Linda Pikuritz

On 12 October 1978, 12-year-old Linda Pikuritz rode her bike from her family's home in Port Charlotte, FL to a convenience store about one mile away. This was a trip that Linda had been making regularly for months. But on this night in particular - right before Friday the 13th - Linda never returned home…

At around 11:20 PM on October 12th, 1978, a police dispatcher for the Englewood sheriff substation - located just outside of Port Charlotte, Florida - passed by a quiet, desolate spot in an uninhabited part of town. This individual noticed a brush fire beginning to burn out of control, in a vacant field near Tigard Street. They called in the fire to the sheriff's office, who, in turn, contacted a local fire station.

Firefighters would arrive at the scene approximately 25 minutes later, noticing that most of the flames had already started to burn out. They were able to quell what embers remained quite easily but made a grisly discovery in the early morning hours of Friday the 13th.

When one firefighter went to poke what appeared to be a smoking log, he discovered that it was actually the charred body of a young girl... who authorities would later determine had been alive when the fire was started.

This is the story of Linda Pikuritz.

Linda Carol Pikuritz was the fourth and youngest child born to her parents, Paul and Betty Pikuritz, who worked as a carpenter and waitress, respectively. Rounding out the rest of her immediate family were one older sister, Deborah, as well as two older brothers, Paul and Joseph ("Joey").

Linda and her siblings grew up in New York, but the family moved down to Florida in July of 1978, when Linda was approximately 12 years old. They had moved down the east coast because her parents' work schedules had been consuming the better parts of their week - with her father, Paul, working as a stagehand for CBS Television for 7 days a week and 18+ hours a day - and they wanted to move somewhere quieter, more scenic, where they could spend more time with their family. As a result, Paul and Betty had to change their careers, but that was a small price to pay for their overall happiness.

The family settled into Port Charlotte, Florida, which wasn't nearly as popular back in the late 1970s as it is now. At the time, Port Charlotte was a moderately small town about 100 miles south of Tampa, and approximately 30 miles northwest of Fort Myers. There, they rented a home in the 900 block of Abhenry Circle, which was located near the various creeks and waterways that cut through this suburban community... which was not only more scenic than the family's previous life in New York, but much quieter and relaxed.

Despite moving to this region during the summer of 1978, the family quickly became accustomed to calling the region 'home,' and settled into an easy routine. Linda started taking classes at a local high school, and one of her teachers, Sherrie Ragan - who had only known her for a short time - later recalled:

"She was perky and always had a smile whenever she passed me."

Gym teacher Sally Baldwin later stated:

"Linda was a tough little girl. One of the best basketball players I've seen... She was a tough little cookie. During roll call, she always said her last name over and over for me so I would pronounce it correctly."

In October of 1978, just months after moving to Florida, Linda's parents were called back to New York for the most unfortunate of reasons. Her paternal grandmother that lived on Long Island had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and her mother and father would fly up to visit with them on short notice. So, Linda was put into the care of her older sister, Deborah, who agreed to watch over the children while their parents were gone.

Other than the absence of her parents, October 12th unfolded just like every other Thursday. That day, Linda went to class at Port Charlotte Junior High School, attending English (during which, she promised her teacher she'd get 100% on a spelling test the next day), social studies, math, lunch, gym, science, and then home ec.

After school, she returned home and then rode around on her prized 10-speed bike throughout the neighborhood. For a bit, she was joined by a young girl that lived next door, 8-year-old Vonnie Nave.

At around 6:30 PM, Linda planned to ride her bike about a mile away, to a convenience store nearby. 8-year-old Vonnie asked her mother if she could go along, but was told no... not on a school night. So Linda went by herself, on a trip she had become quite accustomed to.

Li'l General Store, which was located near the intersection of Midway Boulevard and U.S. 41, had been a regular destination for Linda throughout 1978. Almost every night, at around the same time, Linda rode her bike the one mile to the general store to pick up some candy or a pack of chewing gum. She was not allowed to bike down Midway Boulevard, a popular throughway, but would instead take a less direct route through quieter neighborhoods.

However, after leaving her family's neighborhood at about 6:30, several hours would pass without her returning home. Her siblings readied dinner that evening, but Linda was a no-show. Attempts to rouse her throughout the neighborhood would prove unsuccessful.

Deborah, Linda's older sister, began calling around to Linda's friends and family acquaintances in the hopes of tracking her down. After that proved fruitless, she would begin going door-to-door with their brothers, asking if they had seen Linda, but no one had seen her for quite some time.

As minutes began to turn into hours, Deborah was finally forced to call the sheriff's office at around 10:30 PM, and a missing persons report was officially filed about 11:22 PM.

Sadly, though, the reporting of this coincided with the discovery of a charred body in a nearby field, along Tigard Street and Toledo Blade Boulevard. This was about four miles away, near the region of town known as Murdock, in an area that was mostly unpopulated at the time.

Firefighters responded to the call of a brush fire at around 11:47 PM and discovered the body of Linda Pikuritz minutes later. It was unknown whether her body had first been set on fire, or if she had been consumed by a fire started in the field around her, but the intended effect was unmistakable.

