Young, Pregnant Mother Slain At Home

Michelle Young, 29, was four months pregnant with her second child when she was found slain less than two weeks ago in her home in Raleigh, N.C.

Young's sister found her beaten to death on the bedroom floor. She was lying in a pool of blood with her 2-year-old daughter, who was unharmed, by her side.

"I think my sister's dead," Meredith Fisher told the 911 operator when she called.

Detectives say Young's husband, Jason, was out of town on business when his wife's body was found. He had left the day before, and reportedly called his sister-in-law and asked her to go to his home to pick up a fax. That's when Young was found dead.

Investigators say there were no signs anyone forced their way into the home, but the murder was violent.

"It's a tragedy that anybody would do this to start with, but with a child in the house like this ... it just makes me mad," Sheriff Donnie Harrison told The Early Show correspondent Bianca Solorzano.

Criminal profiler Pat Brown told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm that women are more likely to be murdered in their home than anywhere else.

"It's interesting. It's most unsafe for men to be out of the home and most unsafe for women to be in the home when it comes to murder," she said. "Women are usually murdered by someone they know or have a relationship with. And pregnant women are targeted by people they are in relationships with."

Young's death has hit home in Sayville, Long Island, N.Y., where she went to high school and is remembered as a popular cheerleader.

"How someone can actually do that to someone that is a young girl that is pregnant with a baby," Young's former classmate Nicole Waters said.

Investigators have talked with Young's husband and asked him for fingerprints and, while they are calling him a person of interest, they have not named any suspects in the case.

"They obviously loved each other very much," said Jason Young's friend, Vince Andrews. "And they were both young, just out of college, starting a family. It's just awful."

Brown said the violent killing shows that some rage was involved, which usually points to someone who was close to the victim.

"But that doesn't mean it couldn't be a stranger," she said. "Sometimes somebody will open a door to someone casing the neighborhood, or may open the door to a neighbor saying, 'Could I borrow sugar?' And the woman fights back and the man gets mad and they say, 'Hey, she fought back and it made me really mad.' A rage killing can be a stranger, but more often it's someone she knows that's gotten angry and has lost control."

Brown said Jason Young is "definitely a suspect" in his wife's murder.

"It is standard procedure as well because the husband is the first one you look at, but he has to prove he was really out of town," she said. "His family is not necessarily a good alibi and it's interesting that he had to call to have a fax picked up at his home.

"Sometimes people who kill someone and are waiting for someone to find that person to get it over with, or perhaps the child is in the house and they want the child found. That's suspicious, as well. Police will look heavily at this guy to be sure he has a perfect alibi."

Brown said the fact that there were children involved further complicates things. Killers often will not target children, she said. The fact that Young was pregnant may have added more stress to the marriage. Some husbands feel added pressure to make more money.

"Sometimes that can send certain men over the edge," Brown said.

Brown said if Young is the killer, he may have been concerned for his 2-year-old, who was left alone at the house.

"I feel sorry for the husband if he's innocent because he will be focused on," Brown said. "His family is saying leave him alone, but the family should encourage him to take the polygraph and if there's no evidence in this case, what does he have to worry about?"