Detailed update on Robert Lee Yates Jr.,STRONGLY suspected if being PROLIFIC Spokane,WA serial gal hooker killer,DNA & other physical evidence apparently links him to at least TWELVE harvestings in the area
Joe1orbit
Okay folks, new Daily Posting Spree gets underway now. I DO think I'll have a
BIT more time to spend online today than in the past two days, so HOPE to get
in 8 new thread items.
We begin with a MAJOR update on the BREAKING prolific Spokane, Washington
area, serial gal hooker harvesting case. As posted by me in recent days, a 47
year old married Daddy of five, long-time army veteran named Robert Lee Yates
Jr., was arrested a few days ago and charged with ONE murder, of a 16 year old
gal hooker who was PART of the GROUP of 10-18 gal hooker-druggies that the
Spokane serial killer Task Force had ALREADY linked to ONE SERIAL killer, in
terms of the modus operandi and other killing methodology.
Below we get the HUGE news that DNA and other PHYSICAL evidence has now been
established, that does indeed positively link Robert to TWELVE out of the 18+
murders that were being looked at as the "likely" work of a serial killer. This
is HUGE, of course, it means that UNLESS police are LYING, or have MANUFACTURED
evidence for the purpose of railroading Robert, he IS not merely a killer, but
a PROLIFIC serial killer! A BRILLIANT one too, who has killed for at LEAST a
DECADE, probably longer given his age, without attracting ANY suspicion up
until a few months ago.
All 18 victims were SHOT to DEATH, shot in the head. This was one of the
"signatures" of this serial killer. Apparently, the murder WEAPON has NOT been
recovered, which is a lucky break for Robert. But there are reports of a
"ballistics match" having been made, I assume between the ONE gal that Robert
is already charged with murdering, and the 11-17 OTHER harvested gals, who were
all shot in the same manner. I DO feel that IF no gun is EVER recovered, this
at least gives defense lawyers a specific angle of INNOCENCE, to focus their
case on.
The local police chief declares that ADDITIONAL murder charges are likely
IMMINENT, and the cops remain VERY confident that Robert IS the prolific
Spokane Serial Killer, even though UNLIKE the newly arrested MI serial hooker
killer, John Eric Armstrong, Robert is WISELY NOT confessing, not implicating
HIMSELF as a murderer, and refusing to talk to detectives, prosecutors, or any
other of his ENEMIES.
Robert's lawyer met with him yesterday, refuses to say what they talked
about, which is of course the RIGHT thing to do, and demonstrating good,
proactive planning, he declares: "Police statements have made it impossible for
my client to receive a fair trial, and I will push for a change of venue. I
know it's a big case and the community has a right to know, but Mr. Yates also
has a right to a fair trial." Way to go, Counsel! I CERTAINLY agree that there
is NO way Robert, already brutally DEMONIZED by his society, can receive a fair
trial ANYWHERE in the Pacific Northwest. In a sane society it would be
automatic, that high profile cases like this would be moved at LEAST 1000 miles
away from the primary vebue where the crimes allegedly occured, and in SOME
cases to an OVERSEAS, international court, which is what should occus in
EXTREMELY high profile cases that involve accusations of a defendent being a
prolific serial killer, as is the case here.
I do feel that the METHOD by which authorities EXTRACTED Robert's DNA, based
solely upon their "suspicions" about him, MAY well have been UNCONSTITUTIONAL,
and I urge Robert's lawyers to consider seeking to have the ENTIRE case thrown
out, or at LEAST all DNA evidence declared inadmissible at trial, based upon
illegal, coercive, DNA extraction. Of course this argument has virtually NO
chance of getting accepted by any judge-whore, ESPECIALLY since the DNA ended
up helping to DEMONIZE Robert further, but a good defense lawyer will still
TRY, try every method possible to help his client.
It's great to get MORE info on Robert's OTHER activities and interests. He is
apparently a real gun LOVER, and even WROTE numerous letters to the media
expressing his strong pro-gun views, at least one of which was PUBLISHED by a
newspaper, back in 1994.
