had been relying on government assistants and
2:23
Speaker 1: food stamps, which never seemed to be enough to keep
2:26
Speaker 1: these two teenagers well fed. And tonight, Linda's youngest son,
2:29
Speaker 1: Tim was about to be dropped off after being at
2:31
Speaker 1: football practice, and historically he was very hungry after practice,
2:36
Speaker 1: and so she really wanted to have dinner ready for him.
2:38
Speaker 2: And on top of.
2:39
Speaker 1: That, Linda was hopeful that Tim and her other son,
2:42
Speaker 1: Jeff would eat fast enough that they would have enough
2:45
Speaker 1: time to make it to a neighbor's housewarming party later
2:47
Speaker 1: that night. So all the neighbors around Linda were basically
2:50
Speaker 1: as new as she was, since the complex they lived
2:52
Speaker 1: in had only been open for about three weeks. It
2:56
Speaker 1: was the sprawling development with about eighty one story duplexes,
3:00
Speaker 1: technically government subsidized housing, but it felt more like classic
3:03
Speaker 1: suburbia since the units were on cul de sacs with
3:06
Speaker 1: neat lawns 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
4:26
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.
5:02
Speaker 2: Testing her limits.
5:04
Speaker 1: But she was just getting really sick of it, and
5:06
Speaker 1: so before she could even really think about it, she
5:09
Speaker 1: snapped back at him and said, well, if you don't
5:11
Speaker 1: like it here, you can leave, And at that Jeff
5:14
Speaker 1: literally stormed out of the house and slammed the door
5:17
Speaker 1: behind him. Linda went to the window and watched her
5:19
Speaker 1: son pick up his bike and pedal off down the road.
5:23
Speaker 1: After that, Linda sighed and walked over to her phone
5:26
Speaker 1: and called her mom. She assumed, you know, Jeff, her son,
5:29
Speaker 1: would go to her parents' house since they lived nearby,
5:32
Speaker 1: And when Linda's mother picked up, Linda warned her that
5:36
Speaker 1: Jeff 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
6:29
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.
6:35
Speaker 2: The letter up. She didn't even want to read it.
6:38
Speaker 1: Not long after she hung up, her younger son Tim
6:41
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
6:51
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
6:56
Speaker 1: Tim said, you know, I thanked him, like always, and
6:58
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.
7:07
Speaker 1: Hours later, after eleven pm that evening, Linda and Tim
7:11
Speaker 1: walked home from the party through the dark apartment complex.
7:14
Speaker 1: There were seven other people who had been at the party,
7:16
Speaker 1: and it had been a lot of fun. Everybody just
7:18
Speaker 1: drank iced tea and played cards while they talked about
7:21
Speaker 1: the perks of living in this great new complex, like
7:24
Speaker 1: the great business district across the street, and how responsive
7:27
Speaker 1: the maintenance team was so Linda was glad they went.
7:31
Speaker 1: She was also exhausted and her sister always came over
7:34
Speaker 1: for coffee in the morning, so she needed to go
7:36
Speaker 1: to bed now or she would never wake up. However,
7:39
Speaker 1: when she and Tim got back to their unit and
7:41
Speaker 1: opened up the door, Linda froze because there was already
7:45
Speaker 1: somebody inside. For a second, she thought it might be
7:48
Speaker 1: an intruder, but then she realized it was actually just
7:50
Speaker 1: her older son, Jeff, who had come back. He was
7:53
Speaker 1: standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a
7:55
Speaker 1: sort of I'm sorry expression.
7:57
Speaker 2: On his face.
7:58
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
8:05
Speaker 1: went to join Jeff in the kitchen, but Jeff didn't
8:08
Speaker 1: say anything, so Linda spoke first and reminded him that
8:11
Speaker 1: it was not good to go to bed angry. However,
8:14
Speaker 1: Jeff still didn't say anything, and Linda knew from experience
8:17
Speaker 1: with her son, you know, it was better not to
8:19
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.
