The Slippery Case of Michelle Young

following the untimely death of michelle young a surplus of clues and information would suggest her killer but with no concrete evidence confirming who actually murdered her it would be left to the hands of the jury to decide who killed michelle young does this surveillance footage confirm her assailant or did law enforcement get all of this wrong good morning good afternoon or good evening my name is adrian and welcome back to another video by coffee house crime today we're looking into the tangled case of michelle young today's case is a tricky one and although michelle's killer has now been found guilty was the evidence behind this decision substantial or circumstantial i'll let you come to your own conclusion now just in case you didn't know i post solved unsolved in strange cases here on a weekly basis so if that sounds like your kind of thing please consider subscribing to coffee house crime and with that said let's begin today's video grab a coffee pull up a seat and sit back this is the case of michelle young today we find ourselves back along the east coast of the united states to the state of north carolina the tar heel state is often praised for its coastline where its mountainous cliffsides meet the vast atlantic ocean and although the terrain may seem treacherous you will never be too far from its many beaches you may or may not care but one thing that i found interesting is that north carolina happens to be the birthplace of the ever-popular donut krispy kreme so just one thing to remember if you ever see me out and about i will happily take a chocolate one with sprinkles moving a short distance inward from the famous coastline we focus today's case around the city of raleigh and although it's the state capital it is a fairly modest city with a population of around half a million residents two of these people which lived among the half million were a young couple named michelle and jason young focusing on michelle to begin with she was born on february the 17th 1977. and growing up in seville new york she was described by family as a happy and enthusiastic young girl some called her the all-american sweetheart with an infectious smile and a soft confidence to boot she was also the co-captain of savelle high school's cheerleading squad to this day she can be frequently found throughout her high school yearbook smiling through its many pages while growing up michelle had aspirations to become a tax lawyer and through the following years she met these aspirations with ambition and enthusiasm so it's no surprise that after graduating from sable high school she signed up to north carolina state university to study finance this application was later accepted which ended up taking her from the large city of new york down south to the relatively small city of raleigh north carolina michelle studied hard and once again she became part of a local cheerleading squad though she would eventually give this up in order to focus on her studies a very sensible move and moving forward four years she had finally qualified for master's degree in accounting at least financially speaking michelle was now ready to take on the world and it wouldn't take long for local accounting firm in raleigh to snap her up either by the time february 2001 had rolled around michelle was approaching her 24th birthday and to celebrate she and her friends all made their way to the poor house which happened to be their favorite bar in the area in bittersweet irony it was here that michelle met a man named jason young while at the bar he had turned around and accidentally knocked over michelle's glass of wine the young jason young apologized profusely and while buying her another glass of wine the two began to chat away now it turns out that both of them were north carolina state university graduates and they were both huge fans of its football team the wolfpack jason was slowly becoming michelle's best birthday present ever as after this the relationship developed from an accidental bump into a much more serious affair during this time jason was living with his mother witty and confident he worked as a salesman for black decker and although he was known to be quite the womanizer he seemed to like michelle after this chance encounter jason began to make so-called sales trips down to raleigh however these trips were less to do with work and more to see her michelle had grown into a hard-working and caring young woman whereas jason was much more of a brash slightly immature man he unfortunately seemed to have kept his frat boy mentality and had an unwillingness to grow up nevertheless the relationship deepened jason moved down to raleigh and eventually the couple moved in together and only two years after meeting a pregnancy test revealed that michelle was pregnant she understandably hadn't planned to have a baby so soon she had always planned for a traditional wedding before settling down and she knew for a fact that jason wasn't yet ready either he quite obviously enjoyed his freedom way too much when michelle told jace in the news his reaction reflected this he stated that he wasn't ready for children or even marriage for that matter to be honest neither was michelle but despite this she wanted to have the baby it would take just over a month for the news to settle in but eventually the two decided to marry this however may not have been just for love as michelle didn't have any health insurance thus meaning having a child in the u.s was going to cost them a very sizable sum of money between this and the news of their unborn child their marriage seemed more or less out of necessity than anything else but either way in august of 2003 the two finally married photos painted the picture of a big wedding for a very young happy couple and a few months later on march 29 2004 cassidy elizabeth young was finally born michelle took to motherhood like a natural she loved cassidy more than anything in this world to add to this michelle's sister meredith had moved down to the raleigh area to help out it was in july of later that year that the family along with their dog cutely named mr g moved into a large family house on birchleaf drive found on the outskirts of raleigh it was everything they could ask for the home was big leafy and by all means private this allowed for more of michelle's family to visit which included a supportive mother linda however this was all at the cost of jason's dismay as he and linda often failed to see eye to eye michelle and linda held a very strong relationship in fact despite their physical distance the mother and daughter