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Yvette Rodier was shot several times by a stranger as she and her good friend Zach set up a camera to take pictures of the moon. She describes how she survived, including dragging herself several hundred feet over rough terrain to get to a road and flag down help. That night was devastating. But even after such a terrifying experience, Yvette holds out hope for how she can reclaim her life.
Get more information and photos on our website, theletterpodcast.com.

Researched and reported by Amy Donaldson Written by Amy Donaldson and Andrea Smardon Production and sound design by Andrea Smardon Mixing by Trent Sell Special thanks to Nina Earnest, Becky Bruce, KellieAnn Halvorsen, Ryan Meeks, Ben Kuebrich, Josh Tilton, Dave Cawley and Ed Brass. Main musical score composed by Allison Leyton Brown With KSL Podcasts Executive Producer Sheryl Worsley For Lemonada Media, Executive Producers Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs And Executive Producers Paul Anderson and Nick Panella with WorkHouse Media. The Letter is produced by KSL Podcasts and Lemonada Media in association with WorkHouse Media.

Surviving a barrage of bullets is just the start of what Yvette Rodier will have to do to reclaim her life. The emotional damage will take far longer to heal than the physical bullet wounds. She gets married, has a child and chooses a career that allows her to use her past to help others.

Despite the looming shadow of the shooting, her life is one of beauty and generosity; of resilience and hope.

Get more information and photos on our website, theletterpodcast.com.

Researched and reported by Amy Donaldson

Written by Amy Donaldson and Andrea Smardon

Production and sound design by Andrea Smardon

Mixing by Trent Sell

Special thanks to Nina Earnest, Becky Bruce, KellieAnn Halvorsen, Ryan Meeks, Ben Kuebrich, Josh Tilton and Dave Cawley

Main musical score composed by Allison Leyton Brown

With KSL Podcasts Executive Producer Sheryl Worsley

For Lemonada Media, Executive Producers Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs

And Executive Producers Paul Anderson and Nick Panella with WorkHouse Media

The Letter is produced by KSL Podcasts and Lemonada Media in association with WorkHouse Media.

Sponsors:
The Letter is sponsored by Hunt a Killer, immersive mystery games where you get to be the detective. Get $10 off at huntakiller.com/theletter with code THELETTER.
For a full list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and all other Lemonada series, you can visit lemonadamedia.com/sponsors
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript:

SPEAKERS

Keith Stevens, Amy Donaldson, Danielle, Tony, Yvette Rodier

Yvette Rodier  00:01

A warning to listeners. This podcast includes descriptions of gun violence and associated trauma. Please take care when listening. When I was on the side of the road, and I had left Zach to get help, I think I started feeling guilt that moment that I wasn’t with him and that he likely has died and I didn’t.

Amy Donaldson  01:59

And that’s never left you?

Yvette Rodier  02:01

No. 

Amy Donaldson  02:07

Yvette Rodier has lived most of her adult life with the kind of regret that few people experience. It’s the guilt of a survivor. But to understand why she feels this way, we need to know who she was before a stranger with a gun up ended her life on August 28, 1996. From KSL podcasts, I’m Amy Donaldson. And this is THE LETTER, Episode Two, the survivor. Yvette has always been reluctant to draw attention to herself. No one understands this better than her younger sister, Danielle.

Danielle  02:57

She was the big sister that was too afraid to ask the server for ketchup. I wouldn’t go up to the counter and ask for ketchup because she didn’t like to put herself out like that.

Amy Donaldson  03:07

It’s not that Yvette was shy. Exactly. She just prioritized other people’s needs before her own.

Danielle  03:13

She was always just very quiet and put together and a peacemaker. She was always really social though, but she kind of let people come to her.

Amy Donaldson  03:27

The Rodier family didn’t spend much time in one place when a vet Danielle and their little brother Brandon were young. Their father, a doctor from Chile, moved the family from Provo, Utah to Missouri to Idaho, and back to Salt Lake City. All before that was in fourth grade. Whenever Yvette was 8 and Danielle was 5 and Brandon was 4, their parents divorced. They never discussed how the divorce changed their lives. But Danielle says if Yvette was struggling, she couldn’t tell.

