Killing cut short a laid-out life

RALEIGH -- Michelle Fisher Young always had a plan.

In high school in Sayville, N.Y., she planned to be a college cheerleader and prepped for a career as a tax attorney. When she ran sorority rush as a senior at N.C. State University, her planning notes filled a 4-inch-thick binder. When she arranged gatherings for friends, Young dictated the menu.

"She was one of those rare people who had everything together at such a young age," said Christy Trent, a college friend who helped lead the Greek system with Young at NCSU in 1998. "She would step up to the plate, and no one questioned her."

Most times, things turned out just as this 29-year-old mother intended.

But all her plans came to an end this month. Young, four months pregnant with her second child, was beaten to death two weeks ago today.

Young's sister, Meredith Fisher, told detectives that she had stopped by her sister's home Nov. 3 to fetch a fax for her brother-in-law when she found Michelle Young cold and bloody. Young's 2-year-old daughter, Cassidy, lingered nearby, babbling that her mommy had "boo-boos everywhere," according to Fisher's 911 call. Young was twisted and face down in the master bedroom; her toddler had tracked bloody footprints all over the house.

Cassidy wasn't hurt. There were no signs that the killer had forced his way inside the Youngs' $379,000 brick home in the Enchanted Oaks subdivision south of the city, Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said.

Young was the 22nd of 23 people to die violently at the hand of another this year in Wake County. Like five of those homicides, hers remains unsolved.

A team of about 20 detectives and crime scene analysts are working to arrest her killer. Her husband, Jason, was ordered last week to submit evidence such as fingerprints or a blood sample.

Harrison said Thursday that investigators have no suspects but are making solid progress.

As time passes, those who loved Young grow more anxious.

"First, it was shock," said Rhett Fussell, a close friend of Michelle and her husband. "I thought, 'There's no way. She's 29, and I just had lunch with her the other day.' Now, the terror's set in."

Upbeat and confident

Michelle Young grew up in Sayville on Long Island.

As a girl, she was always tumbling. Her backflips and handsprings helped secure her a spot on the Sayville High School cheerleading squad. A smile that never faded and Young's upbeat attitude made her a natural fit, friends said.

During the spring of her senior year -- when the squad won the championship at a Long Island-wide competition -- Young traveled to Raleigh to try out for the N.C. State cheerleading team, former cheerleaders said.

"Her face lit up and her eyes sparkled," said Cathy Buckey, the head coach of the Wolfpack cheerleading team at the time.

Young made the cut. She enrolled at NCSU in the fall of 1995, settling into a life nearly 600 miles from home.

During her freshman year, Young cheered on the Wolfpack at home football and women's basketball games, said Harold Trammel, NCSU's current cheerleading coach and a member of the team in 1995. The next summer, Young was picked from the team to perform in Atlanta at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

After her freshman year, Young hung up her pompons to get more involved in her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, Buckey said. By her junior year, she was chosen to organize recruitment and selection of new members for all NCSU's sororities, a task that involved coordinating events for more than 1,000 students.

Young fussed over logistics, said Mindy Sopher, former director of Greek Life and now a communication instructor and adviser at NCSU. She and a few other sorority women moved into the Velvet Cloak Inn on Hillsborough Street in the fall of 1998 and set up a command center, complete with computers and printers.