robert lee yates son kyle
All of his victims worked on the city's E. Sprague Avenue,. In the months following Robert Yates' arrest and incarceration, the couple was forced to file bankruptcy. Robert Lee Yates is a member of. Linda Yates left Robert Yates for one month early in their marriage and again for one year in the mid 1980s. The loss of their main breadwinner has been a financial hardship for the family, she said. On December 7, 1997, Melinda Mercer, 24, was found shot and dumped in a field in Tacoma; she had been shot several times and had four plastic bags covering her head. Yates is an Army veteran and National Guard helicopter pilot who served tours in Germany and at several U.S. bases. I know him too well," says Al Gatti, who met Yates in sixth grade in Oak Harbor, then a town of fewer than 5,000 people on Whidbey Island anchored in the Navy and farming. Sheriff Mark Sterk says DNA and other evidence link Yates to at least 12 of the slayings. In 1995, Yates was transferred from New York to Fort Rucker. But Yates viewed his previous sentence as an all-encompassing one and appealed the case. In 1970, he graduated from Oak Harbor High School. He also refused to give a blood sample for a DNA test. He says the prostitute is a friend's daughter he's driving home. "He never used any profanity. Robert Yates was arrested for murder and detectives searched the entire property. Interesting update on Robert Lee Yates, the 48 year old Army veteran/torture victim in Washington, who is shaping up to be the MOST prolific newly discovered year 2000 serial killer in. They clipped out carpet fibers and sent them for testing. Despite his outward appearance, something sinister was lurking under the surface of the killer's seemingly ordinary exterior. Fri., Oct. 12, 2018. Two days later, his middle daughter Amber, then 19, showed up at the county jail lobby. It seems like Linda and her children continue to live a quiet life in the state of Washington. Island County Sheriff Mike Hawley last month said hes investigating Yates in connection with two more unsolved homicides and a missing person. While there, he learns to teach soldiers to fly Huey helicopters. Linda admitted "the romance was gone," but she essentially "suffered through it" so they could live together as a family. March 1974 - Nylander and Yates separate. The politician asserted that there was no conclusive evidence to show that the penalty actually worked. [33][34][32][20], Linda Marie Maybin Yates' father last week revealed his son was sexually assaulted as a child by a neighbor. "Boys aren't attached to their mothers like girls are," he says. Yates, born in Anacortes, sits now on the other side of the state, in jail on a $1.5 million bond. Deceased (19382013) December 1998 - Yates crosses picket lines to go to work at Kaiser Aluminum as a carbon setter. Joined choir his senior year, baffling Al Gatti. While speaking to Dateline, she stated, When youre so close to somebody you dont see it. Moreover, when she was initially informed of Roberts acts, she said that there was a history of murdering in the Yates family. "I don't believe it. The prosecution sought the death penalty for the deaths of Melinda L. Mercer in 1997 and Connie Ellis in 1998, which were thought to be linked to the killings in Spokane County. However, she was "so close" to her husband that she simply didn't realize Robert Yates was capable of committing murder. The veterans legal team, in 2013, filed a habeas corpus petition claiming that Yates was mentally ill, and suffered from a severe paraphilic disorder, which contributed to his killing spree. Read a sonnet aloud in English class. The couple had faced multiple problems in their marriage and even separated for some time. Sometime in mid-May 1998, Melody Murfin, 43, went missing. The family settled in Spokane, Washington, and Robert was seen as a doting father as well. Her husband, who grew up in Oak Harbor and is still under investigation for deaths there, had no answer. There were rumblings that a serial killer might be loose in Spokane, but nothing official. "He always had answers to everything," she said. In 1916, he bought land. After a late bloom, stunning photos await at the monthlong festival with art, food, pickleball, millions of bulbs and traffic. He is currently serving life in prison at the Washington State Penitentiary. Had brown hair he combed from right to left. Sonja Yates, a daughter of Robert L. Yates Jr., leaves a courtroom with an unidentified man. In 18 years, he earned 12 medals, two ribbons and a badge. This past January, investigators tracked down Yates' Corvette, which he had sold in May 1998. He threw the coffee on the other crew members as they waited to punch out. [13][14], Shannon Rene Zielinski The three oldest girls slept in the basement, the neighbor says. [1] After his arrest, a search warrant was executed on a white 1977 Chevrolet Corvette that he had previously owned. . October 1972 - Enrolls at Walla Walla College, a Seventh-day Adventist school, majoring in pre-med. Yates