In case you missed the facial photo of Robert that I posted the URL for
yesterday, that same photo can be viewed over at:
http://www.seattle-pi.com/local/kill211.shtml
Stay Strong, Robert!
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of today's Associated Press news wire:
Cops: Man Linked to Wash. Slayings
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A middle-aged father of five already charged in the
killing of one prostitute could face charges in the deaths of as many as 11
others, based on DNA and other physical evidence that police say links him to
the crimes.
Spokane authorities say they think Robert L. Yates Jr. is a serial killer
responsible for the deaths of as many as 18 women. All of the victims were shot
to death, and their bodies dumped in remote locations.
``We have Mr. Yates tied to at least 12 of the homicides, possibly 18,''
Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk said Thursday.
Additional charges are expected and Sterk said detectives hope to provide a
list of those victims with a link to Yates by today.
Spokane authorities have been unusually confident that they have solved the
serial killings. Sterk, who was elected on a platform that included finding the
serial killer, has repeatedly said evidence points to Yates.
Richard Fasy, the public defender assigned to Yates, said such statements have
made it impossible for his client to receive a fair trial, and he will push for
a change of venue.
``I know it's a big case and the community has a right to know, but Mr. Yates
also has a right to a fair trial,'' Fasy said. The attorney met briefly with
Yates on Thursday, but would not say what they discussed.
Yates, who was arrested Tuesday, is being held on $1.5 million bail and is
under a ``suicide watch,'' Sterk said.
Yates' wife, Linda, and the couple's children were sequestered at a hotel,
after investigators sealed off the family's home in a comfortable middle-class
area in this city of 188,000 in eastern Washington. Family members, described
as unusually private, have made no public statements.
``This is a shock for the family,'' Sterk said.
Yates was among hundreds of suspects investigated by a police task force formed
three years ago to probe the serial killings of 18 prostitutes in the Spokane
and Tacoma areas in the 1990s.
He had come to the attention of detectives only recently following tips that he
liked to frequent Spokane's red-light district in his flashy white Corvette.
Two police reports also linked him to the prostitution area.
``The white Corvette and evidence we found in that vehicle led us to the arrest
of Mr. Yates, and through DNA to a number of the other victims in this case,''
Sterk said. ``If we knew what pushed this guy's buttons early on, it would have
helped us solve this case earlier. We didn't know.''
Yates, an aluminum smelter strike replacement worker and Army National Guard
helicopter pilot, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death
of Jennifer A. Joseph, a 16-year-old prostitute whose body was found northeast
of the city on Aug. 26, 1997.
Investigators began combing the inside of Yates' house for fiber and other
microscopic evidence, Sterk said.
Police have seized nine vehicles, including the Corvette - which Yates sold in
1998 - and two vans formerly owned by Yates. Another car Yates formerly owned
was recovered Thursday in Idaho, Sterk said.
Authorities have not yet recovered a murder weapon, Sterk said.
Spokane authorities were working with the FBI to determine if there were
unsolved slayings in places Yates had lived in the past, Sterk said.
AP-NY-04-21-00
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The following three news articles all appear courtesy of the 4/21/00 online
edition of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper:
Arrest eases minds of many on both sides of the state
Friday, April 21, 2000
By LEWIS KAMB
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
SPOKANE -- Sixteen women's faces adorn a billboard perched above East Sprague
Avenue here just outside downtown.
Between the photos, a caption asks passers-by on the busy boulevard dotted by
tattoo parlors and strip bars to "Help Us Find Our Killer!"
Since the billboard went up more than a year ago, the question of the killer's
identity has haunted this community. But now, across town in the Spokane County
Jail, a 47-year-old Army veteran is under heavy watch in an 8-by-9-foot prison
cell. Investigators say the man, Robert Lee Yates Jr., is the answer so many
here have sought.