Danielle  03:59

She was just always so accepting of things as they come and, and then not only just accepting, but she would also take on the role of comforting like I would be the one having a fit about it and then she would comfort me and maybe put her feelings aside. She hasn’t ever put herself first in her life. And that’s a beautiful attribute that she is just self-sacrificing always. For anyone around her. She’s always been the biggest giver. She’s the biggest giver I know.

Amy Donaldson  04:29

Yvette she gets that from her mother. Linda Rodier, also a giver.

Yvette Rodier  04:34

My mom was so doting. So attentive.

Amy Donaldson  04:40

After the divorce, it was Linda who built a life for Yvette and her siblings.

Yvette Rodier  04:44

Her life revolved around her kids her entire life.

Amy Donaldson  04:48

Linda passed away in 2018 After a long battle with breast cancer. But Yvette found inspiration in her mother’s willingness to do the hard things that life often demands.

Yvette Rodier  04:59

My mom was smart. She went to college; she got her master’s degree after she got a divorce. And she’s always driven us to push ourselves and be better.

Amy Donaldson  05:10

Since I couldn’t talk to a better mother, I spoke with her and Linda’s younger sister, Tony Sullivan. Tony says, after the divorce, Linda went back to school and started a career in social work, all while raising three children on her own.

Tony  05:24

She’s incredible. But part of the reason that’s important is because that’s part of the example that Yvette had as a mom who, you know, you don’t stop, you keep going no matter what. But you don’t just continue, you set expectations high and you achieve them.

Amy Donaldson  05:38

As Yvette grew up, Tony could see that she took after her mother in many ways. And she appeared to have a bright future ahead of her.

Tony  05:45

She’s extremely smart. And she did so well in school and love school. Yvette just always made good choices. And it was for the right reasons. It was because she could see the big picture. Typically, she was a social butterfly, but also for the right reasons because she was the one who was friends to everybody. She was always concerned about the one sitting on the sideline or the person on the outside, she pulled everybody in to make them feel warm and appreciated. That’s how she felt about people.

Amy Donaldson  06:18

By the summer of 1996, Yvette graduated from high school with honors, she was accepted to the University of Utah where she planned to chase her dream of being a journalist from Danielle’s perspective, Yvette had all the possibilities in the world opened her. The sister who didn’t want to bother a server for catch up, was a leader in her own quiet way.

Danielle  06:40

She was my role model. You know, she was the dancer and a senior class president junior prom queen and I just looked up to her and was nowhere near anything like that, though. It was just a struggle for me to go to school, but to see how easy it was for her to get good grades that she didn’t never have homework in the afternoon because she got it done in class. And then she had time to hang out with her friends and the endless boys who were always courting her and coming by.

Amy Donaldson  07:13

Among those boys coming around was Zachary Snarr. Though Yvette insists they had always just been good friends. The friendship took root in junior high, but grew significantly stronger when Yvette spent her sophomore year in France.

Yvette Rodier  07:27

Zach was the only friend that wrote me letters the entire time. And they were on these cute pieces of paper that you could fold up in the paper was the envelope. It was just this nice connection that he was the only person who cared for a year where I was. So that was really nice to get home and still feel like he was keeping track and remembered me and missed me.

Amy Donaldson  07:52

Their first official date was August 28 1996. The night of a full moon.

Yvette Rodier  08:00

That night was the very first night Zach asked me out on a date. Actually, we’d hung out so many times before. But that was the very first time he just asked me and it was no one else was going and I didn’t know what we were going to do. But he picked me up and we went to dinner. And then he wanted to surprise me and he was going to teach me how to take pictures of the moon in black and white.

Amy Donaldson  08:25

In just a week, they were both going to start their freshman year at the same university.

Yvette Rodier  08:31

So it was just a fun, like catch up on what’s been happening over the summer and looking forward like it was kind of more adulty if you will for teenagers to just talk about what’s ahead of us that there’s adventures ahead still.

Amy Donaldson  08:46

Do you remember where you ate or what you did?