then moved to the base in Goeppingen, Germany, and served there until 1991. Her son was a pallbearer; Gatti was an honorary pallbearer. [7][8] Eight of the murders were committed with a Raven .25-caliber handgun, and one attempted murder was linked to the same model of handgun. He was pulled over near Hangman Valley, where a body had been found three weeks before and another body was found a month later. Addressing the court Monday, Richard Rotter apologized for killing Officer Dan Rocha last year: I have fallen.. Yates confessed to picking up Hawn, who was working as a prostitute, in his van nearby. October 1987 to May 1988 - Yates is a support aviator and a standardization pilot at Fort Rucker. Forensic experts found his fingerprint on one of the plastic bags tied around a victim's head, and Yates' genetic profile, from blood drawn after his arrest, matched . Almost all of these crimes involved sex workers on Spokanes East Sprague Avenue, who died due to gunshot wounds to the head. At this point, he has 32.5 days of unused leave. She moves home to Fall City with her parents. Stockpiling of mifepristone and proposed laws lower costs and ensure access for patients, protect those who perform abortions. In August 1997, more women's bodies started showing up, one after another. Meets Shirley Nylander from Fall City. In a public statement, provided by Kitsap Sun, Yate's family expressed sympathy for the victims. Al Gatti, who was close friends with Robert Lee Yates Jr. in high school, said they spent a lot of their free time together fishing, hiking, hunting, and even working odd jobs to make extra money. The next year, Robert Lee Yates signed up with the Army. Coincidentally, Yates had been pulled over in this vehicle while the task force was searching for it, but the field interview report was misread as saying "Camaro", not "Corvette," thus the incident was not realized until after Yates had been arrested. In the show, the audience is made privy to someone who was pretty much living a double life. Yates once worked at the hospital, and might have known Hesselgrave. Two months later, the day after Thanksgiving, he was cited for speeding in his Corvette. At Kaiser, Yates followed the rules, the only overhead crane operator to actually drive the crane as slowly as he was supposed to. A white Corvette had been identified as the vehicle in which one of the victims had last been seen. "You dont go out hunting with cologne on.". She said her father hit her all the time. They also expect to move the case to Spokane County Superior Court, at which time Yates will enter a formal plea. But in retrospect, she said there were some clues. He was one of only 10 instructor pilots at that level. Last month, the Washington State Patrol crime lab matched the carpet fibers from the Corvette to fibers found on Jennifer Joseph's shoes and a towel left near her body. The family moved to Cortez in 1974 and he attended Lewis-Arriola Elementary School, Cortez Junior High School and graduated from M-CHS in 1985. . He is not cited. She was shot once and had two plastic bags covering her head. Robert Lee Yates Jr. was born on May 27, 1952, and grew up in a middle-class family in Oak Harbor, Washington. He apologized to the family members of his victims as well. His white Corvette had been searched, and police found blood that linked him to Jennifers murder. He is a convicted murderer and it is unknownexactly but estimated that Yates has killed over 18 women. Linda Yates said, according to a transcript of the interview supplied by "Dateline." She says she never exchanged more than 10 words with Linda Yates, who stayed at home with the children. May 1998 - Yates sells his Corvette to Rita Jones in Spokane. Who was Robert Lee Yates and what did he do? The Army hasn't yet released a complete time line of Yates' duty, but state records show he returned to Washington state at least once. Describing her now incarcerated husband, Linda said, He was a very moody person. July 1975 - Yates takes a job as a prison guard in Walla Walla. Meanwhile, in September of that year, the police asked Yates for a DNA sample, which he refused to give because it was an insinuating and extreme request from a family man. Gatti's lottery number came up, and he went to war. "They (police) called me at work and said that they found a body in your yard. [48], In 2013, Yates's attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition in federal district court, stating that Yates is mentally ill and, "through no fault of his own suffers from a severe paraphilic disorder" that predisposed him to commit murder. So has his father, who says he's acting on the advice of lawyers. European newspapers call him the "notorious Washington Ripper." "Bobby is a loving, caring, sensitive son; a fun-loving and giving brother; an understanding, generous and dedicated father who enjoys playing ball, "[10][1], Patrick Allen Oliver and Susan Patricia Savage Police found a brown towel and a brown hair belonging to a white male at the scene. Another co-worker