48 Hours - The Betrayal of Linda Slaten

Episode Date: December 4, 2022

After a young mother is murdered, her son unknowingly hangs the killer's photo on his wall. "48 Hours" contributor Jim Axelrod reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. That crime scene was just brutal and evil and just ugly. Linda Slayton, remembered as a loving mother, was found dead in this home in 1981. It was a case that went cold for nearly four decades. Two brothers who weren't sure whether their mother's murder would ever be solved.

I freaked out. I started crying. I saw the whole crime scene right then and there as a 12-year-old kid. I'd have died that night trying to save my mom, but I didn't hear nothing. It's so hard to live with that. That one case just bothered me, the way I saw that lady. He entered that window and he went out of that window. And that's where I got this print from. Son of a bitch was walking the street.

He's out free. We truly felt that the person that left his DNA behind was the person that actually killed her. The boyfriend of Linda. Certainly high on the list. Her ex-husband was another one. All you need is a DNA match. A hit. That's all I needed.

A hit in the database. And the further we went, the longer we went, the more discouraging you got. The hope started fading. You can't lose your mom no worse than we lost our mom. It's a nightmare I wouldn't wish on nobody. I love you, bro. Now, we can't undo the tragedy.

We can never make up for what happened. The best outcome is that they get justice. I may die and never know who did this, you know? Loved ones, and especially children of a murder victim, they need those answers. Remember how many detectives we had to go through over the years? We was gonna let them know, we're still here, and we wanted to kill our mom.

38 years after this brutal murder. It just felt like it never would be solved. 38 years of more than two dozen detectives coming up empty. Every turn, I was striking out. How long did it take you? Chromosome 3, chromosome 4. To solve this crime? Two days. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok On the morning of September 4th, 1981,

you're going to walk three doors down and have a cup of coffee with your sister. Right. When Judy Butler knocked on her older sister's front door, Linda Slayton never answered. At the time, the sisters both lived in this Lakeland apartment complex. So you started to walk back to your place, and what happened? And I turn and I see that the screen is out of the window.

Linda's bedroom window was wide open. Judy walked over and looked inside. And my vision comes across her. Where was she? She was laying, instead of up and down on the bed, she was laying crossways. And at first I thought maybe she was asleep. And then I just started screaming. When police arrived, they found the partially nude body of Linda Slayton, 31, with a wire coat hanger wrapped around her neck.

The killer had entered her bedroom through the open window. The crackle of police radios inside the small two-bedroom apartment woke up Linda's 15-year-old son, Jeff, sleeping on a cot in the living room. I asked him, what is going on? He said, police officers put on some clothes and go outside. And he made sure I went out the front door. And when I went out there, it looked like every cop in the state of Florida, news crews, and Matt Jeter was out there crying. She told me my mom had been murdered. And I just couldn't believe it.

In the apartment's second bedroom, another officer woke up Linda's younger son, Tim, then 12 years old. He goes, you need to wake up and go outside with your brother. He never mentioned my mom. Why is he not seeing my mom? Why is a cop waking me up? Still in his pajamas, Tim walked past his mother's closed bedroom door. Suddenly it swung open as an officer left the room.

And I saw the whole crime scene. I mean, I saw my mom's bloody body with a coat hanger around her neck. You can't unsee that. No. And I still see it. In 1974, Linda Slayton was a 24-year-old single mom, finally free. She had just divorced Jeff and Tim's abusive father, Frank Slayton was a 24-year-old single mom, finally free. She had just divorced Jeff and Tim's abusive father, Frank Slayton,

after nine volatile years of marriage. He was a violent alcoholic, to be honest with you. Did he hit your mom? Oh, yeah. In the years that followed, nothing was easy for the young family. Linda struggled for work, made her own clothes to save money, and couldn't afford a car. If you couldn't get a ride to practice, who would take you? Coach, come pick us up. That's Coach Joe, as the kids called him. He often drove Tim and some other boys to and from football practice.

to and from football practice. On the last full day of her life, Linda and Jeff argued. Tensions had been rising with her teenage son. I remember coming home. There wasn't nothing to eat in the house. You know how it is when you're a 15, 16-year-old kid, you're mouthy. And I got mad and I went out the door and got on my bicycle and rode 11 or 12 miles to the north side of town to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house to get something to eat.

