Yolanda Bindics
Cold case investigators are taking their search for new leads in the murder of Yolanda Bindics to Florida.
According to a news release late Thursday, Det. Tom Tarpley of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office Unsolved Cases Team said a news release was sent to Tampa-area media outlets in Florida laying out new information that has turned up since a news conference two weeks ago. Clarence Carte was named a person of interest during that news conference.
“As a result of news coverage in the Tampa Bay area regarding Clarence Carl Carte, who is a person of interest in the Aug. 10, 2004, murder of Yolanda Bindics of Jamestown, New York, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office has received a number of tips called into the tip line in Western New York,” the release states.
County investigators say the investigation hasn’t revealed an alibi for Carte to explain where he was the night of Aug. 10, 2004. Carte is the father of Bindics’ youngest child. Two new photos — one of Carte exiting the nearby Kwik Fill store and a pickup truck being driven by Carte on the night of the alleged murder — were released recently by the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office.
“There was only ever one alibi provided for Carte and it was later determined to be false,” the release states.
Bindics was 25 when she was reported missing to the Jamestown Police Department after she didn’t return home after completing a work shift at the Family Dollar store on Fluvanna Avenue, Jamestown, on Aug. 10, 2004. On Sept. 10, 2006, Bindics skeletal remains were found in Boutwell Hill State Forest in Charlotte, which is in the jurisdiction of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office. Bindics’ death was determined by a county coroner to be a homicide.
Previously, Investigator Tom Di Zinno said Carte walked out of the Kwik Fill gas station located at Fluvanna Avenue and Washington Street in Jamestown on Aug. 10, 2004, at about 8:10 p.m. At the same time, Bindics was seen leaving work at Family Dollar. Di Zinno told The Post-Journal that Carte bought soda and a lottery ticket from the Kwik Fill before leaving the store. He said the Sheriff’s Office wants to speak with anyone — a store clerk, a customer or motorist — who may have come into contact with Carte between 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2004, and 6 a.m. the following morning.
“Carte was familiar with the area in which Bindics body was located,” the Sheriff’s Office news release states. “This is a highly remote area of Chautauqua County, New York, which is a significant distance from where Bindics was last seen.”
Also of note is a possible motive mentioned in Thursday’s news release. That motive, along with what investigators say is a documented history of violence by Carte that includes a 2018 battery charge in Florida, are another reason investigators are seeking more information about Carte.
“Another form of criteria used to include or exclude someone as a suspect is motive,” investigators said in Thursday’s release. “Our investigation has revealed that court orders in regard to child support/expenses leading up to Bindics’ disappearance may have created significant financial motive for Carte.