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

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

0:00
Speaker 1: Around 3 a.m. on September 5th, 1981, a woman drove
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Speaker 1: through a housing development in Lakeland, Florida. With her was
0:07
Speaker 1: her two friends, who had both agreed to spend the
0:09
Speaker 1: night at her duplex. And for this woman, this was
0:12
Speaker 1: a massive relief. Because the idea of spending a night
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Speaker 1: alone in her house right now was just terrifying. Because
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Speaker 1: the night before, there had been a murder committed right nearby.
0:23
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's story, if you're a
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Speaker 1: any of our uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story.
1:11
Speaker 1: Just before 8 p.m. on September 3rd, 1981, 31-year-old Linda
1:16
Speaker 1: Slayton stood in her kitchen in Lakeland, Florida, staring into
1:19
Speaker 1: her cupboard. It was almost completely empty, except for a
1:22
Speaker 1: few cans of beans and a bag of flour. And
1:25
Speaker 1: seeing this gave Linda a pit in her stomach, because
1:28
Speaker 1: she knew she would somehow have to turn these sparse
1:31
Speaker 1: ingredients into a meal for her kids. Linda was a
1:35
Speaker 1: single mother of two boys, Jeff, who was 15, and Tim,
1:38
Speaker 1: who was 12. And Linda didn't have very much money.
1:42
Speaker 1: And so in order to take care of her kids,
1:44
Speaker 1: she had to be resourceful, like, you know, finding a
1:47
Speaker 1: way to make food with whatever ingredients she had. And
1:50
Speaker 1: she also would like make her kids their own clothing,
1:53
Speaker 1: anything to save money. Now, up until a few weeks ago,
1:56
Speaker 1: the family had lived in Alabama, but Linda had moved
2:00
Speaker 1: to Lakeland specifically because she had a lot of family
2:02
Speaker 1: and support there. And so Linda had hoped that, you know,
2:06
Speaker 1: because of that support, that, you know, her and her
2:09
Speaker 1: son's lives would, you know, improve quite a bit. It
2:12
Speaker 1: wouldn't feel like such a struggle all the time anymore.
2:15
Speaker 1: But so far, the move to Lakeland had just been
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Speaker 1: more of the same. You know, Linda couldn't find a
2:19
Speaker 1: steady job, so she and the boys had been relying
2:22
Speaker 1: on government assistance and food stamps, which never seemed to
2:25
Speaker 1: be enough to keep these two teenagers well-fed. And tonight,
2:28
Speaker 1: Linda's youngest son, Tim, was about to be dropped off
2:31
Speaker 1: after being at football practice... And historically, he was very
2:35
Speaker 1: hungry after practice, and so she really wanted to have
2:37
Speaker 1: dinner ready for him. And on top of that, Linda
2:39
Speaker 1: was hopeful that Tim and her other son, Jeff, would
2:43
Speaker 1: eat fast enough that they would have enough time to
2:45
Speaker 1: make it to a neighbor's housewarming party later that night.
2:48
Speaker 1: So all the neighbors around Linda were basically as new
2:50
Speaker 1: as she was, since the complex they lived in had
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Speaker 1: only been open for about three weeks. It was the
2:56
Speaker 1: sprawling development with about 80 one-story duplexes that were technically
3:00
Speaker 1: government-subsidized housing. But it felt more like classic suburbia, since
3:04
Speaker 1: the units were on cul-de-sacs with neat lawns where all
3:07
Speaker 1: the kids would go outside and play. Now, Linda's sister
3:10
Speaker 1: also lived in this complex, so Linda already knew at
3:12
Speaker 1: least one person. But to Linda, you know, making friends
3:15
Speaker 1: of her own was also pretty important to her. She
3:18
Speaker 1: was an outgoing person by nature. And also, she was
3:21
Speaker 1: newly single and wanted to take her mind off her ex-boyfriend.
3:25
Speaker 1: Until recently, Linda had been dating this guy named Brendan Fowler,
3:29
Speaker 1: who had been great at first and was even the
3:31
Speaker 1: one who told her about this apartment complex. But he
3:35
Speaker 1: started to get really controlling and possessive. And just two
3:38
Speaker 1: days ago, Linda had finally ended things. But believe it
3:41
Speaker 1: or not, Linda actually felt sort of hopeful. You know,
3:44
Speaker 1: she had believed that by leaving Alabama and moving to
3:47
Speaker 1: Florida into this complex, that that would sort of be
3:50
Speaker 1: the refresh that she and her kids desperately needed. The
3:54
Speaker 1: truth was, you know, it sort of seemed like actually
3:56
Speaker 1: the true reset had been the breakup with Brendan just
4:00
Speaker 1: a couple of days earlier. Like it all needed to happen,
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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 casserole
4:15
Speaker 1: with just these couple of things. So she grabbed the
4:18
Speaker 1: cans and the flour, and she got started. About a
4:20
Speaker 1: half an hour later, Linda pulled a beautiful golden brown
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Speaker 1: casserole out of the oven and set it on the
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Speaker 1: counter to cool. And that's when her older son, Jeff,
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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 typical teenager, and he was really hungry,
5:02
Speaker 1: you know, and so he's testing her limits. But she
5:04
Speaker 1: was just getting really sick of it. And so before
5:07
Speaker 1: she could even really think about it, she snapped back
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Speaker 1: at him and said, well, if you don't like it here,
5:11
Speaker 1: you can leave. And at that, Jeff literally stormed out
5:15
Speaker 1: of the house and slammed the door behind him. Linda
5:18
Speaker 1: went to the window and watched her son pick up
5:20
Speaker 1: his bike and pedal off down the road. After that,
5:23
Speaker 1: Linda sighed and walked over to her phone and called
5:26
Speaker 1: her mom. She assumed, you know, Jeff, her son, would
5:30
Speaker 1: go to her parents' house since they lived nearby. And
5:33
Speaker 1: when Linda's mother picked up, Linda warned her that Jeff
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Speaker 1: might be there soon and he'd likely want to eat.
