What was missing?

The following post at a forum dedicated to discussing the Michelle Young murder investigation has stirred up curiosity and inspired quite a bit of speculation -- some of it absurd, in my opinion.

yes, i know her. no, she wasn't at work when he called. yes, there was really a fax. yes, it was for a gift of some sort for Michelle. yes, she was at their house alot & yes, like a nanny to her niece. yes, he has stayed at inlaw's house since murder. yes, he was out of town when the body was "found."

nothing stolen? ask jdub if he noticed anything missing at the funeral?

i think he's guilty as sin & hot-shot lawyer (previously partners with John Edwards-just stating a fact- i like john) will not get him out of this one.

The way I see it, a few posters at Websleuths are on the right track.

What ( rather who) was missing?

Michelle's mother told us:

My name is Linda Fisher, and Michelle Young is my daughter. We are shaken and heartbroken over the tragic loss of Michelle. She's the wife, a sister, a granddaughter, and most importantly the mother of my only granddaughter, Cassidy (sobbing).

I'm asking for anyone who has seen or heard anything -- as trivial as you might think it is, anything -- to please come forward and help find the person who murdered our daughter...my daughter.

I also want to thank, or take the opportunity to thank, everyone who has given their love and support to us during this horrible time. And I want you to please understand that our family is in mourning, and we appreciate the privacy to grieve.

And I have great faith in the police that they will help find the person who is responsible for taking our Michelle away from us. I love her. (sobbing) I love my Michelle, and she's gone.

Thank you.

Where is she now and why is she being kept from the Fisher family?

Questions, questions, questions...

Six weeks into the investigation of Michelle Young's murder, Wake County officials continue to keep the bulk of the details close to the vest. It's frustrating for those of us on the outside looking in, but certainly understandable as necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation and avoid trying the case in the media. A string of particular questions circle around in my head, and I wonder just what it is about each one that is vital to solving the crime and apprehending the perpetrator. Why do investigators and/or prosecutors release certain details yet keep so many others out of the public domain?

• What time did Jason leave home on November 2?
  
  We learned from a news report quoting, Rhett Fussell, a friend of the Youngs that he left in the evening for an early morning sales meeting in Virginia, but the exact time of his departure is, as yet, unpublished. We also know that Jason had a very brief conversation with investigators on the day Michelle's body was discovered. Did he make a statement as to what time he left? If so, surely investigators have done everything in their power to either substantiate or disprove that claim. Is there some discrepancy between the two? Or is there unaccounted for time between his departure from the Youngs' Raleigh home and his arrival at the Virginia destination?



• Where did Jason spend the night of November 2-3?
  
  Did he check in to a hotel in the same Virginia city he was to make a sales call in? Or did he stop short and spend the night somewhere in between Raleigh and the destination point? In either case, it's conceivable that he had time to return to Raleigh, kill Michelle, and still make it to the Virginia sales meeting on Friday morning.



• What was the location of the sales meeting?
  
  A poster at the CourtTV forum who claims to have some inside knowledge put forth that the meeting was to be in Roanoke, but officials have never publicly made clear the location nor indicated if Jason actually kept the appointment. Failure to keep the appointment would be a devastating blow to his alibi, but keeping it would not necessarily solidify it. Depending on the chronology of his departure, hotel check-in, and the sales meeting, he may have had ample time for a round-trip to Raleigh to commit the crime.



• Who sent the mysterious "fax"?
  
  Meredith Fisher, Michelle's sister, told officers that she had received a voicemail from Jason Young on Friday morning, with a request for her to go to the house and pick up a fax. This excerpt from a November 30 warrant seems to suggest that the document does exist:

  The victim's sister came to the house to retrieve a document, which was on the printer, located next to the computer. The document had been printed from that computer.

  Of more interest is the fact that this document was of notable mention in the Probable Cause section of a warrant to search a Dell computer belonging to Michelle Money. Does this suggest that Michelle Money sent the document that Meredith was asked to retrieve? If so, we can reasonably conclude that Meredith had no knowledge of the affair between her brother-in-law and Mrs. Money. That could indicate that Michelle Young was also in the dark in that regard. Or if she was aware, she had only very recently learned of it.



• What were the plans for the coming weekend in the Young household?
  
