PORT HADLOCK — Some 20 relatives of murder victims Patrick and Janice Yarr jammed into a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office conference room today, remembering the couple they love and miss who were shot to death before their home was set ablaze March 18, 2009, on Boulton Road north of Lake Leland.
The family, including Janice Yarr’s mother, Alice Moody and father, John Boulton, two daughters, Michelle Ham and Patty Waters, and Janice Yarr’s sisters, held back tears, fondly remembering the couple.
They thanked investigators and prosecutors for their work, which led to the jury conviction Friday of Michael J. Pierce.
They appeared with investigators and prosecutors Monday during a news conference called by lead investigator in the case, Sheriff Tony Hernandez, who said the case 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 what involved certified fire investigators.
The 35-year-old Pierce, a former Quilcene and Sequim resident, shot the Yarrs after he secured their debit card PIN number so he could steal $300 from the to steal their US Bank account to buy methamphetamine, investigators said.
fter 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 a fire was set to cover the crimes.
“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.
