Yolanda Bindics

Investigators are looking to “close the door” on a nearly two-decade-old homicide involving a Jamestown woman and mother to four children.

The Unsolved Crimes Unit with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office on Friday released new information on the disappearance and murder of 25-year-old Yolanda Bindics. That information involves the father to Bindics’ youngest child, Clarence Carl Carte.

Investigator Tom Di Zinno said Carte walked out of the Kwik Fill gas station located at Fluvanna Avenue and Washington Street in Jamestown on Aug. 10, 2004, at about 8:10 p.m. At the same time, Bindics was seen leaving work at Family Dollar.

Di Zinno told The Post-Journal that Carte bought soda and a lottery ticket from the Kwik Fill before leaving the store. He said the Sheriff’s Office wants to speak with anyone — a store clerk, a customer or motorist — who may have come into contact with Carte between 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2004, and 6 a.m. the following morning.

“We’re trying to close the door on this case,” Di Zinno said, “and there is a readable fact that Carte was at the Kwik Fill the night of her disappearance. At approximately the same time she came out of work, it was verified, when you stand at the door (in Kwik Fill) you look at the door of the Family Dollar.”

The Family Dollar was located at 194 Fluvanna Ave.

Bindics’ disappearance sparked several searches. The day she went missing, the city woman told several people she had good news to share.

In September 2006, Bindics’ body was found by hunters in a heavily wooded area in the town of Charlotte.

Di Zinno said investigators are looking to ascertain whether Carte was seen by anyone talking to Bindics the night she went missing. “Trying to find anyone who saw them interact or drive together,” he said. “We know they were in proximity to each other. … We’re looking for any witnesses who saw them together.”

Carte was interviewed by Jamestown police after Bindics’ disappearance. During the course of their investigation, police learned that Carte had an outstanding warrant in Florida.

In an interview with The Post-Journal two weeks after Bindics was last seen, then-Jamestown Police Chief William MacLaughlin confirmed Carte was questioned. However, he said the man was not a suspect in the missing person case.

“During that investigation, we learned that one of the individuals that we had an opportunity to speak with may be wanted out of the state of Florida regarding a robbery,” MacLaughlin said. “Later this morning we did learn and confirm that the state of Florida has issued a warrant of extradition for an individual and requested that we arrest him as a fugitive from justice for extradition.”