5:38
Speaker 1: Her mom said that was fine and they would drop
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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
5:51
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-husband
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Speaker 1: and Tim and Jeff's dad, Frank Slayton, live back in
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Speaker 1: Alabama and 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
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Speaker 1: the boys had moved to Lakeland, he had been mailing
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Speaker 1: threatening letters to Linda's parents, saying that Linda had ruined
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Speaker 1: his life. And so now Linda was thinking, like, no
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Speaker 1: matter how many fresh starts she started, that Frank was
6:27
Speaker 1: always going to screw them up. He was never going
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Speaker 1: to go away. And so after taking a calming breath,
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Speaker 1: Linda told her mom on the phone to just rip
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Speaker 1: 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,
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Speaker 1: did you thank your coach for giving you a ride home?
6:48
Speaker 1: And Tim said, yes, I did. So Linda, she didn't
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Speaker 1: have a car because she couldn't afford one. And so
6:53
Speaker 1: Tim's coach always had to give him a ride. But
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Speaker 1: Tim said, you know, I thanked him like always. And
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Speaker 1: so Linda told him to hurry up and eat because
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Speaker 1: they had to go next door to the neighbor's party.
7:07
Speaker 1: Hours later, after 11 p.m. that evening, Linda and Tim
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Speaker 1: walked home from the party through the dark apartment complex.
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Speaker 1: There were seven other people who had been at the party,
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Speaker 1: and it had been a lot of fun. Everybody just
7:18
Speaker 1: drank iced tea and played cards while they talked about
7:22
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
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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 and So she needed to
7:36
Speaker 1: go 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
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Speaker 1: somebody inside. For a second, she thought it might be
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Speaker 1: an intruder, but then she realized it was actually just
7:50
Speaker 1: her older son, Jeff, who had come back. He was
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Speaker 1: standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a
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Speaker 1: sort of I'm sorry expression on his face. Tim saw
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Speaker 1: the situation and immediately disappeared into the second bedroom to
8:02
Speaker 1: give his mother and brother some space. Linda went to
8:05
Speaker 1: join Jeff in the kitchen, but Jeff didn't say anything.
8:09
Speaker 1: So Linda spoke first and reminded him that it was
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Speaker 1: not good to go to bed angry. However, Jeff still
8:14
Speaker 1: didn't say anything. And Linda knew from experience with her son,
8:18
Speaker 1: you know, it was better not to force Jeff to talk.
8:20
Speaker 1: So she decided she would just give Jeff a minute
8:23
Speaker 1: and she began washing the dishes. Finally, after a few moments,
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Speaker 1: Jeff mumbled that he loved his mom and Linda smiled.
8:31
Speaker 1: She felt relieved they could just move on from this.
8:33
Speaker 1: She said it was all good and that she loved
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Speaker 1: him too. Then they both said goodnight, and Jeff went
8:38
Speaker 1: over to the cot in the living room where he slept,
8:40
Speaker 1: and then Linda wrapped up in the kitchen, turned off
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Speaker 1: the lights, and headed into her own bedroom, closed the door,
8:45
Speaker 1: and she went to bed too. The next morning at 8.30 a.m.,
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Speaker 1: Linda's sister, Judy Butler, walked up to Linda's duplex. They'd
8:54
Speaker 1: had coffee together every morning since they moved to the neighborhood,
8:57
Speaker 1: so Judy expected to knock on her sister's door and
9:01
Speaker 1: go right in like she always did. But this time
9:03
Speaker 1: after she knocked, nobody answered. So Judy waited and then
9:07
Speaker 1: knocked again. And when there was still no response, Judy
9:10
Speaker 1: reached down and tried to open up the door. But
9:13
Speaker 1: she found it was locked. 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 or something. So
9:25
Speaker 1: Judy decided she would just go home for now and
9:27
Speaker 1: let her sister have a few minutes. And eventually she
9:30
Speaker 1: would call to check in on her and make sure
9:32
Speaker 1: she was okay. However, as she walked away from the home,
9:36
Speaker 1: she noticed something strange on the side of Linda's house.
9:39
Speaker 1: One of the back windows was missing a screen. And
9:43
Speaker 1: Judy knew that that particular room was Linda's bedroom. And
9:47
Speaker 1: it hadn't been like that yesterday. So seeing it now
9:50
Speaker 1: made her feel kind of uneasy. And so she went
9:52
Speaker 1: over to look inside. And when she looked inside, she
9:56
Speaker 1: saw her sister fast asleep in bed. And for a second,
9:59
Speaker 1: Judy was relieved, you know, because this confirmed that this
10:02
Speaker 1: is all this was. Her sister had overslept, that's that.
