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The three-year investigation into the serial murders of up to 18 Spokane, Tacoma and Kinsap County area prostitutes seems to have come to an end with the arrest of Robert Lee Yates. A balding 47-year-old husband of 24 years, father of five, aluminum worker and Desert Storm veteran, Yates was charged with the 1997 murder of Jennifer Joseph, a 16-year-old Spokane prostitute and is suspected of being responsible for up to 17 more deaths. Yates was a near-20-year veteran of the armed forces who was stationed in New York, Massachusetts and Alabama, as well as Germany and Somalia. In 1997, after retiring from the service and moving to Spokane, he joined the National Guard. As a guardsman he spent one weekend a month trained at Fort Lewis south of Tacoma. "He came to us very, very qualified. In the three years he was assigned to us, he was a good performer. He did an excellent job," said Lt. Col. Rick Patterson, a National Guard spokesman.
Like in many serial killer cases friends and neighbors were in shock with the suspect's newfound infamy. "Bob Yates, he was a great guy. He really was," said Gary Berner, an Oak Harbor dentist who's been his friend since high school. Neigbors said he frequently played catch on his front lawn with his 11-year-old son. He also enjoyed washing and tinkering with his cherished white 1977 Corvette, which ultimately led to his arrest.
The affadavit of Joseph's murder states that the youngster was last seen in Spokane's East Sprague neighborhood getting into a white Corvette driven by a white man between 30 and 40 years-old. Five weeks after her dissapearence Yates was stopped in his Corvette near East Sprague. A year later, after he had sold the Corvette, Yates was stopped in another car after picking up a prostitute. At the time he said he was just giving the woman a ride. In September 1999 that same woman told detectives Yates had agreed to pay her $20 for a sex act the night they were stopped. Acting on the evidence they had collected two task force officers interviewed him. At the time, according to sheriff's Captain John Simmons, "He was just one of many, many names that had apparent potential." After the interview both detectives remarked they thought he sweated a little too much.
In January 2000 police tracked down the new owners of the Corvette and obtained permission to search the car. In it they found a mother-of-pearl cuff button missing from Joseph's jacket as well as carpet fibers matching those found on her shoes and blood stain on the seat-belt buckle matching her parent's DNA. "The white 'Vette was really the link to Mr. Yates," sheriff Sterk said.
The three-year investigation into the serial murders of up to 18 Spokane, Tacoma and Kinsap County area prostitutes seems to have come to an end with the arrest of Robert Lee Yates. A balding 47-year-old husband of 24 years, father of five, aluminum worker and Desert Storm veteran, Yates was charged with the 1997 murder of Jennifer Joseph, a 16-year-old Spokane prostitute and is suspected of being responsible for up to 17 more deaths. Yates was a near-20-year veteran of the armed forces who was stationed in New York, Massachusetts and Alabama, as well as Germany and Somalia. In 1997, after retiring from the service and moving to Spokane, he joined the National Guard. As a guardsman he spent one weekend a month trained at Fort Lewis south of Tacoma. "He came to us very, very qualified. In the three years he was assigned to us, he was a good performer. He did an excellent job," said Lt. Col. Rick Patterson, a National Guard spokesman.
Like in many serial killer cases friends and neighbors were in shock with the suspect's newfound infamy. "Bob Yates, he was a great guy. He really was," said Gary Berner, an Oak Harbor dentist who's been his friend since high school. Neigbors said he frequently played catch on his front lawn with his 11-year-old son. He also enjoyed washing and tinkering with his cherished white 1977 Corvette, which ultimately led to his arrest.
The affadavit of Joseph's murder states that the youngster was last seen in Spokane's East Sprague neighborhood getting into a white Corvette driven by a white man between 30 and 40 years-old. Five weeks after her dissapearence Yates was stopped in his Corvette near East Sprague. A year later, after he had sold the Corvette, Yates was stopped in another car after picking up a prostitute. At the time he said he was just giving the woman a ride. In September 1999 that same woman told detectives Yates had agreed to pay her $20 for a sex act the night they were stopped. Acting on the evidence they had collected two task force officers interviewed him. At the time, according to sheriff's Captain John Simmons, "He was just one of many, many names that had apparent potential." After the interview both detectives remarked they thought he sweated a little too much.
In January 2000 police tracked down the new owners of the Corvette and obtained permission to search the car. In it they found a mother-of-pearl cuff button missing from Joseph's jacket as well as carpet fibers matching those found on her shoes and blood stain on the seat-belt buckle matching her parent's DNA. "The white 'Vette was really the link to Mr. Yates," sheriff Sterk said.
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