Details About Pregnant Mother's Murder

This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," January 22, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: And now in North Carolina, a grizzly and brutal murder — Michelle Young, the pregnant mother bludgeoned in her home two months ago. Well, there's news tonight. You remember the gruesome case? Michelle Young's daughter had tracked her mother's blood throughout the house. Rumors are swirling around her husband, Jason, he may have been having an affair and there was a big life insurance policy taken out on Michelle, too. But so far police have not named Jason as a suspect. Earlier today, police did release the autopsy report. How did Michelle die and will it help find her killer? Joining us from Raleigh, WRAL reporter, Amanda Lamb. Welcome, Amada.

AMANDA LAMB, WRAL REPORTER: Hi, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: And before we get to the details about the autopsy report. Where is the husband, Jason, is he living in his home or where is he?

LAMB: Well, as far as we know he is still in the western part of the state staying with family members, right now.

VAN SUSTEREN: do police indicate that they're close to solving this case?

LAMB: They're not telling us anything about how close they are. They're just saying they're making steady progress on the case and they're very hopeful that they're going to solve this case.

VAN SUSTEREN: Now to the autopsy report. It was released today. Was the entire report released or were there certain sections blackened out or not given to the public?

LAMB: The entire report was released, Greta, and it was very graphic. It basically describes a struggle; it describes a very brutal murder scene. In it talks about the fact that Michelle Young was strangled. The killer attempted to strangle her, did not succeed in that and then used blunt force trauma on at least 10 separate occasions all over her body and she did die from a blow to the head. Her skull was fractured, her jaw was broken, her teeth were knocked out, And again, she had lacerations all over her body. So just again, a very, very brutal murder scene.

VAN SUSTEREN: And of course, the thing that none of us can forget her little child walking around in her blood waiting for her sister to show up the next day and discover this scene. An insurance policy — what can you tell us about the insurance policy on her?

LAMB: Well, a court document that was filed in the last few weeks basically described the fact that there was a large insurance policy on Michelle Young and that Jason Young, her husband, was the beneficiary of that policy. Sources close to the case have put that policy anywhere between $1 and $2 million. And, again, this was a very young couple; they didn't have a lot of assets. So that is a very high-dollar amount for that — for a young couple at that stage in heir life.

VAN SUSTEREN: Was it mutual, in the sense, that there was also a policy taken out on him so that it may have looked like some family planning because they had the small child and I think she was pregnant. I'm not — was she pregnant?

LAMB: She was pregnant. She was 20 weeks pregnant and again, the autopsy details the fact that she was pregnant with a male child. And so, yes, it would not have been unusual to take out more life insurance when you're going to have a child, a second child. And we don't know whether or not there was a life insurance policy, a large life insurance policy on Jason Young.

VAN SUSTEREN: Have a date on that life insurance policy, when the policy was taken out on her naming him as the beneficiary?

LAMB: Well, we don't know exactly when the policy was taken out. Some sources have put the first payment on the policy in April. And, if you recall, they did have a car accident in May, so that would have been about a month before that accident. It also would have been shortly before they were pregnant with their second child, so again, that might have been some family planning.

VAN SUSTEREN: Amanda, thank you. This new autopsy report shows Michelle died from blunt force trauma to the head, but also indicates the killer may have tried to strangle her, too. What does this mean for the investigation? Let's bring in forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden. Dr. Baden, you have the autopsy report. Clues?

DR. MICHAEL BADEN, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Right. Yeah, there — it's a 13-page, very thorough, as was mentioned, autopsy report, indicates — I count close to 30 blunt force impacts with a blunt instrument. Not a very heavy blunt instrument, like a baseball bat or a hammer or a tire iron, a lighter one than that, which caused only one fracture. Fracture to the back of the head. And there was also strangulation marks — manual strangulation marks on her neck.

VAN SUSTEREN: But she died from the blunt force trauma not from the attempted strangulation?

BADEN: That was the interpretation that it was the — over about 20 impacts to the head that caused the death.

VAN SUSTEREN: One of the things that I noticed is that there was hair in her hand.

BADEN: Yes. In the left hand was a clump of hair. That hair is really — is actually hers or the perpetrators. Now, if that hair turns out, by DNA analysis, to belong to person A, not her, that person A is in a lot of trouble.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, what can you think of, I mean, you've investigated so many of these, why would she have her own hair in her hand? I mean, can you can come up with an idea on that?

BADEN: Well, the struggle — because during a struggle, occasionally, somebody might get their hands in the hair trying to pull away the hands of the perpetrator. That's why sometimes scratch marks on the neck can be due to the decedent trying to release the hand marks around her. But what's interesting here, in looking at the diagrams, and the way it's described, there are scratch marks in many places on the body that may be part, and looks like part of the murder weapon, that the murder weapon had some kind of knurling or something that left an impact.

VAN SUSTEREN: Like what? Give me an idea. I mean, what's — I don't understand.

BADEN: Something with — something with striations on it. A, what do you call it, kind of flashlight kind of thing.

VAN SUSTEREN: Would you — I mean, it's an indication that whoever she is fighting with probably got some scratches, too?

BADEN: She fought back. She has defense wounds on her, so that the individual who did this to her might have also got scratch marks and they also took her fingernails — clipped her fingernails with the hope of getting some kind of DNA from under her fingernails from the perpetrator.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, one quick question, if the hair test — if they had done tests on the hair two months ago, would we have those answers back now.

BADEN: They should be. They should know that — they should know. They may have a good clue as to what the murder weapon was and may have a good — they should have — depends how long it takes, DNA from the hair, mitochondrial DNA, if not the regular kind of DNA, which is good enough, and the main thing is checking the alibi. I'm sure the police are out there checking the alibis of anybody they're suspect of.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Dr. Baden, as always, thank you, sir.

BADEN: Thank you.

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