Yates is charged in one murder -- the 1997 shooting of 16-year-old Jennifer
Joseph, a prostitute last seen working East Sprague -- and authorities say he's
responsible for murdering at least 11 other women on both sides of the state.
While congratulatory calls and e-mails flood the Spokane Homicide Task Force,
Yates' arrest has left everyone from prostitutes and social workers to college
students and victims' families heaving a collective sigh of relief.
"I'm glad that they caught him," said Stephanie Boone, 21, of Spokane, a
student at Eastern Washington University.
"With all these murders, I started carrying Mace and bought a cell phone for
when I'm out at night alone," she said. ". . . I don't have a risky lifestyle
but it could happen to anyone. It's been scary."
Many others here echo Boone's sentiments.
Near the South Hill neighborhood where Yates lived, Jean Penna paused during
her daily morning walk yesterday to say she's breathing easier now that the
alleged serial killer is behind bars.
"I've been walking by that guy's house for the last eight or 10 years," she
said. "I'm very pleased that this has come to a close. I mean, who wants a
serial killer in their town?"
Certainly not the unfortunate women who live on the streets, often selling
their bodies for drug money. They were the killer's preferred prey.
Lynn Everson, an outreach worker for the Spokane Regional Health District, said
several "at-risk" women expressed relief to her yesterday.
"They were crying; they were grateful," Everson said. "But less for their own
fears. They wanted the person who killed their friends off the street."
Patrick McClenahan, brother of murder victim Shawn McClenahan, said the big
break in the serial killing case has brought at least partial closure.
"You never forget when a sibling dies," he said outside the Spokane County
Courthouse after watching Yates' first court appearance.
"I used to think that if I could find the guy who did this, I'd grab him, tie
him up to my pickup truck and see how fast I could drag him behind me,"
McClenahan said. "But now I know this is better -- the justice process. It
helps a lot."
Yesterday, while TV news vans camped along a dirt road near Yates' beige
split-level home, there were signs that his neighborhood was slowly returning
to normal. Only two streets remained barricaded as police scaled back their
area of focus, and boys scrimmaged in a nearby soccer field.
"It's all starting to sink in now," said Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk.
"Detectives are relieved that he's incarcerated because it means he can't kill
again. We can all feel some relief for that."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mask of normalcy can hide serial killer's fantasy life
Friday, April 21, 2000
By VANESSA HO
and SAM SKOLNIK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
When Robert Lee Yates Jr. was arrested, he fit the FBI profile of many serial
killers: white, male, smart, outwardly normal and likable.
For some crime experts, even the fact that the Spokane man was a hard-working,
long-married father of five was no shock.
"I'm not at all surprised," said Seattle crime writer Ann Rule. For her book
"Lust Killer," she profiled Jerome Brudos, who strangled five women in Oregon
in the 1960s.
"He was one of the most heinous serial killers, and he lived in a darling gray
shake house with a rose arbor, a wife and two kids," she said.
Successful killers often live normal lives, which allow them to carry out their
fantasies undetected, she said. Outwardly dysfunctional killers tend to get
caught quickly. Before Yates was arrested this week, she predicted Spokane's
serial prostitute-killer would turn out to be a regular guy.
"I thought, he's probably a well-respected businessman with a completely normal
life, and everybody will be shocked when he's arrested," she said.
Rule believes the theory that serial killers are genetically inclined toward
violence, and that their brains have a broken link between the primal limbic
system and the rational frontal lobe.
Killers who prey on prostitutes often suffered sexual abuse as a child, she
said. Or they struggle with a strict religious background. But many are in
seemingly functional marriages.
"I just feel so sorry for the wife and the kids," she said of Yates' family.
James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University in
Boston, largely agreed with Rule.
Yates "probably has sexual fantasies that he doesn't fulfill with his wife,"
said Fox, who specializes in the study of serial killers and their prey.
"He's literally chasing dreams," Fox said. "As the fantasies become more
demanding, the killings become more frequent and brutal."
Fox said serial killers are not necessarily disturbed, anti-social loners.
