Suspect hears charges in slaying

'93 cold case

Yakima Herald-Republic
Suspect hears charges in slaying
MARK MOREY / Yakima Herald-Republic
Clayton G. Stafford, suspect in June 1993 homicide of Shawna Yandell, appears in Yakima County Superior Court. (not for use until arraigned in two weeks from 21 May)
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Sixteen years after the crime, Clayton Gene Stafford of Yakima was charged Friday with raping and murdering 21-year-old Shawna Yandell.

Police say they identified Stafford, now 56, based on DNA evidence.

They believe he killed Yandell in June 1993, days after she and her boyfriend arrived in Yakima from the Arkansas-Oklahoma area. A Boy Scout group found her body in the Yakima River about a mile north of the Terrace Heights Bridge.

Stafford, who made a preliminary appearance in Yakima County Superior Court on Thursday, is being held on $1 million bail.

He is a handyman on federal disability because of a heart attack. Police arrested him Wednesday at his West I Street home after learning his DNA matched DNA linked to the crime.

Yandell's sister, Shannon Yandell-Young, said Yandell had come to Yakima to make money picking apples before returning home. She was last seen leaving Sportsman State Park, where her boyfriend had passed out in a bathroom.

Stafford lived on Keys Road at the time, a few of blocks from the park. Police say it's not known how he crossed paths with Yandell or why she was killed.

 



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