38 Years After This Man’s Mom Was Murdered, DNA Evidence Pointed To Someone He Never Suspected

tim slaton's mom linda was brutally murdered at the home she shared with her two sons in 1981 and for almost four decades it seems that the person responsible for the heinous crime had evaded justice however in 2019 new dna technology lg discovered that the most likely suspect had been known to tim all along hello wonderful people i'm scott leffler for waterbot in today's video we'll tell you about 38 years after this man's mom was murdered dna evidence pointed to someone he never suspected before brothers jeff and tim have fond memories of their mother linda they remember taking them to a concert that kiss and van halen played in their hometown of lakeland florida when they were just kids furthermore they cherished precious photographs of their childhood with linda which was cut all too short before her death linda had enjoyed a lust for life and loved both of her sons dearly she liked to venture off to the beach or the park and was resourceful with her means even making her own clothing put simply her son jeff told oakle lakeland newspaper the ledger in 2016 she enjoyed life in august 1981 linda had moved with her sons jeff and tim to an apartment on brunel parkway in lakeland however the family would be in their new home less than a month before tragedy struck that's because on september 4th 1981 linda was found dead in her bedroom following a violent murder in the years following linda's passing tim and jeff have relived the hours leading up to it according to the tampa bay times the latter recalled returning home hungry after football practice only to find that there wasn't a lot of food to eat he later rode his bike over to his grandparents home and they brought him back to the apartment at approximately 9 30 p.m however when jeff returned home he found that the house was empty then at about 10 pm linda apparently stopped by the apartment and explained that she and tim were hanging out next door and playing cards with some neighbors then they eventually returned home at around 11 pm the tampa bay times said that jeff's last memory of linda was seeing his mother washing dishes at their apartment that night after tim had already gone to bed she retired to her bedroom soon after while jeff stayed up later turning on the tv at about midnight before calling it a day little did he know the horrors that would await him the following morning tim's recollection of linda's last evening reportedly began with him being collected for football practice by his coach joseph mills known to him as joe the man who would regularly pick the boy up and drop him off because linda didn't have a car he returned home at some time around 8 or 8 30 and the youngster had dinner before going to play cards with his mother next door tim remembered returning home with linda around 11 or 11 30 pm he saw jeff watching television in the living room before going to sleep in his bedroom like his brother tim would tell police he heard nothing during the night but while the boys slept someone murdered their mom in the same apartment linda's body was discovered the following morning by her sister judy butler she would later explain to cops that she'd gone to linda's house to see if she wanted to grab a coffee with her judy got no answer at the door so she decided to return home however on the way back to her apartment she noticed that something was amiss as judy passed by linda's bedroom she noticed that a window screen was missing and when she looked through the gap she witnessed a truly horrifying sight her sister's strangled body was lying on the bed with the murder weapon a wire clothes hanger still around her neck given what she'd seen judy screamed so loudly that she caught the attention of lakeland housing authority maintenance worker john allen it was he who first alerted the police to the awful scene that judy had discovered at linda's apartment dialing 9-1-1 at approximately 8 35 a.m when police personnel arrived at the grim scene they found linda's body she'd been strangled with a hanger and was partially naked her dress had been pulled to expose her breasts and genitals there was also some evidence to suggest that linda had been sexually assaulted police could find no signs of a struggle in linda's bedroom or on her bed however they did note that the southernmost window in the room was unlocked and that the screen had been removed investigators subsequently moved linda's body from the crime scene in order to gather evidence at lakeland general hospital an autopsy was performed on linda's body a sexual assault kit was carried out which included the taking of vaginal swabs during the examination sperm was found in linda's body cavity however the dna didn't match with any of the samples on law enforcement databases back in 1981 linda's case went cold in the years following her brutal murder jeff was 15 years old when his mother was killed while tim was just 12. the younger brother had the misfortune of seeing his mom's dead body the morning she was found and the awful memory has haunted him ever since jeff and tim grew up not knowing who had killed their mother they both went on to have children set themselves up in careers and took on pastimes however no matter how far they made their lives there was still room for painful memories and nagging questions that remained unanswered throughout the years speaking to the ledger in 2016 around 35 years after linda's death jeff said of his bomb sometimes i try to remember what her voice sounded like and i can't he added sometimes i get worried i'll take my last breath and die without knowing who killed her meanwhile jeff can't help but wonder why he didn't hear his mom's killer when he was sleeping so close to her bedroom he's haunted by the thought that he might have been able to help linda if only he'd woken up jeff told the publication i would have died that night trying to save my mom naturally tim and jeff's lives were forever changed in the wake of their mother's murder even so many years after the crime the former admitted that he still slept with the light on and kept a gun beside his bed furthermore both brothers said that they checked their houses for intruders whenever they enter home but jeff and tim both remained hopeful that they would one day find justice for their mom the former told the ledger there's got to be someone out there who knows something and needs to come forward do it for my mom do it for us do it for my mom's grandkids as the years passed almost two dozen detectives had worked on linda's murder case jeff and tim regularly visited the lakeland police department to hear about any developments in the investigation their lives were so embroiled with the hunt for their mom's killer that jeff even named her son after a detective who'd worked particularly hard on the case in the years following linda's murder the greatest lead that investigators had remained the dna that had been collected from her body they believed that this evidence had the potential to lead them to the killer and all they had to do was match it so detectives were hopeful that one day they'd solve the crime but that day couldn't come soon enough for jeff and tim knowing that their mom's killer may still be out there even though police had evidence to link him to linda's murder was frustrating for the brothers tim explained to the ledger to have dna and 35 years later not solve it with the technology they have it's just wrong however jeff and tim didn't have too much longer to wait before detectives finally made a breakthrough in their mom's case it all began in november 2018 when tammy hathcock a detective with the lakeland police department received a call from lori napolitano the latter worked at the florida department of law enforcement and was reaching out to various agencies to let them know about a new dna technology napolitano asked hathcock if she wanted to submit the dna that had been collected in linda's case if the detective agreed the sample would be sent to parabon nanolabs a testing company that uses genetic genealogy to match dna hadcock consented and in december 2018 it was sent off for analysis genetic genealogy uses data from public genealogy databases which are made up of dna samples that are voluntarily uploaded by people it uses these vast collections of data to compare against unknown dna evidence and according to abc news the process has already been described as a game changer in solving cold cases the test results from the dna and linda's case came back in june 2019 and they finally match the evidence to a likely suspect however the identity of this potential killer would come as a surprise not least to linda's son tim that's because the man now suspected of his mother's murder was his old football coach joe mills at the time of linda's death joe had been coach for the lakeland volunteers football program and also worked at the publix dairy warehouse he was previously interviewed by police telling them he'd only met linda on one occasion that meeting occurred the evening prior to her death when linda had apparently approached joe's car to thank him for bringing him home from practice joe told detectives that he'd subsequently driven off and never returned to linda's apartment however the 2019 dna results suggested otherwise in its report paramount speculated that joe was linda's most likely killer it read joseph should be strongly considered due to the fact genetic connections were found to both sides of his family tree and he was living in close proximity to the scene of the crime in 1981. in july 2019 the lakeland police department started monitoring the trash from joe's residence in hopes of collecting dna from the suspect they obtained a plastic spoon two cotton swabs and two adhesive patches used from colostomy bags