The state of Washington, already forever haunted by the memories of killers such Ted Bundy and The Green River Killer, quickly recognized the familiar signs of a serial spree when prositutes began turning up dead in 1996 in Spokane. Most of the murders were obviously the work of a single killer that preferred dispatching of his victims with .25 calibre gunshots to the head and dumping their bodies in rural areas with plastic grocery bags secured over the victims heads.
Robert Lee Yates, a father of five and a retired Army man, was arrested for the string of killings on April 18, 2000, though initially he was only charged with a single murder. Yates, 47 at the time of his arrest, was soon faced with several more charges of murder but it was not until October before he finally broke and admitted his involvement in the crimes and added a few more for good measure, including the double murder of a couple in Walla Walla in 1975, when Yates was just 23-years-old. One of his victims, Melody Murfin, was recovered on Yates' directions from the killer's own backyard.
As part of a plea bargain with Spokane County, Yates plead guilty to one attempted murder and thirteen homocides and was sentenced on October 26, 2000, to 408 years in prison. The murder of Shawn McClennan was held back by prosecutors in case Yates later decides to appeal the plea agreement. The evidence pointing to Yates in McClennan's slaying is stronger than any of the other cases. Yates has not been able to hammer out any such deals with Pierce County, however, and prosecutors there intend to prosecute the killer for two murders in Tacoma, where Yates often travelled as a member of the National Guard. Both Tacoma cases are almost certainly Yates' work, as both women were found with his trademark plastic bags placed around their heads after being shot to death.
No matter the outcome of the Pierce County investigations Yates' legal problems may not end there. It is highly unlikely that during his Army travels the serial murderer did not continue to ply his trade. His confessed slayings have gaps from 1975 to 1988 and from 1988 until 1996. Also, there is another gap between late 1998 and his arrest in April of 2000, though that could be the result of a close call when he was pulled over by police with a prostitute in his car about the time of his last known killing. The matter was easily explained away but it is possible that Yates may have been scared straight until the time of his arrest.
Most of the time that accounts for the two long gaps between kills was spent at various Army bases throughout the world. Police investigators in Germany, Vancouver, New York, and Oregon, among others, have expressed interest in Yates possibly being tied to unsolved murders. Authorities in Dale County, Alabama, appear ready to charge Yates with the shooting death of a woman named Tarayon Corbitt. Also, detectives are still looking to connect the multiple murderer with more unsolved Spokane homocides.
9/20/2002-Barring a delay (as if that would shock anybody) Yates will stand trial for the Pierce County murders of Melinda Mercer and Connie Ellis sometime in early August. He faces the death penalty if convicted in the killings.
8-17-2002-Yates' trial is underway with the defense opening by admitting Yates murdered Mercer and Ellis. Update on conviction soon, most likely.
10-6-2002-Yates has been found guilty of the murders of Mercer and Ellis. He was sentenced to death on October 3 for the two slayings.