Robert Lee Yates Victims
Robert Lee Yates Jr. was a decorated Army National Guard helicopter pilot who confessed to 13 murders in eastern Washington and convicted of two in Oregon. He targeted mostly sex workers in Spokane. He was sentenced to 408 years and to death in California. He died in prison from natural causes.
Robert Lee Yates Victims is documented in the ColdCaseIndex database as a serial-homicide case in Spokane, Washington. The events are dated to 1975 – 1998. The case involves more than one victim.
Within the ColdCaseIndex taxonomy, Robert Lee Yates Victims is filed under Serial Killer Victims with a status of Conviction. This entry is grouped under a confirmed or suspected serial perpetrator. The record is cross-referenced under the themes serial killer, Washington, Spokane, conviction, military, which connect it to related cases across the database.
The Robert Lee Yates Victims case ended in a criminal conviction. It is retained in this index as a historically significant case — one whose investigation, prosecution, or aftermath shaped forensic practice, criminal law, or the public understanding of violent crime.
Primary jurisdiction for the Robert Lee Yates Victims case rests with local law enforcement in Spokane, supported by Washington state investigative authorities. The case sits within a wider national picture: the U.S. homicide clearance rate has fallen from roughly 90% in the 1960s to about 54% today, and more than 346,000 homicides recorded since 1965 remain unsolved. ColdCaseIndex documents individual cases like this one to keep them publicly visible and searchable.
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