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(CNN) - Tim Slaten never lost hope that his mother's killer would be caught. But the last person he suspected was his youth soccer coach.
Linda Slaten, 31, was strangled in her apartment in Lakeland, Florida, in September 1981 while her children were sleeping, Lakeland police said.
Almost four decades later, the authorities have concentrated on one suspect: his son's soccer coach Joseph Clinton Mills, 58. Police interviewed Mills this month and arrested him last week. He is charged with first degree murder, sexual assault and robbery with assault and aggression.
The authorities used the genetic genealogy that led them to Mills, who occasionally took Slaten's youngest son home after football matches and practices. Mills' arrest relieved Slaten's two children, who spent a lot of time looking over his shoulder in fear because they didn't know who could have killed his mother.
"He was the last person in my brain," Tim Slaten told reporters on Thursday. "We had other suspects for years."
Mills is currently in the Polk County Jail. Your attorneys could not be reached for comment.
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Joseph Clinton Mills, 58, was arrested and linked to the crime of Linda Slaten, 31, in a murder in 1981.
"I saw the crime scene"
Tim Slaten told police that Mills, who was then coach of the Lakeland Volunteer Football Program, left him at home the night before his mother was killed, according to an affidavit. Slaten, who was 12 years old and his brother Jeff, 15, last saw his mother around midnight on September 4, according to the affidavit.
Linda Slaten's partially dressed body was found in her bed. A wire hanger was wrapped around his neck, according to court documents.
Authorities believed that someone entered the department through a window without insurance, according to the affidavit.
“I saw the crime scene. I still have it in my brain today, ”said Tim Slaten.
The authorities could not match the DNA found in Linda Slaten's body with the DNA from a police database.
Two days after the murder, Mills told police he had only seen Linda Slaten once, according to the affidavit.
He admitted having left Tim Slaten at home the night before his mother's body was found. She approached her car and thanked her for bringing her son home, Mills told police.
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The killer's search
Over the years, almost two dozen detectives worked on the case, said Lakeland Police Assistant Chief Mike Link. Some trails led to Louisiana and North Carolina.
The Slaten brothers used to stop by the Lakeland Police Department to receive updates on the unsolved case. They met the agents by name and became friends.
Jeff Slaten baptized his son with the name of a detective "because he really wanted to solve it with all his might," he said.
In 2014, Lakeland police started a team of homicides of unsolved cases, Link said. Three years later, a detective began reviewing the case, Mink said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement contacted Detective Tammy Hathcock in 2018 to ask if police were interested in sending DNA from the crime scene to Parabon Nanolabs for further evidence, according to the affidavit. The laboratory uses genetic genealogy to help find possible matches with the DNA of crime scenes.
The test results pointed to Mills "due to the fact that genetic connections were found on both sides of his family tree" and he lived near the scene of the crime, according to the affidavit.
The new DNA collected from Mills' garbage matched the DNA of Linda Slaten's body, according to court documents.
The fingerprints of an arrest of Mills in 1984, which was not related to the murder of the woman, coincided with the fingerprints taken from the Slaten window ledge, according to court documents.
In an interview with detectives in early December, Mills said he had no relationship with Slaten and had never been in his apartment, according to the affidavit.
In an interview the following week, he told police that Slaten had invited him to his house to "have a good time" after he left his son on September 3, according to the affidavit.
He returned the next morning and entered through an open window in the room and Slaten asked him to have "wild" sex, he said.
Mills said "Linda Slaten already had a wire hanger around her neck while lying on the bed," the court documents said.
"Mills stated that he tightened the wire hook around his neck more and more," according to the affidavit.
Slaten lost consciousness and never recovered it before Mills came out the window, the man told police.
Mills said he learned of his death when detectives contacted him shortly after, according to court documents.
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A nightmare
Jeff Slaten said that not knowing who his mother's killer was left him "always fearing to be friends with him ."
Tim Slaten said he "trusted" the football coach he knew.
"I rode in the car with this guy, for months after the fact," he said.
He and his brother said they were grateful to everyone who worked on the case.
"It was a roller coaster and ..." said Tim Slaten, pausing.
"A nightmare," said his brother, finishing his sentence.
- Danielle Hackett of CNN contributed to this report.
Unsolved Crimes
