JAMESTOWN, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office is looking to speak to anyone who saw or talked with Yolanda Bindics and/or Clarence Carl Carte the night of Bindics' disappearance.
“We have a surveillance video and captured on that is Clarence Carte,” stated Tom Tarpley, investigator, Unsolved Cases.
The sheriff's office said Bindics was last seen leaving a Family Dollar store on Fluvanna Avenue in Jamestown around 8:10 p.m. on August 10, 2004. Around the same time, Clarence Carl Carte, the father of Bindics' youngest child, walked out of the Kwik Fill store on Fluvanna Avenue.
The Unsolved Cases team recently stepped in to find out who killed the mother of four 18 years ago.
Tarpley tells me the surveillance video now gives new evidence in this case showing carte at this Kwik Fill store — directly across the street from where Bindics was last spotted.
“He is captured on that videotape moments before the victim left her job that night and we are looking for someone who may have seen some interaction between at that location or also down the street at the Arby’s on Fluvanna Avenue which is where her vehicle was located,” explained Tarpley.
According to the sheriff's office, its Unsolved Crimes Unit would like to speak to anyone who saw or talked with Bindics or Carte between the hours of 7 p.m. on August 10, 2004, and 6 a.m. on August 11, 2004. If you saw or talked with either of the individuals you're asked to call the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office Unsolved Crimes Unit at (716) 753-4578 or (716) 753-4579 or email investigators at unsolvedchautauqua@sheriff.us.
The murder of Bindics remains unsolved almost two decades after she disappeared. Her skeletal remains were found in September 2006 in a wooded area in the Town of Charlotte. Her death was ruled a homicide.
“We’re hoping that maybe somebody might have known them might have been driving by — might have seen some type of an argument — might have seen some interaction that they remember that they just didn’t report at the time they didn’t think anything of it,” explained Tarpley.
Former Family Dollar Store on Fluvanna Ave. in Jamestown where Yolanda Bindics was last seen in 2004, but now @ChautCoSheriff want to speak with anybody who may have seen Bindics &/or Clarence Carte, father of her youngest child, who was also at Kwik Fill across the street. @WKBW pic.twitter.com/Iph2MGgtHX
— Eileen Buckley (@eileenwkbw) September 23, 2022
Tarpley says carte is “not” a person of interest at this time. Tarpley also confirmed for me that carte now lives in Florida and does have a “criminal past”.
Members of this Jamestown community that I've spoken with say it’s very sad that this case still remains unresolved.
“I think it’s terrible that things can’t be settled for the family — that just breaks my heart,” remarked Joan Larsen.
Tarpley says they have a lot of new information in this case and are now at the point where they are “in the process of briefing the Chautauqua County district attorney.”
In August Tom Tarpley of the Unsolved Crimes Unit spoke to 7 News and said “we feel we've made significant progress. We feel that the answers to this case are close at hand."
In the years since her family has never given up in their efforts to find her killer.
“I don't know how close we are but I feel like there's definitely some hope. A lot more hope now than say five years ago — ten years ago,” Anne Chmielewski, Bindics’ sister, told 7 News in August.