Yvette Rodier  08:49

Yeah, we ate at Salt Lake pizza and pasta. Had a ham and cheese calzone. It was delicious then. And then after that, that’s when we headed up the canyon.

Amy Donaldson  09:05

It was about a 20 minute drive into the Wasatch Mountains headed east. Zach took an exit drove on a curvy road into a canyon and then pulled into a dirt parking lot as they were getting out of the bronco. They saw a white pickup truck pull in but they didn’t see who was inside. Otherwise they had little del reservoir to themselves. They walked past the gate down a paved walkway. on their left was the water up the hill to their right was the canyon road. They walked about 50 yards half the length of a football field until Zach decided it would be a good spot to take photos.

Yvette Rodier  09:45

Zach could brought a blanket that it was a blanket his mom had made for his dad out of denim jeans. And he had a jacket for me and put out the blanket and then he was getting out the tripod when most of it up until I don’t even know that the camera was out of the case, but he was working on the tripod.

Amy Donaldson  10:05

In retrospect, Yvette remembers feeling a little off. When she noticed a stranger coming down the path.

Yvette Rodier  10:12

We both just kind of brushed it off. I mean, we’re in Utah in the mountains, and it’s like, eight or so at night, like bad things don’t happen then.

Amy Donaldson  10:26

And this is where Yvette stops, she chooses not to revisit the traumatic events of that night. event has told the story many times in her life, but at some point, she decided she didn’t want to relive the worst details of that night ever again.

Yvette Rodier  10:42

I don’t remember the last time I did it, but it wasn’t good for me. And I just remember the anxiety before the anxiety after it just worked up too much emotion, I realized I don’t have to do this.

Amy Donaldson  10:56

Instead. 18 year old event will speak for her. That’s after this break.

Speaker 4  13:37

Would you state your name please?

Yvette Rodier  14:05

Yvette Dart Rodier.

Amy Donaldson  14:07

Yvette detailed what happened to her in a salt lake city courtroom at a preliminary hearing. Just seven months after that night. Actors read the words of a vet and prosecutor Bob Stott who questioned her in that hearing.

Speaker 4  14:19

About how long have you been on the blanket when you saw this other person?

Yvette Rodier  14:23

Two minutes, three minutes. 

Speaker 4  14:23

What was the person doing? 

Yvette Rodier  14:24

Making us nervous. It was a man and he was walking in and out so that you have the pavement then there’s the trees on the side or bushes and he was walking back and forth in between.

Amy Donaldson  14:41

The man approach Zach and Yvette from behind. Ask them a question about where the paved road went they said they didn’t know and turn back around to face the water. Yvette heard gunshots too many to count. She screamed

Speaker 4  15:00

Did anything happen to your body?

Yvette Rodier  15:02

Totally fell to my left side. 

Speaker 4  15:04

You were sitting and fell over? 

Yvette Rodier  15:06

My torso. Yeah. Then my bottom half just sort of stayed the same.

Speaker 4  15:11

Could you tell what happened to Zach?

Yvette Rodier  15:13

I can feel him behind me. His body fell behind me. There was a pause and I just hoped it was done, I hoped was over. But it was not.

Amy Donaldson  15:30

The smell of sulfur and metal burned her nose. About 30 seconds after that first barrage of bullets. She heard the man reload his gun. He fired several more times, this time pointing the weapon directly at Yvette. She willed herself not to move, not to breathe. She pretended to be dead.

Yvette Rodier  15:59

The gunshot stopped and the person leaned over me to reach to Zach, and my eyes were open. I didn’t dare close them. What did you see? I saw a gun and I saw his face. How close was the face to you? Very close. I could feel the breath. I could feel him breathing.

Amy Donaldson  16:20

He searched Zach’s pockets. Then he rolled the vet over and put his hands in her pockets. She worried about what else he might do. But then he ran away in the direction of the parking lot.

Speaker 4  16:36

Were you able to move? 

Yvette Rodier  16:38

I didn’t try. I was hot and my body tingles and it felt like I was sweating. But that was blood.