Infamous multiple murderers John Wayne Gacy and Kenneth Bianchi, the so-called
"Hillside Strangler," both were married, Fox noted.
"It's not unusual for serial killers to blend in," he said. "They're often very
ordinary, but not very successful."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arrest of Yates felt nationwide
Other cities with unsolved slayings contact task force
Friday, April 21, 2000
By LEWIS KAMB and SAM SKOLNIK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
SPOKANE -- As the man suspected of killing as many as 18 women sat in a
downtown prison cell, investigators fielded calls from detectives across the
country who are trying to solve similar slayings.
Police from as far away as Alabama, New York and Germany wondered whether
Robert Lee Yates Jr., an Army veteran and a father of five, could be the same
person who killed women in their jurisdictions.
Yesterday, detectives in Spokane and in Western Washington worked with federal
agents to establish a time line of Yates' whereabouts over the past decade.
They are trying to see whether his whereabouts correspond with other unsolved
slayings.
"We're pretty confident once we get a time line, it will all correspond,"
Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk said.
Locally, detectives dug deeper into an investigation they now say could take
two or more years and millions of dollars to complete.
"It's a busy but good day," Sterk said yesterday. "Detectives are relieved
we've finally made an arrest, but the immensity of the task ahead of them is
starting to sink in."
Detectives fielded dozens of calls with tips from people who knew Yates or
others, passing along information they believed could be helpful, investigators
said.
Meanwhile, criminologists here and across the state and nation analyzed
crime-scene and other evidence generated since Yates' arrest.
Investigators also seized another vehicle, a van located in Idaho, they say is
one of nine automobiles Yates owned or had been known to drive.
Yates was charged Wednesday with murdering Jennifer A. Joseph, a 16-year-old
prostitute who was found shot to death in Spokane in 1997.
Investigators say DNA evidence links Yates to the deaths of at least 12 of 18
victims -- women mostly living lives of drugs and prostitution. Evidence also
may connect him to all the cases, they say.
Each of the women was shot. Investigators said yesterday that they have not
recovered a firearm in the case, though Sterk said a bomb-sniffing dog that
searched Yates' house Tuesday hit at least six "alerts" -- areas where guns or
bullets may have been kept in the house at one time.
Investigators say blood drawn from Yates links him directly to genetic material
the killer left where eight bodies were dumped -- though they would not
identify that crime-scene material.
Four other victims positively connected to Yates were also linked through DNA
and other evidence, investigators said.
By yesterday, relatives of all 18 victims had been contacted by investigators.
Detectives have not released the names of the 12 directly linked to the
suspect, who has yet to be charged in 11 of those slayings.
Through blood and other evidence found in a car Yates once owned, investigators
were able to link Joseph's death this week to Yates, an Army veteran who worked
at a Mead aluminum smelter.
A button identical to one missing from a jacket found on Joseph's body and
genetic evidence obtained from a 1977 white Corvette Yates owned between 1994
and 1998 tied him to her killing. That led investigators here to arrest him in
north Spokane early Tuesday while he was driving to work.
Blood drawn from him shortly after his arrest has since identified Yates as the
primary suspect in the serial killings of at least 12 women -- and possibly up
to 18 -- across Washington, investigators say.
"We've got the guy we were looking for," Sterk said. "He's finally behind
bars."
Yesterday, Yates sat in an 8-foot-by-9-foot prison cell in the Public Safety
Building in lieu of $1.5 million cash bail.
Prison guards surveyed him under a suicide-style watch -- checking him every 15
minutes -- though investigators say he has not threatened to harm himself.
He remains isolated from the general prison population, jail commander Dick
Collins said.
Although court officials said Yates has applied for a court-appointed attorney,
they would not disclose whether one has been assigned to him.
While detectives worked to connect him to the 18 slayings in the state, calls
began flowing in from other agencies.
Since authorities began investigating the homicides, Yates has been looked at
as a person of interest in several other slayings, including one in Germany,
investigators said.
The Army helicopter pilot and reservist now in custody moved with his family
across the county. Yates has lived in New York, Alabama and Massachusetts.