Linda had been found. But the circumstances of this discovery would horrify not only her loved ones - who were unprepared to deal with such a tragedy - but the entire community. Everyone who learned about the case in the coming days was shocked to hear how the body of this bright-eyed, perpetually-smiling 12-year-old had been burned in a desolate field just outside of town.

Charlotte County Sheriff Alan LeBeau would later speak to the press about the details of this crime, describing the person(s) responsible for it as a "sick weirdo." In his words:

"It was a brutal, brutal murder. In my 10 years in law enforcement, never have I see a slaying of this type nor has anyone on my staff... This was a brutal slaying done by a very sick individual."

Unfortunately, forensic evidence was hard to come by at the crime scene, which had been set on fire and then promptly extinguished. Charlotte County Sheriff's Lieutenant Jim Jones would recall a year later:

"The fire destroyed much of it. The scene was sprayed down with water before we got to it."

However, in the field surrounding the body, police were able to find drag marks, indicating the general direction that the killer had come from. After arriving at the spot where her body was found, police believed this killer had then covered Linda's body with gasoline or turpentine (or some other flammable substance) and then set her on fire.

Even though Linda's body had been found nude, authorities found evidence that pieces of her clothing had been the kindling for the fire. Based on zipper and button marks on her torso, it was believed that her clothing had been placed on top of her body, and that was likely how the fire started. Other pieces of clothing were discovered near the body, as was a fingerprint sample (which would be unsuccessfully compared to at least 15 suspects in the months to come).

Approximately 12 hours after Linda's burning body was found, police discovered her abandoned 10-speed bike near the corners of Broad Ranch Dr. and Midway Boulevard, about two miles away, near the convenience store she had visited that evening. It was hidden in the bushes, and had likely been put there by the killer.

Police gathered statements from multiple witnesses, which indicated that she had made it to the Li'l General Store she visited almost every night. This implied that she had been abducted on her way home; perhaps along Midway Boulevard, which she wasn't supposed to travel down, but might have done so anyway because her parents were out-of-town. Investigators believed that Linda had been abducted right after a friend spotted her leaving the store at around 7:15 PM since her bike was found incredibly close to this location.

Unfortunately, there were very few witnesses in the area at the time, and very few were able to recall anything overly suspicious. Police conducted a door-to-door canvas in the area leading to and from the general store, and were unable to find anyone that had seen or heard anything. Speaking specifically about this, Sheriff Alan LeBeau told the press:

"No one saw anything or heard anything. So far, we don't have much to go on."

Based on statements provided by Linda's family, it was implied that the 12-year-old would not have trusted a stranger or gotten into their vehicle willingly. Her family had taught her not to trust anybody she didn't know and she had learned about a relative's firsthand experience of being abducted approximately 10 years prior (who was thankfully unharmed during). But that experience informed the family's urgency when teaching Linda not to trust strangers, and they believed that she wouldn't have abandoned her prized bicycle, regardless. This led investigators to theorize that Linda had not gone along willingly with her killer, having perhaps been forced or coerced into their vehicle and then driven away to the location where she was killed.

The autopsy of Linda's body was performed by Dr. Peter Tan, the medical examiner for Charlotte County, who ruled her cause of death as a homicide by way of "burning." He found that 12-year-old Linda had not been killed before being set on fire; rather, she had been set on fire while still alive, and soot in her lungs indicated that she had breathed in smoke before eventually dying as a result of that and the burns all over her body. Later, referring to the samples of singed clothing on top of her nude body, Dr. Tan would testify:

"If she was conscious, she would most likely have tried to escape, and we would not see the clothing on her chest."

Unfortunately, the body of Linda Pikuritz was so badly burned that Dr. Peter Tan had a hard time determining certain factors, such as whether or not Linda had been beaten or sexually assaulted before her death. He found no evidence of sexual assault - nor of any internal injuries or brain damage - but ruled that the fire had destroyed any possibility of him ruling definitively on that. Later, he admitted:

"Because of the damage, the burn effect, from the examination there is no proof. But it cannot be ruled out."

Dr. Tan would discover that one of Linda's arms had been broken, but believed that this could have been caused by the fire that consumed her body. It was impossible to tell otherwise.

Tests performed, later on, would determine that Linda had not consumed any drugs or alcohol before her death, indicating that she had not been drugged or poisoned by her killer before being killed (as had been theorized early on, as investigators struggled to figure out how she had been burned to death without fighting back or drawing any kind of attention).

Later, when speaking to the press, Punta Gorda Police Chief Donald R. Bennet would state:

"In terms of brutality, I can't think of anything quite like this."

Early on, police officials stated that they had received reports that at least three children had been approached by a suspicious man that Thursday, who reportedly tried to pick them up in his car and lead them away to another location. All of these incidents - which had been reported to the childrens' parents and then police - had taken place near Meadow Park Elementary School, along U.S. 41.

Unfortunately, all of the children involved were incredibly young, so police were unable to draw many details out of them for a description of this potential suspect. A woman would later present police with a sketch of a man she'd seen in the area, but the sketch was so generic that investigators had a hard time matching it up with any of their potential suspects.

