A 20-year-old Indiana man is behind bars, accused of killing his mother and burning her body in the backyard.
Nicholas Yates was arrested after police investigated his own missing person report for Cheryl Yates, WTHR reported.
Court documents say Yates reported his mother missing on October 5, telling Vermillion County deputies that he last saw her two days earlier.
He further informed the police that he had been calling his mother’s phone, which was still at the house, as she had acquired a new phone while retaining the same number. When officers inquired about the phone left behind, he explained he had sold it “because he needed the money.”
When the police requested to enter the home, he refused, stating he had allowed two people to move in after his mother’s disappearance because he disliked being alone. He mentioned needing to check with them before allowing the police inside, as they were staying in his mother’s bedroom.
A deputy asked Yates if anyone might wish harm upon his mother, to which he responded, “No, she was the sweetest person.” The deputy found his use of the word “was” suspicious.
Subsequently, Yates displayed an app showing his mother’s last location at a bingo hall on October 3, but he later confessed it was actually he who was there and had her phone with him at that time. He admitted selling the phone at a Kroger kiosk following the bingo hall visit.
Yates eventually allowed the deputies to inspect the house, where they observed his mother’s pill organizer had stopped being used on the morning of October 3. Proceeding to the backyard, they discovered a “smoldering pile of papers.”
Yates explained that the papers were his mother’s and that he had burned them because she was absent and he didn’t want to risk trouble over possessing confidential documents.
Eventually, Sheriff Mike Holtkamp spoke with Cheryl Yates’ supervisor at her job, who said that she had left work at about 2:30 p.m. on October 3, saying she was going to “kill him” when she got home, apparently referring to her son who, she said, had been spending money hand over fist while she paid all the bills.
Eventually deputies also spoke with the two people who were allegedly living at the home, and they said they did not go the Kroger kiosk with Yates as he said they did. They said Yates was in the home’s attic all that day. Over the weekend, they said, they went to stores and restaurants with him, and he paid for everything.
Then, deputies sought cell phone records for Cheryl Yates’ phone and noted that it pinged in a wooded area some miles away, but they were not able to locate here.
Finally, deputies obtained a search warrant for the home and found that all of the mother’s clothing was missing, although her medication remained. Then they found bones in the burn pit, including one that appeared to be a human spinal cord.
Once they made that discovery, deputies again questioned Yates, and this time he said he had taken his mother’s phone and computer to an electronics store and sold them.
Eventually, however, he admitted that he’d argued with his mother on October 3 when she asked him to move out. He said he “struck his mother in the throat” and her face turned blue. She fell backward and hit her head on a metal bed frame, then hit her head on a wooden chest and “became unresponsive.”
Yates told investigators he put his mother’s body in the box until the next day, then pushed the box into the back yard to the burn pit, where he burned the body.
In further interviews, the two friends told investigators that Yates had asked them to move in on September 30, telling them he needed to know by October 3 because his mother was moving out.
Yates was formally charged on October 7 with one count of murder. His trial is set for February 24, 2026.