would speak on the phone almost every single day they talked about the many aspects of michelle's life which of course included her relationship and unfortunately this caused tension between jason and linda as michelle often vented about his problems jason was very hot-headed and he and his wife often argued on the regular which was no secret to friends or family but not to matter in spring of 2006 michelle had some very good news to share with jason as she was once again pregnant jason's reaction was supposedly very different this time as their second baby had actually been planned the couple were very excited to welcome a fourth member to their growing family to celebrate this news the family traveled down to jason's parents home for the weekend which could be found 280 miles away in brevard north carolina but sadly while here tragedy would strike in the early hours of the same morning they were due to return to raleigh jason and michelle left their daughter cassidy with her grandparents while they headed out to grab some coffee but while on the way back jason had unfortunately managed to lose control of the vehicle leading the pair to drive off a 100 foot drop into a deep section of the french broad river thankfully michelle and jason managed to escape but due to the physical and mental stress of the accident michelle miscarried a few days later the family were of course devastated by the news rather courageously but michelle and jason didn't let this accident define their future for very long in fact just a few months later michelle once again fell pregnant now of course michelle was over the moon by this and jason allegedly seemed fairly happy too however his reaction appeared to be less enthusiastic this time around and the reasoning behind this michelle couldn't quite put her finger on well very little did she know that other pivotal events were happening in jason's life as a salesman his work often took him away from the family however some of these business trips actually had nothing to do with his job in october of 2006 which was four months into michelle's pregnancy jason took in one of these business trips down to florida nothing seemed out of the ordinary for michelle but jason on the other hand was actually going to see an old friend the woman's name was michelle money who had actually attended north carolina university with michelle young and jason in the 90s not going to lie it's kind of confusing having two michelle's to talk about so for the sake of this video we're simply going to go by her last name money money had visited the young's house about a month prior and while here she'd complained about her own marriage to jason taking the hint he began to message money almost every single day and you can probably see where this is going jason and money were having an affair and as this affair deepened so did jason's doubts so with jason and michelle's backstory now complete we're moving one month forward to november of 2006. it didn't take long for one of jason's business trips to come back around but this time it was actually for a sales meeting scheduled for the morning of november the 3rd jason's meeting took him 300 miles away from home to clintwood with a long journey comes a long drive and jason felt no desire to do this before a stressful day's work he therefore decided to book into a hotel in hillsville a halfway point between his home and his destination why only halfway is anybody's guess it seemed like a rather strange decision nevertheless on the evening of november the 2nd 2006 jason said goodbye to his wife michelle and his daughter cassidy who was spending the evening with one of michelle's friends shelly leaving before dinner the two women were alone for the evening and after putting cassidy to bed they spent most of it watching grey's anatomy according to shelley they talked about michelle's marriage and how they recently argued being a work night shelly decided to head home at around 10 30 p.m and after leaving michelle and her daughter cassidy made their way upstairs to settle in for the night michelle got into her lounge clothes which was some white joggers and a black hoodie and shortly after this with cassidy by her side she peacefully fell asleep ticking into the following day michelle's sister meredith was going about her usual routine it was a friday and much like the rest of us she was looking forward to the weekend ahead but that was when shortly afternoon her phone rang on the other end of the line was jason young he had called to ask for her help his third wedding anniversary with michelle was coming up and as such he had been searching online for a new bag he'd wanted to buy this for michelle as a gift but unfortunately he had accidentally sent a copy of the listing to the printer at home now meredith and jason didn't always get along but she did support the nice gesture towards his wife so she therefore agreed to head over and sort out the problem besides she had planned to see her sister and her niece later that day anyway so surely michelle wouldn't mind the early arrival getting into her car she made her way over to birchleef drive and after pulling up to the garage she entered through the connecting door a door which only family members knew was always kept unlocked walking inside meredith's world shifted the atmosphere found within her sister's home felt incredibly uneasy and meredith could sense it everything was way too quiet michelle's bag and keys were found in the kitchen so she was in but the lights were off the house was quiet and the temperature cold she called out for her sister's name but there was no response this didn't feel right at all the only sound that she could hear was from the family dog whimpering from a room far away making her way upstairs she gazed across the hallway to see her sister's bedroom door was a jar she made several steps forward and after entering the room what she saw forever changed her life by the side of her bed and lying face down was her sister michelle young there was blood on the floor and splattered across the wall hesitantly meredith reached out to touch her sister she was cold and stiff beside her head was a baby doll meredith recoiled and as she did that she had shuffling come from behind her out from under the master bed crawled cassidy she was dressed in clean pink pajamas and seemed lost and confused meredith scooped up the two-year-old girl before taking her out of the bedroom and darling 9-1-1 immediately i remember tell me what happened man i have no idea oh my god um what's your name meredith meredith oh my god meredith listen to me please yeah are