  Friends of Jason have laid out for us his purported plans for the early part of the weekend. ConcernedCitize at the CourtTV forum gave the following account:

  Jason left home Thur. Pm to go to Va. I do not know the exact time he left but know it was in the evening. He had a meeting there Fri. AM. He checked into a hotel there and called Michelle at around 11 PM that night when he had arrived. He spoke to her and all was fine. He had his meeting Fri. Am and then as had been previously planned, drove to western NC to his mom's house where he'd planned to have a short visit and spend the night before returning to Raleigh the next day. People are very confused over the sequence there because the press has published so many different things. He went to VA, spent the night, had a meeting in the AM, then as planned drove to Brevard.

  The author twice qualified that the trip to Brevard had been planned in advance. Why the emphasis? It seems of great importance to the author that we are not left with the impression that Jason's decision to visit his mom was a spur of the moment notion. If the visit was unplanned, did his parent's know before learning of Michelle's murder that Jason was coming? If they learned of both at the same time, I can certainly see why his stepfather was so insistent that he retain an attorney before speaking to investigators.
  
  On the other hand, a pre-planned trip to Brevard seems rather sinister in the context of Michelle's death. It's been reported that Fridays are Michelle's flex days at Progress Energy, and she wasn't expected in that day. Wouldn't Jason's parents have loved to see their daughter-in-law and, especially, their granddaughter? If Michelle had a doctor's appointment that day, she could have rescheduled and gone along to enjoy a weekend in the mountains with her family. Why would Jason leave them behind and give Meredith the impression that Michelle would be at work that day?
  
  One more thing that calls into question the side-trip to Brevard is the fact that Saturday was Homecoming for the NCSU Wolfpack. It's common knowledge that Jason is a big fan and has been a season ticket holder, fully engaging in tailgating and other Wolfpack festivities -- even hoisting up little Cassidy, dressed as a miniature NCSU cheerleader, in mock cheerleader lifts at games . Would his parents even be on his mind on Homecoming weekend? Would he take the time to drive hours out of his way and miss out on any part of the Homecoming hullabaloo?



• How was Jason notified of Michelle's murder, and what was his reaction?
  
  Jason's step-father claims to have broken the news:

  "I met him in the yard and told him what happened," Gerald McIntyre, the stepfather, said from his home in Brevard.
  "He went plumb to his knees."

  According to friends, the family, after learning of the murder, elected to tell Jason when he arrived rather than devastating him with the news while he was driving and alone. However, Wake County Sheriff, Donnie Harrison, told Greta van Susteren of Fox News that his office notified Young. As I've stated before, the falling to his knees bit seems rather contrived as an immediate response. It conveys acceptance rather than stunned disbelief, in my opinion. Why would he be so quick to accept such shocking news? Did he ask about the welfare of his 2½ year old daughter, Cassidy? Did he display any concern as to her condition or whose care she was in? I'm hopeful that Sheriff Harrison sent a representative to personally notify Jason Young of Michelle's murder. His initial response to that news could be very telling.



• What was the murder weapon?
  
  Has it been located and recovered? Have marks on Michelle's body allowed examiners to determine what type of instrument was used? Is there any evidence tying the weapon to the crime and/or to a suspect?

I believe that investigators have the answers to all of these questions and probably more. And I believe that what they know in that regard led them to focus on Jason Young as a suspect in his wife's murder early on in the investigation. They said almost from the beginning that it was not a random act. I wonder why.

Update: 1:25 pm CT

Another question just occurred to me. Why did Wake County authorities recently release part of the warrants relating to the case? Specifically, why did they reveal the adulterous affair between Jason Young and Michelle Money. Mrs. Money has reportedly been very cooperative and fully answered all of investigating officers' questions. So why offer her up to the media and public scrutiny? Perhaps, she's a bit of a decoy, in that there are other girlfriends that Sheriff Harrison would like to keep under the radar, so to speak.

Young Timeline

I am in the process of creating a detailed timeline of the Michelle Young case using information gathered from news reports, search warrants, and forum postings. All input is welcome and appreciated. Just post it in the comment section, and I'll add it to the calendar.

You can navigate to the timeline using the following link.

Michelle Young Timeline

In addition, a link to the timeline has been added to the LINKS section in the right sidebar of this blog.

Update: 5:58 pm, CT

A few readers have expressed confusion over why some events on the timeline appear out of order. That's due to a shortcoming of the calendar format. If an event is not linked to a specific time, the calendar will automatically list it above the events that include a time. For instance, the conversation between Jason and law enforcement officers on November 3 appears above the actual discovery of the body by Meredith. It is not meant to indicate that the former occurred before the latter. The only way I can correct that is to estimate a time for each event.

