Chautauqua County sheriff seeks more aid from Florida in decades-old homicide probe

MAYVILLE, N.Y. — The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office is turning its attention to Florida as it narrows its list of persons of interest in the 2004 killing of a Jamestown, New York, woman.

The Sheriff's Office late last week issued a news release aimed at news media in the Tampa Bay area that further explained why investigators are looking at Clarence Carl Carte, the father of the youngest child of homicide victim Yolanda Bindics, as a person of interest in the decades-old case.

Bindics, 25, was reported missing on Aug. 10, 2004. Her skeletal remains were found in the Boutwell Hill State Forest in the Town of Charlotte in September 2006, and her death was ruled a homicide.

Friday's news release was issued in response to news coverage in the Tampa Bay area regarding Carte and the homicide investigation, which officials said resulted in a number of tips called into the office's tip line in western New York. The news coverage related to a news conference Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone held on Sept. 4, in which it was announced that a former Jamestown police officer was no longer being investigated as a person of interest in Bindic's disappearance and death and that Carte was the sole remaining person of interest.

Quattrone did not state in Friday's news release whether Carte is believed to be in Florida or once had a connection to the Tampa Bay area. But he wrote that, in response to further inquiries about the investigation, he was releasing additional information to the media as his office sought more information from residents in Florida.

The additional information included:

• That criteria including the presence of an alibi and the ability to have committed the crime during the timeframe of the disappearance were part of the criteria used to exclude the former Jamestown police officer as a person of interest;
• the investigation has not led to a credible alibi for Carte for his whereabouts on the night of Aug. 10, 2004, and that the only alibi ever provided for Carte was later determined to be false;
• that Carte was familiar with the highly remote area of Chautauqua County where Bindics' body was located; and
• that court orders in regard to child support and expenses leading up to the disappearance of Bindics may have created "significant financial motive" for Carte.

Quattrone additionally wrote in the release that Carte has a documented history of violence with victims in New York and Florida. He wrote that authorities believe there may be other victims of assaultive behavior by Carte in Florida who have not reported those incidents to law enforcement, and he encouraged those individuals to contact the Chautauqua County Tip Line at 716-703-5955.

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Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com . Follow him on X @ETNhahn .

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Chautauqua County sheriff seeks more aid from Florida in decades-old homicide probe