Sheriff Takes Detectives Off Serial Killer Investigation Staffing Shift Made To Combat Methamphetamine Trafficking Problem

Fri., Sept. 8, 2000

By Mike Roarke mikero@spokesman.com

Two detectives have been taken off the Spokane serial killer investigation to cover for other officers being assigned to a regional drug crime unit, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.

The staffing shift was made to combat the region’s growing methamphetamine trafficking problem.

Spokane County Undersheriff Burel Schulz said the Washington State Patrol has reduced the number of full-time troopers assigned to the regional drug task force, leaving the unit shorthanded.

Schulz said he is disappointed the state patrol no longer has two full-time troopers on the regional drug task force.

“We have to balance the needs of all our counties,” state patrol Capt. Eric Robertson said in response.

Sheriff’s Lt. Chan Bailey said the regional drug task force now has seven officers - one of whom is a sergeant with the state patrol.

Along with the drug task force, the county’s investigative support unit and the city’s special investigations unit police drug activity in their jurisdictions.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Cal Walker said the loss of two detectives is not expected to cause big problems as the investigation into serial killer suspect Robert Lee Yates Jr. progresses.

However, Walker said, “We have less people doing the same amount of work.” Yates has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder - eight in Spokane and two in Tacoma. He is also accused of one count of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree robbery. The Spokane County Homicide Task Force was formed in late 1997 to investigate a string of unsolved killings.

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