"48 Hours" investigates: "The Hunt for Sarah Yarborough's Killer" | Forensic Files

a new 48 Hours investigation digs into a decades old cold case involving a murder
of a Seattle area high school student 16-year-old Sarah yarboro was last seen in 1991 on her way to drill team
practice her remains were found later on her High School's campus it took almost
three decades for investigators to identify her killer Natalie Morales reports on the investigation for this
week's 48 hours we used to hop the fence right here and cut through here on December 14th 1991 13-year-old Drew
Miller and his friend were walking through Federal Way High School outside Seattle Washington when they noticed a
man in the bushes he's just staring at us from the bushes that was pretty jarring the mysterious man walked away
but he left behind a horrific scene there in the bushes where the man had just been the boys discovered the
body of a young woman 16-year-old Sarah yarboro it was absolutely horrible Drew says his shock turned to fear when he
realized the man who was now just feet in front of him was staring directly back at him does that look still haunt
you oh yeah yeah it's frozen in my mind the boogeyman then legitimate Boogeyman the boys raised home and police were
called detective Scott strathy with the King County Sheriff's Office was one of the first on the scene even for
experienced investigators this scene was really hard to deal with just the innocent nature of
this young woman in her school drill team uniform with her hot curlers still in her hair this was just pure
unadulterated evil Sarah had not been raped but the Killer's DNA was found on pieces of her clothing it sounded like
they had so much evidence Sarah's friend Amy per had hoped that the killer would
quickly be found for at least a short while it felt like of course they're going to catch him and then when they
didn't and they didn't your expectations change Sarah's friend Shannon Grant you
don't know if it's your next door neighbor you don't know if it's some random stranger there was that constant
fear is this going to happen again Natalie Morales joins us now from Los Angeles good morning atalie so
detectives had DNA they had eyewitnesses what was it that finally LED them to this killer well you know they knew that
the DNA would eventually be the Breakthrough that they needed but what it was essentially I mean it took 28
years to solve this case this was a cold case for a very long time until a forensic genetic genealogy team got
involved a Woman by the name of Colleen Fitzpatrick she's considered one of the Pioneers uh she worked with the King
County Sheriff's department and investigators to try to piece together the details and she was able to identify
a man by the name of Patrick Nicholas who at that time had a criminal record for raping women but his DNA was not in
the cotus database but um they were able to surveil him they followed him and got
his DNA off of two cigarette butts that he had smoked and it was a positive match they arrested him um and then he
was tried and convicted of first and second degree murder but it was a long time coming and thank goodness relief
finally for the for Sarah's family and friends and thank goodness detective stuck with the case Natalie Morales
thank you so much you can watch Natalie's report the hunt for Sarah Yarborough's killer on 48 hours tomorrow
night at 10:9 Central right here on CBS or on Paramount Plus

"48 Hours" investigates the murder of a high school honors student in a Seattle suburb that took almost three decades to solve. Correspondent Natalie Morales joins "CBS Mornings" with a preview of her report.

Each weekday morning, "CBS Mornings” co-hosts Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson bring you the latest breaking news, smart conversation and in-depth feature reporting. "CBS Mornings" airs weekdays at 7 a.m. on CBS and stream it at 8 a.m. ET on the CBS News app.

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Brief Summary

A cold case murder from 1991 is solved through DNA and forensic genealogy, leading to the arrest of Patrick Nicholas.

Key points

The Haunting Discovery. Two boys stumble upon the body of Sarah Yarborough, igniting a decades-long investigation.
DNA Breakthrough After 28 Years. Forensic genetic genealogy leads to the identification of Sarah's killer after nearly three decades.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's frozen in my mind.

Drew recalls the haunting moment he saw the killer.

1:14WatchNov 17, 2023

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