The Hunt for Sarah Yarborough’s Killer | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] [Music] 16-year-old Sarah y always being remembered as talented creative and kind
Sarah was an a student at the high school whenever you saw Sarah she always had a
smile this case is about a 16-year-old girl who had the right to grow up this case is about Sarah and
everything that she should have been allowed to become was Friday the 13th of December
of 1991 her parents were out of town for her brother's soccer game she stayed home I was reluctant to leave Sarah she
didn't want to come of course cuz she had her whole weekend planned out so she had a friend come over and stay with her
that [Music] weekend we went to a basketball game went and got junk food at the grocery
store a little bit of fast food you know we're 16 we were Carefree there was absolutely nothing that would make any
of us think that the next morning everything would change so Saturday morning Sarah woke up
kind of in a panic she woke up and said I'm late for practice she put on her drill team
uniform and ran out the door she went to the school and discovered that she was early
so she parked in her car and waited for the rest of her team to show [Music] up shortly after the phone call started
where Sarah do you know where she is Sarah was found within an hour where was her body discovered so
her car was still in the parking lot her body was approximately 100 yards away still on the school property part of her
clothing was removed she had nylon stockings tied in a lature around her her neck I just remember just saying not
Sarah not Sarah not Sarah over and over again the suspect is a white male 6 feet
tall with a medium build they had D evidence they had everything they had Witnesses in that first week or so it
sounded like they had so much evidence 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 you don't know if it's your nextd
door neighbor you don't know if it's some random stranger there was that constant
fear of is this going to happen again we literally had a monster in the community and we just we didn't know who
it was is [Music] [Music] how often do you think about December 14th 1991 and what happened on that
day quite a bit it's a very traumatic thing to go through it's been over 30 years but the
details of that day have never faded for Drew Miller I had my friend spent the night at my house we woke up that
morning watch cartoons ate cereal left to go skateboarding Drew who was just 13 at the time lived down the street from
Federal Way High School near Seattle Washington the school grounds have changed quite a bit right drastically
yes the tennis Court's the only thing that's still here Drew often took shortcuts through the school to go
skateboarding as he and his friend did that day we used to hop the fence right here and cut through
here it was freezing cold that day I mean there was ice in all of the mud puddles we just you know started
smashing them cuz it's fun you know it sounds like breaking glass that's when Drew says they noticed
a man in the bushes right where you see the edge of this Dugout right here that was all
bushes that were probably this tall so we couldn't see him until he stood up he's just staring at us from the
bushes that was pretty jarring but then he just walked out of the bushes so then
we just assumed he's just smoking weed or something the mysterious man kept to himself and walked ahead of the boys
Drew says they didn't think much of it until they came across a horrendous scene
there in the bushes where the man had just been was the body of a young woman it was horrible absolutely
horrible the way that he left her body she clearly fought for her life Drew says his shock turned to fear
when he realized the man who was still just feet in front of them was now staring directly back at him does that
looks still haunt you oh yeah yeah it's frozen in my mind the boogeyman then legitimate Boogeyman the boys raced to
Drew's house and police were called to the scene when we approached the victim on
one of the pieces of clothing we saw the name Sarah detective Scott stay with the
King County Sheriff's Office was one of the first officers on the scene and of course later we found out that that was
Sarah yarboro 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 investigators believed this was a
sexually motivated Murder She was partially clothed her jacket her undergarments her bra had been removed
and placed next to her body police discovered that the car Sarah had driven that morning was parked in the school
parking lot a about 300 ft from where her body was found there didn't really appear to be any sort of a struggle in
the car itself detective John free with the King County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes unit would later join the
investigation she had a container of orange juice that she had made that morning it was just sitting in the front
seat nothing was tipped over so the question was how did she get from her car to this hill what led her there
Sarah was one of these people that would help anyone with anything at any time and part of our working theory was was
she coaxed into following you know the suspect did he say something like I'm looking for my lost dog or I can't find