8:29
Speaker 1: And Linda smiled. She felt relieved they could just move
8:32
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,
8:37
Speaker 1: and Jeff went over to the cot in the living
8:39
Speaker 1: room where he slept, and then Linda, wrapped up in
8:42
Speaker 1: the kitchen, turned off the lights and headed into her
8:44
Speaker 1: own bedroom, closed the door, and she went to bed too.
8:48
Speaker 1: The next morning, at eight thirty am, Linda's sister, Judy Butler,
8:52
Speaker 1: walked up to Linda's duplex.
8:54
Speaker 2: Theyd had coffee together.
8:55
Speaker 1: Every morning since they moved to the neighborhood, so Judy
8:58
Speaker 1: expected to knock on her sister's door and go right
9:01
Speaker 1: in like she always did. But this time, after she knocked,
9:04
Speaker 1: nobody answered, so Judy waited and then knocked again, and
9:08
Speaker 1: when there was still no response, Judy reached down and
9:11
Speaker 1: tried to open up the door, but she found it
9:13
Speaker 1: was locked.
9:14
Speaker 2: This had never happened before.
9:16
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
10:31
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 meant he oversaw the
10:58
Speaker 1: collection and documentation of evidence at crime scenes, and so
11:01
Speaker 1: he wasn't the lead investigator on this case, but when
11:05
Speaker 1: it came to forensic analysis and fingerprint collection, he was
11:08
Speaker 1: the best they had. He'd already been briefed on the
11:11
Speaker 1: situation and knew that this was very likely a homicide,
11:15
Speaker 1: and 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,
11:22
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. As Pickett walked up the walkway,
11:51
Speaker 1: he passed by two teenage boys sitting in their pajamas
11:54
Speaker 1: on the ground. He assumed these must be the sons,
11:57
Speaker 1: and one of them just sort of stared ahead, seemingly
12:00
Speaker 1: in complete shock, while the other sort of sobbed into
12:03
Speaker 1: his brother's shoulder. Pickett wasn't sure if anybody had spoken
12:06
Speaker 1: to them yet, but he knew they would likely be
12:09
Speaker 1: really helpful in focusing his search for evidence. Since they
12:12
Speaker 1: lived in the house, they'd know the habits and patterns
12:15
Speaker 1: of everybody who lived there and might be able to
12:17
Speaker 1: tell him if anything seemed out of place, So Pickett
12:21
Speaker 1: made a mental note to make sure to check in
12:23
Speaker 1: with the investigators inside about that. Then he looked at
12:26
Speaker 1: the house and took a deep breath. Pickett liked to
12:29
Speaker 1: get a sort of first impression of the crime scene
12:32
Speaker 1: before he did any actual collections, so before he would
12:36
Speaker 1: go in, he would walk around the entire house and
12:39
Speaker 1: sort of assess the building. He had been told that
12:42
Speaker 1: all the doors were locked when the police first got there,
12:45
Speaker 1: and from what he could see, the bedroom window with
12:47
Speaker 1: the missing screen was the only sign of a potential
12:50
Speaker 1: break in, so he took out his kit and spent
12:53
Speaker 1: some time dusting around that window area for Prince, but
12:56
Speaker 1: he didn't find much there or any noticeable shoe impressions
12:59
Speaker 1: in the outside. And then when he finally headed inside,
13:03
Speaker 1: Pickett quickly moved past all the officers and detectives that
13:06
Speaker 1: were already in there and went straight to the bedroom.
13:09
Speaker 1: And the first thing he saw when he got inside
13:11
Speaker 1: was Linda's body on the bed with a metal coat
13:14
Speaker 1: hanger wrapped around her throat. The sheets around her were
13:17
Speaker 1: covered in blood, and she was shirtless and the bottom
13:20
Speaker 1: of her dress was pulled up, and when Pickett got
13:23
Speaker 1: closer he saw where the blood had come from. There
13:26
Speaker 1: were long, very deep scratches on Linda's neck, which he
13:29
Speaker 1: guessed were from her nails, so she tried to pry
13:32
Speaker 1: the hanger away. He'd have to wait for the autopsy,
13:35
Speaker 1: but it was clear from her wounds that the hanger
13:37
Speaker 1: had been used to strangle her, and considering she was
13:40
Speaker 1: partially naked and the positioning of her clothes, he guessed
13:44
Speaker 1: she had also been likely sexually assaulted, Pickett stepped back
13:48
Speaker 1: and looked around the room, trying to decide where to start.