10:05
Speaker 1: But then Judy realized there was something off about Linda,
10:08
Speaker 1: like the way she was positioned just seemed wrong. And
10:11
Speaker 1: when everything clicked for her, she staggered backwards and began
10:14
Speaker 1: to scream. By 9 a.m. on September 4th, 1981, a
10:29
Speaker 1: crowd of reporters and police officers surrounded the duplex in
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Speaker 1: a Lakeland, Florida housing complex where a woman had reported
10:35
Speaker 1: seeing a dead body. In the middle of all the activity,
10:39
Speaker 1: Sergeant Edgar Pickett of the Lakeland police ducked under some
10:42
Speaker 1: crime scene tape and headed to the home's walkway with
10:45
Speaker 1: a bag of equipment slung over his shoulder. So Pickett
10:48
Speaker 1: was actually just a year away from retirement after two
10:51
Speaker 1: decades as a detective and And for the last few years,
10:54
Speaker 1: he'd been the head of Lakeland's crime scene unit, which
10:57
Speaker 1: meant he oversaw the collection and documentation of evidence at
11:00
Speaker 1: crime scenes. And so he wasn't the lead investigator on
11:03
Speaker 1: this case, but when it came to forensic analysis and
11:07
Speaker 1: fingerprint collection, he was the best they had. He'd already
11:10
Speaker 1: been briefed on the situation and knew that this was
11:13
Speaker 1: very likely a homicide, and the victim had been identified
11:16
Speaker 1: as 31-year-old Linda Slayton. Linda had been found in her
11:20
Speaker 1: bedroom by her sister... who had asked a nearby maintenance
11:23
Speaker 1: worker to call 911. Pickett also knew that when the
11:27
Speaker 1: first responder got inside the house, they found that Linda's
11:30
Speaker 1: two kids were still asleep and appeared to have no
11:33
Speaker 1: idea their mother was deceased in the next room, which
11:37
Speaker 1: Pickett knew would give investigators somewhat of a timeline to
11:40
Speaker 1: start with. Linda was clearly awake when her kids went
11:44
Speaker 1: to sleep and must have died sometime during the night
11:47
Speaker 1: while her kids were still sleeping. As Pickett walked up
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Speaker 1: the walkway, He passed by two teenage boys sitting in
11:53
Speaker 1: their pajamas on the ground. He assumed these must be
11:56
Speaker 1: the sons, and one of them just sort of stared ahead,
11:59
Speaker 1: seemingly in complete shock, while the other sort of sobbed
12:03
Speaker 1: into his brother's shoulder. Pickett wasn't sure if anybody had
12:06
Speaker 1: spoken to them yet, but he knew they would likely
12:08
Speaker 1: be really helpful in focusing his search for evidence. Since
12:12
Speaker 1: they lived in the house, they'd know the habits and
12:15
Speaker 1: patterns of everybody who lived there, and might be able
12:17
Speaker 1: to tell him if anything seemed out of place. So
12:21
Speaker 1: Pickett made a mental note to make sure to check
12:23
Speaker 1: in with the investigators inside about that. Then he looked
12:26
Speaker 1: at the house and took a deep breath. Pickett liked
12:29
Speaker 1: to get a sort of first impression of the crime
12:31
Speaker 1: scene before he did any actual collections. So before he
12:36
Speaker 1: would go in, he would walk around the entire house
12:38
Speaker 1: and sort of assess the building. He had been told
12:41
Speaker 1: that all the doors were locked when the police first
12:44
Speaker 1: got there. And from what he could see, the bedroom
12:46
Speaker 1: window with the missing screen was the only sign of
12:49
Speaker 1: a potential break-in. So, he took out his kit and
12:53
Speaker 1: spent some time dusting around that window area for prints.
12:56
Speaker 1: But he didn't find much there, or any noticeable shoe
12:59
Speaker 1: impressions in the dirt outside. And then when he finally
13:01
Speaker 1: headed inside, Pickett quickly moved past all the officers and
13:05
Speaker 1: detectives that were already in there and went straight to
13:07
Speaker 1: the bedrooms. And the first thing he saw when he
13:10
Speaker 1: got inside was Linda's body on the bed with a
13:13
Speaker 1: metal coat hanger wrapped around her throat. The sheets around
13:17
Speaker 1: her were covered in blood and she was shirtless and
13:20
Speaker 1: the bottom of her dress was pulled up. And when
13:22
Speaker 1: Pickett got closer, he saw where the blood had come from.
13:26
Speaker 1: There were long, very deep scratches on Linda's neck, which
13:29
Speaker 1: he guessed were from her nails as she tried to
13:31
Speaker 1: pry 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: try and guess what happened and how the killer might
13:59
Speaker 1: have interacted with the crime scene. That way he could
14:02
Speaker 1: follow their sort of imagined path with more intention. He
14:05
Speaker 1: figured the killer must have come in through the open
14:07
Speaker 1: window since that was the only entrance into the house
14:10
Speaker 1: that was obviously tampered with. Linda's purse and jewelry were
14:14
Speaker 1: still on the dresser and the drawers were all closed
14:17
Speaker 1: as opposed to open and rifled through. So it didn't
14:20
Speaker 1: seem like the killer had touched any of that stuff,
14:22
Speaker 1: which 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 come in through the window
14:32
Speaker 1: and attack Linda. Because aside from the bloody bed, Pickett
14:35
Speaker 1: didn't see any signs of a struggle. So Linda was
14:38
Speaker 1: likely caught off guard by a very fast attack and
14:41
Speaker 1: unable to really fight back quickly, because if she did,
14:44
Speaker 1: the room would be a huge mess. But then Pickett
14:47
Speaker 1: caught a glimpse of Linda's closet, and he noticed the
14:50
Speaker 1: clothes were all hanging on metal hangers that looked identical
14:53
Speaker 1: to the one that was around Linda's neck. And that's
14:55
Speaker 1: when it hit him. The killer must have at some
14:57
Speaker 1: point been in the closet, hiding. He supposed the killer
15:01