my car keys perhaps Sarah in an attempt to assist this person may have followed him
to that area tell tell me about this one that was less than a week I think before she died I said could I take your
picture cuz your great grandma really wants a picture of you and your drill team out she goes
okay it was just too incredible to believe that it could even happen Sarah's parents Laura and Tom yarboro I
mean who thinks that your daughter's going to be murdered Tom and Laura had the excruciating task of having to tell
their two son Sons the tragic news Sarah's youngest brother Andrew was just 11 years old at the time at that age you
probably never seen or heard your parents cry much but that that pain in the voice is very very Vivid Sarah who
had just started her junior year in high school had big plans for her future starting with college she didn't want to
go to a state school she wanted to go to a school far away she loved to travel I
actually would hear her say I can't decide if I want to be a museum curator or an engineer like my father yep and I
was always rooting for the museum curator Liberty Barnes Christy gutieres Amy pero and Mary Beth Tomy were some of
Sarah's closest friends so this was after the last day of 10th grade and we're just kind of goofing around
afterwards and that totally I mean you can see there's Sarah right in the middle of it being
goofy the fiery red hair was that her Personality yeah she was artistic she was creative she was smart she was
feisty imaginative all of those things she would be the last one to wait for someone always be there with a
smile she would help with [Music] homework it was her ultimate kindness after Sarah was ripped from
their lives they say their sense of safety was gone forever you grow up getting all the safety
conversations with your parents and bad things can happen and it's all this sort
of like vague possibility out there and then all of a sudden it was like no no no no no it can really happen it really
did just happen it was all hands on deck the Sheriff's Office put everything they had
into solving this case as as soon as they could and the killer Left Behind important
evidence Sarah had not been raped but the Killer's DNA was found on pieces of her
clothing there was seen found on her underwear and on her jacket we had a full male DNA
profile DNA technology was new back in 1991 but investigators hop that DNA would someday lead them to Sarah's
killer in the meantime they had eyewitnesses I thought for sure somebody would know him Drew and his friend who
was with him the morning they found Sarah's body worked with police and a sketch of the man they saw in the bushes
was released to the public police would later release a more elaborate sketch I very vividly remember going through
yearbooks going okay who looks like the sketch everyone it felt like at one point was was a suspect but as days went
by and as leads dried up police kept coming back to Drew and his friend they just made me feel like I was the only
person that could help them solve this I know that wasn't the intent like you know the officers are just doing
their best how much pressure were you feeling it's unimaginable pressure and despite everyone's best
efforts it would take years to find Sarah's killer this case was never forgotten
[Music] in early June of 1993 one and a half years after Sarah yarbro's murder local media were there
as students gathered in the courtyard of Federal Way High School to honor her bill Fuller a family friend who helped
spearhead the move for a memorial to remember Sarah unveiled it with help from Sarah's younger brother Andrew it
was quite a day a lot of Tears as they looked at it and could could see Sarah in that
bench Bill Fuller has known the Y Bros for years and his daughter was in Sarah's class Sarah was fun to be around
that was probably what we missed the most is she was fun to be around the bench reads carpedm sees the
day a mantra Sarah lived by encased in bronze are some of her favorite possessions ballet shoes a replica of
Sarah's beloved dog Gibby and books nice that people cared about for so much Andrew yarro now an adult admits that he
struggled as a young teenager it was especially difficult to see those sketches around town of the man police
believed murdered his sister yeah there was drawings of the person's face all over in businesses in town you know I do
recall that quite a bit just having that kind of a constant reminder looking back
I feel like we didn't do a very good job with the boys I think that we were so consumed by our own grief that we didn't
take time to help them I think we didn't really know how to help them I mean it wasn't something we had experience with
we didn't know anything about grieving ourselves or how to help them through it and they weren't alone in their
grief Shannon Grant the last friend to see Sarah alive says she lived with constant regret I wish we could go back
and do it all over again that I would have asked the other D te members what time practice was you know maybe dropped
her off I mean there's a lot of the wh ifs the Milestones were especially painful there was Survivor guilt like
why am I filling out my college applications when Sarah wanted to go to college y this isn't fair every joyful