13:51
Speaker 1: He needed to find as much forensic evidence in this
13:53
Speaker 1: room as possible, so the first thing he did was
13:56
Speaker 1: trying guess what happened and how the killer might have
13:59
Speaker 1: 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.
14:44
Speaker 2: Did, the room would be a huge mess.
14:46
Speaker 1: But then Pickett caught a glimpse of Linda's closet, and
14:49
Speaker 1: he noticed the clothes were all hanging on metal hangars
14:52
Speaker 1: that looked identical to the one that was around Linda's neck,
14:55
Speaker 1: and that's when it hit him. The killer must have
14:57
Speaker 1: at some point been in the closet hiding. He supposed
15:00
Speaker 1: the killer could have broken in first and then grabbed
15:03
Speaker 1: a hanger once the attack started, but that would have
15:06
Speaker 1: taken too much time and also given Linda a chance
15:08
Speaker 1: to get off the bed, or fight back, or yell
15:10
Speaker 1: out and maybe wake her sons up. It was much
15:12
Speaker 1: more likely that the killer had broken in earlier, hid
15:15
Speaker 1: in the closet, and then waited until Linda was in
15:18
Speaker 1: her bed asleep to come out and attack. If Pickett
15:22
Speaker 1: was right about that, this became definitely a premeditated, thought
15:26
Speaker 1: out murder, which meant the killer must have either known
15:29
Speaker 1: Linda personally or had been watching her, since they would
15:32
Speaker 1: have known when to sneak into the room and not
15:34
Speaker 1: be detected. At this point, Pickett took out his gear
15:37
Speaker 1: and began thinking how he was going to begin looking
15:40
Speaker 1: for evidence. He figured he would start at the window
15:43
Speaker 1: and spend some time there, and then he would go
15:45
Speaker 1: to the closet. Those would be his two primary areas,
15:48
Speaker 1: and so once he had that plan in mind, he
15:50
Speaker 1: 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.
17:48
Speaker 2: 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
18:37
Speaker 1: found on the window sill. So far none were a match,
18:41
Speaker 1: but they had also gotten blood samples from the neighbors,
18:43
Speaker 1: and so 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 sid 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 radio right next to him.
19:51
Speaker 1: Pickett leaned back in his chair to give his eyes
19:53
Speaker 1: a rest. He knew he was getting pretty tired and
19:56
Speaker 1: would need a break soon. But just seconds later, a
19:59
Speaker 1: detective barge into the lab and told Pickett they needed
20:02
Speaker 1: him on standby for fingerprinting because they just brought Linda's
20:05
Speaker 1: ex boyfriend Brendan in for questioning. Moments later, Pickett was
20:10
Speaker 1: standing outside of an interrogation room, listening as some detectives
20:14
Speaker 1: spoke with Brendan Fowler inside. Even though he couldn't see Brendan,
20:18
Speaker 1: Pickett could tell by his voice that he was not
20:20
Speaker 1: happy to be here. He sounded argumentative and defensive as
20:24
Speaker 1: he insisted he really had nothing to do with Linda's death,
20:28
Speaker 1: and when he was asked about where he was the
20:30
Speaker 1: night she died, he had an alibi. He said he
20:33
Speaker 1: was at home with his family and he stayed there
20:35
Speaker 1: the whole night. He even gave detectives his mom's phone
20:37
Speaker 1: number and said they should call her to confirm it.
20:40
Speaker 1: Pickett heard the detectives confer and hushed voices. Then they
20:43
Speaker 1: asked Brendan if he'd be willing to take a polygraph
20:46
Speaker 1: test and let them take his fingerprints, and to picket surprise,
20:49
Speaker 1: Brendan said, yeah.