Speaker 1: could have broken in first and then grabbed a hanger
15:03
Speaker 1: once the attack started. But that would have taken too
15:06
Speaker 1: much time and also given Linda a chance to get
15:08
Speaker 1: off the bed or fight back or yell out and
15:11
Speaker 1: maybe wake her sons up. It was much more likely
15:13
Speaker 1: that the killer had broken in earlier, hid in the closet,
15:16
Speaker 1: and then waited until Linda was in her bed asleep
15:20
Speaker 1: to come out and attack. If Pickett was right about that,
15:23
Speaker 1: this became definitely a premeditated, thought-out murder. Which meant the
15:27
Speaker 1: killer must have either known Linda personally or had been
15:31
Speaker 1: watching her, since they would have known when to sneak
15:33
Speaker 1: into the room and not be detected. At this point,
15:36
Speaker 1: Pickett took out his gear and began thinking how he
15:39
Speaker 1: was going to begin looking for evidence. He figured he
15:41
Speaker 1: would start at the window and spend some time there,
15:44
Speaker 1: and then he would go to the closet. Those would
15:46
Speaker 1: be his two primary areas. And so once he had
15:49
Speaker 1: that plan in mind, he went to the window and
15:50
Speaker 1: he began looking for evidence. And sure enough, after only
15:53
Speaker 1: a few minutes of dusting, he smiled. Because there on
15:57
Speaker 1: the ledge was a very clear, well-defined handprint. The following afternoon,
16:09
Speaker 1: over 24 hours after Linda's body had been found, Pickett
16:12
Speaker 1: sat in the precinct's fingerprint lab comparing two sets of
16:16
Speaker 1: prints with a magnifying glass. He'd been at it for
16:19
Speaker 1: hours already, so his head was pounding. After processing the
16:22
Speaker 1: crime scene yesterday, Pickett had gone back to the station
16:25
Speaker 1: to review the evidence he'd collected. And while he was there,
16:29
Speaker 1: he decided he would go check in with the detectives
16:31
Speaker 1: to get an update on the case. And what they
16:33
Speaker 1: would tell him is they had spoken to the neighbors,
16:36
Speaker 1: as well as Linda's family, and they did have a
16:38
Speaker 1: few solid leads and a timeline. According to Linda's kids,
16:42
Speaker 1: the older son, Jeff, got dropped off at home at
16:45
Speaker 1: about 9.30 p.m. after being with his grandparents. And Tim,
16:49
Speaker 1: the younger son, and Linda had gotten back from a
16:51
Speaker 1: neighbor's party just after 11 p.m. They all went to
16:55
Speaker 1: bed around midnight, and neither of the brothers heard anything
16:58
Speaker 1: until the police woke them up the next morning. And
17:01
Speaker 1: all of this had led the investigators to agree with
17:04
Speaker 1: Pickett's initial interpretation of the scene. that Linda's attack was
17:07
Speaker 1: very fast. It seemed like she had not been able
17:10
Speaker 1: to even scream, or it would have woken up her sons.
17:13
Speaker 1: The autopsy report had also come in, and it confirmed
17:16
Speaker 1: Linda died from strangulation and was sexually assaulted. The medical
17:20
Speaker 1: examiner had also been able to collect semen from Linda's body,
17:24
Speaker 1: which meant they were definitely looking for a man here.
17:27
Speaker 1: And since this was now clearly a sexually motivated crime,
17:30
Speaker 1: it meant that anybody Linda had been romantically involved with
17:34
Speaker 1: was now suddenly a top suspect. After speaking with Linda's family,
17:38
Speaker 1: the detectives discovered that Linda had two serious ex-partners. She
17:43
Speaker 1: had her ex-husband, Frank Slayton, and an ex-boyfriend named Brendan Fowler.
17:48
Speaker 1: Frank apparently had abused Linda when they were married and
17:51
Speaker 1: still sent her very threatening letters. And Brendan was apparently
17:55
Speaker 1: very possessive with a bad temper, and Linda had broken
17:58
Speaker 1: up with him just two days before her murder. And
18:01
Speaker 1: so some officers were already out looking for both of
18:03
Speaker 1: these men, and Pickett was eager to get both of
18:06
Speaker 1: their prints. But for now, Pickett was actually more focused
18:09
Speaker 1: on Linda's neighbors. When the detectives had done their canvas initially,
18:13
Speaker 1: the neighbors they spoke to had confirmed that Linda and
18:16
Speaker 1: her younger son Tim were indeed at that party. And
18:19
Speaker 1: since these neighbors were some of the last people to
18:22
Speaker 1: see Linda alive, they weren't just witnesses, they were suspects.
18:26
Speaker 1: And so Pickett had collected fingerprints from all the men
18:29
Speaker 1: at that party who didn't have an alibi for the
18:31
Speaker 1: period of time after Linda went home. And that's what
18:33
Speaker 1: he was working on now, comparing those prints to the
18:36
Speaker 1: print he had found on the windowsill. So far, none
18:40
Speaker 1: were a match, but they had also gotten blood samples
18:42
Speaker 1: from the neighbors, and so Pickett would have to test
18:45
Speaker 1: those as well. So in 1981, DNA testing didn't exist yet,
18:49
Speaker 1: but investigators could figure out somebody's blood type through bodily fluids.
18:54
Speaker 1: So Pickett and his team could test those samples against
18:56
Speaker 1: the genetic material found on Linda's body and rule out
18:59
Speaker 1: suspects that way. But Pickett had another reason for wanting
19:02
Speaker 1: to be diligent when it came to testing the people
19:04
Speaker 1: who lived in the complex. It was because after Linda's murder,
19:08
Speaker 1: like in the last 24 hours, there had been signs
19:11
Speaker 1: that the killer might actually still be in the area.
19:14
Speaker 1: At 3 a.m. that morning, one of Linda's neighbors had
19:17
Speaker 1: called 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: pried 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. So he was working with
19:49
Speaker 1: this radio right next to him. Pickett leaned back in
19:52
Speaker 1: his chair to give his eyes a rest. He knew
19:54
Speaker 1: he was getting pretty tired and would need a break soon.