Anonymous sources would later claim to the local newspaper News-Press that a suspicious man had been seen in the area of the Li'l General Store, where Linda had been the night of her murder and had been making "slurred comments" to young girls and women. However, police insisted that they knew nothing of this, and made no comment about these allegations for quite some time.

In the weeks to come, investigators would employ several bizarre methods to help track down the killer of Linda Pikuritz, including the usage of hypnosis in an attempt to obtain clues from potential witnesses. As you can imagine, this would fail to come up with anything definitive, as would the administration of polygraph tests to potential suspects.

Early on, a lot of attention was cast upon a similar disappearance that was reported the day after Linda's death (Friday, October 13th, 1978). A 17-year-old named Christine Gudella disappeared from her family's home in Punta Gorda after heading out on a walk that Friday evening, and wasn't seen again for several days. Some in the area believed that her disappearance could be related to Linda's murder since the two were both young blonde girls that had just moved to the region and went missing within 24 hours. However, the teenager turned up again more than a week later, having run off to spend some time with new friends, and no charges were filed concerning her brief disappearance.

After more than a week spent hunting down leads in the horrifying murder of Linda Pikuritz, investigators admitted that they were continuing to probe certain persons of interest. Lt. William Clement, the chief investigator for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Department that was overseeing the case, told reporters with the News-Press:

"We're now checking into certain persons who might be suspects and certain types of vehicles possibly involved in the abduction."

Investigators would eventually reach out to psychologists in the region and would consult with members of the FBI's burgeoning Behavioral Science Unit, who helped them develop a psychological profile for the killer... who, they believed, was a resident (or was, at least, someone local to the area).

Mental health experts believed that the killer was not a braggart, by any means, and was likely skilled at compartmentalizing things; so much so that he likely wouldn't tell anyone about the murder, and was able to repress its memory when it didn't suit him. They also believed, based on the circumstances of Linda's murder, that the killer might have been under the influence of drugs at the time, which helped him/them further compartmentalize things.

Lt. William Clement told the News-Press:

"In most homicide cases the suspect usually tells someone... But apparently that's not the case here."

Despite there being no sign of sexual trauma on the victim's body, certain investigators believed there to be "sexual overtones" to the case. Even if the victim hadn't been raped (which it was impossible to determine because of the damaged state of her remains) the fire might have acted as some kind of sexual release for the killer, they postulated.

Utilizing the psychological profile, investigators stated that they didn't believe the killer to be someone that Linda or her family had known previously. As stated by Lt. Clement to the press:

"It's possible but unlikely that he knew her. The family was here for only a short time prior to the murder. It's hard to make that kind of enemy in so little time... The girl had no problems in school or with associates. She was just a likable kid."

In November of 1978, two investigators traveled out of state on a fact-finding mission but refused to speak to the public about the specifics of their trip (such as where they went or who they had planned on speaking to). Months later, though, authorities would admit that there was a suspect who lived in another state, that investigators were rather high on, but they had been unable to rouse up enough evidence against him. As recounted by Sheriff Alan LeBeau to the News-Press:

"That theory looked real good for a while, but it doesn't anymore. That person is still under consideration but there are a number of suspects right now."

On November 14th, 1978, police announced that they had arrested 20-year-old Phillip Lee Drake of Port Charlotte, and charged him with perjury. Investigators alleged that Drake had been questioned about the Linda Pikuritz murder, and had made a false statement regarding the whereabouts of his vehicle on the day of the murder.

During an official police interview, Drake had denied lending his 1972 white Chevrolet to anyone on the evening of Linda's murder, and police claimed that this vehicle matched the description of a vehicle seen in the area near the Li'l General Store (where Linda had last been seen alive). However, as recounted by Sheriff Alan LeBeau, police learned that Drake "did loan the car to some friends" at the time of the murder.

While police never explained how they had come up with Drake's name during their investigation, he was charged with perjury for lying to investigators... charges that were later dropped in January of 1979.

Days after his arrest, however, a statewide alert would be issued for another man, 22-year-old Brian Patrick Kane, who was wanted for questioning in connection to the murder. While neither Drake nor Kane were officially named suspects by police, Sheriff Alan LeBeau told reporters that he believed Kane to have "important information that could lead us directly to the person or persons responsible for this incomprehensible killing."

Brian Patrick Kane turned himself into authorities a few days later and was released after questioning with no charges filed against him.

By December 1978, nearly two months after the murder, investigators would return to the drawing board in an attempt to review the facts of the case, just in case there had been anything they overlooked. They would repeat this process again in 1979 after sources close to the investigation came forward and told reporters that the investigation had been "botched" early on.

These sources claimed that investigators had lost focus early on, and then allowed the case to become "dormant" after a little more than a month. These claims seemed to intensify in May of 1979 when an article in the News-Press revealed that investigators had traveled to Connecticut to meet with a man named Edward C. Moser.