Amy Donaldson  16:47

Yvette heard footsteps approaching again. heavy breathing. The man reached in Zach’s pockets once more, this time finding his keys. Then he was running up the hill again. She heard Zach’s Bronco roar to life. Yvette remained frozen, even as she heard the wheels moving over the dirt parking lot. Pulling onto the paved road and driving away.

Speaker 4  17:19

How long did you kind of just lay there?

Yvette Rodier  17:22

15 seconds after the car left. Then I tried to move. My right leg couldn’t support me. I tried several times and I just kept falling. 

Speaker 4  17:32

Were you able to see Zach at that time? 

Yvette Rodier  17:35

I looked up towards him. And right now my memory has just I don’t have I don’t know what he looked like or anything. I yelled his name. He didn’t answer. I touched him. I don’t know where I touched him. But I knew he was dead. A car pulled up. I heard a woman’s voice get out of the car. And I yelled Help. Help. We’ve been shocked. 

Speaker 4  18:02

You called out? Were you able to get a response? 

Yvette Rodier  18:05

They said okay. 

Speaker 4  18:07

What did they say? 

Yvette Rodier  18:08

They said okay and left.

Amy Donaldson  18:17

Yvette had no idea if help was coming. I didn’t

Yvette Rodier  18:21

I didn’t know what else to do. But I knew I had to get help. And I knew that up above me it would have taken a long time to go back up the asphalt than over to the road. And I knew that the road was above me. So I knew I could go up the hill.

Amy Donaldson  18:34

So instead of heading back towards the parking lot, Yvette decided to try and crawl directly toward the canyon road. up the hillside. There was no path to follow.

Speaker 4  18:45

Tell us about the terrain that you had to go across.

Yvette Rodier  18:48

Very rocky, lots of little prickly things, lots of bushes and grass and weeds. Sometimes there are big rocks that I begged my knees against. My ears were ringing really loud. I hated that. And I was still really really hot. The whole time up the mountain. I kept brushing away my hair because it kept getting in my face. And it was all sticky and yucky. I didn’t realize there was blood. I thought that was sweat or something. 

Speaker 4  19:18

What happened at the top? 

Yvette Rodier  19:20

I stayed on my knees and I flagged down a car. Then I got a little nervous. I wondered if they would stop. I wondered if somebody would help me if somebody would get to Zach, if somehow he would live.

Amy Donaldson  19:48

Salt Lake County Sheriff’s detective Keith Stevens was just minutes away when he heard the call on his radio that night. It was a passing motorist who found it.

Keith Stevens  19:58

A nurse was one of the past for buyers that came by, which is fortunate for everybody involved.

Amy Donaldson  20:04

The first thing he saw in his headlights when he approached the reservoir was Yvette on the side of the road, talking with law enforcement and rescue workers.

Keith Stevens  20:13

I drive up almost simultaneously with emergency vehicles on the roadway above little Dell. And there’s several people frantically running around. It’s pretty chaotic. I can see blood, considerable amount of blood. I wasn’t close enough, but I could hear very faint things that she was she was talking she was very, very concerned about her friend that was down below. That was primarily what she was talking about. I didn’t want to interfere with some of the medical things that were going on. But the focus was all on Yvette because she was you know, in trouble.

Amy Donaldson  20:54

After the break, we’ll visit the scene of the crime with detective Stevens. It’s hard to imagine what Yvette went through that night without seeing where it happened. So I went to the site with Keith Stevens who is now retired. He was the lead investigator on the case and it was his suggestion that we visit the reservoir. So on a windy day in early spring, Keith and I met the show’s producer Andrea Smardon, in the now paved parking lot at little Dell reservoir. The area where Zack and Yvette we’re setting up to watch the Moon has changed significantly. Some of that’s because of updates to the reservoir and some of that is just Mother Nature. bigger trees, different foliage. But even 25 years later, Keith cannot forget the scene he encountered that night.

Keith Stevens  23:44

There was a full moon that night. And even the light from that wasn’t enough to illuminate anything through all the brush and you could barely see the asphalt roadway to walk on. Of course we started using flashlights but it was extremely dark and very quiet up here.

Amy Donaldson  24:02

Keith points to the hills behind the reservoir.

