Michelle Young's sister tells of marital discord

RALEIGH -- As her lifeless mother lay face down in a bloody mess in the master bedroom, Cassidy Young tugged at the hand of her aunt.

The 2-year-old toddler, still in her pajamas in the middle of the day, was trying to coax Meredith Fisher toward the bathroom.

Michelle Young, the girl's mother and Fisher's sister, had been bludgeoned to death in her Wake County home.

"She kept trying to pull me to get Band-Aids and a wash cloth," Fisher told a jury Wednesday in Wake County Superior Court. "She said, 'Mommy has boo-boos every where. She needs a wash cloth.' "

Fisher was the first person called to testify in the murder trial of her brother-in-law Jason Young.

Jason Young, 37, is accused of bludgeoning Michelle Young to death on Nov. 3, 2006, when she was 29 and nearly five months pregnant. Dr. Thomas Clark, the medical examiner who oversaw the autopsy in the case, testified Wednesday that Michelle Young suffered at least 30 blows, many to her head, right before her death.

His defense team contends that he is not guilty, that his wife's homicide case is unsolved. They acknowledge that Young was unfaithful to his wife, that he liked to drink with friends and that he could have been more responsive to his wife. He was a lousy husband, defense attorney Mike Klinkosum conceded, but not a murderer.

Jason Young, a medical software salesman, was traveling for work in Virginia the morning that Fisher made the horrific find.

Prosecutors concede that Young was in Virginia that morning. But they argue that he checked into the hotel the day before, then drove to Raleigh, killed his wife, and drove back to the hotel early in the morning.

Defense attorneys dispute that, pointing out that no blood was found in his Ford Explorer and no fibers from the hotel were found in his home.

The go-between

Fisher, who had previously lived with her sister and brother-in-law to help them care for Cassidy, spent most of Wednesday on the witness stand in a trial expected to last several weeks.

Her testimony touched on her efforts to serve as a marriage counselor of sorts for her sister and brother-in-law.

Michelle Young, an accountant for Progress Energy, complained that her husband was immature, that he wanted to party with his friends too much and that he was not meeting her needs and expectations.

Jason Young, who married Michelle Young in October 2003 when she was pregnant with Cassidy, complained that his wife did not show enough sexual interest in him.

Fisher, who had thought about going to graduate school to become a marriage counselor, agreed to sit down with the unhappy couple, together and one-on-one. She offered observations and advice, trying to be objective.

Michelle Young was quick to express her displeasure with her husband, often raising her voice, slamming doors and occasionally resorting to scratching with her strong fingernails.

Jason Young was a brooder, according to testimony, a man who spoke volumes by giving his wife the silent treatment for days on end.

"It was like a high school relationship when it came to learning how to argue and try to resolve things," Fisher said. "The fight would start about picking up the kitchen, and it would escalate into 10 other issues."

Michelle Young, according to her sister, had been emotionally scarred by her parents' divorce when she was growing up and did not want to put her daughter through a similar situation.

Critical relatives

When Meredith Fisher drove to the Young home in the Enchanted Oaks neighborhood just south of Raleigh on Nov. 3, 2006, she was not expecting to find her sister at home. She should have been at work early afternoon on a Friday.

Fisher had a voicemail message from her brother-in-law that day, asking her to pick up some papers he thought he had left out in his home office.

After being criticized by his wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law for only giving his wife a card on their third wedding anniversary in October, Jason Young told his sister-in-law he was planning to buy Michelle Young a leather purse as a belated anniversary gift.

He left a print-out about the bag in his home office, his voicemail message said. He worried it would ruin the surprise.

When Fisher said she arrived at the home after 1 p.m., the outside lights were on. The back gate was open, her sister's car was in the driveway and her purse was in the kitchen.

"Michelle, Michelle, Michelle," Fisher called out inside the home.

Halfway up the stairs she saw something she could barely comprehend. The blood she could see through the railing, all over the hall floor, she thought initially, could have been hair dye spilled by her niece.

But then she saw her sister, face down on the floor. The sight was so odd, she said, her initial thought was it had to be a prank or a joke.

But she knew it wasn't. She just had no idea what had happened.

Fisher picked up the phone to call emergency dispatchers. She punched in a nine, then saw her niece wriggle out from under the covers of her parents' bed. "She climbed up off the bed and just kind of hugged me like a koala bear," Fisher recalled tearfully.

The next bit was a blur. She tried to care for her niece, render aid to her sister and follow the instructions of dispatchers. Her sister's body was cold, she said.

When the fire truck arrived, the first responders, Fisher climbed inside with her niece, the phone still in her hand. She called her housemate to come help. Then she called her mother, only able to spell the bad news.

"I just said Michelle is D-E-A-D," Fisher testified Wednesday. "I didn't know what to say. She kept saying, 'Well, what do you mean?' "

Linda Fisher, by her daughter's account, had a strong personality. She clashed with her son-in-law, in part, because Michelle Young called for support after their arguments.

A silent husband

There was tension between Jason and Michelle Young, according to Meredith Fisher, about the approaching Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and how long Linda Fisher would be a guest in their home.

That issue, according to Meredith Fisher, was not resolved, when Jason Young left his Wake County home on Nov. 2, 2006, for what his sister-in-law thought was a business trip to Virginia. He called her that night from a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Greensboro to talk about those plans. He called her again Nov. 3.

Jason Young, Fisher said, was with his mother, sister and brother-in-law on his way back to Wake County when she first talked with him about her sister's death. She told them to come to her home in Fuquay-Varina. Cassidy was with her. His house was a crime scene.

When Jason Young arrived at Fisher's house that night, he quickly went to his daughter. She was in her aunt's bed.

Wake County investigators showed up a short time later, asking to speak to all who had arrived. Linda Fisher had just gotten there.

Meredith Fisher testified Wednesday that she initially understood Jason Young's reluctance to talk with police without a lawyer present.

'Why won't you talk?'

He told her he planned to go with a lawyer early in the week to answer questions. But he never did.

Klinkosum said Young was following the advice of his early attorney. But Fisher said she began to have doubts about her brother-in-law that night.

"Why won't you talk to police?" Fisher asked Young later. "Why won't you answer my questions? Why won't you answer anyone's questions?"

His response was always the same, Fisher said. "My attorneys told me not to," she said he told her. "That's all he would ever say."

On cross-examination Wednesday, Bryan Collins, the public defender representing Young, pointed out that two drawers in Michelle Young's jewelry box were pulled out when her body was found.

There are pictures of Fisher's keys on the kitchen counter, but she also told investigators a photo they showed her also looked like her keys on top of her sister's Honda Accord in another photo.

Fisher said she heard what sounded like a trickle of water dripping from a hose when she arrived at the house. Klinkosum contended in his opening statement that investigators also found DNA evidence inside the house and two adult-size bloody footprints in the bedroom that could not be linked to Jason Young.