BUFFALO, N.Y. — Investigators with the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday provided an update on the Yolanda Bindics case.
Bindics was 25 years old when she was reported missing on Aug. 10, 2004. Police say Bindics, the mother of four children, did not return home after working a shift at the Family Dollar store on Fluvanna Avenue in Jamestown.
Bindics' skeletal remains were found in Boutwell State Park by a hunter, two years after she was reported missing. The Chautauqua County Coroner ruled her death a homicide.
Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said in a press conference that there were two people of interest in their initial investigation. One of them being Jamestown Police Officer Michael Watson. Quattrone said Watson has been cooperative during the lengthy investigation.
Since June 2022, when the Sheriff's Office received federal funding to help establish an Unsolved Cases Unit , the sheriff said there conducted 176 interviews including several with Watson. After the Sheriff's Office and FBI reviewed and re-analyzed evidence from Watson's vehicle, as well as Bindics' vehicle and the vehicle of the other person of interest, and surveillance video, Quattrone says the Sheriff's Office no longer considers Watson as a person of interest.
Quattrone says some of the federal funding was also used for extensive DNA testing with private labs.
The other person police questioned, Clarence Carte, the father of Bindics' youngest child remains a person of interest to investigators the sheriff said.
Police said, at the same time Bindics was working, Carte, walked out of a Kwik Fill store on Fluvanna Avenue and Washington Street. The Kwik Fill station is right across the street from the store Bindics was working at. Carte is shown on surveillance video at the store.
Police are releasing photos of Carte at the store, as well as Carte's vehicle that night. They are also planning to release a picture of Bindics' vehicle.
Anne Chmielewski, who is the sister of Yolanda Bindics, also again made a public plea for information as she spoke with reporters.
"People are talking and there are people out there who have claimed that 'so and so' brags about it and we need those people to come forward," Chmielewski said.
"Even if its anonymously, which we expect but ... 20 years is a long (time). Really we need just people with information to come forward, and we just keep asking for that, and thank everybody for their prayers, and everything, and support through this."
Police have set up an anonymous Tipline for anyone who might have information pertaining to the investigation. The number to call is 716-703-5955.
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