Editing Note

The post entitled "What Next?!" has been removed from this blog. I consider the allegation on which it was originally based to be completely false. Although I declared it untrue in an update, it seems much more fair to do away with the entry completely and eliminate the potential for perpetuating false stories.

Why am I not surprised?

It seems ol' Jason has a girlfriend. Or maybe I should state that in the past tense. Jason Young had a girlfriend in Florida. That rumor proved true, not that I ever doubted it. The only thing that even slightly surprises me is that we found out about it so quickly. My guess is that investigators are getting nowhere with Jason Young as far as cooperation from him. This information should pull the legs out from under a lot of the support he's been getting and put Jason on notice that the gloves are off.

Excerpt from the News & Observer article:

According to the search warrants, Jason Young was in almost daily contact with Michelle Money of Ocoee, Fla., by phone or e-mail in the three months before his wife's death. Investigators seized two cell phones from Jason Young's Ford Explorer and asked the phone companies to turn over call records and voice mail on the accounts, according to the warrants.

The warrants also show that investigators seized several records related to travel by Jason Young, including a US Airways baggage claim ticket and a receipt for a United Airlines flight to Denver in October. Other seized items include Young's credit card statement, a computer hard drive and file folders containing a will, insurance information and other papers.

The trip to Denver in October could have been when Jason met the Florida woman, or it could have been a romatic getaway for the couple disguised as a business trip. While pregnant Michelle stayed home with Cassidy, Jason may have been romancing his girlfriend rather than celebrating the third anniversary of his marriage with his wife. Brings a whole new spin to that "leather purse for a third anniversary gift" story, doesn't it? I'd like to hear "just the facts" explanation for that. If there is a cookie cutter for cads, it should be marketed with the mugshots of Scott Peterson and Jason Young on the packaging.

Regarding Michelle Money (yes, she shares his wife's first name), I give her the benefit of the doubt. Unless and until otherwise proven, I assume that she is in no way involved in Michelle Young's murder. It is quite possible that, like Amber Frey, she contacted North Carolina authorities upon learning that her boyfriend was married and his wife and unborn child had been murdered. Regardless, I hope that investigators have gotten full cooperation from Ms. Money.

The News & Observer article goes on to state that Meredith Young was contacted through voice-mail by Jason to go over to the house to retrieve a computer print-out. So that clears up the great fax debate. I expect the media attention to this case will pick up pace now that the cad is out of the bag (bad pun, I know). I'm sure there's plenty more known about Jason's activities that is being held back in order to protect the investigation. Keep me posted and I'll try to do the same.

Update: 5:06 pm, CT

Well, it appears that these two Michelle's may have been "friends" going back to college, if not even further back than that. Michelle Money has former addresses in Raleigh, NC, as well as Port Jefferson, NY -- just a hop, skip and jump from the Fishers' hometown of Sayville.

It all goes back to Laci...

I suppose the OJ Simpson trial was my introduction to following crime stories. It was everywhere, and everyone was talking about it. We didn't have CourtTV in my community then, but even CNN ran gavel-to-gavel coverage of that trial. There was no getting away from it. But the Laci Peterson case is the one that I always go back to. It will never leave me. Believe it or not, a few of the finer details have gotten a little fuzzy with the passage of time, but I can still picture in my mind the various photographs and video clips that introduced us to Laci -- her brilliant smile and her effervescent charm. She had the same impact on almost everyone who caught a glimpse. It isn't likely that any of you who watched the memorial video set to Brown Eyed Girl have forgotten it nor the emotions it evoked. I know I haven't.

And neither has the prosecution team. Birgit Fladager recently spoke about the case to a gathering of Kentucky lawyers.

Fladager played a tape yesterday that jurors never got to see because of restrictions on the number of photos prosecutors could show the jury. It showed several photos of Laci Peterson from childhood to adulthood, with Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison -- Laci's favorite song -- and later I Will Remember You by Sarah McClachlan playing in the background.

At the beginning, the judge tapped his feet to the upbeat Morrison song as he watched the tape in his office, Fladager said. He was silent at the end, she said, and the defense lawyers stared down at their shoes.

