In August 2004, a young mother in Jamestown had some news she wanted to share with her family.
But on Aug. 10, 2004, Yolanda Bindics vanished. Her family never learned the news she wanted to share.
Bindics’ brother spoke to her the night she went missing. She was leaving work at the Family Dollar in Jamestown and planned to head home after running an errand. But hours went by and finally, in the early hours of the morning when he still hadn’t heard from her, he called police.
Her car was found at a local fast-food restaurant, not far from the Family Dollar, and search crews swept through nearby woods in the days after she disappeared. The following month her purse was found after heavy rains swept through the city’s storm drains. But for two years, that would be the last piece of solid evidence in the case.
WGRZ reporter and “Unsolved” host Leanne Stuck has been digging into what happened to Bindics all those years ago. She said it’s a case that people still talk about today.
“It is one that has shocked many people in Western, New York. It’s one that still haunts a lot of people in Western New York, especially Jamestown.”
Bindics’ skeletal remains were found just over two years after she went missing, 30 miles from where her car was found in the city of Jamestown.
But since that gruesome discovery, there are still no leads in the investigation and no one has ever been named as a suspect.
Bindics’ sister, Anne Chmielewski, says the family will never give up looking for answers.
“I think a lot of people know a lot more than they’re willing to say,” she said.
This week, Stuck joins the weekly True Crime Chronicles podcast to discuss the case and other unsolved cases of missing women in western New York.
You can download and subscribe to True Crime Chronicles on any podcast platform, including Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and Apple Podcasts.