Episode 124: The Abduction of Kimberly and Kelly Yates
Russell Yates and Elaine Pigeon met in high school, both at the age of 14. They married on January 22nd, 1966, and a year later Russell was drafted into the Vietnam War. He served roughly two years before heading home to Warwick, Rhode Island where Elaine was waiting. After 16 years of marriage the two had their first daughter Kimberly, followed by Kelly a little over two years later. By all accounts the couple was happy, but things could be complicated.
On the first weekend of August, 1985, Russell had stayed out all night Friday. On Saturday morning Elaine went looking for him and found Russell, as well as another woman, on his boat he kept docked at Masthead Marina in Warwick. Elaine was very upset and left, running up the dock to the car where Kelly and Kimberly were. Elaine took the girls and went to her mother Mary's summer house on Point Judith, where she and Russell had originally planned to spend the day at the beach with the kids. Russell arrived about a hour later and Elaine was still upset but kept things civil in front of the girls.
After the beach day, Elaine helped the girls into the car before going into the summer home with Russell to talk. Things soon escalated when Russell began packing up some of the girl’s things to take with him, and this is when he says Elaine hit him “two or three times.” He pulled away, hit his head on the door frame and then punched Elaine in the face. His wedding ring left a significant gash on her forehead.
At the hospital social services spoke to Elaine privately where she requested information on women’s shelters in Massachusetts, saying to the social worker that if she went to a shelter in Rhode Island, Russell would find her. After this incident, three weeks passed by and Russell had thought that their fight was forgiven and forgotten.
On Monday, August 26th, 1985, Russell came home from work around dinner time to eat with his family and help get the girls to bed. At 8:00pm Elaine’s mom came by and stayed for about 45 minutes. After she left, Elaine brought up her finding Russell and another woman on the boat. Russell said that he then went back to Copperfield’s where he worked to avoid another argument. By the time Russell got home it was a little after 2:00am. He waited for Elaine to wake up and come downstairs as she often did when he got home, but she never did. When Russell went to check on her, he found the bed empty and quickly realized that 3-year-old Kimberly and 10-month-old Kelly were missing from their cribs.
Russell called Mary Pigeon, Elaine’s mom, and when she didn’t answer he went to her house. No one was home. No one was at her summer home either. Russell then says that he tried to report Elaine, Kimberly and Kelly missing, but Warwick police said he had to wait 24 hours before he could file. According to police, they never got a call from Russell and the first interaction they had with him about the disappearances was on August 28th at 8:40am.
Police maintained that Elaine had not committed any crime by taking her daughters per Rhode Island law at the time. Over the next thirty one years, Russell continued to fight for answers about where his wife and daughters had gone.
On December 23rd, 2016, police received an anonymous tip directing them to Houston, Texas. They found that Elaine had been living in Houston under the name Liana Lynn Waldberg, and it was revealed this name change order was filed Aug. 26, 2009, 24 years to the day after she disappeared with her children. Kimberly was now 35-years-old and Kelly was now 32-years-old, both living in the Houston area under different names.
Elaine was arrested on January 16th, 2017. She was arraigned in Houston, waived extradition and was transported to Rhode Island. Russell was informed of her arrest and when asked if she should be prosecuted, he stated “That isn't going to help me, her or anybody else at this point. I just want to see my kids." The charges against Elaine were dropped at the end of January, 2017. Due to the law change in 1988 she could have faced up to 20 years in prison for child snatching.
The girls were given Russell’s contact information and he stated “I've always been trying to find my children. Now at least, it's up to them to get in touch with me."
Image sources:
providencejournal.com - “From the archives: A chronology of the disappearance of Kimberly and Kelly Yates”
cbsnews.com - “Dad speaks out after long-missing sisters found alive”