Robert Lee Yates' house
Serial Killer House in Spokane, Washington
This is Robert Lee Yates' former house.
It is situated at 2220 East 49th Avenue in Spokane, Washington.
Yates is a serial killer who is believed to have murdered at least 16 people between 1975 and 1998.
The former US Army helicopter pilot and married father of five moved to this address in March 1998.
He committed his first two murders in July 1975, when he shot and killed two picnickers named Patrick Allen Oliver and Susan Patricia Savage. However, his serial killings didn't begin until nearly 26 years later.
He began targeting sex workers during the summer of 1996, which was just a few weeks after he retired from active duty in the United States Army.
In most cases, he would pick his victims up, have sex with them, shoot them, and then dump their bodies in rural locations.
The exception to this was Melody Murfin, whom he buried in his backyard.
On May 12th, 1998, Yates shot Murfin twice in the head. Afterwards, he buried the 43-year-old at the back of his house, near his bedroom window.
He did this despite the fact that his wife, Linda, was asleep in the room at the time.
The police identified him as a suspect in 1999.
Two years prior, he had been caught speeding near the location where one of his victims' bodies had been found. Then, in November 1998, the police pulled him over while he was in the presence of a sex worker.
At the time, Yates owned a white Corvette. This piqued the police's interest in him, as one of the victims was last seen getting into the same type of vehicle.
Their suspicions were raised even further when they questioned him about the murders, as he became visibly nervous and refused to give them a blood sample.
Four months later, the authorities managed to track down the location of his Corvette, which he had sold to a local woman.
During a forensic examination of the car, they found fibers that matched the fibers on one of the victims. Subsequent tests also revealed Yates' DNA, which connected him to 12 more murders.
Yates agreed to confess to his crimes in a bid to avoid the death penalty. He also told the police where he had buried the body of Melody Murfin.
In 2001, he was sentenced to more than 400 years in prison.
The following year, he was convicted of murdering two victims in a different county. However, on that occasion, he was sentenced to death despite his earlier plea bargain in Spokane County.
For the next sixteen years, he sat on death row, trying to appeal the decision.
Yates' life was eventually spared on October 11th, 2018, when the Washington Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the state's constitution. As a result, his death sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Yates is incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. He is currently 71 years old.
Robert Lee Yates house address
The address and the GPS coordinates for this location are as follows:
Address
2220 E 49th Ave, Spokane, Washington, WA 99223, USA
GPS coordinates
The latitude and longitude coordinates for the house are:
47.609725, -117.377571
Directions
Yates' former home is located in Moran Prairie, which is a neighborhood in the southeast of Spokane. It is close to the Southeast Sports Complex.
Details about the general area
Spokane is a city in the east of Washington State. It is a short distance away from the state line with Idaho.
Private Property Warning
This is a private property. It is not a public place. Therefore, you should be respectful and not step foot on the property without permission.
Photos
Photos of the house and other related images.
2220 E 49th Avenue
This Google Street View image of 2220 East 49th Avenue was taken in October 2011.
The house was built in 1971. It has two bedrooms and is roughly 1,200 square feet in size.
Yates and his wife, Linda, purchased the property in 1997 for $122,000. Following his conviction, it was sold for $77,555—a hefty 36% decrease.
It was last sold in 2005 for $174,900.
When Yates was charged with murder, his wife and children left the house and moved to a local motel.
Robert Lee Yates
Yates grew up in a middle-class family in Oak Harbor, which is just north of Seattle, Washington.
Seven years before he was born, his grandmother murdered his grandfather with an ax.
He reportedly drifted through high school without making any friends. For the most part, he didn't stick out, as he was quiet and unremarkable.
In July 1974, he married his wife, Linda Brewer.
Yates worked at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla for four months in 1975—the same prison where he is now incarcerated.
That same year, he committed his first two murders when he shot and killed two college students named Patrick Oliver and Susan Savage.
He joined the United States Army in 1977 and became a pilot. Although his record was mostly clean, he was nearly court-martialed after he shot a pig from a helicopter while he was stationed in Somalia.
He retired in April 1996, which was two months before he began targeting sex workers in the "Skid Row" area of East Sprague Avenue.
His arrest shocked his family and coworkers. His former boss said that Yates never uttered a profanity. By all accounts, he seemed like a religious, patient, and polite family man.
Corvette
Yates cruised for victims in a 1977 white Corvette.
In September 1997, he was pulled over by the police while he was in the presence of a sex worker.
At the time, the police were on the lookout for a white Corvette, as a victim named Jennifer Joseph had been last seen getting into one.
However, the officer who made the stop wrote "Camaro" by mistake.
When Yates was questioned about this incident at a later date, he told investigators that the girl wasn't a sex worker. Although he claimed that she was the daughter of one of his friends, he was unable to give the police his friend's name.
During questioning, he became nervous and reportedly started sweating. When detectives asked him to provide a blood sample, he refused.
Melody Murfin
This is a "Bird's Eye" view of the house on East 49th Avenue.
In May 1998, he buried the body of Melody Murfin (bottom-left) in his backyard while his wife was asleep in their bedroom.
An initial investigation of the property failed to find her remains. Her body wasn't found until Yates confessed to his crimes in 2001.
This means that she was buried outside his bedroom window for more than three years.
The photo in the top-left corner shows Yates in more recent times.
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