PORT HADLOCK — About 20 relatives of murder victims Patrick and Janice Yarr jammed into a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office conference room Monday, remembering the couple they love and miss and who were shot to death before their home burned.
“What that is left in our and our family’s heart will never be filled,” daughter Michelle Ham told Western Washington reporters gathered at the conference, called three days after the murderer was convicted by a Jefferson County jury.
Ham was joined by her sister, Patty Waters, of Portland, Ore., who said:
“This is about two lovely people that loved the timber industry and the cattle industry.
The Yarrs were shot to death March 18, 2009, in their farmhouse on Boulton Road north of Lake Leland. The house was then set afire.
The family, including Janice Yarr’s mother, Alice Moody, and father, John Boulton, the two Yarr daughters, and Janice Yarr’s sisters, held back tears, fondly remembering the couple.
They thanked investigators and prosecutors for their work, which led to the conviction Friday of Michael J. Pierce.
They appeared with investigators and prosecutors Monday during the news conference called by lead investigator in the case, Sheriff Tony Hernandez, who said the probe involved some 50 forensic investigators carefully combing over the scene of the crime.
“They were literally on their hands and knees,” Hernandez said of the investigation that involved certified fire investigators.
The jury agreed with prosecutors that the 35-year-old Pierce, a former Quilcene and Sequim resident, shot the Yarrs after he secured their debit card identification code, or PIN, so he could steal $300 from their US Bank account to buy methamphetamine.
After nearly two days of deliberation, the nine-man, three-woman Jefferson County Superior Court jury also found Pierce guilty of arson, armed robbery, burglary, theft of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm, theft of a credit card and larceny related to the brutal murders, in which the Yarrs were shot in the head and the fire was set to cover the crimes.
‘Cowardly act’
“This was a cowardly act for a cowardly perpetrator,” said Kelvin Crenshaw, special agent for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which Hernandez called in to help investigate the Yarr murder scene along with the FBI and Washington State Patrol forensics.
Pierce, 35, a Peninsula College students at the time of the murders, is awaiting sentencing at 2 p.m. April 22 in Judge Craddock Verser’s Jefferson County Superior Court courtroom, where the trial was held.
Jefferson County prosecutors seek a life sentence in prison for Pierce.
The trial involved more than 200 exhibits, and preparation involved interviews with more than witnesses, prosecutors said.
Nothing to say
Both daughters said they had nothing to say to Pierce, whose public defender, Richard Davies, said he will appeal the conviction.
“He showed no remorse or no emotion throughout the process,” Ham said of the man who actually lived on the Yarr farm with his girlfriend awhile after the Yarrs took him in.
“He’s hurt this whole community for a very long time,” Waters said, adding that “hundreds and hundreds” of relatives and family friends were hurt by the killings.
Citing Pierce’s criminal history that includes burglary and theft, Ham said: “He’s obviously not someone who’s learning from his mistakes.”
She said Pierce was not “worth giving any more time and resources to.”
Waters said her own son will never be able to ride a John Deere tractor with his grandfather, Patrick, on the farm, or ride in a log truck with him like she and her siblings did as children.
Many family members held enlarged photos of the Yarrs in happier times.
Rubble remains
The home of Patrick Yarr, 60, and Janice Yarr, 57, today lies in rubble on Boulton Road.
ATF, FBI and county sheriff’s investigators sifted through the remains for six days “bucket by bucket,” looking for evidence in the aftermath of the blaze believed to be set with gasoline, Hernandez said.
County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Scott Rosekrans, who along with Prosecuting Attorney Juelie Dalzell led the prosecution of Pierce, said the death penalty was not sought to speed the trial for the family.
“I think the deciding thing for me and for the family, I think, was we’re going to offer them the finality,” Rosekrans said, adding that non-death penalty cases take less time as a means of achieving closure for the family.
He said the decision not to seek the death penalty was “kind of a group decision” between the family and the prosecutor’s office.
“It was a long year,” Rosekrans said with a smile and a sigh of relief.
Dalzell said she and her prosecuting team believe that Pierce traded for drugs the .25.06-caliber rifle he stole from the Yarrs and used to kill them, and that the weapon will never be recovered.
The daughters described their parents as two people who did not do extraordinary things but attracted people with their kindness.
“All the local farmers knew that if they needed help they could call my dad,” Water said of her parents who were high school sweethearts and married for 40 years.
“We’re proud of everything they’ve done. They supported us and we were never for want of anything.”
Janice Yarr’s sister, Debby Griswold, said, “There are no regrets looking back. There’s only regrets looking forward . . . to the memories we’ll miss.”
At one point in the conference, Alice Moody, Janice’s mother, quietly broke down in grief and tears seeking comfort in the arms of family members.
‘Hard work’
Sheriff’s Detectives Joe Nole and Mark Apeland said the investigation demanded much legwork with three vehicles and three residences searched.
“Hard work paid off,” Apeland said.
FBI Special Agent Ted Halla, based in Silverdale, said the agency was happy to be involved in the probe and will continue to assist Jefferson County investigators if called in.
He said the investigation was like the TV show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” but “it’s not like the TV show when you get it in an hour.”
Instead, he said, the investigation was “slow and painful.”
That helped the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
“They got me everything I needed,” Rosekrans said. “It was my case to lose.”
Dalzell said she was confident that her department’s case will survive an appeal.
“An appeal was always in the back of our minds,” she said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.