Moser had lived in Port Charlotte until the Fall of 1978 when his life had begun to unravel and his marriage had fallen apart. Moser, a father of five, had then packed up his things and moved away to Ellington, Connecticut, where he was soon admitted and treated at a mental hospital.

After moving to Connecticut, Moser had been detained by authorities after he covered himself in a flammable liquid and attempted to set himself on fire. The only reason he had failed was that the lighter he was using at the time had broken during usage. Inside a car nearby - which police identified as having been driven by Moser - they found a note, which was reported by South Windsor Police Captain Bill Ryan to contain the comments of a "despondent" man. Speaking to the News-Press, Captain Ryan recalled:

"It mentions Florida and Connecticut, but not anything specific."

A section of the note read:

"I'm maybe wanted in Fla. for something else. I don't know. I maybe killed someone on a local st. with one of my kids' car(s). I don't remember too good, but it's possible."

Moser's ex-wife told investigators, as recounted by the News-Press, that her husband:

"... talked a lot about suicide and had a number of automobile accidents... He was having recurring nightmares wherein he hit a kid or a number of kids."

Investigators from Charlotte County traveled to Connecticut to meet with Edward Moser and his lawyer but were unable to sit down and talk with either. Not only were they unable to get this potential suspect and his attorney in a room with them, but everyone they tried to talk to during this trip - Moser's friends and family, his acquaintances, even local officials - rebuffed their offer.

Later, officials with Charlotte County claimed that Moser had a decent alibi for the murder - with a security alarm at the store he owned in Port Charlotte having gone off at around the same time that firefighters had discovered Linda's burning body - and he had met with police at the store. However, this seems anything but definitive, considering the fire was started just a few miles away, and the fire was reported more than a half-hour prior.

Nonetheless, this was enough to erase Edward C. Moser from the suspect pool, and the Charlotte County Sheriff's Department ineffectiveness highlighted itself in their inability to simply interview him.

In June of 1979, authorities released a composite sketch of their prime suspect: a white man, between 25 and 30 years old, with a somewhat-long face, thin cheekbones, pouty lips, shaggy or wavey brown hair, dark-colored eyes (likely brown), and a mustache.

This man, who stood about six feet tall and weighed approximately 180 pounds, was believed to have been spotted talking to Linda on the night of the murder, near the intersection of Midway Boulevard and Broad Ranch Drive. This was a location nearby the convenience store she had last been seen, not too far away from where her bike had been abandoned, and the two were reportedly seen together at 7:00 PM (about 15 minutes before Linda was last seen alive).

Investigators noted that this man reportedly drove a white sedan, which could have been either a Ford, Chevy, or Plymouth.

When asked why it had taken so long for authorities to release this composite sketch, Lt. Jim Jones - who had just been appointed to head the investigation months prior - cited the confusing nature of the case he inherited. Sadly, this seems to track, with almost everyone involved with the case noting the dysfunctional early days of the case that led to tips not being followed up on, evidence being misplaced or outright lost, and investigators figuratively chasing their own tails.

Lt. Jones believed that the suspect still lived in the area, and "probably had a past history of this type of thing. It's probably his first time, or even his second or third time" assaulting someone. However, based on the brutal nature of this crime (which had not been seen in this region before), Jones believed that this was the first time he had escalated to killing.

Soon, authorities would admit that their suspect pool - which had narrowed down from dozens of potential suspects to 2 or 3 - had narrowed down yet again to a single suspect. Police believed that, in time, the evidence would prove that this individual had been behind the murder.

Yet, in 1980, after turning over their case to prosecutors, it was almost immediately mothballed by state attorneys, who believed it was not solid enough to stand up to a grand jury, let alone a court of law. As recounted by State Attorney Joseph D'Alessandro to the News-Press that year:

"There's not enough evidence to proceed. They have a good suspect but basically the bottom line is there isn't enough evidence to prosecute anybody."

For the next handful of years, the case would remain in a mostly-dormant state. Investigators would come and go, attempt to recalibrate the case file, but essentially left it the way they found it. That is until Sergeant Ken Barton was brought in by the Charlotte County Sheriff to work exclusively on this case... which was, at the time, the most ominous unsolved case in the county.

Newly-appointed Sheriff John McDougall, who had been appointed on an interim basis, gave Sgt. Barton the task of reinvestigating the case after meeting with the Pikuritz family. Later, when speaking to the News-Press, Sgt. Barton explained:

"It wasn't totally inactive, but if there's such a thing as a back burner, this case was as back burner as you can get."

Months later - after focusing on this case exclusively - Sgt. Barton announced to the press that he was so confident in the case and had made a significant amount of progress. He even stated, on the 7-year mark of the case (October 1985) that he believed an arrest was imminent.

The following year, in March of 1986, Sheriff John McDougall held a press conference, announcing that he had delivered a 2,000-page investigative report to prosecutors, and expected an arrest to be made in " a short period of time."

Days would pass... and then weeks. But police would finally announce the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Linda Pikuritz: 35-year-old Bradley Philip Scott from West Palm Beach, who was charged with first-degree murder and arrested without incident. Alan LeBeau, the former sheriff of Charlotte County, told reporters the day of Scott's arrest:

"He was our No. 1 suspect all along... I hope now they've got him."