"When you watch this, keep in mind there is a guy who supposedly loved her," Fladager said of Peterson before she played the video for Kentucky prosecutors. "And she died in a horrible way. And he showed absolutely no emotion to what you're about to see. Which told me then that he never cared about her. He never cared about anybody."

Peterson deserved all the scorn and wrath he got from the public for the simple fact of what he did to Laci, Conner, and the Rocha family. But he couldn't stop there. His coldness, both before and after the fact, made it that much easier to condemn him.

Lately, I've been silently questioning myself and what I do here on this blog. I didn't have my own blog when the Peterson investigation and trial were ongoing, but I participated in discussing it elsewhere. I believed early on that Scott Peterson was responsible for his wife and unborn son's disappearance and murder. I didn't have the internal conflict about discussing the case that I've been experiencing lately. I consider Jason Young the prime suspect in the murder of Michelle Young and her unborn son. I have suspicions as to the car accident that killed another of their unborn children. But what if I'm wrong? Am I persecuting an innocent man -- a grieving husband and father -- and those who love and support him by writing about my suspicions on this blog and elsewhere? That thought troubles me. So I intend to rethink the case. I'll try to look at each item of evidence and reported fact more objectively and give unconfirmed rumors the proper weight.

Still, my primary concern is the victims. If I can do anything to facilitate justice for Michelle Young and her babies or to support her heartbroken family in even the smallest way, that is what I want to do. I know my chances of accomplishing either are slim, but slim is better than none. Of course, I feel sorry for Jason's family and what they're going through. I understand their need to support and defend him. And even if he proves to be the murderer, I will still expect them to support him. I just hope they handle it with more grace, more dignity and, most importantly, more compassion for their daughter-in-law's family than the Petersons did.

Back to Basics: The Night of the Murder

New information is hard to come by in the investigation into the bludgeoning death of Michelle Fisher Young of Raleigh, North Carolina. What information we have is being bandied about on crime forums as armchair sleuths attempt to piece it together and determine who is responsible. Meanwhile, people who claim to know the Youngs have been entering into the discussions -- some in an attempt to defend Jason Young from what they consider a misinformation campaign designed to vilify the husband, others who have some suspicions of their own about his involvement, and a few who seem to be trying to gather information and figure out what happened just as the rest of us are. While we wait for something to break, I suggest we take a more organized approach at analyzing what we have at hand. There's plenty to work with, but it's scattered throughout news reports, interviews, and forum postings. Granted, what we "know" is only as reliable as its source, but we can only work with what we've got.

• Michelle was 20 weeks into her third pregnancy. The couple was expecting a boy and had a two-and-a-half year old daughter named Cassidy. Michelle's second pregnancy ended in a therapeutic abortion in June of 2006, when shortly after a May 29 car accident in Transylvania county, it was determined that the baby had stopped developing. Michelle conceived again a couple of weeks later; if the 20-week gestational age is accurate, her baby boy would have been conceived on or about June 30. Friends of Jason insist that the loss of the second pregnancy and the car accident are unrelated, but it's unlikely that her doctor could make that determination with medical certainty. Another person who attended the funeral related hearing that the miscarriage was a result of trauma from the car accident and that Michelle was not wearing her seatbelt when their car went off the highway and down an embankment into the French Broad River. There have been a couple of different explanations given by friends of the Youngs regarding the accident.
  
  
  • Someone using the name "ConcernedCitize" posted the following:

    That area is a bad area to be driving in. I have heard (3rd party) that Michelle was trying to reach for something in the back seat when it happened. Jason just lost focus for split second. They were on a curve at the time. It happened very quickly and apparently a common problem area for aaccidents.

  • Another poster who claims to know the Youngs well, wrote the following using the name "just the facts":

    The car wreck in the spring occurred when Jason thought the back of the SUV wasn't closed properly. He glanced back to look at that and his wheels went a little bit off the road. He over corrected the vehicle and that's when the wreck occurred. Despite the media's effort to make that into a huge story, there is no 100' drop off there where they went into the river. Michelle was not wearing her seat belt by her choice, not because he tried to trick her into taking it off. It was a wreck plain and simple. If having a wreck with your spouse in the vehicle is now considered an attempted murder, I guess hundreds of thousands of people nationwide are guilty.

