Murder victim's kin want custody

Mother, sister of Michelle Young seek to take daughter, 4, from father judge called a killer

RALEIGH -- The mother and sister of homicide victim Michelle Young want custody of Young's 4-year-old daughter, Cassidy, who is living with with her father, Jason Young.

A filing at the Wake County courthouse, made available Friday, is the latest attempt by Michelle Young's family to hold Jason Young publicly responsible for the death of his wife.

Although Jason Young has not been criminally charged in Michelle Young's death, a judge ruled in a civil suit this month that Jason Young killed his wife.

A hearing to temporarily decide who will care for Cassidy is scheduled for Feb. 4 in the Wake courthouse.

Michelle Young, 29, was found Nov. 3, 2006, in her home south of Raleigh, dead from strangulation and a beating that broke her jaw and fractured her skull. She was pregnant with her second child when she died.

No one has been arrested, but the investigation by the Wake County Sheriff's Office has centered on Jason Young, who was the beneficiary of a life insurance policy covering his wife. He was in a romantic relationship with a married woman in Florida when his wife was killed, according to investigators' search warrants.

Cassidy, then 2, was with her mother in the house at the time, but the toddler was unharmed. Detectives think she may have been drugged the night her mother was killed.

Efforts to reach Jason Young and his attorney, Roger Smith Jr., on Friday were unsuccessful.

Howard Cummings, a Wake assistant district attorney, said the criminal investigation continues.

Michelle Young's mother, Linda Lee Fisher, of Sayville, N.Y., filed the wrongful death lawsuit in late October, accusing Jason Young of killing her daughter. Young never responded to the lawsuit, and a judge ruled against him.

In the custody complaint filed this week, Fisher and Meredith Fisher, Michelle's sister, who lives in Fuquay-Varina, said Young and his family have not allowed them to have regular contact with Cassidy. The child is living in Brevard with Jason Young and his mother.

Gifts sent to Cassidy by the Fishers were returned unopened, according to the complaint.

The Fishers are requesting a psychological evaluation of Jason Young. They accuse him in the complaint of having affairs with different women while his wife was alive and of allowing one woman to stay at the couple's home in the Enchanted Oaks subdivision.

The complaint says that Jason Young drank to excess, berated Michelle Young publicly and engaged in "penis tricks" where he would expose himself as a joke at social gatherings.

The Fishers also allege that Jason Young is now using photographs of Cassidy on the Internet in attempts to meet other women to date.