At 8.30 that night, Tim came home from football practice. The coach brought me home. Around 9, Linda took Tim to a party next door to play cards. Grandma and Grandpa brought me home about, I think it was around 9, 9 or 9.30 or so. Linda and Tim came home about 11. By midnight, Jeff made up with his mom, he says, and still remembers their final moment together. She was washing the dishes and stuff when she went to go to her bedroom.

I said, I love you, Mom. I'll see you tomorrow, you know? What do you remember about the Slayton case? I can remember everything about it. Going to that window and looking at it where he went through it. And I went in there and the children was asleep. And I saw that coat hanger around her neck. Former Sergeant Edgar Pickett, now 94 years old, was a legendary fingerprint expert with the Lakeland Police Department. He led the crime scene unit. In fact, the crime lab bears his name. But that sort of recognition was a long time coming. Arriving at the Slayton crime scene in 1981, Pickett, then 53, was just a year away from

retirement. But his hard-earned reputation had never spared him from prejudice. So you pull up at the scene, and another detective says what to you? That a black man don't have any business looking at a naked white woman. Even though she was a homicide victim? That's correct.

Sergeant Pickett believed Linda Slayton had been strangled with a coat hanger from her own closet. He dusted most of the bedroom for fingerprints. Even the floor. And then I got that print off of that window seal. It was a

palm print, wasn't a fingerprint. You got the most important print there is. I knew it. The evidence Pickett uncovered would play a crucial role decades later, especially the palm print. I really had never seen anybody in the sheep that that lady was in, and I've seen a lot of people killed. An autopsy later confirmed what he already knew. Linda Slayton had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. Swabs taken and preserved in a rape kit revealed semen. That morning, Pickett says, his thoughts kept returning to Linda Slayton's voice.

His thoughts kept returning to Linda Slayton's voice. I had children, too. And I really wanted to clear that case. I did. You guys are standing on the spot where your life changed. Yes, right here. When I stopped being a kid, it was right there. You were 15. 15. You really felt like this was the end of your childhood right here?

Yes, sir. I think exactly what I did. I told my mom I'd been murdered. Emerging through the terror and tears that September morning 41 years ago, the questions kept coming. Why? Who? Who could have done such an evil thing?

In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. Between Peru and New Zealand lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story

that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn when there's nobody watching nobody going to report it people will get away with what they can get away with in the Pitcairn trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique lonely pac Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals.

However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access,

I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. On that late summer morning in 1981, Jeff and Tim Slayton faced a frightening world they no longer recognized, a world without their mother. How do 12- and 15-year-old boys process that, deal with that?

It was hard. Yeah, I thought about committing suicide a couple times. It was that bad. The brothers moved in with their grandparents, Clarence and Margaret Harris. We stayed in the house. We didn't go anywhere. Scared to death. Scared to death, you know, to do anything. Stayed in the house. We didn't go anywhere.

Scared to death. Scared to death, you know, to do anything. For those first terrifying days, the family slept in the same room, except Grandpa Harris. He was staying guard with a gun all night while we slept. The grandparents hoped a quick return to familiar routines would help their distraught grandsons. A few weeks after their mom's funeral, the boys were back in school. And just, you know, being with friends and just started living life again, I guess. You know, going back to football. His teammates, and Coach Joe in particular, were always supportive.

Always rooting for him, says Tim. And I looked up to this guy. He was my assistant football coach. I'm right to the game, right to practice. Tim's team football photo hung in his bedroom. It was taken just one month after the murder. The picture was a reminder, he says, of something his mom had taught him, to keep moving forward and never give up she was a fighter yes oh yes oh yeah oh yes she might have weighed 100 pounds soaking wet but she was pretty tough

everybody liked her that met her everybody was asking her a date because she was so young and pretty and then linda met and married Frank Slayton. He was a mean, no-count scoundrel. The brothers say it's hard to know when their dad began to beat their mom. The more he drank, the more violent he became. I remember one time he was in the bathroom. He had her by the throat with a gun to her head, and I was coming there trying to get him off of her. I felt like it saved her that night, that day.