  
  I've been informed by someone who has seen the accident report that Michelle told the highway patrolman that she was wearing her seatbelt. However, it's not an uncommon thing for people to claim to have been wearing their seatbelt even when they were not. After all, failure to wear a seatbelt is a ticketable offense in North Carolina, as in most other states. In all likelihood, it would be impossible to prove now whether that accident was an orchestrated attempt on the lives of Michelle and her unborn child, and that incident will probably never make it into the courtroom should Jason go to trial for this homicide. It is interesting to note, however, what a stunning surpise the third pregnancy would have been for Jason under such circumstances.



• Jason left Thursday evening on a business trip to Virginia. Police have not made public the time of Jason's departure, but one friend who has posted at the CourtTV forum stated that Jason was leaving as Michelle's friends were arriving that evening. It's been widely reported that Michelle had company on Thursday evening until approximately 10:30 p.m. The CourtTV poster has put forth that it was a regular thing for Michelle and her friends to watch Grey's Anatomy together. ABC runs the program from 9-10 p.m. on Thursday evenings in North Carolina. The location of Jason's business meeting has not been specified by investigators nor by people who claim to know him, but an industrious sleuth at CourtTV's forum suggested Blacksburg, Virginia as a potential destination. ChartOne, Jason's employer, apparently does quite a bit of business there. If you look at this map, you can see that Blacksburg is a good candidate logistically, as Jason had plans to swing by his parents' home in Brevard after his meeting, spend the night there, and return to Raleigh on Saturday.

Jason's evening departure for a Friday morning business meeting has been the subject of some perplexity from the beginning. Why would he leave in the evening only to arrive at his destination late at night to attend a meeting the following morning? Why not sleep at home and get up early to make the drive? Let's assume, for the sake of argument, the following:

• that he left shortly before Grey's Anatomy started at 9 p.m.


• that his sales meeting was scheduled for 9 a.m. the following morning in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Blacksburg is a 3.5-4 hour drive from the Youngs' Raleigh residence. If Jason had opted to make the drive on Friday morning, he would have had to depart at 5 a.m. to make a 9 a.m. appointment. Having guests in the house until 10:30 p.m. and the possible sleep disruptions that accompany a pregnant wife and a toddler might make it difficult to get up that early. On the other hand, a 9 p.m. departure would make for a rather late arrival with Jason probably getting checked in and to bed at about 1 a.m. That's a lot of late night driving after a busy day only to turn around and attend a meeting and drive an additional 4.5 hours to Brevard the following day. I've done a fair bit of traveling. It's not unusual to break a trip up and spend the night somewhere in between, especially when you want to arrive at your destination early in the day. Judging by what Jason told a friend at Michelle's funeral, that's probably what he did.

Jason Young has said he slipped out that evening to get a head start for an early morning sales meeting in Virginia, according to Fussell, who said he talked to Jason Young at his wife's funeral. [emphasis added]

A "head start" suggests that he wasn't planning to drive all the way to the destination in one trek. Friends of Jason have revealed that he arrived at his hotel and called Michelle at 11 p.m. If, as we have assumed for this argument, Jason left home shortly before Grey's Anatomy began, then he drove for approximately two hours before stopping for lodging, possibly on the west side of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Naturally, that would place him overnight within a two hour drive back to the home, which leads me to an interesting point. Less than three days into the investigation, police notified the public that they were interested in information regarding the Youngs' neighborhood on the night in question.

Stephens urged anyone who noticed any vehicle on the roads around Young's home between 1 and 5 a.m. Friday to call the Wake County Sheriff's Office at 856-6800.

That window was later widened to include the hours between midnight and 6 a.m., but it's the 1-5 a.m. window that sparks my interest. How did they arrive at that time frame for the homicide? They can approximate a time of death based on the core body temperature and advancement of rigor mortis, but I'm not convinced that they were able to do that to such a degree of accuracy as to rule out the two and a half hours between the 10:30 p.m. departure of Michelle's friends and 1 a.m. (or even the two hours following Jason's 11 p.m. phone call). There must have been some other, as yet undisclosed, factor that went into making that estimation. Perhaps, investigators have had Jason Young in their sights as the perpetrator from the beginning. They could certainly have determined in the first 2-3 days of the investigation the location of Jason's overnight lodging and the origination of his 11 p.m. call. Relative certainty of his involvement and a travel time of two hours to the scene of the crime may have been the deciding factor in estimating the 1 to 5 a.m. window of opportunity. The 5 a.m. closure of that window would allow Jason the four hours necessary to return to his hotel, check out, and make a 9 a.m. business meeting in Blacksburg, as well.

