Michelle Young, pregnant with her second child, was brutally murdered while her husband Jason was away on business. Who could have killed this beloved young mother? Keith Morrison reports.
Chapter 1: Who was Michelle Young and what happened to her?
My mother called and says, Michelle's dead. How is that possible?
A young mother found brutally murdered. Her little girl left to wander in her mother's blood. Police had a suspect, and they say he had a motive.
We had an intimate relationship. We ended up having sex.
But could they prove he was the killer? It was a circumstantial case. Except for that witness, the girl who left those footprints.
We will never know what Cassidy saw and what she didn't see.
Maybe she couldn't tell detectives who the killer was, but maybe she didn't have to. The fact that Cassidy was spared, would that mean anything to a jury?
The person that killed the mother cared about Cassidy.
And now, a stunning twist in the case. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with Silent Witness.
I think I paused for a second and had to take a deep breath. And just the reality of what was going on sank in.
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Chapter 2: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
I think my sister's dead. Here, tell me what happened, ma'am. I have no idea. Oh, my God.
The caller was Meredith Fisher. She had just discovered, on the floor of the master bedroom, the savagely beaten body of her elder sister, 29-year-old Michelle Young, a woman who, in death, was about to be famous.
Listen to me, ma'am. I'm going to tell you what to do. You need to calm down so we can help her. You said there's blood everywhere? Yes. Listen to me, ma'am. I'm listening. Is she breathing? No.
As she spoke, Meredith was cradling her two-and-a-half-year-old niece, Cassidy, who had crawled out from under the bedclothes on her parents' bed just feet from where her mother lay. Cassidy's voice, chattering to her aunt, was caught on the recorded call. Had Cassidy witnessed the murder? Awakened, alone, to find this?
You know, you just picture a small child walking around in this blood and tracking it across the hallway over into the bathroom.
By now, Wake County investigators were descending on the house. And having secured the crime scene, Earp's job was done. But on his way out, he saw Cassidy again. She was still in her pink pajamas, still in Meredith's arms.
He asked Meredith a question. I looked over at the child. I didn't see any blood. So I asked her, did you clean the child? And her response was no. I thought it was kind of odd because I was expecting her to say yes, I guess. Somebody did.
Yeah, somebody did. But who? Was it the same person who murdered the little girl's mother? On this November day, all they had were questions. Sergeant Richard Spivey of the Wake County Sheriff's Office probably knows the case better than anyone.
I mean, this was just a brutal, vicious beating. There was a lot of time and energy invested into this assault. Why do you say a lot of time and energy? I think the medical examiner told us there was over 30 blows with some sort of a blunt object.
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Chapter 3: What was Jason Young's alibi and how was it challenged?
Those of us that work in law enforcement, this is our profession, but we're also parents. That certainly strikes a different note with you when you see something like that.
Michelle's husband, Jason, a medical software salesman, was 170 miles away the night of the murder. Even so, investigators had to look at him.
We know that he was the last person to talk to Michelle that night. And he was also the reason why she was found. He called Meredith Fisher to go to the house.
Jason Young's business trip that night was routine. Security tape showed him getting gas about 7.30 p.m. as he left Raleigh. Two hours later, he was seen on tape at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Greensboro. Later, he checked into this Hampton Inn in Hillsville, Virginia. This is him, front desk, about 11 p.m. And him again at midnight. He also made a phone call around midnight.
And that was the last time anybody heard from Jason Young until he made another call at 7.40 the next morning. A normal person would look at this and say, he was 170 miles away. He's got an alibi.
That sounds like a great distance, you know. But 170 miles you can get between the crime scene and the hotel in about two and a half hours. Perhaps. But there were curious anomalies at the crime scene.
Couldn't explain them. A jewelry box was missing two drawers. So was it a bungled burglary? Then there were footprints near the body that seemed to eliminate Jason. An obvious print on a pillow was a size 10, but Jason wore a size 12. But this was weird. There was another partial footprint. It defied easy identification. So they began calling in shoe experts.
And now they wondered, were there two attackers? Of course, investigators discovered early on that Michelle and Jason's marriage was strained. And in the last weeks of Michelle's life, things were not good.
At our friend Shelly's wedding, he was so drunk. I'm just really out of it. When we got to the wedding, our friends were letting us know that Michelle and Jason were fighting, and they were referring to it as World War III.
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Chapter 4: What were the issues in Michelle and Jason Young's marriage?
We had an intimate relationship for the two days that he was there.
He ended up having sex.
He never settled down.
When Dateline continues.
Jason Young went on trial for the murder of his pregnant wife, Michelle, in June 2011. By then, he'd spent 18 months in a jail cell. The guy who lived for tailgates, the guy who loved to party, that guy was long gone. Prosecutor Becky Holt opened for the state.
The defendant had a plan. His plan was to murder his wife. His plan was to get away with it.
With no murder weapon found, the prosecution's case was built on that partial shoe print. They knew now that Jason once owned a pair of hush puppies like these that matched the print. They were now missing. They also told jurors about that early morning visit to the gas station and the suspicious activity at the hotel. But the thrust of their case was this.
Jason Young was trying in the most violent possible way to get out of a troubled marriage.
Were you aware of tensions in that marriage? Yeah.
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Chapter 5: Who testified against Jason Young and what did they reveal?
He became agitated. He said something to the effect of, if I'm going to make such a terrible husband, then give me my ring back. Did you... Give it to the defendant? No. He began trying to pull the ring off, and it wouldn't come off. He was throwing me from one bed to the other and jumping on me with all his weight and pinning my arms, both of them, behind me.
Prosecutors hoped to convince the jury it all added up to a motive for murder. So how would the defense counterattack? With a witness who could refute every charge...
Coming up. Jason Young finally breaks his silence as he takes the stand to testify. Did you kill your wife, Michelle? No, sir. Were you there when it happened?
No, sir.
What the prosecution didn't tell you... There's an art to the business of criminal defense.
And it would take a true artist to repaint the prosecution's dark portrait of Jason Young. So, what could defense attorney Mike Klinkeson do? Well, to begin with, as he told the jury, he agreed with the prosecution. Jason Young was not a good husband.
He acted at times like an immature jerk, but that does not make him a killer.
The defense was not about to make any more concessions, mind you. That jewelry box in the bedroom, there was DNA on it. Didn't match either Michelle or Jason. The suspicious activity at the hotel? There was a fingerprint on that camera, and it wasn't Jason Young's. And there wasn't any forensic evidence that tied Jason to the crime scene. And there was no blood in his car.
It was not a scratch on him.
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Chapter 6: How did Jason Young's defense counter the prosecution's case?
And I realized I didn't bring those papers. Why was it important to you that somebody get those papers?
Because I wanted it to be a surprise. A surprise to Michelle means so much more than anything.
So around noon November 3rd, he called his sister-in-law Meredith from the car to ask if she'd go to the house and get those eBay papers.
Friday, November 3rd.
He left Meredith a voicemail.
If you could do me a huge favor and go over there and see if you can find it, see me on the computer.
Then he headed to his mother's place in the mountains nearby. And it was there, he testified hours later, that he learned Michelle had been murdered.
I just fell. I broke on the inside. I just broke and I didn't believe it.
Family members drove him back to Raleigh. During the drive, he said, his friends called.
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