REOPENED: DNA SPEAKS: A Deadly Premonition

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

This program contains disturbing accounts of violence and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised.

Tim Slaten (0:07)

My mother was an outgoing person, fun, loving, that was the way her spirit was.

Tammy Hathcock (0:13)

We went to his house and it was kind of like earlier in the afternoon. I was a little worried because it was a very angry killing.

SPEAKER_4 (0:20)

They saw Linda laying diagonally across her bed. It would have been a slow, slow, painful death.

Tim Slaten (0:28)

He broke into our house and beat and strangled my mom and then left like nothing.

Tammy Hathcock (0:35)

There was really no emotion from him.

Tim Slaten (0:38)

The police, they came after Jeff quite a bit.

SPEAKER_4 (0:41)

They collected DNA evidence. They had no idea how valuable that would be 40 years later.

Tim Slaten (0:49)

It was aggravating.

My mom was killed almost 40 years ago.

And every day, you think, well, was this son of a bitch ever going to get caught? You've been wanting a name for almost 40 years, and then all of a sudden you get handed the name, and it's like, I never had a clue.

SPEAKER_1 (1:06)

There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only about 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories.

It's September 4, 1981, in Lakeland, Florida. Russell Hurley is a detective with the Lakeland Police.

SPEAKER_4 (1:29)

Judy and Linda Slaten were sisters. They both lived in the same apartment complex. They would meet for coffee every morning.

SPEAKER_1 (1:37)

Brad Grice, now retired, was also a detective with the Lakeland Police.

Brad Grice (1:42)

In that particular morning, Judy had came down and knocked on the door, and nobody came to the door. And as she was walking away to go back to her apartment, she glanced over toward where Linda's bedroom was and noticed that the window was open and the screen was missing.

SPEAKER_4 (1:59)

When Judy looked into the window, she saw Linda laying diagonally across her bed. Her feet were off the edge of the bed, hanging down. There was blood present, and she could see an object around her neck.

She screamed and got the attention of a maintenance worker, and then they got somebody to call 911

SPEAKER_1 (2:20)

Lakeland police arrive in minutes. Through the window, they see Linda Slaten's lifeless body.

But authorities have another problem. Where are her two sons?

Brad Grice (2:32)

Tim and Jeff. Tim was only 12 years old at the time. Jeff was 15

There was a concern that the kids may still be inside, not knowing exactly what they were going to see or find. They're knocking on the doors, knocking on windows, and they're not getting any response from anybody.

SPEAKER_1 (2:51)

First responders can't afford to wait a second longer.

Brad Grice (2:55)

So they decide to enter through another window and saw Tim in the back bedroom. And they saw the kids were okay.

SPEAKER_1 (3:05)

Tim Slaten is Linda's son.

Tim Slaten (3:08)

I kind of looked up and I was like, why is the cop waking me up? And he said, go outside with your brother. He never mentioned my mother's name.

So I get up, I start walking outside, and when he opened my bedroom door, they were coming out of my mother's room, opened her door, and that's when I saw the whole crime scene. I saw my mother's partially clothed body hanging off the bed with a yellow clothing around her neck and then blood everywhere. So I knew right then she was murdered.

Brad Grice (3:40)

She was laying crossways across the bed.

SPEAKER_4 (3:43)

She had her dress pulled down below her breasts and her dress pulled up. It was bunched up on her midsection. Her flip-flops and her underwear were on the floor, on the carpet beneath her.

Brad Grice (3:58)

She had a coat hanger that had been put around her neck and tightened down that you could actually see how tight it was in her skin. I've seen a lot of homicides and a lot of blood and things like that, but I had never seen any kind of scene like what happened to Linda Slaten.

SPEAKER_1 (4:19)

At the time of her death, 31-year-old Linda has begun to turn life around for her family.

Tim Slaten (4:25)

My mother and father met in their teenage years, way back in the early 60s.

My mother was 15 years old when my brother was born. She was outgoing, fun-loving and disco do things all the time. That was the way her spirit was.

SPEAKER_1 (4:42)

Linda's outgoing personality masks a troubled home life.

Tim Slaten (4:46)

My father, when I was growing up, very young, he was an alcoholic and he was a mean person. And when I was a little kid, I can remember they would fight a lot.