Lt. Joseph Goss of the Watertown, N.Y., Police Department says his detectives
are now actively investigating whether that city's one unsolved homicide can be
connected to Yates.
Tina Hosmer Smith was shot and killed at 4 a.m. Aug. 1, 1990, on a street just
behind Watertown police headquarters. Smith, an unemployed 20-year-old, was
estranged from her husband at the time.
Goss said the husband had a strong alibi and quickly was ruled out as a
suspect.
Smith was not involved in drugs and prostitution, according to the police file.
However, Goss said it is possible that the person who killed her might have
mistaken her for a prostitute because she was walking alone on a downtown
street at 4 a.m.
It is unclear whether Yates was stationed at Fort Drum, just outside Watertown,
at the time of the slaying. Yates first was stationed at the Army base in late
1990 or early 1991, reports show.
"We have a case we would like to compare notes on," Goss said. "Is there a
link? It's too early to tell."
There seems to be a much firmer connection between Yates and Connie LaFontaine,
a Tacoma woman found dead Oct. 13, 1998. Police have connected LaFontaine, a
prostitute, to the serial killings from the beginning.
Yates retired from the Army and moved to Spokane in 1996. Soon after, he joined
the Washington Army National Guard, serving one weekend a month for the past
three years.
He flew to Fort Lewis 12 miles outside Tacoma to teach helicopter flying
lessons.
Now, according to Dave Hall of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department,
LaFontaine and Yates seem to be solidly linked.
"We have to say that from what we know so far, it looks very promising," Hall
said.
Since Yates' arrest, the Pierce County sheriff has been coordinating with
Spokane police, Hall said.
Currently, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department is concentrating on where
Yates might have stayed in the county; what kind of car he may have been
driving at the time; and where he may have flown in a helicopter.
Less is known about the connections between Yates and Melinda Mercer, a
Tacoma-area woman found dead in December 1997. She was also thought to be a
victim of a serial killer.
Jim Mathis, a spokesman for the Spokane Police Department could not be reached
for comment. Police investigating the third Western Washington woman connected
to the suspected Spokane serial killer are not yet ready to make the tie to
Yates.
Patricia Barnes, whose body was discovered in 1995, heretofore has been listed
only as a possible victim of the killer. She was from Port Orchard.
Mike Davis, Kitsap County Sheriff's Department chief of detectives, says his
office has been communicating with counterparts in Spokane regularly "to try to
establish a firmer connection between the Barnes homicide and their serial
murderer."
But Davis is not as optimistic as his Pierce County counterpart regarding a
connection to Yates.
"At this point, it's still premature to advise that we've reached the
conclusion that she is indeed a victim of the particular man they've arrested
over there."
In Spokane, an investigator revealed yesterday they got a break with the
Corvette that helped bring Yates into custody.
Rita Jones, the woman who bought the Corvette from Yates in 1998, is the sister
of a woman who works in the Spokane city-county joint property room. Everything
from confiscated marijuana pipes to recovered stolen articles is kept there,
Detective Cal Walker said yesterday.
After she bought the car, Jones stored it in her sister's garage for months,
leaving crucial evidence undisturbed that helped link Yates to Joseph's
slaying.
"There was no type of cleaning to contaminate the evidence," said Walker, who
added that the blood, carpet fibers and button found in the car broke the case.
Investigators were able to arrest Yates for Joseph's slaying largely on that
evidence alone.
They then were able to draw the blood that has linked him to 11 other victims.
"That Corvette basically has been put to bed," Walker said of its importance to
the case. "It probably won't come out again till court."
Investigators showed media members five other cars they have confiscated since
Yates' arrest -- two blue Hondas, two Ford vans and a Ford pickup that still
has a vehicle registration sticker for Fort Drum, N.Y., from 1993 on its
bumper.
Investigators also allowed media members past police barricades to view Yates'
South Hill split-level home that has been shrouded by tarps since his arrest.