19:57
Speaker 1: But just seconds later, a detective barged into the lab
20:01
Speaker 1: and told Pickett they needed him on standby for fingerprinting
20:04
Speaker 1: because they'd just brought Linda's ex-boyfriend, Brendan, in for questioning.
20:08
Speaker 1: Moments later, Pickett was standing outside of an interrogation room,
20:12
Speaker 1: listening as some detectives spoke with Brendan Fowler inside. Even
20:16
Speaker 1: though he couldn't see Brendan, Pickett could tell by his
20:19
Speaker 1: voice that he was not happy to be here. He
20:22
Speaker 1: sounded argumentative and defensive as he insisted he really had
20:26
Speaker 1: nothing to do with Linda's death. And when he was
20:29
Speaker 1: asked about where he was the night she died, he
20:31
Speaker 1: had an alibi. He said he was at home with
20:33
Speaker 1: his family and he stayed there the whole night. He
20:36
Speaker 1: even gave detectives his mom's phone number and said they
20:38
Speaker 1: should call her to confirm it. Pickett heard the detectives
20:41
Speaker 1: confer in hushed voices. Then they asked Brendan if he'd
20:44
Speaker 1: be willing to take a polygraph test and let them
20:46
Speaker 1: take his fingerprints. And to Pickett's surprise, Brendan said, yeah,
20:50
Speaker 1: go ahead. And as soon as Pickett heard that, you know,
20:52
Speaker 1: based on experience, he went right inside the room and
20:56
Speaker 1: got Brendan's fingerprints before Brendan could change his mind. On
21:05
Speaker 1: September 11th, so one week after Linda's murder, Pickett sat
21:09
Speaker 1: down at his desk and opened the newspaper. And what
21:12
Speaker 1: he saw made him cringe. The Lakeland police chief had
21:15
Speaker 1: just given an interview where he admitted they would not
21:18
Speaker 1: be making an arrest now or in the next few days.
21:22
Speaker 1: And reading that in print reminded Pickett of just how
21:25
Speaker 1: little they had in this case. None of the neighbor's
21:28
Speaker 1: prints had been a match to the one Pickett had
21:30
Speaker 1: lifted off the windowsill. and they'd tracked down Linda's ex-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 had
21:40
Speaker 1: seemed pretty guilty at first because during his polygraph, the
21:44
Speaker 1: 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 prints,
21:58
Speaker 1: he had no choice but to clear him. because they
22:01
Speaker 1: clearly were not a match. So now Pickett knew the
22:03
Speaker 1: entire investigative team was scrambling for leads, which was why
22:08
Speaker 1: Pickett was not surprised by what he saw when he
22:10
Speaker 1: looked up from his paper. He saw a detective leading
22:13
Speaker 1: a suspect out of a precinct interrogation room after clearly
22:16
Speaker 1: questioning him, and it was Linda's own 15-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
22:34
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 cot in the living room shared a wall with
22:44
Speaker 1: Linda's room. So it was strange he 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, and they did fight the
22:58
Speaker 1: night she died, but it was over some dumb argument
23:00
Speaker 1: over what time dinner was. And he said he had
23:03
Speaker 1: no 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 was his own mother's killer. Pickett had kids
23:25
Speaker 1: of his own, and from his own experience, the fights
23:28
Speaker 1: Jeff was having with his mom just seemed sort of
23:31
Speaker 1: like typical teenage behavior. No squabbling with their parents. It's
23:34
Speaker 1: pretty normal. And it also just didn't line up with
23:37
Speaker 1: the evidence. Pickett was absolutely certain that the attacker broke
23:40
Speaker 1: in through the window, which didn't make sense for Jeff
23:43
Speaker 1: if he was sleeping right next door in the living room.
23:46
Speaker 1: And Pickett had personally checked Jeff's prints against the one
23:49
Speaker 1: he lifted from the window, and he knew it was
23:51
Speaker 1: not a match. As the days turned into weeks, Pickett
23:55
Speaker 1: was starting to become convinced that the killer might be
23:58
Speaker 1: somebody without a personal connection to Linda. Maybe it was
24:02
Speaker 1: even a stranger. He knew that murders by strangers were
24:05
Speaker 1: much more rare than murders committed by a relative, partner,
24:08
Speaker 1: or friend, which was why he assumed the detectives weren't
24:11
Speaker 1: pursuing it. But through his forensics, Pickett had now eliminated
24:16
Speaker 1: pretty much everybody in Linda's life who had a motive
24:19
Speaker 1: or opportunity to kill her. And Linda was a very
24:21
Speaker 1: attractive young woman who was very outgoing. You know, Pickett
24:25
Speaker 1: thought it was possible the killer could be a stranger
24:27
Speaker 1: who had only interacted with her once and then sort
24:30
Speaker 1: of became fixated on her. It seemed possible. And so
24:33
Speaker 1: after Pickett watched Jeff leave, he tried to go back
24:35
Speaker 1: to the newspaper, but he kept thinking about Linda. He'd
24:39
Speaker 1: been sure this case would be solved quickly by forensics,
24:42
Speaker 1: but now he wasn't sure if it would be solved
24:43
Speaker 1: at all. And that worry only got stronger and stronger
24:47
Speaker 1: as the months went by and fewer and fewer leads
24:50
Speaker 1: came in. And before long, a whole year had passed,
24:54
Speaker 1: and it was actually time for Pickett to retire. And
24:56
Speaker 1: when he left the precinct for the last time, he
24:59
Speaker 1: sort of had a pit in his stomach because he
25:01
Speaker 1: had a feeling that without him, Linda's case was going
25:04
Speaker 1: to get put on a shelf and forgotten. One afternoon
25:15
Speaker 1: in the fall of 2001, 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, Grice had been sorting through
25:30
Speaker 1: the department's cold cases and choosing which ones to reopen.
