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Yolanda Bindics.
County Sheriff James Quattrone will host a news conference at 1 p.m. Tuesday in Mayville to announce new information into the investigation of Yolanda Bindics.
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.
In 2022, Chautauqua County’s cold case investigators told The Post-Journal they were looking to “close the door” on the nearly two-decade-old homicide case when releasing new information that involved the father to Bindics’ youngest child, Clarence Carl Carte.
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.
“We’re trying to close the door on this case,” Di Zinno said, “and there is a readable fact that Carte was at the Kwik Fill the night of her disappearance at approximately the same time she came out of work. It was verified, when you stand at the door (in Kwik Fill) you look at the door of the Family Dollar.”
The Family Dollar was located at 194 Fluvanna Ave.
Bindics’ disappearance sparked several searches. The day she went missing, the city woman told several people she had good news to share, though what that was has never been confirmed.
In September 2006, Bindics’ body was found by hunters in a heavily wooded area in the town of Charlotte.
Di Zinno said investigators are looking to ascertain whether Carte was seen by anyone talking to Bindics the night she went missing. “Trying to find anyone who saw them interact or drive together,” he said. “We know they were in proximity to each other. … We’re looking for any witnesses who saw them together.”
Carte was interviewed by Jamestown police after Bindics’ disappearance. During the course of their investigation, police learned that Carte had an outstanding warrant in Florida.
In an interview with The Post-Journal two weeks after Bindics was last seen, then-Jamestown Police Chief William MacLaughlin confirmed Carte was questioned. However, he said the man was not a suspect in the missing person case.
“During that investigation, we learned that one of the individuals that we had an opportunity to speak with may be wanted out of the state of Florida regarding a robbery,” MacLaughlin said. “Later this morning we did learn and confirm that the state of Florida has issued a warrant of extradition for an individual and requested that we arrest him as a fugitive from justice for extradition.”
Carte did not respond Friday to a message sent through Facebook. His profile said he resides in Florida.
Di Zinno said information from the public can help investigators with facts already known in the case to check the alibi of individuals. He believes there’s a chance someone may have seen or spoke to Carte that night and have useful information.
A candlelight vigil was held Aug. 10 of last year at Bergman Park in Jamestown. The date marked the 17-year anniversary of when Bindics was last seen alive leaving work.
“My family is hurting really bad,” Bindics’ sister, Anne Chmielewski, told The Post-Journal before the vigil. “The pain is not getting any better, but we’re pushing through.”
She added: “It’s extremely painful and really, I speak for most of the family I think, it’s getting worse and harder that we don’t have the answers and an arrest and the fact that someone is living life freely. That’s not fair — it’s 17 years, it kind of seems like a long time, but it doesn’t seem that long. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing.”
Information can be sent via email to unsolvedchautauqua@sheriff.us or by calling Tom Tarpley at 716-753-4578 or Di Zinno at 716-753-4579.
– Former Post-Journal reporter Eric Tichy contributed to this report.
