← All cases

Robert Lee Yates Jr.

Also known as: Spokane Serial Killer

Active

1975–1998

Region

Spokane, Washington, USA

Status

Convicted

Victims

15

Robert Lee Yates Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot, killed a young couple near Walla Walla in 1975 and a woman found in Skagit County in 1988, then killed at least a dozen women in Spokane and the Tacoma area between 1996 and 1998, many of them women in the East Sprague area who struggled with addiction. A white Corvette he had once owned and DNA evidence led to his arrest in April 2000. He pleaded guilty to 13 murders in Spokane County to avoid the death penalty and was later sentenced to death in Pierce County for two more, a sentence converted to life in prison in 2018 when the Washington Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty.

Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Patrick Oliver, 21 · July 1975

  A college student killed with Susan Savage during a picnic near Walla Walla.

• Susan Savage, 22 · July 1975

  A college student killed with Patrick Oliver during a picnic near Walla Walla.

• Stacy Hawn, 23 · 1988

  Last seen in Seattle in 1988; her remains were found later that year in Skagit County.

• Shannon Zielinski, 38 · June 14, 1996
• Jennifer Joseph, 16 · August 26, 1997

  A teenager from the Tacoma area who had arrived in Spokane about a month earlier.

• Heather Hernandez, 20 · August 26, 1997
• Darla Sue Scott, 29 · November 5, 1997
• Shawn Johnson, 36 · December 18, 1997
• Laurie Wason, 31 · December 26, 1997

  A mother who had run a licensed adult-family home.

• Sunny Oster, 41 · February 8, 1998

  A mother of two who had come to Spokane for drug treatment.

• Linda Maybin, 34 · April 1, 1998
• Melody Murfin, 43 · May 1998

  Missing from May 1998; her remains were found in October 2000 using a map Yates drew.

• Michelyn Derning, 47 · July 7, 1998

  Originally from Southern California; she moved to Spokane in 1997.

• Melinda Mercer, 24 · December 7, 1997

  Last seen in Seattle the night before she was found in Tacoma.

• Connie LaFontaine Ellis, 35 · October 13, 1998

  A Tacoma woman who had worked as a hairdresser in Spokane.

Timeline of locations

1. July 1975
   Washington State Penitentiary (guard job) (Workplace)

   In 1975 Yates worked briefly as a corrections officer at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla, lasting about four months.

2. July 1975
   Mill Creek, near Walla Walla (Crime scene, approximate area)

   Patrick Oliver and Susan Savage were shot while picnicking along Mill Creek near Walla Walla. The killings were not linked to Yates until his 2000 plea agreement.

3. 1988
   Near Big Lake, Skagit County (Recovery site, approximate area)

   Stacy Hawn's remains were found near Big Lake in Skagit County in 1988.

4. 1996
   East Sprague corridor, Spokane (Other, approximate area)

   The Spokane victims were all last seen in the East Sprague area. Jennifer Joseph was last seen near Sprague and Thor in a Corvette in August 1997, a key lead in the case.

5. June 14, 1996
   Near Mead, north of Spokane (Recovery site, approximate area)

   Shannon Zielinski's body was found in a wooded area in the Mead area north of Spokane.

6. August 26, 1997
   Off Forker Road, northeast of Spokane (Recovery site, approximate area)

   Jennifer Joseph's body was found in a field off Forker Road, northeast of Spokane.

7. August 26, 1997
   Overgrown lot in Spokane (Recovery site, approximate area)

   Heather Hernandez's body was found in an overgrown lot in Spokane.

8. November 5, 1997
   Near Hangman Valley Golf Course (Recovery site, approximate area)

   Darla Sue Scott was found near Hangman Valley Golf Course south of Spokane in November 1997. Shawn Johnson was found about a mile away in December.

9. December 1997
   Fort Lewis (Other, approximate area)

   National Guard records showed Yates was on duty at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, around the times Melinda Mercer and Connie Ellis were last seen alive.

10. December 7, 1997
    Vacant lot in South Tacoma (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Melinda Mercer's body was found in a vacant lot in South Tacoma.

11. December 26, 1997
    Field in east Spokane (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Laurie Wason was found in a field in east Spokane in December 1997. Linda Maybin's remains were found in the same field in April 1998.

12. October 13, 1998
    Greenbelt near Parkland (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Connie LaFontaine Ellis's remains were found by a search dog in a greenbelt near Parkland, just south of Tacoma. The plastic bags found with her led Spokane detectives to connect the cases.

13. April 18, 2000
    Near Kaiser Aluminum Mead Works (Arrest, approximate area)

    Police pulled Yates over on April 18, 2000, as he drove to his job at Kaiser Aluminum in Mead, just before he reached the plant. He was charged the next day with killing Jennifer Joseph.

14. October 2000
    Yates family home, Spokane (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Melody Murfin's remains were recovered from the yard of Yates's Spokane home, beneath his bedroom window, after he drew a map for investigators as part of his plea deal.

15. October 2000
    Spokane County Courthouse (Court / trial)

    In Spokane County Superior Court, Yates pleaded guilty to 13 murders and one attempted murder in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. On October 26, 2000, he was sentenced to 408 years in prison and apologized to the victims' families.

16. September 19, 2002
    Pierce County Superior Court, Tacoma (Court / trial, approximate area)

    Pierce County prosecutors, who had not joined the plea deal, tried Yates in Tacoma. A jury convicted him of the aggravated murders of Melinda Mercer and Connie Ellis on September 19, 2002, and sentenced him to death on October 3.

17. September 27, 2007
    Washington Supreme Court (Temple of Justice) (Court / trial)

    The Washington Supreme Court affirmed the Pierce County convictions and death sentence in 2007. In October 2018, ruling in a different case, it struck down the state's death penalty and converted all death sentences, including Yates's, to life in prison.

18. October 11, 2018
    Washington State Penitentiary (Prison)

    Yates is serving his sentences at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, the same prison where he briefly worked as a guard in 1975. He was still alive and held there as of 2026.

Sources

• Robert Lee Yates (Wikipedia)
• State v. Yates, 161 Wn.2d 714 (Washington Supreme Court, 2007)
• Yates to admit 13 killings to avoid death penalty (Seattle Times, 2000)
• Families lash out, killer apologizes (Seattle Times, 2000)
• Robert Yates: Son, husband, athlete, father, pilot, teacher, murder suspect (Seattle Times, 2000)
• The past five years (Spokesman-Review, 2000)
• Yates will face nine additional murder charges (Spokesman-Review, 2000)
• Serial killer Yates sentenced to death (Seattle Times, 2002)
• Washington Supreme Court tosses out state's death penalty (AP via KTVZ, 2018)
• Washington state had 8 inmates on death row when executions ended. Are they still alive? (The News Tribune via Daily Record, 2026)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.