occasion had this yes sorrow that went with it that was there's one missing from the crowd
[Music] here graduation day June 12th 1993 was an emotional day but even more so since
it fell on what would have been Sarah's 18th birthday laori y bro came to support her daughter's friends I do not
know where she found the strength to do that she loved that green dress right yeah she wore green quite a bit with her
hair Lori yarro says Sarah's friends helped ease her grief somewhat and she thinks she filled the void for them as
well sometimes they would say well I'm going to date this person and I just wanted to let you know because I wasn't
sure if Sarah would approve of this person so they would seek approval through you you became sort of their
surrogate yes as life slowly moved forward investigators kept working the case I describe it as like a relay race
where the Baton was handed off from one detective to the next over the years and
decades I kind of refer to myself as the fifth beetle in this investigation by the early 2000s investigators had
received over 3,000 leads and advances in technology made them hopeful they entered the DNA from the crime scene
into the recently established Koda system a national DNA database that includes profiles of convicted offenders
the strategy was to continually try to see if there would ever be a match while also investigating leads but over time
there appeared to be no match for us to have DNA evidence from the suspect but not have that linked to anybody it just
didn't make sense it it seemed hard to believe that this suspect hadn't committed any other prior
crimes where his DNA wouldn't be in the system that's when he says detectives realize they had to go in a different
direction my name is Colleen Fitzpatrick and I'm one of the pioneers of forensic
genetic genealogy in 2011 investigators reached out to Fitzpatrick to inquire about
about using forensic genetic genealogy the practice of using software to compare unknown DNA profiles to
information from public DNA databases and searching family trees to identify suspects genetic genealogy is well known
now and has been used to solve numerous cold cases but at that time it was in its infancy when I started in this field
it didn't exist Fitzpatrick says most police agencies had been skeptical of this new investigative tool the police
thought I was crazy you know this little old lady with a crazy idea and I was actually almost laughed out the room but
the King County Sheriff's Office took a chance on Fitzpatrick it was for free I just wanted to see if it worked what are
you going to lose if you try something the AR Bros were encouraged I think it wasn't until we
met Colleen Fitzpatrick that I really began to think you know they're going to find this person
and it didn't take long before Fitzpatrick came up with the name of a possible suspect that surprised just
about everyone everyone went no way from the beginning it was very promising and the story took some really
bizarre twists in 2011 20 years after Sarah's murder when forensic genetic genealogist
Colleen Fitzpatrick started working the yarboro case she traced Sarah's Killer's
family tree back to a man named Robert Fuller whose family had come to America on the Mayflower I found numerous
matches to the name Fuller when Fitzpatrick gave the name Fuller to the King County Sheriff's
Office they immediately knew of one person with that last name Bill Fuller the Yo's close family friend who helped
get that Memorial bench built for Sarah naturally that PE our interest from the beginning Sarah's
family and friends believe Bill Fuller had nothing to do with Sarah's murder he didn't look at all like the aspect the
wrong hair color he's short he's not tall he just didn't fit the profile at all Fuller's age didn't match the
profile either he's 79 years old now but was 48 years old at the time of Sarah's
murder at least two decades older than the man Drew Miller described there was no way that I could be even remotely
connected to the case he fully cooperated with police and volunt arily gave them a DNA sample it
didn't match the DNA found at Sarah's crime scene yet Fitzpatrick remained optimistic the good news is that we came
up with a possible last name to investigate and this was the first break in the case in 20
years Fitzpatrick knew that Sarah's killer was in the Fuller family tree somewhere so she and her team went back
to work and as the years went by she knew she was only getting closer especially after 2018 when forensic
genetic genealogy was used to identify the Golden State killer Golden State Killer really started the big revolution
things had evolved that we had the data to work with the technology was in place
that we could go for it then in September of 2019 Fitzpatrick's team made a breakthrough
they came up with two new possible suspects Brothers Edward and Patrick Nicholas who as the DNA showed were
distant cousins of Bill Fuller you know this is eight years of on and off and looking at it never giving up this is it
this is exciting Edward Nicholas was a registered sex offender his DNA was in the system it was in
cotus but Edward's DNA wasn't a match so they zeroed in on his brother Patrick who in 2019 was a divorced loner who
lived a couple of towns away from Federal Way we learned that he was working at a at a auto part store lived