Keith Stevens  24:05

So they had a perfect view of that. 

Amy Donaldson  24:08

Beyond the hills are mountains topped with snow. But when Zach and Yvette were here in late summer, those rocky peaks would have been bear. The hillsides are covered with dry grass, evergreen trees, scrub oak and sagebrush.

Keith Stevens  24:22

I remember that hill right there and I can remember the moon over it right about where the jet strength is up there. That’s about where it was and we got here. I can’t tell you if it was cresting or […] up when we got here. Kind of the things I wasn’t paying attention to a little bit.

Amy Donaldson  24:38

The crime scene though. Keith remembers vividly.

Keith Stevens  24:41

Yeah, I can see the holes in the asphalt where the bullets either missed or went through and through one of the tissues of either two of them. The blood on the blankets the blood that was on Zach it was starting to dry. So yeah, I can visualize those, like looking at pictures.

Amy Donaldson  25:04

Do you let yourself think very much about the kid like, like about Zach, when you’re on the scene processing it and sort of going through the motions of it an investigation or do you?

Keith Stevens  25:15

Well, at that time in my life, I would have been the same age as his parents. So I had kids his age, so it was looking almost like it my kids, you know, looking at the same kind of clothing, same kind of shoes, it’s difficult to separate yourself from that.

Amy Donaldson  25:39

As for Yvette, keys still can’t fathom what she endured in order to survive. Even after arriving at the hospital, she had so many wounds, no one could say exactly how many times she’d been shot.

Keith Stevens  25:52

We came back a couple times to photograph both at night and during the daytime just to get that different perspective. And so it was, it was just unbelievable, just like that this really happened.

Amy Donaldson  26:07

Somehow, even with her body riddled with bullets, that pulled herself up that steep grade, and through rough terrain to flag down a car. Navigating around the scrub oak and large rocks and animal droppings wasn’t easy. There is no direct route from the reservoir to the road. Does this ever, like blow you away that she did this?

Keith Stevens  26:48

This in combination of how she kept her wits about her? I mean, first time she came face to face with anything like this.

Amy Donaldson  26:56

Imagine not being able to see pitch black and doing this at night. Thinking that somebody might come back for you just every light that passes like, please send another one right

Keith Stevens  27:12

I gotta I hopefully that one will be there. When I get up there. This would have been the area she definitely would have had to crawl up. The last

Amy Donaldson  27:23

The last part before the road was the steepest. Here Keith puts out his hand and pulls Andrea who’s holding a recorder in one hand up that last part of the hill.

Keith Stevens  27:51

And that would have been the only sounds really up here would have been the sounds from the cars was dead quiet, just black.

Amy Donaldson  28:13

At Yvette’s house that night, it was pretty late in the evening when the phone rang. But her sister Danielle was still awake in a room. In those days, they had a landline with more than one phone. So when the phone rang, Danielle picked it up. And so did her mother.

Danielle  28:28

I heard the person on the other end of the line say you that’s been involved in an accident, and she’s asking for you. So I ran upstairs and said, Mom, I’m coming with you. And we went down to the hospital. And the whole way we were driving there. My mom was like, it couldn’t be that bad because she’s asking for me and she’s conscious. But never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined what had actually happened.

Amy Donaldson  28:58

when they arrived at the hospital that night, and that was already in surgery, so they couldn’t see her. They were told only that she had been involved in a shooting. Danielle, who was 16 years old at the time, can only imagine what her mom was going through.

Danielle  29:12

She’s an incredibly strong woman. She was extremely composed. She was holding out to really panic, I think until she knew everything that had gone on. But we did find out before that was out of surgery that Zach had been killed. And then she lost it. It was really hard for my mom. I was 16 I didn’t understand anything that was happening. You know, I just knew that it was I was glad that I was there for my mom in that time. And of course we were worried about that. We didn’t know if she was going to make it. So once we heard that Zach died, we immediately assumed that maybe that wasn’t going to do so well. What I remember more than anything was, we had gone up to the chapel to pray. And it was dark and it was in the middle of the night. And I think Zach’s parents had been notified at that time and Sy Snarr walked in the door and her and my mother looked at each other. And they both just started sobbing and ran to each other and held each other. It was really beautiful to see the two moms just embrace each other that there was this, this sadness between them. That was really powerful. I remember that. The power of that sadness.