Bradley Philip Scott had been born in Nova Scotia, but his family had moved to the U.S. when he was a toddler. Raised in Odessa, Florida, Bradley was no stranger to loss, with his father having died of cancer in his youth. He and his siblings would then be raised by their mother, who had to work long hours to support them. As a result, Bradley and his brother, Mitchell, ended up getting into a lot of trouble as teenagers, and both dropped out of school.

Mitchell, Bradley's younger brother, would end up going to prison for a litany of crimes, but was sent away for life after being convicted for multiple rape/robberies. While Bradley was himself involved in a lot of illegal activity - such as theft and drug offenses - he reportedly despised his brother for a long time because of Mitchell's violent nature.

Bradley Scott had come upon investigators' radar shortly after the murder of Linda Pikuritz, having been convicted of battery in a case involving another girl from Port Charlotte, which unfolded approximately two months after Linda's murder (just a few days before Christmas 1978).

In that incident, Bradley had picked up a 15-year-old girl that had been hitchhiking along U.S. 41. The girl had offered him a joint, and the two drove off to a remote, wooded area where they proceeded to drink and smoke, before making out. This was about three miles away from where Linda's body had been burned, and while the two made out - per the admission of both - Bradley had attempted to take it a step further. After the girl rebuffed his demands, Bradley reportedly hit her in the head. She claims that he then threatened to kill her, but she was able to fight him off and flee the scene. She eventually sought help, leading to Bradley's arrest that December.

Months later, Bradley Scott was found guilty of simple battery and was sentenced to serve a year at the Charlotte County Jail. However, he had been previously arrested for a few crimes, including driving under the influence of alcohol and for solicitation of prostitution, so he was no stranger to the jailhouse.

Following his release in 1980, he would end up spending the next handful of years in and out of prison for various offenses, which ranged from assault to car theft to crimes involving drug. It was later noted that he had been arrested 36 times in his life, with 25 of those coming between 1980 and 1986. Most, however, were simple misdemeanors, that resulted in short stays in jail or a fine.

However, it was during his yearlong stint in jail for assault - after picking up the teenage hitchhiker - that intrigued investigators the most. This offense had happened just two months after Linda's murder, when they were investigating everyone that had a loose connection to sex crimes in the area, and it just-so-happened that Bradley Scott was a spitting image of the composite sketch that investigators released to the public back in 1979.

Over time, investigators' focus had narrowed in almost completely on Bradley Scott, with authorities eliminating the other possible suspects - such as Philip Drake, Brian Kane, and Edward Moser - from their potential pool. However, despite this narrow field of suspects dwindling down to one, authorities never had enough evidence to prosecute Scott, with the case being held up by state prosecutors who believed it wouldn't survive a trial.

That is, until Sgt. Ken Barton came onto the case, claiming to have overhauled it with investigative techniques that weren't available years prior. This included not only psychological profiling but cutting-edge forensic testing that allowed Charlotte County to re-evaluate and analyze its available evidence... or so they said.

In the meantime, Bradley Scott had settled down into a quiet life with his family. At the time of his arrest, he lived with his wife April and their two children in West Palm Beach. Their youngest child, a son, had been born literally days before Bradley's arrest in May of 1986.

During preliminary hearings, meant for the defendant to submit his plea and for the court to determine his bond, the state would begin to present their argument for Bradley Scott's guilt. Their case was centered around (what they believed to be) airtight forensic evidence, which included a hair found in Scott's 1971 Mercury Monterey, which authorities stated matched Linda Pikuritz in all "class characteristics." They also alleged to have found hairs on Linda's tennis shoes - recovered at the crime scene - which were claimed to matched Scott.

The lynchpin of their case, however, was a necklace found at the crime scene, which appeared to have been ripped from her body. Authorities claimed that a missing bead from this necklace had been found in the vehicle of Bradley Scott, which was searched approximately ten months after Linda's murder. Authorities stated that this bead had been examined by FBI analysts, who stated that the seashell-shaped bead found in Scott's Mercury Monterey could be the missing bead from the necklace.

In addition to this physical evidence, authorities also presented more circumstantial evidence, such as witness reports from those that had known both Bradley Scott and the victim. On the morning after the murder, prosecutors alleged Scott had asked two separate people about the girl murdered in the woods, which they claim was hours before any details of the case had been provided to the public.

Then, they stated that three separate witnesses had seen Scott talking to 12-year-old Linda on the night of the murder, having been sitting in his white Mercury Monterey (which matched the vague description of the vehicle distributed by law enforcement in 1979). Another witness had reportedly seen Scott talking to Linda ahead of the murder (which fit in with the theory that Linda had known her killer), and other witnesses reported seeing the two speaking together before the day of Linda's death.

In addition to this, prosecutors alleged, Bradley Scott had worked as a construction worker and had helped install a sprinkler system at a home in Linda's neighborhood approximately three weeks before her murder. Through this job, he also had easy, untraceable access to gasoline, which may have been used to start the fire that killed Linda Pikuritz.