alone uh no children no friends or acquaintances that would even visit him everything that he did was mostly by
bus he wasn't driving detective re says he discovered that when Sarah was murdered the bus
route Nicholas often took happened to go past Federal Way High School back then Nicholas was just 27
years old and around that time looked very much like the description of the sketch it looked promising at that point
but we still needed to get a DNA sample from him to match up to the DNA evidence
that we had so in late September 2019 investigators came up with a plan we assigned a team of undercover
detectives to start doing surveillance on Patrick Nicholas in the hopes of obtaining a surreptitious DNA sample
eventually undercover detectives followed Nicholas to a laundromat they saw him go outside and smoke a cigarette
and Patrick Nicholas was seen throwing the cigarette butt on the ground that was collected by our detectives that's
what you needed yes right there that cigarette butt Yes actually he dropped two cigarette butts and a napkin that
fell out of his pocket and all three items were collected the DNA samples were rushed to
the crime lab and with within days detectives received the call they had been waiting for the DNA match this was
our suspect perfect match yes Patrick Nicholas was arrested there were so many suspects over the years was Patrick Leon
Nicholas ever named as a suspect out of 4,000 tips he was never named and I was I was pretty in shock
the news was a release for Sarah's family and friends who had never given up hope that they would get answers one
thing the detectives kept telling us was eventually technolog is going to solve this case I trusted that and they turned
out that they were right and I remember going out to my car and balling just balling finally finally they got
him when Drew Miller who had seen killer back in 1991 saw Patrick Nicholas's face he says
he knew they had the right person what did he look like the same guy just older just the same evil eyes those evil eyes
that stayed the same all these years later yeah but it was not over yet what do you
think you're here I have no clue during his interrogation Church when detectives specifically asked him
about Sarah's murder he gave an alarming response what were meeting is is the death of a young girl name
s interestingly he asked what year this was and that really sent up a flag why why would you ask that he's being told
this is a murder case we wondering at this point are there other victims this is it I'm not saying after one and a
half hours n has asked for an attorney and stop talking but his criminal record would speak
volumes I am the one that got away on a quiet morning in June 1983 8 years before Sarah's murder
21-year-old Anne crony was sitting by her car along the Columbia River in Richland Washington when a man
approached her he seemed normal kind of friendly actually just friendly I had asked him if he'd
done any water skiing yet cuz he said he had just moved to town and he said he couldn't swim and he said my name is Pat
Nicholas after a few minutes of small talk she became UNC comfortable I noticed his voice was getting
shaky and I told him I had to go I went to close the door and he put a knife to my
throat everything kind of stopped at that moment he told me to take my clothes off
nicholis stuffed Ann's underwear into her mouth to prevent her from screaming forced her out of the car
and led her to the river bank we got about halfway down the bank and he told me to stop I ran and dove in the river
cuz I was thinking he couldn't swim swam as hard as I could swam for your life I
swam for My Life passers by found Ann at a dock nearby and called police as it turns out
19-year-old Patrick Nicholas was no stranger to law enforcement and had a record he had raped two women and
attempted to rape a third he'd been convicted of rape as a juvenile and had actually only just been
out for a few months when he attacked me days after an's attack he was tracked down arrested and pled guilty to
attempted rape he told authorities I realize that I have a problem concerning raping
girls at his sentencing hearing an spoke out I was actually very angry and asked
the judge for the maximum sentence and the judge did agree and sentenced him to 10 years so I thought it was over I
thought that Justice had been served but Patrick Nicholas did not serve the full 10 years in prison he was
released after just three and A2 years and was never notified she barely thought of him again until October
2019 the police knocked on my door and said that there were detectives in Seattle that wanted to talk to me about
a cold case they informed an that Patrick Nicholas had been arrested again this time for the murder of Sarah yarro
they told me that there was similarities in the cases and I was crushed it had never occurred to me that
what I escaped from was a murder what's more if Nicholas had served his full prison sentence he would have still
been behind bars that December morning in 1991 unable to murder Sarah yarbo how angry are you to hear that he was
released that early and very it brought up a lot of the old anger and even more anger because the system