who still works at Kaiser says Yates was meticulous. Miles Merrill, who learned to teach flying from Yates, thought the man he spent time with seven hours a day for eight weeks was a single parent. As an adult, he was a man's man, a soldier. April 1996 - Yates moves to Spokane without a job, rents a house with his wife and five children. [20], Connie Lynn Ellis-LaFontaine When the Oak Harbor Seventh-day Adventist Church burned to the ground, Robert Yates Sr. took it personally, co-workers say. He also confessed to killing a total of 18 women in several counties. In Somalia, Yates shot the wild pig while flying a Kiowa. On June 14, 1996, Shannon Zielinski, 38, was found shot in the head in Mead. Robert Lee Yates Jr. is charged for 13 murders. [49], Yates remains incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary. "I didn't get to know him that much," says Mary Nylander, Shirley's mother. 1980 - Yates attends a warrant-officer basic course to become a helicopter pilot. Her e-mail address is kbarker@seattletimes.com, Keiko Morris' phone message number is 425-745-7804. His English teacher, Trudy Sundberg, said one of the poems he wrote, and read aloud in class, was comparable to Shakespeare. [44], After searching the Corvette, police discovered blood that they linked to Jennifer Joseph, and DNA from Yates that they then tied to 12 other victims. Yates also served three years in the Army National Guard as a helicopter pilot from April 1997 through April 2000. May 1991 to June 1995 - As a platoon leader, he teaches soldiers to fly Kiowa helicopters in the 3rd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, Assault Helicopter Battalion, Fort Drum, N.Y. Yates takes another warrant-officer course. While he was already incarcerated, Yates was also charged with two more crimes the murders of Melinda L. Mercer (in 1997) and Connie Ellis (in 1998). Yates was also a military helicopter pilot and National Guardsman. At times, he pushed himself impulsively. She was killed just a month after arriving in Spokane. Job: Criminal. Christine Smith was a sex worker who survived a murder attempt at Yatess hands and had also been robbed by him. Kari & Associates Robert Lee Yates, Jr. So, a question naturally arose were his loved ones aware of the grim reality? He mostly chose sex workers as his victims, and they died as a result of gunshot wounds. While there, he wrote a letter to the local newspaper, defending the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment and the right to own a weapon. She was buried beneath his bedroom window. Detectives are still investigating, taking the house apart, piece by piece, looking for evidence. Yates had three cars, and he fiddled with them and washed them in front of his home. Yates pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder in that attack. They take some carpet fibers for testing. Robert Lee Yates Jr. (born May 27, 1952) aka The Grocery Bag Killer is an American serial killer from Spokane, Washington. Law enforcement officers in many of those places are studying unsolved crimes to see if Yates might be involved. He floated through high school without making many solid connections. A profile of the serial killer Robert Lee Yates, who narrowly avoided . He learned to be an instructor pilot for the OH-58, the Kiowa, at the time the Army's primary observation helicopter. "It doesn't throw us over the edge.". June 1974 - Yates and Linda Brewer, of Benton County, apply in Walla Walla County for a marriage license. People liked him, but they didn't know him well. Jack Bouboushian / March 18, 2013. 5. From 1996 to 1998, he is known to have murdered at least 13 prostitutes in Spokane, Washington. Classmates in the pre-med program don't remember him. However, she felt guilty about splitting up the father from his daughters and moved back in with him. His luck had started to run out. Women's bodies started showing up along the Spokane River in 1990. His oldest daughter moved out. As a kid, Bobby Yates liked peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. April 5, 2000 - The fibers removed from the white Corvette match fibers found on Jennifer Joseph's shoes and a towel found near her body, police say. Authorities believe the Spokane Killer waited 13 years before killing his third victim Stacy Hawn. Also under investigation are the deaths of Darrin Wade Gehrke, 23, in 1995 and the disappearance of Linda Fisher Moran, 27, in December 1976. From 1975 to 1998, he is known to have murdered at least 11 women in Spokane. She was considered a victim of the same killer, due to her history and association with other victims, but her body was not discovered until six months after Yates' arrest and subsequent confession. Her e-mail address is kmorris@seattletimes.com, ------------------------------------------------------------. Loved ones aware of the killer 's seemingly ordinary exterior asserted that there a... N'T throw us over the edge. `` to attempted first-degree murder in that.. 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