In response to these allegations, Bradley Philip Scott's defense attorneys (along with critics) argued that the state's case was incredibly circumstantial, relying heavily upon witness statements in a case that was more than seven years old and now hinged upon iffy physical evidence.

Officials that had worked on the case years prior - and knew the intimate details of the early investigation - noted that Bradley Philip Scott had been a suspect for quite some time. They would become some of the biggest critics of this case in the press, noting that the current case against him was essentially the same case that had been built back in 1979, only now, with things slightly rearranged. If you recall, this was the same case that had been ruled too weak to prosecute by the state attorneys overseeing this district... who now felt comfortable pursuing almost the exact same case years later.

Some worried that a failure to properly investigate or prosecute this case could lead to an acquittal... or worse, an end to the case itself, which seemed largely half-baked.

Leonard Johnson, Bradley Scott's primary attorney, unsuccessfully argued for the charges to be dismissed because of the state's weak case and the amount of time that had already passed, stating:

"My client is prejudiced by 91 months. The murder took place in 1978 but he wasn't arrested for it until 1986. In that time, evidence has disappeared, key witnesses have died and memories have faded. He cannot present an adequate defense due to these factors."

At the end of these preliminary hearings, the judge refused to dismiss the charges, and bond for Bradley Scott was set at $100,000 but was later revoked. A grand jury indicted the suspect on first-degree murder charges, based on Sgt. Barton's extensive 2000-page case report.

As he had done all along, Bradley Philip Scott pleaded innocent to the charge filed against him.

The trial of Bradley Scott was scheduled to begin in 1987, but a series of setbacks would cause delays; namely, a lead investigator on the case - as well as some other integral figures - missing the dates for their deposition, and then printed depositions going missing from a county courthouse.

In July of 1987, Scott would write a letter to the judge, asking him to proceed with the trial in a timely fashion, with him having been detained for more than a year at that point with no end in sight. He contended that prosecutors had spent the entire past decade preparing for this eventuality but still needed time to file for delays and appeals to get their case against him straightened out. Scott claimed that this infringed on his constitutional right to obtain a speedy trial, and may have been used as a tactic by prosecutors to coerce him into a plea deal.

This claim would end up falling on deaf ears, however, with the trial then delayed until January of 1988. The judge feared that holding a trial during the holiday season would cause witnesses to miss their scheduled court appearances.

Another setback came in the form of Bradley Scott's attorney, the Charlotte County public defender, resigning his post that Fall. This would spark fears of yet another delay, but a private attorney was brought in to oversee the defense moving forward, and a trial start date was finally set for January 5th, 1988... nearly 10 years after Linda Pikuritz had been killed, and nearly two years after Bradley Scott had been arrested. If convicted, he faced the possibility of either life in prison or death via electric chair.

The state's case against Bradley Scott largely hinged on the evidence I listed a few minutes ago, which had been presented during preliminary hearings to explain how dire a threat he was. This included the hair fibers found at the crime scene and in Scott's vehicle, as well as a small seashell bead in his car, found approximately ten months after the murder, which authorities speculated had come from a necklace belonging to Linda Pikuritz.

However, when presenting the hair fibers in court, prosecutors offered up no testimony proving or even indicating that the hair fibers found in Scott's vehicle were definitively Linda's. They only shared that it had the same "characteristics," and offered up no evidence to support the claim that the fibers found on Linda's tennis shoes had belonged to Bradley Scott.

Witnesses, including friends of Linda's, testified that Bradley used to provide them beer and weed, and often met with or talked to them at the convenience store (where Linda had last been seen alive). This seemed to somewhat shatter the innocent image of Linda, who had been portrayed as a little girl that was riding her bike down to a corner convenience store to pick up a pack of bubblegum; in fact, testimony presented by the prosecution alleged that she often drank beer and smoked weed with her friends in or around this area.

While I'm not trying to claim this behavior is either good or bad - I, like Linda, experimented with drugs and alcohol during my teenage years - defense attorneys argued that this did more harm to the prosecution's case than their own. After all, it seemed to open up the possibility of Linda attempting to meet up with other drug dealers in the area while looking for marijuana, which might have led her to get into someone's car and drive to an isolated location nearby.

In return, prosecutors argued that this person was none other than Bradley Scott. Other witnesses that testified during the trial put him in the neighborhood of the convenience store on the night of the murder, driving a white vehicle that matched the suspect's description.

Prosecutors then attempted to lay the groundwork for the next step of their case - proving that Bradley Scott was a burgeoning serial killer, who preyed upon young girls in West Palm Beach - but the judge ruled that none of that evidence was relevant to the case. For that reason, it wasn't allowed to be submitted in court.

When it came time for defense attorneys to present their side of the argument, they revealed to the jury that Bradley Philip Scott had not been investigators' only suspect... nor their primary suspect, for quite some time. They pointed to the early case files, which had pointed towards several suspects, including Edward C. Moser, the man that had moved to Connecticut and attempted to set himself on fire. However, they were unable to present evidence of Moser's suicide note - which had seemed to implicate him in multiple unsolved crimes in Florida and Connecticut, perhaps even Linda's murder - due to the judge ruling it inadmissible for this case.

