Unsolved: Daughter searching for answers in her mother’s 1991 murder

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sherry Yantes did what she could as a young mother to give her daughter Graylyn lasting memories. She took her on a trip to Disney World, a memory Graylyn holds onto.

On May 9, 1991, Graylyn was sent to her room for bad behavior.

She was counting coins in her piggy bank, wanting to run away.

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While she was at her vanity, she heard a noise and her mother screaming for help.

A man asked for money and gold. Graylyn hid under her bed, then inside her closet until he left.

While in the closet she noticed a bat, wanting to grab it and try to help, but she was cemented to the floor in shock.

Graylyn saw the man’s acid-washed jeans and dirty shoes walking in the house.

After it was quiet, she went looking for her mother.

“I remember shaking my mom, ‘he’s gone, get up,’ and she wasn’t moving. I just ran across the street to the neighbors,” Graylyn said.

It has been 30 years with no arrest in her mother’s case.

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“I am never going to give up, and any kind of information would be beneficial to the case, because this has been a long 30 years of not giving up.” Graylyn said.

This is the composite sketch of the suspect. It was drawn from the eyewitness account of a teen who told police she saw the man leaving the home.

Resources for victims families:

Project: Cold Case

First Coast Crime Stoppers

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