20:50
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
20:51
Speaker 1: And as soon as Pickett heard that, you know, based
20:53
Speaker 1: on experience, he went right inside the room and got
20:56
Speaker 1: Brendan's fingerprints before Brendan could change his mind. On September eleventh,
21:06
Speaker 1: so one week after Linda's murder, Pickett sat down at
21:10
Speaker 1: his desk and opened the newspaper, and what he saw
21:13
Speaker 1: made him cringe. The Lakeland police chief had just given
21:16
Speaker 1: an interview where he admitted they would not be making
21:19
Speaker 1: an arrest now or in the next few days, and
21:22
Speaker 1: reading that in print reminded Pickett of just how little
21:25
Speaker 1: they had in this case. None of the neighbor's prints
21:28
Speaker 1: had been a match to the one picket had lifted
21:30
Speaker 1: 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 prince,
21:58
Speaker 1: he had no choice but to clear because they clearly
22:01
Speaker 1: were not a match, So now Pickett knew the entire
22:04
Speaker 1: investigative team was scrambling for Leeds, which was why Pickett
22:08
Speaker 1: was not surprised by what he saw when he looked
22:10
Speaker 1: up from his paper. He saw a detective leading a
22:13
Speaker 1: suspect out of a precinct interrogation room after clearly questioning him.
22:17
Speaker 1: And it was Linda's own fifteen year old son, Jeff Slayton,
22:20
Speaker 1: and he was obviously crying. Pickett had heard that Jeff
22:23
Speaker 1: was being looked into as a suspect in his mother's
22:26
Speaker 1: murder and had already been questioned a few times. Detectives
22:29
Speaker 1: had started getting interested in him when a few of
22:31
Speaker 1: Linda's family members mentioned that, you know, Jeff and Linda
22:35
Speaker 1: had been fighting a lot before she died, And when
22:37
Speaker 1: investigators looked back at the crime scene photos, they realized
22:41
Speaker 1: Jeff's caught in the living room shared a wall with
22:44
Speaker 1: Linda's room, so it was strange she hadn't heard anything
22:47
Speaker 1: on the night she had died. But as far as
22:49
Speaker 1: Pickett knew, Jeff had a reasonable explanation for all of this.
22:53
Speaker 1: He had said that he and his mother's fights were
22:56
Speaker 1: not that serious, you know, when they did fight the
22:58
Speaker 1: night she died, but it was over some argument over
23:01
Speaker 1: what time dinner was, and he said he had no
23:03
Speaker 1: idea why he didn't wake up when she was attacked,
23:06
Speaker 1: because he wished he had so he could have gone
23:07
Speaker 1: in there and helped her. And also, Jeff had taken
23:10
Speaker 1: and passed a polygraph test, but for some reason, it
23:13
Speaker 1: seemed like the investigative team was not done with Jeff,
23:17
Speaker 1: and Pickett just sort of felt bad for the kid
23:19
Speaker 1: because he thought it was very unlikely at this point
23:22
Speaker 1: 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, no 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 knew
23:51
Speaker 1: it was not a match. As the days turned into weeks,
23:55
Speaker 1: Pickett was starting to become convinced that the killer might
23:58
Speaker 1: be somebody without a personal connection to Linda, you know,
24:01
Speaker 1: maybe it was even a stranger. He knew that murders
24:04
Speaker 1: by strangers were much more rare than murders committed by
24:07
Speaker 1: a relative, partner, or friend, which was why he assumed
24:10
Speaker 1: 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 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 had
25:54
Speaker 1: DNA evidence. So back in nineteen eighty one, when the
25:57
Speaker 1: murder actually happened, the genetic material that was found on
26:01
Speaker 1: Linda's body was only good for eliminating 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
27:04
Speaker 1: son was actually in the house during the murder. His
27:08
Speaker 1: brother Tim had been too, but Jeff actually admitted to
27:11
Speaker 1: getting 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, Chrys 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 Chris 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 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. Later that month,
29:44
Speaker 1: Gryce sat in front of a screen in the station's
29:46
Speaker 1: computer lab, reading a police report from nineteen eighty two.