25:33
Speaker 1: And this had been a really slow process because he
25:37
Speaker 1: had to do that and juggle his active caseload. So
25:40
Speaker 1: even though he'd technically been working on Linda's case for years...
25:43
Speaker 1: He was just now starting to really dig into it.
25:46
Speaker 1: But the delay didn't worry him too much, since the
25:48
Speaker 1: whole reason this case appealed to him was because he
25:51
Speaker 1: was sure he could solve it quickly. Because it had
25:54
Speaker 1: DNA evidence. So back in 1981, when the murder actually happened,
25:59
Speaker 1: the genetic material that was found on Linda's body was
26:02
Speaker 1: only good for eliminating suspects through blood type. But now,
26:06
Speaker 1: in 2001, Bryce could use that same material to create
26:10
Speaker 1: a full DNA profile of Linda's killer. And he intended
26:14
Speaker 1: on reaching out to everybody involved in the original investigation
26:18
Speaker 1: to get their DNA to test against this new profile.
26:21
Speaker 1: But before he did this, he wanted to familiarize himself
26:24
Speaker 1: with the suspects from 1981. So there was Linda's ex-husband,
26:28
Speaker 1: Frank Slayton, who had abused Linda repeatedly during their marriage.
26:32
Speaker 1: And even though they had been divorced for years, he
26:34
Speaker 1: was apparently still sending her all these threatening letters around
26:37
Speaker 1: the time of her murder. And then her more recent
26:40
Speaker 1: romantic partner, Brendan Fowler, was known to have a bad
26:43
Speaker 1: temper and seemed very controlling of Linda. And they broke
26:46
Speaker 1: up only two days before her murder, so he could
26:49
Speaker 1: have still been furious about it. The neighbors at the
26:52
Speaker 1: party Linda had gone to were also suspects. Everybody in
26:55
Speaker 1: that group knew when Linda was heading home, so somebody
26:58
Speaker 1: could have maybe followed her and then snuck into her
27:00
Speaker 1: bedroom before she went to bed. And then finally, Jeff Slayton,
27:04
Speaker 1: Linda's oldest son, was actually in the house during the murders.
27:08
Speaker 1: His brother Tim had been too, but Jeff actually admitted
27:11
Speaker 1: to getting in a big fight with Linda earlier that
27:13
Speaker 1: same day. Now, all of these suspects had been cleared
27:17
Speaker 1: through fingerprints, alibi, or polygraphs. But Christ knew that DNA
27:22
Speaker 1: testing was way more accurate than any of those methods
27:24
Speaker 1: of elimination. And so basically, even if they'd been ruled
27:28
Speaker 1: out for one of those three things, DNA overrode that.
27:31
Speaker 1: And so he wasn't going to let these previous eliminations
27:34
Speaker 1: cloud his judgment. He had already decided that, you know,
27:37
Speaker 1: basically no matter what, he was just going to focus
27:39
Speaker 1: on whatever the forensics told him and not be biased.
27:42
Speaker 1: But for now, he just wanted to kick things off
27:44
Speaker 1: by speaking with the two people who'd known Linda better
27:47
Speaker 1: than anybody else. Her sons, Tim and Jeff. A few
27:56
Speaker 1: days later, Grice walked into a meeting room at the
27:59
Speaker 1: precinct where he'd been told Jeff and Tim Slayton were waiting.
28:02
Speaker 1: And as soon as he saw the brothers, he just
28:04
Speaker 1: started laughing. Because he realized he knew Jeff Slayton. They
28:08
Speaker 1: had bowled together for years. But it hadn't occurred to
28:11
Speaker 1: Grice that this Jeff was that Jeff. And Jeff recognized
28:15
Speaker 1: Grice at the same time. So they spent a while
28:17
Speaker 1: talking and laughing about what a crazy coincidence this was.
28:20
Speaker 1: And so when Grice finally sat down with Jeff and
28:23
Speaker 1: with Tim at the same time, you know, Grice's first
28:26
Speaker 1: line of questioning was actually just pretty emotional. It just
28:28
Speaker 1: was like, hey, how are you guys holding up after
28:31
Speaker 1: this horrible thing? And for the next few minutes, the
28:34
Speaker 1: mood got pretty heavy as the two brothers spoke honestly
28:36
Speaker 1: about how terrible the last 20 years had been. After
28:39
Speaker 1: their mother had been killed, they both said they were
28:42
Speaker 1: terrified that, you know, they were going to get hurt
28:44
Speaker 1: too because the killer was never caught. They felt like,
28:46
Speaker 1: you know, who's next? Jeff said he slept with a
28:49
Speaker 1: knife under his pillow and he eventually got so depressed
28:52
Speaker 1: he dropped out of high school. And Tim admitted he
28:54
Speaker 1: also struggled, but he took a different path. He relied
28:57
Speaker 1: on his football team and friends for support and kept
29:00
Speaker 1: pictures of all of them around his room to remind
29:02
Speaker 1: himself to stay positive. After that, the brothers shared what
29:06
Speaker 1: they could remember about the night their mother had died.
