When a mild-mannered father and his 12-year-old son are shot execution style inside their Bay Area home, there's no apparent motive.

Investigators are puzzled by one of the most unlikely double homicides in suburban California history in this episode of Last Seen Alive.

So. Thanks for listening to Last Seen Alive.

I'm your host, Leah, crime analyst by day and true crime storyteller by night.

And as always, I'm your co-host, Scott, might I say, that is quite the hook for this episode.

This is a weird one. Very strange, very unlikely crime. There's a reason there's no answers after so many years. Neal and Brendan

Abernathy were last seen alive on February 19, 1997. They were father and son. Neil was 43 years old

and owned a local franchise auto repair shop that was part of a larger chain. He wasn't a mechanic,

but rather handled the shop's business affairs and customer service.

He was an easygoing man, and at work, he was known for being particularly accommodating and

generous when it came to dealing with customers who were unhappy in any way.

In fact, he was a generous guy in every aspect of life, and is remembered fondly by many for his

habit of giving thoughtful gifts.

Brendan, his son, was just 12, a seventh grader at a local middle school. He had a knack for sciences

of any kind, but especially computer science. They lived in Hercules, California, a suburban

community home to about 18,000 people at the time, which overlooks the San Pablo

Bay. Hercules lies within the San Francisco Bay area and is a 10-mile or 16-kilometer northward

drive from Berkeley. And it wasn't just Neil and Brendan in the family home either. There was also

Susan, who was Neil's wife and Brendan's mom. She was 41 years old at the time and worked as a

professional chemist. She and Neil had been college sweethearts and Brendan was their only child.

They'd moved into their home in Hercules nearly a dozen years beforehand when he'd only

been a few months old. They loved their home and were known for hosting dinners and get-togethers.

...