failed King County Deputy Prosecuting attorneys Celia Lee and Mary Barbosa describe him as a serial predator with a
clear pattern all of the women were approached at or near their car he would strike up
conversation and then pull a knife and tell them that they needed to walk where he would order them to take off their
clothes and then rap them Nicholas had also been convicted of sexually assaulting a minor in
1994 3 years after Sarah's murder five sexual assaults that investigators knew of none of which had required him to
submit his DNA so there was no record of him in the codus database but in pre-trial hearings the judge ruled that
Nicholas's criminal history could not be entered in as evidence she found that it
would be unfairly prejudicial to the defendant but the prosecutors were hopeful their case was strong
enough for the jury in early 2023 more than 30 years after Sarah yar's murder her accused killer now 59 years old went
on trial Sarah's childhood friends were there I so clearly remember the morning before the trial started just going I
don't know if I can do this like you know I had so many different emotions flowing through and it was like no we
need to be there there was this absolute love for Sarah and the Y Bros that was so strong did you feel like there were a
Lifeline for you yeah be seated you weren't in it alone you were all in it together as the trial got underway the
focus was on the DNA what was your strategy then in trying this case well we needed them to trust the science
there was a field that was emerging called forensic genetic genealogy Patrick Nicholas's public defender David
Montes challenged how forensic genetic genealogy was used to First identify Nicholas I want to dig into the science
because the first time that kind of Defense had been used in Washington state they use technology that is not
only unen but just whack really he's not person that killed the police needed an answer more
than they need the right answer and so they turn to new Nova untested technology genetic genealogy is
a new field it really hasn't been tested out should we be making important decisions based on something that is not
well or deeply understood but the prosecutors said that argument was moot because Patrick Nicholas's DNA matched
the DNA found at the yarro crime scene and detective free says the numbers were astronomical the odds were one in 120
quadrillion that quadrillion yeah right that it was somebody else if the numbers pointed to
Nicholas's guilt law enforcement says so did evidence found at his house near the
time of his arrest in 2019 it was almost like a lirer there was no working electricity at this house
stacks of pornography all throughout the the place we also found a newspaper from
1994 that had on his front page an article about the Seri Aras and going through one of the kitchen drawers we
found a torn photograph taken from a magazine a woman in a cheerleading outfit when the
prosecutors showed that photo in the courtroom the oxygen left the room yeah Montes downplayed their significance I
think both of those pieces of evidence were not especially strange given the General State of his house there were
Stacks and stacks of newspapers all over his house this is evidence tape Patrick
Nicholas didn't Flinch as the evidence was shown showing no emotion throughout the trial but Sarah yarbro's presence
was felt especially when now retired Captain Scott strathy carefully unpackaged and displayed Sarah's
clothing that had been in storage for over 30 years her drill team jacket shoes sweater even her nylon stockings
this was like a opening a a time capsule all of a sudden they were real things they weren't even photographs they were
the things she had on her body when she died you just you S Felt yourself crumble after nine long days of
testimony the case went to the jury all with the jury it took them just over a day to reach a verdict I was shaking and
like just that like there was so much adrenaline and so much anticipation we the jury finally defend it Patrick Leon
n everything just dropped and it's like what [Music] why do you think it took law enforcement
so long to identify Patrick Nicholas as a suspect take a look at a timeline of the case at 48
hours.com this is the state of Washington versus Patrick Leon Nicholas Sarah yarbro's loved ones had waited
over 30 years for this moment we the jury find the defendant pck not guilty of the crime of murder in the first
degree premeditated Patrick Nicholas was found not guilty of the first charge premeditated first-degree murder I
remember dropping my head to my hands I was angry I was in disbelief when that first one came in not guilty I closed my
eyes but there were other charges and there was still hope of a conviction guilty of the crime of Murder in the
First Degree guilty in the second degree Patrick Nicholas was found guilty of first-degree murder and second degree
murder the jury ruled both had been committed with a sexual motivation I remember hearing the family behind me
cry and I made eye contact with the jurors and noded at them you know they got it they got it right I feel so
grateful for those detectives for the boys for the previous victims for every witness who took the stand so grateful
that all these people came together two weeks after Nicholas's conviction dozens of people who had been
