The Michelle Young murder investigation has been heating up as more details about the case against her husband, Jason Young, have been released to the public.
Allegations of extramarital affairs and some previously unreported information prompted NC WANTED to dig deeper into the most recent developments.
On November 3, 2006, Michelle Young, 29, was five months pregnant when her sister, Meredith Fisher, found her bludgeoned body on her bedroom floor. The couple's 2-year-old daughter Cassidy was found in the bedroom as well, unharmed. Investigators have named Jason Young as a suspect in court documents dating back to November 7, 2006, but they have not filed charges against him.
In November 2008, Michelle Young’s mother, Linda Fisher, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jason Young, just before North Carolina’s two-year statute of limitations was set to expire. Jason Young nor his lawyers ever responded or appeared at the civil proceedings. His absence led to an automatic default and a Wake County judge’s ruling that Jason “brutally murdered Michelle Young at their residence.” Jason Young has been barred from collecting on her life insurance and has forfeited any claim to his wife’s estate. “Jason Young has been disinherited,” said Paul Michaels, Linda Fisher’s attorney in the civil case.
A monetary judgment for $15.5 million was awarded to Michelle Young’s family, including Linda Fisher and Cassidy Young, for damages associated with her death.
In a separate custody complaint, Jason surrendered primary custody of Cassidy to Meredith Fisher. He will have visitation rights.
As the civil case has been winding down, the criminal case has been moving forward. In fact, the civil and criminal cases have been mutually beneficial. The Wake County Sheriff’s Office recently unsealed documents and issued new warrants, which have revealed a more comprehensive view of the case against Jason Young.
In the custody complaint filed by Linda and Meredith Fisher in December, they alleged that Jason “publicly berated and was cruel to Michelle.” Furthermore, the complaint alleged that Jason was a heavy drinker, would often expose himself or do “penis tricks” and that he made coworkers and acquaintances uncomfortable by making frequent inappropriate comments about sex.
In interviews with the couple’s friends and coworkers, investigators began to piece together a pattern of Jason Young’s inappropriate behavior and mounting tensions between him and his wife before she was murdered.
Friends of the couple described their relationship as “volatile” and told investigators their fights were “huge and loud.” A friend of Jason Young told police that Young was “not real faithful” and that Michelle Young had found another woman’s panties in the couple’s bed. When Michelle confronted Jason, the warrant alleged, he made up some story about the maid.
Jason Young’s extramarital affairs are well documented by police, particularly his relationship with his wife’s sorority sister, Michelle Money, who was married and had even attended their wedding. Records show Jason Young and Michelle Money exchanged 980 phone calls and text messages in the month before the murder, and 51 the day before the murder. Michelle Money was the last person Young called the night before the murder, and the first person he called the morning of November 3, 2006, the day of the murder.
Documents filed in the custody case described another “sexual relationship” Jason Young had with a woman he allowed “to stay in the Young’s home a month prior to Michelle’s murder,” the complaint states. The documents also allege that Jason Young brought this woman to Cassidy’s day care on more than one occasion.
Carroll Anne Sowerby, a married real estate agent in Missoula, Montana, is named in a March 10 search warrant as being a guest in the Young home between October 21 and October 26, 2006.
Sowerby attended Camp Illahee, where Jason Young was a counselor, as a teenager. In emails to an unnamed woman who attended Camp Illahee, the warrant states, Jason Young denied ever being married.
NC WANTED obtained a collection of photos that Jason Young posted in the personals section of Craigslist.org, where he repeatedly shows Cassidy in an attempt to attract Internet dates. One such photo was taken in Montana, where Sowerby currently lives with her husband.
If you have any information about the murder of Michelle Young, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.
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