29:49
Speaker 1: Since speaking to the two Slaton brothers, Gryce had collected
29:52
Speaker 1: DNA from dozens of people who were involved in the
29:54
Speaker 1: case from nineteen eighty one, Jeff, Tim and also Linda's
29:58
Speaker 1: x's husband Frank Slayton, her ex boyfriend Brendan Fowler. He'd
30:02
Speaker 1: also tested the blood samples that the original investigators got
30:05
Speaker 1: from Linda's neighbors but none of them matched the DNA
30:09
Speaker 1: profile for Linda's killer, which was disappointing because it meant
30:13
Speaker 1: that Gryce had to basically start from scratch. But when
30:16
Speaker 1: he had gone back to the case notes, he noticed
30:18
Speaker 1: the mention of break ins around the complex shortly after
30:22
Speaker 1: Linda's murder, and it made him wonder if Linda was
30:24
Speaker 1: killed by a serial predator who was in the area
30:27
Speaker 1: at the time, and if that was true, then this
30:30
Speaker 1: person would not have just hurt Linda, they would have
30:32
Speaker 1: other victims too. So Gryce had run the killer's DNA
30:36
Speaker 1: through the FBI's database, and when it didn't match anything
30:40
Speaker 1: in there, he had reached out to the county Sheriff's
30:42
Speaker 1: department to see if they could send him any cases
30:45
Speaker 1: that felt similar to Linda's, and they had sent over
30:48
Speaker 1: the report that he was reading right now, and it
30:50
Speaker 1: felt incredibly promising. So in nineteen eighty two, a year
30:54
Speaker 1: after Linda's murder, a man named Jimmy Omer was arrested
30:58
Speaker 1: for climbing through a ten year old girl's bedroom window,
31:02
Speaker 1: then assaulting and strangling her. And according to his file,
31:06
Speaker 1: Jimmy had this long history of home invasions and very
31:09
Speaker 1: violent behavior. And as soon as Gryce finished reading the report,
31:12
Speaker 1: he jumped up and went to go find one of
31:14
Speaker 1: his officers. He wanted to dig up as much information
31:17
Speaker 1: on Jimmy as he possibly could and see if maybe
31:19
Speaker 1: they could go track him down.
31:27
Speaker 2: About a month.
31:28
Speaker 1: Later, Bryce sat at his desk staring at his phone
31:31
Speaker 1: in 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.
32:36
Speaker 2: He was going to get an answer here, but.
32:38
Speaker 1: Just a second later they told him it was not
32:40
Speaker 1: a match. Gryce's stomach dropped, but he thanked them anyway,
32:44
Speaker 1: and he hung up. He couldn't believe it. Despite all
32:47
Speaker 1: the suspects and forensic evidence that they had, this case
32:50
Speaker 1: was once again at a dead end. Still, Ryce kept
32:54
Speaker 1: pushing forward as the months passed by. He would regularly
32:57
Speaker 1: find new suspects and eventually clear that. He also kept
33:01
Speaker 1: sending the killer's DNA profile to the FBI to run
33:04
Speaker 1: it through their database in case any new additions were
33:07
Speaker 1: added in that could be a match. But eventually, over
33:10
Speaker 1: a decade passed by and Chrys still had not been
33:13
Speaker 1: able to match anybody to the killer's DNA, and in
33:16
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, his own health began to decline and he
33:19
Speaker 1: finally had to make the call he hoped he would
33:21
Speaker 1: never have to make. He picked up the phone and
33:24
Speaker 1: dialed Jeff Slayton's number, and when Jeff picked up, Christ
33:27
Speaker 1: said he did need to retire and he still had
33:30
Speaker 1: 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 Gryce
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.
36:42
Speaker 2: There was nothing she could do.
36:44
Speaker 1: It didn't take long for the killer to have their
36:46
Speaker 1: way with Linda, and then after they were done, they
36:49
Speaker 1: strangled her until she was dead.
36:51
Speaker 2: And once the killer was.
36:52
Speaker 1: Done, they hopped off the bed and just climbed right
36:55
Speaker 1: back out the same window they had come in through
36:57
Speaker 1: and wandered off into the night, and the killer would
37:00
Speaker 1: get to replay this crime over and over in their
37:03
Speaker 1: head all day the next day until it.
37:06
Speaker 2: 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
37:51
Speaker 1: son Tim to and from football practice, and Tim would
37:55
Speaker 1: even 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.
38:56
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see ya,