Three tripods sat in the home's front and side yards, holding up sophisticated
equipment provided by the Washington State Patrol that will create a 3-D map of
the scene. A white flag could be seen in a woodpile next to at least two sheds
visible in the home's yard, marking a place of interest to detectives.
The house was typical of the split-levels that line East 49th Avenue. Well-kept
and landscaped, it has flowers, shrubbery, a blossoming cherry tree and
evergreens surrounding it.
A basketball hoop hung on the side of a garage.
As heavily clad TV cameramen, reporters and others filed along the street to
view the house, a neighbor who lived across the street loudly complained.
"It better not be like this for much longer," he voiced to a woman standing
nearby. "I don't want these (expletives) in my neighborhood any more."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/21/00 online edition of The Spokane
Spokesman-Review newspaper:
Yates defended guns in 1994 letter to editor
He denounced controls, saying focus should be on criminals, prison space
Bill Morlin - Staff writer
Spokane _ An accused serial killer linked to the shooting deaths of a dozen or
more women in Spokane was a vocal opponent of gun control.
"Do not equate guns with crime," Robert Lee Yates Jr. wrote in a 1994 letter
published in a New York newspaper.
At the time, Yates was a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Army at Fort Drum, near
Watertown, in upstate New York.
In the letter published Jan. 21, 1994, in the Watertown Daily Times, Yates
advocated harsher sentences for criminals instead of gun control laws.
"If we seek answers to the crime problem, let's look to the criminal," Yates
said.
Society, he wrote, should "focus on enforcement of existing laws, stiffer
penalties, more prison space and deterrents to criminal activities."
Yates has said nothing publicly since his arrest Tuesday on a charge of
murdering a 16-year-old Tacoma woman.
He has refused interview requests in the Spokane County Jail, where he remains
under $1.5 million bond.
The 47-year-old suspect, who grew up in Western Washington, is married and has
five children.
Sheriff Mark Sterk says Yates is a suspect in the deaths of 12 to 18 young
women whose lifestyles were tied to drugs, prostitution or both.
The sheriff said Thursday that investigators have not found a handgun or other
firearms.
Yates' letter six years ago defended the National Rifle Association position
opposing further gun control legislation.
The military veteran doesn't say in the letter if he was an NRA member, or just
shared the gun lobby's stance.
Kelly Whitely, a spokeswoman for the NRA in Washington, D.C., would not say
whether Yates is an NRA member.
"We usually don't give out names of our members -- whether it's good news or
bad," she said.
When told Yates has been tied to at least 12 killings, the NRA spokeswoman
asked whether handguns were involved.
"Oh, my," she responded when told the victims were shot, apparently in the
head.
Yates wrote his 400-word pro-gun letter a week after the New York Legislature
began a special session to consider banning assault weapons.
It came shortly after Congress passed the Brady Bill, requiring criminal
background checks.
President Clinton proposed further restrictions on assault-style weapons in his
January 1994 State of the Union address.
Those gun restrictions clearly angered Yates.
"With more than 20,000 gun laws on the books in the United States, some feel
further legislation is needed to outlaw certain firearms," he wrote.
Yates said he disagreed with those who suggested more gun laws would be "the
sane way to combat crime."
"Do not, however, equate guns with crime," Yates said.
"Legal use of guns for hunting, competition and self-defense far outweigh all
other use," he wrote.
Yates said he had thoroughly studied the Second Amendment guaranteeing the
freedom to possess firearms.
Its intent, he wrote, "was an individual right for defense of personal liberty,
not solely for maintaining state militias."
He recommended a book, "The Origins and Development of the Second Amendment,"
by David T. Hardy.
"The politicians who would legislate away the right to own and use guns
lawfully would be outraged at any attempt to abridge or deny their freedom to
speak, worship or assemble peacefully."
"We are not talking about a privilege of citizenship or even a civil right,"
Yates said of gun ownership. "We are talking about a constitutional right
enshrined in one of mankind's most important documents by the founders of this
nation."
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