However, the defense was able to point the finger at least two separate offenders, who had been thoroughly investigated by Charlotte County officials for this case: Phillip Lee Drake and Brian Patrick Kane. If you recall, both had been sought by police back in 1979, and Drake had been charged with perjury for lying to investigators, but police had never explained away their potential involvement... or why they had been cleared.

Virgil Shelton, a witness brought in by the defense, claimed that Brian Kane had confessed to him when the two were in jail together, claiming that Phillip Drake and he had been high on PCP on the day of Linda's murder. At some point, she had ended up in a car with them, and they then drove her to the woods, where Kane supposedly confessed to Drake raping and killing her, before setting her body on fire. This witness, Shelton, had actually cooperated with investigators early on, who helped get his charges dropped in exchange for information about the other two.

It was also learned during the trial that Phillip Drake was one of the main sources of alcohol and marijuana for Linda and her friends. Witnesses testified that Drake had been a primary source of drugs for teens and young adults in the area, giving Linda Pikuritz a reasonable motivation for having sought him out or gone with him to another location.

The attempts to throw out other potential suspects wasn't so much to point the guilt in their direction, as much as it was to deflect it away from Bradley Scott. After all, any reasonable guilt is meant to deter from a guilty verdict, and highlighting these other potential suspects - that police had seemingly not thoroughly vetted nor properly cleared - was meant to do just that.

Through his attorneys, Scott also provided other evidence that he hoped would clear him of the murder charge. This included an alibi for the evening of the murders, with Scott claiming that he had been at a shopping mall in Sarasota with his then-girlfriend, more than 50 miles away, purchasing a suede jacket. He was unable to provide proof of this trip because so much time had passed since; he no longer had the receipt for the purchase, and store records didn't extend that far back. But he alleged that this alibi had been checked out and vetted by early investigators, who cleared him as a result.

Defense attorneys also argued that the "forensic evidence" offered up by the prosecution was not very credible, since the shell bead - which they claimed belonged to a necklace at the crime scene - had been found in Scott's vehicle ten months after the murder. At the time, the vehicle had been sold and was sitting in a used car lot, so the chain of custody was far from secure. They also believed that the bead could have come from Scott's mother, who had crafted items with similar beads for years.

After three weeks of testimony from both sides, the trial came to an end at the end of January 1988. After deliberating for approximately twelve hours, the jury - which was comprised of six men and six women - came back with a verdict of guilty. A day or so later, the same jury recommended that Bradley Philip Scott received the death penalty, voting 8-4 in favor of death. According to the News-Press, the jury "believed that the murder was 'sickening, evil, atrocious, or cruel' enough under state law to justify what prosecutors called 'the ultimate penalty.'"

More than a week later, Circuit Judge William McIver, who had overseen the trial, returned with a similar decision, siding with the jury's recommendation. He ruled that Bradley Scott should die via electric chair, stating:

"The people, and now the court, have determined that you should not survive your monstrous act."

Bradley Scott, who had not taken the stand during his trial, was allowed to make a brief statement to the court during his sentencing hearing:

"I've only got a couple of things to say, if it's OK with the court. One is I feel real bad for the family. They have been victimized, as my family has and I... I have not committed any crime. They have found me guilty. I didn't do it."

After being sentenced to die for the murder of 12-year-old Linda Pikuritz, Bradley Philip Scott would begin to live out the rest of his presumably short life on death row, awaiting the day that he would be taken away to the electric chair (a fate reserved for criminals such as Ted Bundy, who was similarly executed by the state of Florida in 1989).

However, through his attorneys, Bradley Scott would file an appeal almost immediately, planning to take the case all the way up to the Florida Supreme Court, if he had to. Later in 1988, months after his conviction, Scott would speak to reporters with the News-Press, hinting that he would commit suicide if the appeals were rejected, stating:

"I never killed nobody. The only thing that keeps me alive is my family. I live to prove my innocence and be back with my wife and children. But if (the appeal) doesn't happen, I'm going to end it, for them. They would be better off. It's not good for my wife and my kids to see me like this, in here."

"I didn't do it. I'm not walking out of here by pleading guilty. I would sooner die. They offered me a plea bargain in 1987. They said I could get out of here in 25 years if I would just plead guilty. I could care less about that. I don't want to be known as the guy who could (kill a child)... I know I didn't do it, but nobody will believe me. So, I'm waiting to be sentenced to die."

Meanwhile, Bradley Scott's wife April - who had just given birth to their second child two days before his 1986 arrest - had spent the entire duration of his time in jail and prison obtaining her criminal justice degree while raising the kids as a single parent, essentially. She made the six-hour drive to Bradley's prison every month and continued to advocate for his innocence.

Her faith was eventually rewarded.