Well, it's a theory anyway. Blacksburg may not have been the destination point, but there are probably other sites that would fit the same criteria. There is more that we know in relation to the discovery of the body and the avenues of investigation being pursued by police. To keep this entry from getting too long and allow discussion to focus on this portion of the case, I'll save the rest for another entry.

Trenton Duckett: POI

Authorities have named a close friend of Melinda Duckett as a person of interest in the August disappearance of 2-year-old Trenton Duckett. Chai-Wen Chen, a 25-year-old male friend of the boy's mother, works across the street from the Belleview Wendy's where Trenton was last seen with his mother the day of the alleged abduction. It is believe that Melinda handed the boy off to someone that Sunday in an attempt to keep him away from his father, Joshua Duckett, and staged the abduction from the apartment bedroom that evening.

I hope this pans out. I was starting to get that Holloway feeling about this case.

WESH.com has a thorough article on the latest news. Other entries are accessible through the category menu in right sidebar of this blog.

Timeline update: The 12:08 phone call made by Melinda Duckett on Sunday was to Chen. I've updated the map and timeline entry accordingly.

A Mother's Plea

Linda Fisher, of Sayville, NY, addressed the media on November 13 at the gravesite of her slain daughter, Michelle Young, who was 20 weeks into her third pregnancy. It appears that Ms. Fisher took special care to emphasize two things in her statement. I have formatted them in this transcript to reflect that emphasis.

My name is Linda Fisher, and Michelle Young is my daughter. We are shaken and heartbroken over the tragic loss of Michelle. She's the wife, a sister, a granddaughter, and most importantly the mother of my only granddaughter, Cassidy (sobbing).

I'm asking for anyone who has seen or heard anything -- as trivial as you might think it is, anything -- to please come forward and help find the person who murdered our daughter...my daughter.

I also want to thank, or take the opportunity to thank, everyone who has given their love and support to us during this horrible time. And I want you to please understand that our family is in mourning, and we appreciate the privacy to grieve.

And I have great faith in the police that they will help find the person who is responsible for taking our Michelle away from us. I love her. (sobbing) I love my Michelle, and she's gone.

Thank you.

ABC-11 (WTVD) has raw video of Ms. Fisher's statement.

Update: WTVD has removed the raw video from their site. WRAL is providing a link to video of the complete statement on this page.

On January 24, 2003, Sharon Rocha addressed the public regarding the disappearance of her pregnant daughter, Laci Peterson of Modesto, California. The Rocha family had very recently been informed of Scott Peterson's affair with Fresno massage therapist, Amber Frey, solidifying their suspicions that Scott was responsible for Laci's disappearance and probable murder.

I would like to thank all of you for being here today and for respecting our request last week for some time to spend alone with our family. We appreciate your support of our family's search to find Laci.

I want to thank Kim Petersen, with the Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation, who has been working with all of you and relaying our wishes to not conduct interviews last week. We had a very difficult time last week.

I also want to thank all of the volunteers, the police department, fire department, Brad Saltzman and everyone at the Red Lion Hotel, the chaplains at the police department, all of my friends and family, the hundreds of thousands of people who have visited Laci's web site with their prayers, and everyone who has been involved with the search for Laci. The support we've received from everyone has been our salvation.

Since Christmas Eve, our one and only focus has been to find Laci and bring her home to us. I love my daughter so much. I miss her every minute of every day. I miss seeing her. I miss our talking together. I miss listening to the excitement in her voice when she talks to me about her baby. I miss not being able to share with her the anticipation of her approaching delivery date. I miss listening to her talk about her future with her husbandand her baby. I miss sharing our thoughts and our lives together. I miss her smile and her laughter and her sense of humor. And I miss everything about her.

Someone has taken all of this away from me and everyone else who loves her. There are no words that can possibly describe the ache in my heart or the emptiness in my life.

I know that someone knows where Laci is, and I'm pleading with you, please, please, let her come home to us. You can send an anonymous letter to the police department, or you can make an anonymous phone call to the police department tip line at area code (209)342-6166. (Or anonymous messages may be sent using our Leads and Tips form.)

If someone out there has observed or possibly discovered, on their property, anything unusual or suspicious, no matter how minute or insignificant it might seem to you, please call the police department. This may be the missing link to finding Laci.