involved in every part of Sarah's case gathered back at the courthouse for his sentencing hearing prosecutors asked the
judge to impose extra time to take into account all of Nicholas's crimes the sentencing hearing was exhilarating in a
way that I never expected it was probably the most raw human courage I have ever seen in my
life Sarah's death left our family broken and we've never been the same the pain in my father's
voice over the phone telling me Sarah was dead person after person took to the podium to say all that Patrick Nicholas
had taken from them coming face to face with pure evil that day has de deeply impacted my entire life he took her life
and what was sure to be a brilliant future from her in taking Sarah he took the innocence of every one of us to face
Patrick Nicholas and to say what they had been wanting to say to his face for 30 years Patrick Nicholas is pure
evil there was so much power in the room it was electric and then an crony who wasn't allowed to testify at Sarah's TR
started speaking he just did like a double take and shuddered when an stood up like he saw a ghost yes I'm sure he
didn't expect to ever see my face or hear my name ever again we rely on a system of justice that is designed to
protect us from predators like Nicholas and this system failed me it failed Sarah her family friends and countless
others I asked the court to please not make the same mistake after everyone spoke J Josephine wigs addressed the
court when I think about this poor child this poor child what she experienced fighting for her life judge
wigs put her fist on the thing and said this was a child she kept saying that and all I could think was oh my gosh
that's right we were children y Nicholas received a sentence of almost 46 years for Sarah's family and friends
the sentence brought mixed emotions I don't know that this is Justice it is a verdict and it is putting someone away
for something that they did but he got 30 years that she didn't get it makes me mad that he was free for so many years
and who knows however many other people were hurt during that time I I don't know that we'll ever know
and that could have been avoided forensic genetic genealogy helped solve Sarah's case but prosecutors say similar
technology could have identified Patrick Nicholas years earlier if only familial
DNA searches were allowed in Washington state in a familial DNA search an unknown DNA sample is compared against
profiles already in codus to search for possible family members remember Patrick
Nicholas brother's DNA had been in codus for years the legislation just doesn't exist in the state to allow that search
California uses it the UK as I understand New York New York Wisconsin Minnesota Colorado Florida do you think
it's time to get that law changed we do we do the Y burough agree and hope that Sarah's case can make a difference I
would like to know that other parents don't have to wait 30 years what do you hope her Legacy is I
think her Legacy is she was always someone who brought people together she's brought all the people together
that attended the trial that's the kind of person she was for Drew Miller who at
13 found Sarah's body the connections made at trial finally brought him some peace knowing he's in prison is
fantastic but knowing her family and friends is way more important to me cuz that's what's given me the actual
healing that I needed this is probably the beginning of our junior year Sarah's friends will always remain bonded by the
past and Sarah's stolen future Not only was she beautiful her soul was beautiful
and the grace and the beauty that she carried and left with all of us we won't forget her we will never forget her
[Music] after the murall murders a new lead heats up this cold case the mysterious
unsolved death of Steven Smith do you believe Steven was murdered I do investigating another tragedy in murdog
country what really happened to Steven Smith 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus

A high school student on her way to drill team practice is found murdered on campus. What it took to close the case after 30 years. "48 Hours" contributor Natalie Morales reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

The murder of Sarah Yarbro in 1991 was solved in 2023 when Patrick Nicholas was convicted through DNA evidence.

Key points

The Tragic Case of Sarah Yarbro. A 16-year-old girl with a bright future is found murdered, shocking her community.
The Discovery of Sarah's Body. Sarah's body is found just yards from her car, raising questions about her last moments.
A Mother's Grief. Sarah's parents face the unimaginable task of telling their sons about her murder.
DNA Breakthrough in Cold Case. Forensic genetic genealogy leads to a breakthrough in identifying Sarah's killer.
The Arrest of Patrick Nicholas. After years of investigation, Patrick Nicholas is arrested as Sarah's killer.
The Attack on Anne. Anne's encounter with Patrick Nicholas escalates into a life-threatening situation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Not Sarah, not Sarah, not Sarah.

A mother's emotional reaction to the news of her daughter's death.

2:45WatchNov 24, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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