Feb. 15, 2002
Part II: A Corvette Plays A Key Role
What Drove Him To Kill?
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Robert Yates Jr. was finally arrested for the killings, with the help of a Corvette clue. (CBS)
In January 1999, the task force announced that two murders in Tacoma, Washington, 300 miles away, were both linked to the Spokane killer. And then the killings suddenly stopped. Months passed. Sheriff Mark Sterk tried to fight those who wanted to cut his budget.
In the first 18 months of the serial killer case, investigators had amassed a lot of physical evidence. They had DNA samples from several crime scenes, as well as ballistics. But what they needed was a prime suspect. They found one by reexamining one of their earlier leads: the white Corvette.
Police took every registered Corvette owner out of the state of Washington and Idaho, about 3,000. They whittled that down to about 47 potential suspects. Task Force detective Rick Grabenstein tracked down one car, which had been sold by one of the 47 men. He grabbed some carpet fibers from the car. Those fibers were sent to a lab, and compared with fibers taken from the original Jennifer Joseph crime scene. They matched almost exactly.
On April 10, 2000 a search warrant was issued for the car. Police discovered blood on the passenger seatbelt, and a missing button from the blouse belonging to Jennifer Joseph. On April 18, 2000 the Spokane police arrested Robert Yates, Jr. for Joseph’s murder.
Through DNA analysis, police were able to link Yates to nine more murder victims, positively identifying him as the Spokane serial killer. A career military helicopter pilot and married father of five, Yates had somehow kept his killing spree a secret.
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The first encounter came a month after Joseph was murdered. "In '97, they had everything that they needed. They had a witness who gave them a great clue," says Fhrman.
In August of 1997, an eyewitness told police she had last seen Jennifer Joseph driving eastbound on Sprague Avenue in a white Corvette. Five weeks later, Officer Cory Turman, acting on instructions from detectives, pulled over a white Corvette on the corner of Ralph and Sprague. The driver was Robert Yates Jr.
"Cory Turman stops the white Corvette," says Fuhrman. "He does not run the plate before he stops the car. He talks to him, he puts down that he's cooperative and he asks him a few questions."
Turman was satisfied because Yates had a legitimate reason for being in the area: He said he worked nearby.
Officer Turman filed a standard police field interview and let Yates go. He mistakenly identified the car as a Camaro, not a Corvette. The field interview was routed to the city’s equivalent of a vice squad. Task force members didn’t see it until two years later.
"It was a fatal mistake," says Fitzsimmons. Fuhrman says police never should have let Yates go.
Police maintain that the Corvette tip was just one of many in their investigation.
In November 1997, Yates was pulled over for speeding in a white Corvette. One year later, he was stopped for possible solicitation of a prostitute. Both stops were treated routinely. In August 1999, almost two years after police first stopped Yates, his name appeared on a list of 47 Corvette owners. He was brought in for questioning Sept 15. Police interviewed him, and asked for a blood sample. But Yates refused, which was within his right at that point. Once again, police let him go.
Fuhrman says police should have released the Corvette clue to the public. Police say that would have given the suspect information that might have helped him elude them.
"Isn't it easy to Monday morning quarterback," says Sheriff Sterk, who worked on the case. "We look back now at what we've done. We're not saying we didn't make mistakes. Did we cause some women to die as a result of that? I don't think so and I don't think that's a fair statement."
Some police officers question Fuhrman's credibility in light of his behavior during the O.J. Simpson trial. They note that he is a convicted perjurer.
At first, the prosecution sought the death penalty. But Spokane prosecutor Steven Tucker cut a deal with the killer. In exchange for a full accounting of his crimes, Yates would receive life in prison. In October, Yates pled guilty to 13 counts of murder, and disclosed the location of the body of another one of his victims, Melody Murfin. He had buried her in his yard. Yates was sentenced to 408 years in state prison.
Not all of Yates' victims were women, or prostitutes. Yates confessed to murdering a young couple, Susan Savage and Robert Oliver, in 1975. Yates was only 24 when he killed the two Washington State University students.
Yates grew up in Washington State. According to his longtime friend Al Gatti, Yates had the support of a strong, nurturing family: “He was ery much loved. There was a lot of respect in that family. They were the type of people that you would want as your neighbor. Mr. Yates, he would give you the shirt off his back.”
"I would say he was a wonderful son," says Yates' father, Robert Yates Sr. "He was a happy-go-lucky kid."
After a few years in college, Yates joined the Army, where he became a respected helicopter pilot. He served for 18 years. Yates Sr., says he doesn’t know what made his son kill: "I just don't know. I don't have a clue. My mind is just always thinking about that."
In 1972, 22-year-old Robert Yates married his current wife, Linda. They raised five children together. He loved his children dearly. Twenty-five-year-old Sonya is Robert Yates Jr.'s second-oldest daughter. Sometimes, she says, he would come home angry, and they wouldn’t know why.
Gatti corresponds with Yates regularly. "I don't think that he really comprehends the magnitude of what he’s done," he says.
Go back to Part 1: Murder In Spokane.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
