Joseph Clinton Mills (pictured) is charged with first-degree murder, burglary and sexual battery in a 1981 cold case
More than three decades after a Florida mother was found sexually assaulted and murdered inside her home, investigators used genetic genealogy to identify the killer as her youngest son’s former football coach.
Joseph Clinton Mills of Lakeland, was arrested by the Lakeland Police Department on December 12 and charged for the crimes committed against 31-year-old Linda Patterson Slaten in 1981.
Mills, now 58, would have been 20-years-old at the time of the her death and told investigators that Slaten died of ‘wild sex.’
The horrific incident began on September 4, 1981, when Slaten was found strangled to death with a clothes hanger inside her bedroom.
Around 8.35am, Lakeland Police Department officers dispatched to Slaten’s home after John Allen, a maintenance worker for the Lakeland Housing Authority, was alerted of the body by Slaten’s sister, Judy Butler.
The Lakeland Ledger reports that Butler told police she walked to her sister’s apartment that morning to see if she wanted to meet for coffee, but Slaten didn’t answer the door.
Linda Patterson Slaten (pictured) was found strangled to death with a clothes hangers inside her Lakeland, Florida, home in 1981
As Butler walked back to her own apartment, she noticed the screen to Slaten’s window was missing and, after peeking inside, saw her sister lying on the bed with what appeared to be a wire hanger around her neck.
When officers arrived, they found Slaten with her dress pulled down from the top and up from the bottom, exposing her female body parts.
Slaten’s underwear and shoes were on the rug, and detectives reportedly said she was bleeding from her vagina.
Detectives acknowledged that there were no signs of struggled throughout the room, but her window was not locked and the screen was removed.
Her children, Jeffrey Slaten, then 15-years-old, and Timothy Slaten, aged 12 at the time, were sleeping during the alleged attack.
Slaten’s two sons, Timothy Slaten (left) and Jeffrey Slaten (right) were sleeping inside the home during the incident
‘I saw the crime scene. It’s still burned in my brain today,’ Timothy said at a news conference, according to ABC News.
Jeffrey told detectives in an interview that the family of three had just moved into the Lakeland apartment two weeks before his mother’s death.
Slaten’s body was transported to the Lakeland General Hospital where medical staff completed an autopsy and performed a sexual assault kit.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement couldn’t find a DNA match to the samples taken from the scene or the sexual assault kit, and the case went cold.
Jeffrey said: ‘It’s been rough on me my whole life not knowing who it is. Always being scared to death I was friends with him…. always looking over our shoulder.’
Jeffrey (pictured): ‘It’s been rough on me my whole life not knowing who it is. Always being scared to death I was friends with him…. always looking over our shoulder’
All this changed in November 2018 when investigators considered using genetic genealogy to crack the case.
Genetic genealogy compares unknown DNA to public genealogy databases that are populated by the DNA of relatives who voluntarily upload it.
Since the arrest of the suspected ‘Golden State Killer’ in April 2018, around 100 suspects have been identified using the novel method, said Parabon NanoLabs Chief Genetic Genealogist CeCe Moore.
After analyzing DNA in the unidentified suspects DNA, Parabon analysts told authorities that the most likely suspect was Mills.
‘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,’ the report said.
In the summer of 2019, authorities searched Mills trash and were able to find matching DNA to the samples found in Slaten’s sexual assault kit.
They were also able to match Mills fingerprints, taken from an arrest in 1984, and matched it the those found on Slaten’s window ledge.
Picutured: the Lakeland Police Department held a press conference on Thursday to explain Mills arrest and the process of identifying the 58-year-old
When Mills was first interviewed in 1981, he told authorities that he saw the victim briefly when he drove Timothy home from football practice that evening.
On the day of Slaten’s death, Timothy told detectives that his football coach, known as ‘Joe’, had taken him to football practice at Winston Elementary and later drove him home.
Mills, who was a coach for the Lakeland Volunteers football program, said Slaten had approached his car to thank him for bringing Timothy home.
He told police he left and hadn’t returned to the apartment that night.
Pictured: Timothy (left) and Jeffrery (right) speaking at the Lakeland Police Department press conference on Thursday
When detectives interviewed Mills on December 4, he denied knowing anything about the crime and maintained that he didn’t have any relationships with the athlete’s parents.
After his arrest, Mills told police that when he dropped Timothy off that night, Slaten had ‘extended an open invitation to come to her residence for a “good time”,’ according to court documents.
He told authorities that he returned to Slaten’s home in the early hours of September 4, 1981, and entered through the unlocked bedroom window.
Mills claimed that ‘Slaten asked him to engage in “wild” sex.’
‘Mills stated upon entering Linda Slate’s bedroom, Linda Slaten already had a wire hanger around her neck as she lay on the bed. Mills stated he twisted the wire hanger around her neck tighter and tighter while engaging in sexual intercourse with Linda Slaten until she lost consciousness,’ ABC News reports.
Mills told police that he left through the window before Slaten’s body was discovered.
Authorities have pushed back against Mills claim that the encounter was consensual, saying that there was evidence of a foreign object used in the sexual assault and Slaten had cuts consistent with a struggle to remove the wire from her neck.
Mills has been charged with first-degree murder, burglary and sexual battery.
His arraignment is scheduled for January 21, 2020.