In May of 1991, a decision was made to overturn the conviction of 40-year-old Bradley Philip Scott by the Florida Supreme Court, who voted unanimously to overturn the conviction from Charlotte County and acquit him of Linda Pikuritz's murder. In their ruling, the Florida Supreme Court found that:

"Scott was no longer able to corroborate his alibi that initially was checked out by law enforcement officials; he was unable to present certain witnesses in his defense because the witnesses had died; and evidence that may have been helpful to Scott was lost as a result of the delay."

The seven-member Supreme Court found that the alibi presented by Bradley Scott during his trial - that he had been fifty miles away from the crime scene, buying a suede jacket at a shopping mall with his then-girlfriend - had been deemed valid by early investigators. Hence, the case against him being judged as weak by prosecutors back in 1980. It wasn't until 1986, when evidence of his alibi had faded, that authorities decided to try his case again. Because so much time had passed, Scott was no longer able to provide proof that he had been at the shopping mall on the night of the murder; and investigators had lost their only records showing that this alibi had been vetted by the original investigators. Not only did this decision to delay the trial, thus allowing this evidence to fade, violate Bradley Scott's civil rights, but it seriously weakened the validity of their case, which was already incredibly weak and circumstantial.

Florida's Supreme Court also criticized authorities' handling of evidence, claiming that the haphazard way the evidence, in this case, was mixed up with that from other cases - or simply lost to time - was unacceptable for a guilty verdict. Especially for a guilty verdict that had resulted in the death penalty.

The Supreme Court's ruling even made it clear that the witness testimony had been bunk, with one of the most convincing witnesses having had a prior relationship with Scott. This individual had known Bradley Scott and had even been to his house with him there, but had not identified him to police as the man seen speaking to Linda at the convenience store until 1985... seven years after the murder.

In their ruling, the Supreme Court summarized:

"We find that the circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution could only create the suspicion that Scott committed the murder. Suspicions cannot be a basis for a criminal conviction. Our law requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt and a fair trial for a defendant.

"In summary, we find that the unjustified seven-year, seven-month delay in the prosecution of this cause violates the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment and that the state has not been able to show that the circumstantial evidence in this cause is not only consistent with the defendant's guilt but also inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. Accordingly, we have no choice but to reverse Bradley P. Scott's conviction, vacate his death sentence, and remand this cause to the trial court with directions to enter an order of acquittal.

"It is so ordered."

Sheriff John McDougall of Charlotte County would ask the state attorney general to appeal the decision, and Joseph D'Alessandro, the state attorney that had overseen the case, vowed to take this case up to the U.S. Supreme Court if he had to. However, neither of those things would happen, and in August of 1991, the decision was made to free Bradley Philip Scott from his sentence. He was allowed to walk out of jail a free man, and as far as I can tell, has remained a free man since this date nearly thirty years ago.

In the years after Linda's murder, her family would struggle to find themselves any peace or solace, especially since they had just relocated their lives to southern Florida a few months prior, and now had to grieve the loss of their youngest child. Eventually, the family would move away from their home on Abhenry Circle, and eventually, away from Port Charlotte.

Speaking to the News-Press in October of 1981, on the third anniversary of Linda's murder, her mother Betty stated:

"Somebody out there knows something. I don't know why they won't come forward and give us the information we need. How can they live with themselves every day knowing what took place? It's a mystery to me. There are too many things that don't tie in, a lot of questions and no answers to them."

Sadly, Betty Pikuritz passed away in 2007. Now, not many people are left to pass on the memory of her daughter, whose life was tragically cut short by an unknown killer.

This case was brought to my attention a while back by Jesse Pollack, a friend of mine that y'all may recognize as the author of "The Acid King" and one of my good podcasting friends. For a while, this story sat in my large folder of bookmarks, until I started looking into it. I didn't expect to find much, considering how old this case is and how it has virtually no web presence... no posts on Websleuths or Reddit, no podcasts, no recent news coverage. Hell, the most recent newspaper articles I could find - which only mention the case in passing - came from the 1990s.

This story seems all-but-forgotten to the world, and I think that it falls on us, the people who are interested in true crime and mystery, to keep these stories alive. After all, if not us, then who?

While so much time has passed, and while police are unlikely to have worked on this case in several decades, I do think it's still solvable. Every case is. I can only hope that the remaining loved ones of Linda get the justice they so badly deserve, even if it does arrive decades after it should have.

Until such a time, the story of Linda Pikuritz will remain unresolved.

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on on May 30th, 2021

Producers: Roberta Janson, Ben Krokum, Gabriella Bromley, Travis Scsepko, Bryan Hall, Quil Carter, Steven Wilson, Laura Hannan, Damion Moore, Amy Hampton, Scott Meesey, Jo Wong, Marie Vanglund, Scott Patzold, Astrid Kneier, Aimee McGregor, Sara Moscaritolo, Sydney Scotton, Ruth Durbin, Thomas Ahearn, Marion Welsh, Patrick Laakso, Meadow Landry, Tatum Bautista, Rebecca O'Sullivan, Denise Grogan, Jared Midwood, Michele Watson, Ryan Green, Kevin McCracken, Jacinda Class, Stephanie Joyner, Teunia Elzinga, Cherish Brady, Lauren, and Sally Ranford