The Predator Next Door — Robert Lee Yates (Part 1)

Spokane, Washington. A quiet city tucked beneath pine-covered hills and long stretches of highway. The kind of place where routines feel safe… and danger doesn’t look the way you expect it to.

In the late 1990s, women began disappearing—many from the edges of society, their lives overlooked, their absences barely making headlines. Some were last seen along East Sprague. Others simply vanished into the night. At first, the cases felt disconnected. Isolated. Easy to ignore.

They weren’t.

Because moving quietly through Spokane was a man who knew exactly how to blend in. A husband. A father. A decorated veteran. Someone who didn’t fit the profile people thought they were looking for.

In Part One of our four-part series, we begin at the surface—before the name Robert Lee Yates meant anything at all. We trace the early disappearances, the missed connections, and the growing sense that something wasn’t right. And we examine how an entire pattern of violence can take shape… without anyone realizing what they’re seeing.

This is the story of how a predator hides in plain sight—and how a city slowly begins to understand the truth.

🎧 New episodes weekly.