But you were just a little guy yourself. Yeah I was only six and a half seven years old. Frank Slayton's history of abuse made him a person of interest for Lakeland detectives but investigators seemed satisfied that Slayton was home in Alabama on the night of the murder. At the time of her death, Linda had a boyfriend. He, too, had a credible alibi. Others were looked at like the partygoers next door, but no one was charged. The Lakin Police Department, they used to come down and take me out of school, and they was always interrogating me all the time. In the early days, it sounds like, who the police really were most thorough in checking out was me. As a 15-year-old, Jeff had plenty of typical teen conflicts with his mom,

which he readily admitted to detectives, including that heated argument on the last day of her life. They had me put him on a lie detector test one time, and I passed it. Then they wanted to do it again. They just wanted to put me under hypnosis. And then there was one time, one of the cops, he's like, you got big arms on you, and you're strong enough to put your hands around your mom's neck and kill her. Who would do that to a kid? I was a 15-year-old kid hurting.

They didn't say that to me. I mean, that's a kid. I was a 15-year-old kid. Hurt him. And say that to me. And that's always hurt. Finally, Jeff's grandparents said, enough. It's like, get out there and find who killed my daughter. Leave this kid. Leave his family alone. Two weeks later, according to the Lakeland Police report, Jeff took a second polygraph test and was cleared. At that point, the investigation slowed, then ground to a halt. As the years passed,

Jeff and Tim started their own families. But to this day, there is still grief and guilt for not hearing anything that night, for not coming to their mom's rescue. I'd have died that night trying to save my mom. I mean, we're right there in the house. How can you not hear something like that? And they lived in fear of the man they called the monster. Unless he was dead, he was out there somewhere.

Around the 20th anniversary of their mom's murder, Jeff and Tim met with Lakeland detective Brad Grice, who was taking a fresh look at the case. As soon as Jeff and Tim walked in the door, I realized I had known Jeff for years, since I was in my 20s. Through bowling. I was like, Brad, sure enough. I knew him from bowling years ago. Grice took DNA samples from the brothers to clear them again,

then gave Jeff something in return, a promise. He made me promise that I wouldn't retire until I solved his mother's case. And I wanted to so bad for him and his brother. I did. I wanted to so bad for him and his brother. I did. Grice had already sent DNA from the Slayton rape kit to the state's major crime lab at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the FDLE. Did you have any confidence that you could solve it? I was hoping DNA would. You know, it was becoming a big tool.

By March 1999, the FDLE had developed a full DNA profile of Linda Slayton's anonymous killer. All you need is a DNA match. A hit. That's all I needed, a hit in the database. Detective Grice took dozens of DNA samples from prior persons of interest, submitting them to the FDLE for comparison. We were trying everything. Even the brother's father, Frank Slayton, who had stopped drinking, volunteered a sample. None matched. Then in September 2001, Grice got a tip.

September 2001, Grice got a tip. Nearly a year after the Slayton killing, a 24-year-old man named Jimmy Ulmer pulled a 10-year-old girl through her bedroom window and nearly killed her. He was convicted of that and sentenced to like 80 years in prison. The savage assault seemed eerily similar to the Slayton case, and Detective Grice discovered that around the time of Linda Slayton's

murder, Jimmy Ulmer had been staying with a friend who happened to live in the very same apartment complex as Slayton. Hang on. Jimmy Ulmer was staying in an apartment right across the way from the Slaytons? Yes. You must have felt like that's our guy. I felt very strong. I did. Omer had died in prison five years earlier, in 1996. But Grice got a DNA sample from his mother. I honestly felt that when we got the results back that we would know who did it and we'd get the notice that it wasn't him.

At that point, you must have been like, we're never going to solve this thing. I sure felt that way. It was very discouraging. You know, it's like, oh, my God, we're back to square one again. You feel like he's on a roller coaster for pretty much your whole life. I feel like he's on a roller coaster for pretty much his whole life. By 2005, Detective Grice was heading up a new cold case unit, and the FBI was running the DNA profile of Slayton's killer continuously through all federal data banks.

But the years continued to pass without a match. Jeff would call, and Jeff, I got nothing for you. It hurt my heart, too. Grice had a growing suspicion he was chasing a ghost. I honestly thought the suspect might be deceased. He had made that promise to the brothers that he wouldn't retire until their monster was caught. I had some medical things that were popping up. It was a promise he couldn't keep.

Detective Grace retired in 2015. There was probably nothing in your professional life you wanted more than to call Jeff Slayton and say, Got him. Absolutely. After Detective Bryce Grass retired, I'm like, I said, well, I'm probably going to take my last breath and I know who murdered my mom. That's already starting to come to terms with it.

