Around 3 a.m. on September 5th, 1981, a woman drove through a housing development in Lakeland, Florida.

She was with two of her friends who had agreed to spend the night with her at her duplex.

And this was a huge relief to this woman, because yesterday there had actually been a violent murder in their neighborhood.

But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious

delivered in story format, then you come to the right show because that's all we do.

So if that's of interest to you, please sneak in to the Follow Button's house and hide

open cans of tuna fish in all their vents, and then turn the heat on full blast.

Okay, let's get into today's story. Just before 8 p.m. on September 3, 1981, 31-year-old Linda Slayton stood in her kitchen in Lakeland, Florida, staring into her cupboard.

It was almost completely empty, except for a few cans of beans and a bag of flour.

And seeing this gave Linda a pit in her stomach, because she knew she would somehow have to turn these sparse ingredients into a meal for her kids.

Linda was a single mother of two boys, Jeff, who was 15, and Tim, who was 12.

And Linda didn't have very much money. And so in order to take care of her kids, she had to be

resourceful, like, you know, finding a way to make food with whatever ingredients she had, and

she also would like make her kids their own clothing, anything to

save money. Now up until a few weeks ago, the family had lived in Alabama, but Linda had moved to

Lakeland specifically because she had a lot of family and support there. And so Linda had hoped that,

you know, because of that support, that, you know, her and her son's lives would,

you know, improve quite a bit. It wouldn't feel like such a struggle all the time anymore.

But so far, the move to Lakeland had just been more of the same. You know, Linda couldn't find a

steady job. So she and the boys had been relying on government assistance and food stamps, which

never seemed to be enough to keep these two teenagers well fed. And tonight, Linda's youngest son, Tim, was about to be dropped off after being

at football practice, and historically, he was very hungry after practice, and so she really wanted

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