you with the patient now yes i'm her daughter how old is the patient and there's blood everywhere she's 28 29. you said there's blood everywhere all right is she conscious no i don't think so should i try to help her listen to me ma'am i'm listening is she breathing i don't think so have you checked michelle she's cold okay there's like blood footprints all over the house like her daughter's little footprints yeah there's little over there did you say she's cold should i hear that gun oh my god sure let's see if he as meredith stayed on the phone to the operator officers made their way to the young family residents where they then quickly sealed off the house and crime scene what they found inside painted a vicious attack against a pregnant woman and the awfully confused wonderings of her two-year-old daughter the house was eerie and empty bags were thrown across the floor as if the cleaning was halfway complete and upstairs in the master bedroom lay the body of michelle young autopsy reports would later highlight that michelle had died from a blunt force injury to the head with extensive abrasions and confusions she also suffered from multiple fractures the loss of several teeth and a subarachnoid hemorrhage of the brain next to her a pillow which contained a bloody footprint lay on the floor these footprints which appeared to be from a size 12 shoe continued away from her the saddest part of the crime scene was the baby doll found next to michelle's head possibly placed there by cassidy trying to comfort her own mother and located in the family bathroom were several small bloody footprints from the toddler leading up to her step stool as if she went to wash her hands michelle's blood was also smeared on the wall at toddler height thankfully cassidy remained entirely unharmed she had a clean pajamas on appeared to be sleepy and was more or less confused by the situation now there was no sign of forced entry so whoever michelle's killer was either had a key or moved the open door in the garage which of course begged the big question who killed michelle young and why statistically speaking almost 60 of all homicide victims knew their killer and in the case of married couples the spouse is always the initial suspect but as we all know jason had left for a work meeting the night prior so he was in the clear right well maybe not at approximately 11 p.m on november the 2nd 2006 jason checked into the hampton inn near galax found 170 miles away from birch leaf drive at the time he was driving a white ford explorer now most of us have stayed in a hotel before it is common knowledge to have a key card which lets you in to access your room and other areas of the hotel jason's key card was used once to enter his room and never to be used again to re-enter it from a surface level it appears that jason was in his room for the entire time while his wife was being murdered however suspicion grew after scratching past the surface this all began when officers started questioning the hotel staff and reviewing local surveillance footage it turns out that the hotel's clerk keith hicks was walking around the hotel in the early morning on november the 3rd it was during this time that he noticed the emergency door on the third floor had been propped open by a small red rock this was puzzling to him it seemed as if someone had propped the door open in hopes of returning through the same door thus avoiding the front entrance and not having to use the keycard entry system this all made sense the door is usually locked from 11pm to 6am and during that time it requires a keycard for entry returning to the front desk keith then checked through the surveillance cameras however the camera pointing towards the same emergency exit was no longer switched on the last image taken at 11 20 pm about half an hour after jason had checked in the camera remained offline until 5 50 am the next morning where keith then asked a maintenance worker to plug it back in however after physically checking the camera at 6 30 am he noticed it was now pointing towards the ceiling this was also very unusual the camera hadn't been touched for many years and now it just so happened to be tampered with on the very night of jason's day it is not known exactly what time jason checked out but data forensics showed that he made several phone calls at around 7 40 am while 30 miles away from the hotel all of which lasted less than 10 seconds which investigators saw as the actions of a panicked man jason also showed up half an hour late to his own sales meeting that morning before heading to his parents house afterwards as he had previously planned so during their investigations police traced all payments made by jason at gas stations and compared his transactions to the distance he should have covered doing this showed that the mileage actually added up however after questioning staff at these gas stations along the way one of them had claimed to have seen jason early that morning when ordering gas this early in the morning customers are asked to produce id and a credit card for verification but interestingly enough jason apparently refused this order this actually ended in a hostile argument with jason insulting and swearing at the attendant and of course this helped her remember his face jason ended this argument by throwing 20 on the counter pumping 15 worth of gas into his vehicle and driving off into the darkness this transaction also matched up with the gas station sales log which meant that jason had covered more miles that night than he'd have liked police to believe all of this information seemed to be very concerning to officers but unfortunately they would be met with further frustration they simply didn't have enough evidence to convict jason for michelle's murder evidence made public so far in the michelle young murder case appears to point toward a suspect however police aren't ready to make their move michelle young is the pregnant woman found beaten to death in her wake county home nearly two years ago colin browner talked to the former prosecutor today about the evidence calvin david kieran shanahan sees this case from both sides if he were representing young shanahan says he would urge him not not to talk at the same time he acknowledges the suspicion and the fact that young has not been talking to investigators overall this is taking time but signs point to a building case not involved in the case former prosecutor karen shanahan downplays the fact that investigators have named no suspect and made no arrests nearly two years after michelle young was bludging to death in her wake county home young's