Yvette Rodier  30:52

When I wake up, I’m in the hospital. My mom’s with me. I just know Zach’s dead. I don’t know how, but I’m sure of it. I don’t know that my mom confirmed it for me for a bit. But she was very tender and obviously distraught. And then the next thing I remember is when Zach’s family came to visit me it felt like it was early in the morning. I don’t remember what time. But looking back, I just can’t imagine that they after knowing that their son had died, that that’s where they went. But I can still see their faces walking in the room. And Sy came to me very first and hugged me. And she leaned in and just said, I’m so glad he was with you. Because I know he was happy. And I don’t remember the flood of emotion that I feel right now. I’m assuming I had it at that time. I was also heavily sedated and drugged. But I remember that those words daily. And it was such a gift that they would take that time and come and visit me and tell me that, you know, especially the day after their son’s been killed.

Amy Donaldson  32:19

What was you said the flood of emotion you feel now what do you feel now?

Yvette Rodier  32:24

Gratitude, appreciation. I guess that’s the same. Sadness, guilt that I’m here that that they had to come to the hospital.

Amy Donaldson  32:41

How soon did you feel guilty about surviving? Was it right away?

Yvette Rodier  32:45

Yeah, that day, the first day. I think there was probably guilt that night too, when I was on the side of the road. And I had left Zach to get help. I think I started feeling guilt that that moment that I wasn’t with him and that he likely has died and I didn’t

Amy Donaldson  33:09

And that’s never left you? 

Yvette Rodier  33:11

No. 

Amy Donaldson  33:23

Gradually, the extent of Yvette injuries became more clear, though no one knew exactly how many times she’d been shot.

Yvette Rodier  33:31

I was hit several times in the head. So there was a lot of blood and damage to my skull. He used hollow tip or hollow point bullets and so one of them hit my left side in my back and went all the way through and got lodged in my left inner thigh. One hit my left side and just totally expanded and blew up the left side just opened it up bra and then one more along my shoulder. So we don’t know how many on my head because there was also the tripod got hit a lot. So there were bits of metal from the tripod that was going out and you know, flying through the air.

Amy Donaldson  34:14

At what point did you realize like it’s pretty miraculous that you survived?

Yvette Rodier  34:26

I just feel like I’ve always felt that way. Like I don’t know when that point came but it’s always just been crazy amazing that I survived and Zack didn’t there’s no reason I should be here. He reloaded his gun and aimed at my head to make sure I died. It’s just always been crazy and so lucky.

Amy Donaldson  34:59

Almost immediately event had to contend with a swarm of media attention.

Yvette Rodier  35:04

I do remember we did a press conference. And I remember that being extremely dramatic.

Amy Donaldson  35:11

The random brutality of the case caused outrage in the community. And that was punctuated by intense media coverage, both locally and nationally. Reporters converged on the Salt Lake Valley seeking to interview anyone and everyone who knew something about the teenagers involved. Reporters camped outside the hospital, the Snarr home, the Rodier home, the residents of the shooter’s family. They talk to friends, acquaintances, landlords, principals, police. Anyone, even peripherally associated with those involved. Event remembers the hospital giving her an alias. But once the name was leaked to the media, the medical staff had to move her to a new room.

Yvette Rodier  36:17

They came in and told my mom, hey, if you guys will just do an interview with this will all stop. All these people will just go away. They said no one would come back and you wouldn’t have to do any other interviews. And I think now knowing what I know, I wish someone would have said no way What are you doing? But I know we had realized we had inconvenience to the hospital if you will, and made it hard for them to do certain things. So I did it.

Amy Donaldson  36:49

Remember, this is Yvette who didn’t even want to bother anyone for ketchup, who never liked to draw attention to herself or make waves. There she was lying in her hospital bed severely wounded on painkillers hooked up to tubes, a stuffed teddy bear under one arm surrounded by cameras and microphones. She tried to keep it focused on Zach. He’s always been there for me. In the video, she looks up and smiles at the reporters.

