Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Sharlett Hunt

Oct 18, 2006

Murder in a Family

  by Sharlett F. Hunt

  Death is so final.  It seems to bring out every emotion in all of us, yet we know it is inevitable.  We are born, live a life, then pass to wherever we each believe is our hereafter.  Many of us think that life is eternal.  In reality, it can pass in the blink of an eye. 

  When a family member is murdered, it is always a shock.  Suddenly, many lives are changed.  Things you used to believe in are no longer there to comfort you and the question keeps going round in your head, "Why?".  And "why not me?". 

  Recently detectives here in my fine town have decided to reopen a cold case.  It is the horrific murder case from over twenty years ago.  It is the brutal killing of Linda Slaten, my step-sister.

 These are only things you read about or hear about on the news.  This could never happen in my family.  But it can and does. 

  This tends to be the topic of conversation when my dad calls.  He is telling me my two nephews along with some of the local television stations are putting up a reward for information leading to her killer.  After all these years nobody has been charged.

  Linda and her two young sons had moved into an apartment on the west side of Lakeland.  Her sister, Judy, had rented an apartment in the same building.  They were looking forward to a good life together and both were always close to my dad and stepmom. 

  The girls had finished moving in and were having coffee together most mornings.  This one particular morning, Linda had not come to Judy's apartment for coffee so she thought she would go wake her up. 

  As she walked around the side of the building, she noticed something about the screen in the window just didn't look right.  It appeared as if to have been removed so she looked through the window and the sight she observed, I am certain, will live with her the rest of her life.  Her sister, Linda, was lying, body all askew as if a rag doll, in a puddle of blood on her bed. 

  She frantically called for the boys to wake up.  They had been asleep throughout this horror.  These children were young pre-teens whose minds were very fragile facing the fact that their mom had been taken from them by brutal force.  As they awakened they saw the absurdity of what had happened.

 Linda was what detectives call "overkilled".  She had been raped, stabbed repeatedly in the vagina but that didn't kill her.  There were signs that she fought with all she had.  She was a small girl 35 years old, only standing about 5'1". 

  Then this devil took a wire coat hanger and strangled her to death.  Nobody heard anything.  She possibly didn't have time to scream.  Her children were asleep in the next room and didn't hear a thing and still try to carry blame that doesn't belong to them. 

  Our whole family was questioned by detectives.  Myself, being the wayward one, took it personally.  Linda and I had some great times together.  We took our children to parks occasionally and simply enjoyed each other's company.   Linda never saw a stranger and would help anyone any way she could. 

  This murder has hurt so many.  Linda's son's, who are now grown up with families of their own, live with this and strive to find closure just in knowing who did this.  It breaks my heart to see her older boy, Jeff. He does so well in life, yet lives with this daily. 

  I remember seeing Linda, at the funeral of my brother.  She loved my Terry, also.  She picked a pink carnation from his flowers.  I found that touching.  She died a few months later. 

 She never got to see her lovely grandchildren.  Her life was taken in a split second.  Nobody has the right to take a human life, except God.  Linda's mom went to her grave never knowing who killed her daughter. 

  The one thing we need to know now, is "who" and "why" as if there could be a reason to do this.  I go through periods of trying so hard to think of someone who acted strange during this time.  Linda's boys go through a daily torture.  Jeff, the oldest, breaks down  when his mom's name is mentioned.  He blames himself for not waking up.  He was a kid for God's sake!

  I know that Linda blames nobody.  She is one of my angels and I can see her at times, laughing, and just fluttering around.  I tend to remember the good times and try to forget the horrible way she died.