29:09
Speaker 1: But it was obvious to Grice that, you know, Tim
29:11
Speaker 1: and Jeff didn't really have any information he didn't already
29:13
Speaker 1: have inside the case file. So instead of continuing to
29:16
Speaker 1: question them about details of the case, Grice 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 Grice 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: Grice sat in front of a screen in the station's
29:46
Speaker 1: computer lab reading a police report from 1982. Since speaking
29:50
Speaker 1: to the two Slayton brothers, Grice had collected DNA from
29:53
Speaker 1: dozens of people who were involved in the case from 1981. Jeff, Tim,
29:55
Speaker 1: and and also Linda's ex-husband Frank Slayton and her ex-boyfriend
30:01
Speaker 1: Brendan Fowler. He'd also tested the blood samples that the
30:04
Speaker 1: original investigators got from Linda's neighbors, but none of them
30:08
Speaker 1: matched the DNA profile for Linda's killer, which was disappointing
30:12
Speaker 1: because it meant that Grice had to basically start from scratch.
30:16
Speaker 1: But when he had gone back to the case notes,
30:18
Speaker 1: he noticed the mention of break-ins around the complex shortly
30:21
Speaker 1: after Linda's murder. And it made him wonder if Linda
30:24
Speaker 1: was killed by a serial predator who was in the
30:27
Speaker 1: area at the time. And if that was true, then
30:29
Speaker 1: this person would not have just hurt Linda, they would
30:32
Speaker 1: have other victims too. So Grice had run the killer's
30:36
Speaker 1: DNA through the FBI's database. And when it didn't match
30:39
Speaker 1: anything in there, he had reached out to the county
30:41
Speaker 1: sheriff's department to see if they could send him any
30:44
Speaker 1: cases that, you know, felt similar to Linda's. And they
30:47
Speaker 1: had sent over the report that he was reading right now.
30:50
Speaker 1: And it felt incredibly promising. So in 1982, a year
30:55
Speaker 1: after Linda's murder, a man named Jimmy Ulmer was arrested
30:58
Speaker 1: for climbing through a 10-year-old girl's bedroom window, then assaulting
31:03
Speaker 1: and strangling her. And according to his file, Jimmy had
31:06
Speaker 1: this long history of home invasions and very violent behavior.
31:10
Speaker 1: And as soon as Grice finished reading the report, he
31:12
Speaker 1: jumped up and went to go find one of his officers.
31:15
Speaker 1: He wanted to dig up as much information on Jimmy
31:17
Speaker 1: as he possibly could and see if maybe they could
31:20
Speaker 1: go track him down. About a month later, Grice sat
31:29
Speaker 1: at his desk staring at his phone in anxious anticipation.
31:33
Speaker 1: He was waiting for an incredibly important call, one that
31:36
Speaker 1: would confirm whether Jimmy Ulmer was Linda's killer. After doing
31:40
Speaker 1: a background check on Jimmy, Grice had found out that
31:43
Speaker 1: Jimmy actually knew someone who lived at Linda's complex and
31:47
Speaker 1: 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 and who gave them her DNA,
31:57
Speaker 1: which they were testing now. So this DNA would not
31:59
Speaker 1: be an exact match to the killer's DNA, but it
32:02
Speaker 1: would show if she was at least a relative to
32:05
Speaker 1: the killer. And as Grice waited for the lab to call,
32:08
Speaker 1: his heart was pounding. Because for the first time since
32:10
Speaker 1: he'd picked up Linda's case, everything finally made sense now.
32:14
Speaker 1: Jimmy was this violent serial home invader who had probably
32:17
Speaker 1: seen Linda while staying at his friend's house and maybe
32:20
Speaker 1: stalked her until he saw an opportunity to attack. And
32:23
Speaker 1: then after he killed her, he must have compulsively kept
32:26
Speaker 1: breaking into other homes to find more victims. Just then
32:30
Speaker 1: the phone rang and Grice picked it up and he
32:32
Speaker 1: could feel his mouth going dry as he heard it
32:34
Speaker 1: was the lab on the other side. He was going
32:36
Speaker 1: to get an answer here. But just a second later,
32:39
Speaker 1: they told him it was not a match. Grice's stomach dropped,
32:42
Speaker 1: but he thanked them anyway and he hung up. He
32:45
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. Despite all the suspects and forensic evidence
32:48
Speaker 1: that they had, this case was once again at a
32:51
Speaker 1: dead end. Still, Rice kept pushing forward. As the months
32:56
Speaker 1: passed by, he would regularly find new suspects and eventually
32:59
Speaker 1: clear them. He also kept sending the killer's DNA profile
33:03
Speaker 1: to the FBI to run it through their database in
33:05
Speaker 1: case any new additions were, you know, added in that
33:08
Speaker 1: could be a match. But eventually, over a decade passed by,
33:11
Speaker 1: and Rice still had not been able to match anybody
33:14
Speaker 1: to the killer's DNA. And in 2015, his own health
33:18
Speaker 1: began to decline, and he finally had to make the
33:20
Speaker 1: call he hoped he would never have to make. he
33:23
Speaker 1: picked up the phone and dialed Jeff Slayton's number. And
33:26
Speaker 1: when Jeff picked up, Christ said he did need to retire,
33:29
Speaker 1: and he still had not found his mother's killer. In
33:35
Speaker 1: June of 2019, four years into retirement, Christ sat on
33:39
Speaker 1: the deck of his Florida home reading a newspaper. He
33:42
Speaker 1: was deep in an article when his cell phone rang.
33:44
Speaker 1: And when he looked at the ID, he was surprised
33:46
Speaker 1: to see it was from the Lakeland Police Department. He
33:49
Speaker 1: had not gotten a call from them in years. so
33:52
Speaker 1: he immediately picked it up to see what they wanted.
33:54
Speaker 1: And when he did, the person on the other end
33:57
Speaker 1: introduced himself as the detective who had taken over the
34:00
Speaker 1: Linda Slayton case. The detectives said they knew Grice was
34:03
Speaker 1: retired now, but they figured he would want to hear this.