But three years later, there was renewed hope. A groundbreaking DNA technology began to electrify the law enforcement community. And genetic genealogist CeCe Moore was taking on the Slayton case. I was determined I was going to help these boys find out who killed their mom. See more photos from the case at 48hours.com. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch.

It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free,

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So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. CeCe Moore is a renowned expert in the field of investigative genetic genealogy. If you have that DNA, there is no reason you cannot solve that mystery, whatever that mystery is. Moore launched her hunt for Linda Slayton's killer by uploading the anonymous DNA from Slayton's rape kit to a public genealogy website called GEDmatch. She then meticulously constructed, branch by branch, his genetic family tree.

I built the family trees of those people who share DNA with him, and then I identify common ancestors between those people. She made those connections by pouring over birth certificates, marriage licenses, obituaries, and social media to fill in the family tree with names. It sounds like basically you're putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle. Yes. My work is constantly putting together puzzles, piece by piece by piece. These matches all share DNA with each other,

so they're my first genetic network. C.C. Moore uncovered three genetic networks, branches of the killer's family tree that ultimately narrowed to the one person most likely responsible for the murder of Linda Slayton. Fortunately, those three genetic networks converged into one family tree that pointed at one immediate family, and he was the only son in that family. And we knew the killer was a male, so it had to be and he was the only son in that family. And we knew the killer was a male, so it had to be him that was the DNA contributor.

After hundreds of leads and dead ends, after dozens of suspects were investigated and cleared, CeCe Moore identified the probable killer in one weekend. There was just one person who was high confidence. And who was that? Joseph Clinton Mills. Joseph Clinton Mills, Coach Joe, who drove Linda Slayton's 12-year-old son, Tim, to and from practice. But authorities wanted to be certain before they notified the brothers. And then there is a sort of exhilaration because he's alive.

And so there's a real chance for justice and maybe even answers. C.C. Moore's final 2019 report confirmed that Joseph Mills, then 58, was living in Kathleen, Florida, about half an hour from the crime scene. And I reviewed the case and I'm like, I remember that name. I remember seeing that name. That guy was interviewed.

Detectives Tammy Hathcock and Russell Hurley were the next generation of Lakeland investigators leading the Slayton cold case. I'm telling you, it's like I won the lottery. I remember grabbing that piece of paper from the report and just running down the hallway to my sergeant saying, oh my God, he was interviewed, he was interviewed. According to the case file, investigators did question Joseph Mills, then 20 years old, just one day after the murder. He was very basically touched. I mean, like just a very

brief interview. And it was conducted on the phone, not in person. The fact that investigators never questioned Mills face to face suggests he was never considered a suspect. During the brief call, Mills acknowledged he had driven Tim Slayton home from football practice on September 3rd. Just hours later, Linda Slayton was dead. How was Joseph Mills not followed up on more aggressively in 1981? At that point, I mean, he was just a football coach that had dropped off Timmy. He was never on their radar to be a suspect, just based off of the information that they were given by Timmy and by Mr. Mills.

Joseph Mills, seen here in a 1984 driver's license photo, was convicted that year of grand theft for forging a will. He never went to jail, but he was fingerprinted. Lakeland police also took a palm print. In August 2019, investigators compared those prints to the one Sergeant Pickett lifted off Slayton's windowsill nearly 38 years before. When the prints came back, there was a match? Yes. High-tech genetic genealogy had identified mills as the likely killer and an old-fashioned palm print match helped confirm his identity but hathcock and hurley still needed to compare a fresh dna sample from mills to the decades-old dna recovered from the crime scene

as we had to get his dna without his knowledge and see if we can get a match. We had to do some surveillance. It was several weekends that we were following him around trying to get discarded. Just looking for a cup that he drank from or a tissue that he used. Anything. After tracking Mills with no luck, the detectives decided it was time to get their hands dirty. They covertly took Mills' trash back to the police department. Here we are in dress clothes just digging through trash bags. Not the most glamorous thing.

They discovered a piece of used medical adhesive tape and sent it off to the FDLE crime lab for testing. After searching Mills' trash, they dug through his life. He's been married to the same woman and he lived in the same place. He was a business owner, a cleaning service. Was a truck driver over the years. He had a family. Married kids.