two-year-old child was found unharmed next to the body at the same time shanahan says the warrants show investigators meticulously building a case around michelle young's husband jason shanahan points to the bloody footprints at the scene the surveillance video from a virginia hotel that shows jason young coming and going and the propped open door that eliminated the need for a traceable key card as the months trundled by no fresh evidence suggested any other suspect outside of jason young and when family and friends learned of his affair with michelle money even those close to jason began to doubt him while all of this was going on cassidy was still living with a father and this put a lot of worry and panic over michelle's distraught family but in december of 2009 after three long years of intense investigations jason young was finally arrested over the murder of michelle young justice for michelle was still a long way away however it would take a further two years to build a robust case against jason and all in the meanwhile he insisted he was innocent court proceedings for this case were long and tedious prosecutors tried their very best to build a case around jason bringing in witnesses showcasing evidence and even pushing for a confession prosecutors claimed that jason had created himself an alibi while killing his wife although the camera had been tampered with the exit door found a jar and a witness had claimed to see jason that night none of this outwardly spelled a murderer in june of 2011 jason had his first trial which frustratingly ended in a mistrial the jury could not agree on a verdict as the evidence which was provided was simply too circumstantial but seven months later in february of 2012 an even stronger case was built against jason this therefore reigniting a retrial investigators increased their efforts in finding witnesses which included neighbors who claimed to have seen a white car parked outside vyong's house that night cassidy's kindergarten teacher was also brought forward she described how cassidy had played with dolls allegedly saying mummy's getting a spanking for biting followed by mummy has boo-boos all over red stuff all over the bloody shoe prints which are experienced on the floor of the bedroom also matched a pair of shoes that jason had purchased a year before the murder and statements made by friends family and jason's mistress michelle money all described a very turbulent relationship michelle money claimed that jason was unhappy in his marriage and apparently he told her that he wanted to be with her instead when jason's ex-girlfriend was called to the stand she testified that jason had been physically abusive towards her while the two were together all of these snippets of evidence painted a very harrowing picture of jason and his marriage with michelle the love between them had supposedly dwindled he wanted out and for whatever reason he figured that killing his wife was the best way to do it so what was the verdict of jason's second trial ultimately with much deliberation the jury found jason young to be guilty over the murder of his wife michelle and he was therefore given a life sentence without the possibility of parole mr axness you have reported your verdict just follows with the jury by unanimous verdict find the defendant jason lin young to be guilty of first-degree murder of michelle officer young is that correct okay ladies and gentlemen if that was the unanimous verdict of this jury of guilty of murder in the first degree and your individual verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree would you indicate that please by raising your hand let the record show that all 12 jurors so indicated the court therefore accepts the verdict and orders that be recorded this case is an interesting one there are so many pieces of evidence which suggests jason is the murderer but none of these could strictly prove that he killed his wife they could all just be coincidental the murder weapon used to kill michelle was sadly never found and with jason living here authorities couldn't use local dna either i mean there is no doubt that jason was a terrible husband he was argumentative he was unfaithful and he was even abusive but does that confirm he murdered his wife at least in my opinion i think so yeah he did a great job at building himself an alibi but all of the evidence available is pretty much beyond reasonable doubt jason appealed for a third trial in 2017 but his appeal was ultimately rejected there are many out there that still believe jason was wrongfully convicted and there are even websites dedicated to his release but at least in the eyes of the law jason is a selfish individual who hated his marriage he envisioned his former life to be one in a cage and the decisions he made to get out of this would lead him to finding another one just this time far less metaphorical and tragically these decisions also left cassidy without loving mother linda without her second daughter and meredith without her sister cassidy lost both of her parents as a result of jason's actions with her mother gone and her father now behind bars she is now being raised by her aunt meredith and the rest of michelle's family jason can never erase the void which he created in michelle's circle of family in france she was a bright young woman who had a real drive for life and a lot of love to give she was always surrounded by those who loved her the most and rightfully so because she always gave that love back it's a shame that all of those years ago the man she met on her 24th birthday would turn out to be the most poisonous of gifts a woman could receive that is of course if jason is a murderer at least in the eyes of the law and in my own eyes too he is but what are your thoughts this case really is on the line of circumstantial versus definite so i'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section down below and of course that marks the end of today's video thank you so much for watching another video today by coffeehouse crime if you found this case interesting or learned something new then please remember to like the video and subscribe if you haven't yet you know it by now as always i'll see you again real soon for another video but until our moment arrives please remember to look after each other goodbye you

Channel: Coffeehouse Crime

Views: 1,466,048

Keywords: coffeehouse crime, true crime, coffee house crime, crime, north carolina, raleigh, jason young, trial, forensics, home footage, surveillance

Id: r8Cz-1sN6c8

Length: 27min 13sec (1633 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 06 2022