34:06
Speaker 1: They said they had hired a genetic genealogist to track
34:09
Speaker 1: down family members of the killer based on the DNA
34:12
Speaker 1: profile that Grice had ordered. And through that process, they
34:16
Speaker 1: had finally been able to get a match. And after
34:18
Speaker 1: they did... They also managed to get the suspect's fingerprints.
34:22
Speaker 1: And those prints did match the palm print that the
34:25
Speaker 1: head of the crime scene unit, Sergeant Edgar Pickett, had
34:28
Speaker 1: taken at the original crime scene 38 years earlier. Grice
34:32
Speaker 1: sat up and listened intently as the detective finally told
34:35
Speaker 1: him who Linda's killer actually was. And when he heard
34:40
Speaker 1: the name, he couldn't believe it. That suspect had been
34:43
Speaker 1: so close the whole time. Based on DNA, forensic evidence,
34:53
Speaker 1: and 38 years of police investigation, the following is a
34:57
Speaker 1: reconstruction of what police believe happened to Linda Slayton in
35:00
Speaker 1: the early morning hours of September 4th, 1981. The house
35:11
Speaker 1: was all quiet as the killer waited patiently inside of
35:15
Speaker 1: Linda's closet. Hours earlier, when Linda was out, The killer
35:19
Speaker 1: had removed that screen from her bedroom window and crept inside,
35:23
Speaker 1: and then they had hid in this closet until she
35:26
Speaker 1: had come home. The killer had been watching Linda for
35:29
Speaker 1: a while now and finding ways to get close to
35:32
Speaker 1: her and her family, but Linda never really acknowledged them
35:35
Speaker 1: or paid any attention to them at all. Tonight, though,
35:38
Speaker 1: the killer was determined to show Linda that she was
35:41
Speaker 1: not the one in control. They were. And now, the
35:44
Speaker 1: killer stood in the dark closet holding their breath as
35:47
Speaker 1: their heart pounded And as they listened to Linda open
35:50
Speaker 1: her bedroom door and walk inside. And the killer continued
35:54
Speaker 1: to wait anxiously as they listened to the sound of
35:57
Speaker 1: Linda getting ready for bed and getting changed. And then
36:00
Speaker 1: eventually they heard the sound of the springs of the
36:02
Speaker 1: bed compressing as Linda laid down to shut her eyes
36:06
Speaker 1: for the night. And then after the killer was sure
36:08
Speaker 1: Linda was in bed, the lights are off, it's quiet
36:11
Speaker 1: in the room, they waited even longer just to make
36:13
Speaker 1: sure Linda was asleep and her children were asleep. And
36:17
Speaker 1: then finally, when the killer felt like they had waited
36:19
Speaker 1: long enough, they grabbed a coat hanger off the hook
36:22
Speaker 1: in the closet and then burst out of the door.
36:25
Speaker 1: And then before Linda could do anything, make a sound,
36:28
Speaker 1: even react, I mean, she's totally caught off guard. The
36:31
Speaker 1: killer was on top of her and had wrapped the
36:33
Speaker 1: coat hanger around her throat. Linda struggled and clotted her
36:37
Speaker 1: throat to try to get this thing off of her.
36:39
Speaker 1: But the killer was so much stronger than her and
36:42
Speaker 1: there was nothing she could do. It didn't take long
36:44
Speaker 1: for the killer to have their way with Linda. And
36:47
Speaker 1: then after they were done, they strangled her until she
36:50
Speaker 1: was dead. And once the killer was done, they hopped
36:53
Speaker 1: off the bed and just climbed right back out the
36:55
Speaker 1: same window they'd come in through and wandered off into
36:58
Speaker 1: the night. And the killer would get to replay this
37:01
Speaker 1: crime over and over in their head all day the
37:04
Speaker 1: next day until it was time for football practice. It
37:08
Speaker 1: would turn out Linda was murdered by her son's football coach,
37:13
Speaker 1: Joseph Mills. Joseph was a fixture in Tim's life and
37:18
Speaker 1: would drive him to and from practice every day because
37:20
Speaker 1: Linda didn't have a car. But while Tim saw Joseph
37:24
Speaker 1: as a mentor in his life, Joseph had apparently just
37:27
Speaker 1: developed a total fixation on his mother. And during all
37:30
Speaker 1: those trips to her house to drop off her son,
37:33
Speaker 1: Joseph was planning out how and when to attack her.
37:37
Speaker 1: Back in 1981, Joseph was interviewed by police over the
37:40
Speaker 1: phone a day after Linda's murder and but he was
37:43
Speaker 1: never really considered an actual suspect. Instead, after Joseph murdered Linda,
37:50
Speaker 1: he just continued to drive her son Tim to and
37:52
Speaker 1: from football practice. And Tim would even very tragically begin
37:56
Speaker 1: to rely on Joseph for, you know, emotional support, you know,
38:00
Speaker 1: grieving the loss of his mother. But it's to her killer.
38:03
Speaker 1: He just didn't know. And then even more tragically, you know,
38:06
Speaker 1: as time went on and Linda's case went cold, one
38:10
Speaker 1: of the pictures that Tim hung in his bedroom to
38:13
Speaker 1: remind himself to stay positive was of his football team.
38:17
Speaker 1: Tim had no idea that his mother's killer was literally
38:20
Speaker 1: standing right behind him in the back row in that picture.
38:25
Speaker 1: In December of 2019, Joseph was charged with first-degree murder
38:29
Speaker 1: and sexual battery and was eventually sentenced to life in
38:32
Speaker 1: prison without parole. Thank you so much for watching. Let
38:46
Speaker 1: me know what you thought of today's episode in the comments.
38:49
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of true crime
38:51
Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now. So click
38:54
Speaker 1: here and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
38:58
Speaker 1: see ya.