Jason Young researched 'knockout'

RALEIGH -- Detectives investigating the death of Michelle Young say her husband's computer was used to search the Internet for information on "head trauma knockout" before his pregnant wife died.

Jason Young was also having an affair and exchanged about 50 calls and text messages with that woman the day before his wife's body was found lying in a pool of blood in her bedroom, according to a search warrant made public Thursday.

The warrant to search Jason Young's old work computer gives the most comprehensive picture to date of investigators' findings in the case, which remains unsolved after two years.

Michelle Young's body was found in her Wake County home on Nov. 3, 2006; the couple's daughter, Cassidy, then 2, was unharmed but left bloody footprints in the house. Sheriff's investigators began to focus on Jason Young soon after the death, but he has not been charged with a crime.

Jason Young has said he was out of town at the time Michelle was killed, and investigators found video footage of him at a Virginia hotel headed for an exit the night she died, according to previous search warrants.

Among investigators' statements in the 15-page document made public Thursday:

* Jason Young hung up on a Wake County sheriff's detective who called him the day Michelle Young's body was found. Young refused to come to the house and "did not inquire as to his daughter's wellbeing or the nature and/or cause of his wife's death."

* Jason Young and the woman with whom he was having an affair exchanged about 980 phone calls and text messages between Oct. 4 and Nov. 3, 2006.

* Young's computer was used to search the Internet on topics including "anatomy of a knockout," "head trauma knockout," and "divorce" before his wife was found dead.

* In e-mail, Young wrote to his sister about the investigation and his attorney: "His ONLY concern is for me and that hopefully there will NEVER be an arrest."

Last week, Michelle Young's mother, Linda Fisher, filed a civil lawsuit asking that her son-in-law be declared a killer or accomplice and barred from collecting any life insurance. She also asked for at least $10,000 from Young to compensate for her daughter's death -- the standard minimum threshold for civil lawsuits in Superior Court.

Repeated efforts to reach Roger Smith Jr., the lawyer who has been representing Young, have been unsuccessful since the civil suit was unsealed Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said Thursday that Harrison would not discuss the search warrant.