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