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JAMESTOWN, NY (WNY News Now) – A newly formed cold case task force bringing a nearly two decades old homicide of a Jamestown mother to the forefront, with investigators believing someone has the answers to crack the case.
Yolanda Bindics was last seen alive on August 10, 2004 leaving the Family Dollar on Fluvanna Avenue. Two years later, Bindics’ remains were discovered in a wooded area in the Town of Charlotte.
Over the past 18-years, her family have been pleading for answers as to what happened to Yolanda. Now, a new task force in Chautauqua County has renewed the fight for justice.
“We’re in a critical juncture in this case and the work that we have done, we believe that the answers are out there to resolve this,” said cold case investigator, Tom Tarpley. “ We believe that there are people not only here in Chautauqua County, specifically in Jamestown, and the surrounding area, but also out of state that have answers to this case, and we are looking for those people regardless of whatever reason they had for not disclosing that information back when the case originated.”
Bindics’ brother was watching her four children on that fateful night while she was working. Her last conversation informed him she was going to stop for some milk before returning home. Police later found her car in a nearby Arby’s parking lot. Her killer has still not been identified.
“Yolanda was working at the Family Dollar on Fluvanna in Jamestown. She got off of her shift, she was seen entering her vehicle and that was the last time she was ever seen again until her remains were found two years later up in the state forest in the town of Charlotte,” said Tarpley.
Over the years, Bindics family have kept the murder in the media. Just last year, they held a vigil in her memory at Jamestown’s Bergman Park.
“Unfortunately though, at some point the case went cold. It continued to be investigated, but leads have kind of run out until, we started looking at the case again in 2022,” Tarpley explained.
Now, officials believe that the answers are out there.
“We feel that we’re at a position now where we can resolve this case, we just need some additional information which we believe is out there,” said Tarpley.
In June, the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office created this new Unsolved Crimes Unit. Anyone with information that could help bring closure to Yolanda Bindics’s family are asked to contact investigator Tom Tarpley at (716) 753-4578, or message the Unsolved Chautauqua Facebook page.
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