The life of Michelyn Joann Derning, a 47-year-old Caucasian female, came to a tragic end in the summer of 1998. The daughter of a Marine Corps colonel, she had grown up accustomed to the transient life of a military family. After graduating from high school in Virginia, she attended Palomar College in California and later worked as an executive secretary in San Diego.
A marriage that brought a son into her life eventually dissolved due to struggles with drugs, leading to the loss of custody of her child.
On July 7, 1998, her body was discovered in Spokane, Washington. She was found nude, her body partially concealed by a hot tub cover. An autopsy would later reveal that she had been shot once in the head. A. 25 caliber bullet casing was found still lodged in her hair, a chilling piece of evidence left at the scene.
For a time, her death remained a mystery, one of a string of unsolved murders of women in the Spokane area. The cases were eventually linked, and a serial killer was believed to be at large. The community lived in fear as the number of victims grew.
Ultimately, the man responsible for Michelyn's death, along with many others, was identified as Robert Lee Yates Jr., a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot. Yates was apprehended in April 2000 after a lengthy investigation. DNA evidence conclusively linked him to several of the murders. As part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty in Spokane County, Yates confessed to thirteen murders, including that of Michelyn Joann Derning. He was sentenced to 408 years in prison for his crimes in Spokane and later received a death sentence in Pierce County for two other murders, which was eventually commuted to life in prison.