Married kids, grandkids. Eleven days later, the stunning lab results. Joseph Mills' 2019 DNA found on the medical tape and the 1981 unknown DNA from Linda Slayton's rape kit were a spot on match. That's when the brothers were told the monster

had been found. This guy you last knew was Coach Joe. Oh my goodness. It was him. And I had a picture of my house ever since then. I never knew it was him. Tim's 1981 team football photo, a source of pride for years, sickens him today.

Because standing directly behind him is the man he once trusted and admired, Coach Joe. I've been carrying a killer's picture in my house this whole time and never had a clue. Even after the murder, Joseph Mills continued driving Tim to and from football practice, picking him up and dropping him off at his grandparents' house. He'd ask us how the case was going. He wouldn't ask questions.

He just, well, is there any new news or any new leads and i was like no nothing you know he's talking to a 12 year old boy and trying to keep tabs on a murder investigation through the the son of the murdered woman no yes when he knows exactly who did it he's a cold-holding monster, that's for sure. December 12, 2019. The detectives moved in, arresting Joseph Mills. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court law. He was calm, cool, and collective like it was another day on the beach. Most people's reaction would be, why am I being arrested?

Why are you taking me in? You expected some of that. Right, some kind of years, and I'm sure you go to bed every night thinking about this. I have no doubt in my mind. Detectives Hathcock and Hurley finally had Joseph Mills right where they wanted him, in the claustrophobic confines of a police interview room. When I picked the boys up, we stayed in the vehicle. And I don't recall going to or out of a house, period.

There's no way that is the truth. I mean, he's saying he's never been in there. We got him. What we have tells us a different story, okay? You were in that apartment. Ratcheting up the pressure, the detectives told Mills they had overwhelming evidence placing him inside Linda Slayton's bedroom.

Your fingerprints matches you. Your fingerprints matches you. The DNA matches you. That's when Mills' story began to change. And then how did you end up going through her window? It was like an invitation. An invitation from Linda Slayton, Mills claimed, for consensual sex. A flat-out lie, say the detectives. He said it was a sex game, that she had the hanger around her neck

when he came through the window, and she asked him to tighten it down. And then did you start applying pressure? Yes. And when I pointed out, well, the brutality of the hanger and how deep it was into her skin, he stuck with the, it was a game. You purposely killed her. We all sit here, we know that. At the end of the day, what happened here? I think it's pretty evident that he targeted her.

After dropping off Tim from football practice on September 3rd, 1981, Joseph Mills returned later that night, the detectives say, breaking in through Linda Slayton's bedroom window. No one heard Mills, they believe, because no one was home. Jeff was still at his grandparents' house. Linda and Tim were at the party next door. If you look at the crime scene and all that, the hanger obviously came from the closet. We figured that's what happened is he was hiding in the closet. Were you ever in the closet? In the final moments of her life, the detectives believe that Linda,

after saying goodnight to her sons, walked into her bedroom and closed the door, never knowing that Mills was already inside, waiting for her. There was no invitation, no consensual sex, they say. Joseph Mills raped and murdered Linda Slayton. Detective Brad Grice always suspected the killer's name was buried somewhere in the thick police case file. Why do you feel that the investigation didn't circle back to Joseph Mills? Well, obviously I put a lot of that on me now. You do?

I do. Grice blames himself for not taking a harder look at Joseph Mills, a sentiment not shared by the Slayton brothers. They feel nothing but gratitude to the detective and friend who spent 17 years chasing the elusive killer. I could tell how hard he wanted to solve it, and I actually named my son after him. My son's named Brad, too. Here's Brad Slayton, graduating from high school.

Jeff put a little pressure on me over the years. You know, he did. You can't retire until you solve this case, and then he names his son after me, and honestly, I just wanted to solve this case for them more than anything. How are you doing? How are you doing? All right.

So did this former investigator, 94-year-old Edgar Pickett. The brothers had always wanted to meet him. I want to thank you for all you did for our mom back then. If we hadn't have done that, this monster would still be running free today. It sure would. It is poignant praise for Sergeant Pickett, who lifted the palm print that helped identify the monster, Joseph Mills. That's a case I can never forget.