Please keep looking for Laci and help us end this nightmare.

Thank you.

Laci's family appeared on Larry King Live on February 25 in an effort to keep the case in public awareness. Sharon made the following plea:

We’re hoping that somebody out there knows something, but we know there is someone who knows something and if that person would just come forward and let us know where she is so that we can bring her home.

The first part of that sentence is clearly addressed to the public, but the second part is obviously meant for Scott Peterson.

On April 21, 2003, after Laci's and Conner's bodies were found on the shores of the San Francisco Bay, Sharon Rocha again addressed the public, taking care to send a special message to the person she held responsible for the murders. Scott Peterson had been arrested on the same day the bodies were positively identified. The following is an excerpt:

Laci meant the world to me. She was my only daughter. She was my best friend. We miss her beautiful smile, her laughter, her love, her kind and loving ways. I miss seeing her, talking to her and hugging her. We have been deprived of meeting and knowing Laci’s son, our grandson and nephew. We will miss them and mourn them for the rest of our lives.

Soon after Laci went missing I made a promise to her, that if she has been harmed we will seek justice for her and Conner and make sure that the person responsible for their deaths will be punished. I can only hope that the sound of Laci’s voice begging for her life, begging for the life of her unborn child, is heard over and over and over again in the mind of that person everyday for the rest of his life. The person responsible should be held accountable and punished for the tragedy and devastation forced upon so many.

A transcript of the complete statement can be read at www.findlaci2003.us.

Most everyone following the Michelle Young case has noticed and commented on its similarity to the Peterson case. While the list of similarities continues to grow as we learn more about the case, the main differences are the manner of death (bludgeoning in the Young case versus asphyxiation in the Peterson case), the existence of another child in the Young family, and, most importantly, the fact that Laci was missing for nearly four months whereas Michelle was found within hours of her murder.

I contend that the similarities between Michelle's and Laci's murders have not gone unnoticed by the Fisher family. Linda's statement, though much briefer, seems to echo the more salient elements of Sharon Rocha's various statements. I believe that both Linda Fisher and her younger daughter, Meredith, have, at minimum, strong suspicions as to Jason Young's involvement in Michelle's death. Ms. Fisher's statement was her best attempt at communicating that suspicion, without flagrantly accusing Jason Young and potentially damaging the investigation and prosecution of the case, and petitioning the public's assistance.

Update: Michelle Young

It was reported tonight on Greta van Susteren's On the Record that Michelle was pregnant at the time of the car accident in May 2005. While driving on a local highway, Jason apparently lost control of the vehicle, veering off the highway and traveling down a 100 foot embankment into a river. The water was only a few feet deep, and both he and Michelle were able to escape the car unharmed. Michelle was taken to the hospital out of concern for her pregnancy. The highway patrolman who investigated the accident at the time has recently been interviewed by homicide investigators.

Here is a link to an article with information similar to that reported on GVS: WRAL

Still, they are examining every aspect of the couple's life together, including a May 29, 2005, Transylvania County car accident in which Jason Young drove off a road and down a 100-foot embankment into the French Broad River. Neither he nor Michelle Young were seriously injured.

"They just wanted to know the circumstances and if I saw anything unusual with the wreck, which I did not," said sate Highway Patrol Trooper David Hicks, who investigated the crash.

The media originally reported that this car accident happened in May of this year and people who claim to know the couple seemed to confirm that.

People close to the Youngs who spoke to WRAL on Friday said it had already been a "bizarre" year for the couple. State Highway Patrol records show the two were in an accident in May in Transylvania County, where their car veered off the road into a river.

However, Michelle could not possibly have been pregnant in May of 2006 and only be at 20 weeks gestation at the time of her death. The 2005 date makes more sense. An anonymous poster wrote the following in the comment section of this entry:

Jason was ecstatic over the upcoming birth of his baby boy, as was Michelle. She had lost a child earlier in the spring when the fetus stopped developing in utero and she had to have a medical abortion. They were elated when she was able to get pregnant again.

I see now why investigators are interested in that mysterious accident.

The home is still actively being investigated as a crime scene, with repeated visits from the district attorney's office. That says to me that evidence relating to the identity of the killer was found in the home, and additional evidence implicating that person is expected to be found there. Investigators are patiently building their case.

More thorough coverage of this case can be read in this previous entry: Michelle Marie Young: Reason to Suspect...