Yvette Rodier  37:23

But I remember just feeling like I don’t know why I’m telling all these strangers what happened to my best friend and why I’m laying here in bed doing this, but I did it.

Amy Donaldson  37:36

What emotion did you feel when you’re doing it?

Yvette Rodier  37:40

I think there was a lot of pressure on myself to make sure I was showing emotion that I wasn’t numb, even though I was fairly numb at that point. But I wanted them to be sure to know that this is sad and I am hurt. There was also anger. But at that age, I didn’t know how to even express that I was angry about this or scared about this or didn’t want to do it.

Amy Donaldson  38:08

event had been thrust into the spotlight torn between our instinct to avoid attention and our desire to put others first to make other people happy.

Yvette Rodier  38:17

I’m a people pleaser. So it was just extreme pressure to not mess up to be normal, quote unquote. So it was a lot of pressure and just feeling like I better not mess up because they are watching me as the girl who got shot.

Amy Donaldson  38:44

That was the sole eyewitness to Zach’s murder, and she wanted to do whatever she could to help. Detective Keith Stevens interviewed her in the hospital to get a full accounting of what she remembered from that night. And as you’re talking to her, What’s your impression of her? Even 25 years later, Yvette holds a special place in this detectives heart.

Keith Stevens  39:11

Yeah, it’s extremely selfless. She put all of her injuries aside to help with the investigation. She was very eager to help very eager to, in her own way speak for Zach.

Amy Donaldson  39:31

Has this case stuck with you.

Keith Stevens  39:33

Yeah. Just knowing what she went through and how strong she was and how she survived. So amazing.

Amy Donaldson  39:43

In that press interview from her hospital room. Yvette told the world that she would pick herself back up and live her life. She would go to college as planned.

Yvette Rodier  39:52

I’m still planning on starting at the U in the fall. As of now those plans haven’t changed.

Amy Donaldson  40:00

And she did. But the truth is the life she knew is over. She was only just beginning a long road to recovery. Almost immediately, Yvette set some boundaries that would help her heal. Rule number one, she would never say the shooters name.

Yvette Rodier  40:19

What I remember is his name was everywhere in the paper, and so was that name and so was my name, but his name seemed to be prominent. And it just made him more human to me. And what he did was inhumane and so not using his name has been very helpful for me.

Amy Donaldson  40:44

Yvette couldn’t anticipate all the challenges she would face in her life. But she will hold fast to this boundary, and others in an effort to protect herself. She will build a new life in defiance of this unnamed shooter and what he took from her.

Yvette Rodier  41:01

I didn’t have a choice. Zach didn’t have a choice. But once I lived and I’m coming out into society, I have all the cards. I have all the choices.

Amy Donaldson  41:41

Next time on THE LETTER.

Keith Stevens  41:45

It appears that the victim’s vehicle was taken by the suspect. They don’t know who he is. It’s a bronco. As much as I’ve got right now. We knew that Zachary’s vehicle was gone and there was a vehicle left there, there was a vehicle registration there that provided us with a name, address. So immediately people were dispatched from the scene without having any real information other than we have two people that have been shot, the individual’s obviously armed and dangerous.

CREDITS  42:35

THE LETTER is researched and reported by me, Amy Donaldson. It’s written by myself and Andrea Smardon, who is also responsible for Production and Sound Design. Mixing by Trent Sell. Special thanks to Nina Earnest, Becky Bruce, KellieAnn Halvorsen, Ryan Meeks, Ben Kuebrich, Josh Tilton and Dave Cawley. Main musical score composed by Allison Leyton Brown with KSL Podcasts Executive Producer Sheryl Worsley. For Lemonada Media, Executive Producers Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs And Executive Producers Paul Anderson and Nick Panella with WorkHouse Media. If you’d like our show, please give us a rating and review. It helps people find us follow us at the letterpodcast.com and on social at @theletterpodcast. The letter is produced by KSL podcasts and Lemonada Media in association with Workhouse Media.