It's a fear. I can't get rid of it. During his distinguished and trailblazing 29-year career, Sergeant Pickett had seen it all. And yet, it's the Linda Slayton case that haunts him to this day. He never knew police had questioned a man named Joseph Mills just one day after the killing. You didn't know for 38 years that he was talked to immediately afterward? No, I didn't. Instead, Pickett says he was asked to compare prints of a number of black men who were questioned in the days after the murder, following neighbors' reports of suspicious activity. They kept picking up a lot of blacks,

and it was giving me their prints for me to look at theirs. It not just haunts, but angers Pickett. Black men were rounded up and fingerprinted, while the white football coach driving Linda's son to and from practice was never considered a suspect. They just talked to him and let him go. You're telling me this case could have been solved in the first days after the murder if they had just taken a print from Joseph Mills? That's correct. There's a lot of people who came before you, I get it.

But you got this palm print in the windowsill almost immediately. Wouldn't you just get some prints from the guy? Anybody who had been near the house in the 24 hours prior to the murder? There was no indication that he had been in the house. I mean, all the witnesses said that he dropped the kid off from practice and never got out of the truck. So the only reason why he was spoke to was because when they backtracked on the previous 24 hours, he was in that equation. You don't feel like he slipped through the net? No.

No. Joseph Mills' day of reckoning would finally come 40 years later. He's got cold black murdering eyes. It's Joseph Clinton Mills. He just sat there, not a word. What do you make of Coach Joe's story of what happened that night? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Twitter and Facebook. Our mom was a good person.

He took that away from us. To avoid a trial and a possible death sentence, Joseph Mills pleaded guilty to all charges, including first-degree murder, sexual battery, and burglary. At his sentencing, what Linda Slayton's family wanted most was the answer to one question. Why? I just want to know why, Joe. Why'd you take my mama from me? I love my mama. We was happy.

My blood would start boiling every time I look at him. The brothers and Aunt Judy tried to look him in the eye. See if there was any human being in there. See if he was alive. See if he had a soul. Never saw it. His silence infuriated the family. And a few minutes later, so did his comments to the court. I am a good person. I'm not that person that they're paying me out to be. I think this case made me the angriest. Out of the hundreds of cases I've been involved in,

because what he did with her children there, and then the things he said about her. That she lured him in. Even all these years later, he was willing to try to make her look bad, to denigrate the victim. And her boys have to hear that. It's just sickening.

I will send you to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And just like that, Joseph Clinton Mills was gone, facing four life terms, and finally, a measure of justice. Maybe not full justice in your view. It's not full justice by no means.

I wanted to go to trial. I wanted to see him up on the stand and tell everybody why he did this. And he never did that. The Slayton brothers feel some comfort knowing Joseph Mills will never leave prison alive. But there's still anger, they say, because Mills never took full responsibility for the premeditated rape and murder of their mother. He never apologized. And there were all those years of freedom. He lived his whole life. He raised his family. You know, he had a good life.

That was right after she was killed. It's the brothers who feel they were handed the far more severe sentence. Life without the possibility of growing up with their mom. She'll still be here today. She'd only be 72, you know. Could have had her my whole life. I just wonder what life would have been like to have her. I just wonder what life would have been like to have Adam. Any part of you, when you think about all of this,

at all angry with the way the police handled it, that it took this long to get Joseph Mills? You could look at it that way. I know it's a lot of hard work behind the scenes that people don't see that goes on. You know what they do, the hours upon hours they put in. I mean, you can get mad. But only so much can be done in a day. We owe a huge debt of gratitude

to those original crime scene investigators because at the time this crime was committed, they didn't even know DNA was going to be used in criminal investigations. And so the fact they collected that, and then it was stored responsibly and carefully all these years by that department, is so important. If that hadn't happened, we couldn't have done our work. Jeff and Tim say they're determined to move on as best they can, to live life well, for their mom and for their families. The brothers also know they never would have survived

their ordeal without each other. Just check it out, bro. They remain extremely close, live just a few miles apart, and share passionate hobbies hobbies like restoring cars. You give the credit for living this life to the spirit of your mom. Yes, most definitely. I sure do love you, mom. I miss you so much every day.

My mom, she's looking down on us and want us to live our lives and do good, you know. And I always think she's looking down on us. I want to make her proud. Yes. I want to make her proud. Yes. These trees that are all around us here played a role in solving a murder. Absolutely.

A young mother dead. Will DNA from a tree found on a suspect's boots help catch her killer? 48 hours, Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.