The Hunt for Sarah Yarborough’s Killer | Full Episode

[Music] [Music] 16-year-old Sarah yar 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 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 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 gon to catch him and then when they didn't and they didn't your expectations change 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 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 [Music] 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 uh traumatic thing to go through it's been over 30 years but the details of that day have never faded for Drew Miller I my friend spent the night at my house we woke up that morning watch cartoons ate cial 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 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 look 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 strathy 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 curler 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 about 300 feet 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 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 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 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 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 perod 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 up 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 her 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 you know there was drawings of the person's face all over in businesses in town you know I doall 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 Dr 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 what 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 Laura yarro 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 cuz I wasn't sure if Sarah would approve of this person so they would seek approval through you you became sort of their Sur again 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 link 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 geneology in 2011 investigators reached out to Fitzpatrick to inquire 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 tical 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 twist in 2011 20 years after Sarah's murder when forensic genetic genealogist Colleen Fitz Patrick 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 Peak 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 suspect 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 voluntarily 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 the DNA showed were distant cousins of Bill Fuller you know this is 8 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 cottis 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 way 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 fre 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 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 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 I was I was pretty in shock the news was a relief 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 Sarah's 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 stayed the same all these years later yeah but it was not over yet what do you think you're there I have no clue during his interrogation church when detectives specifically asked him about Sarah's murder he gave an alarming response what we're investigating is is the death of a young girl name 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're wondering at this point are there other victims this is it I'm not going to say after 1 and a half hours hours Nicholas asked for an attorney and stopped 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 an 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 uncomfortable 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 Nicholas stuffed an's underwear into her mouth to prevent her from screaming forced her out of the car and led her to the riverbank 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 a half years and was never notified she barely thought of him again until October 2019 the police knocked 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 Yaro 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 rape 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 all rise for the jury in early 2023 more than 30 years after Sarah yarber 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 yros 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 of Defense had been used in Washington state they technology that not only improving but just whack really he's not the person that kill the police needed an answer more than 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 and 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 found at his house near the time of his arrest in 2019 it was almost like a lair 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 Ser AR bres 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 stry 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 sort felt yourself crumble after nine long days of testimony the case went to the jury all for 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 find the defendant Patrick Leon nich everything just dropped and it's like what 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 Patrick shock 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 deegree murder and second deegree 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 nodded 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 that day has 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 trial 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 judge 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 the 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's 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 York New York Wisconsin New York 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 it 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 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 at [Music] her 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 St Smith 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus

Channel: 48 Hours

Views: 1,817,247

Keywords: 48 hours, cbs news, Sarah Yarborough, Patrick Nicholas, DNA, teen murder, Federal Way, forensic genetic geneaology

Id: efkHaltrakk

Length: 42min 2sec (2522 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023