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[Music] [Music] [Music] 16-year-old Sarah y always being remembered as talented creative and kind
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Sarah was an a student at the high school whenever you saw Sarah she always had a
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smile this case is about a 16-year-old girl who had the right to grow up this case is about Sarah and
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everything that she should have been allowed to become was Friday the 13th in December
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of 1991 her parents were out of town for her brother's soccer game she stayed home I was reluctant to leave Sarah she
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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
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that [Music] weekend we went to a basketball game went and got junk food at the grocery
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store a little bit of fast food you we're 16 we were Carefree there was absolutely nothing that would make any
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of us think that the next morning everything would change so Saturday morning Sarah woke up
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kind of in a panic she woke up and said I'm late for practice she put on her drill team
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uniform and ran out the door she went to the school and discovered that she was early
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so she parked in her car and waited for the rest of her team to show up shortly after the phone call started
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where Sarah do you know where she is Sarah was found within an hour where was her body discovered so
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her car was still in the parking lot her body was approximately 100 yards away still on the school property part of her
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clothing was removed she had nylon stockings tied in a leature around her her neck I just remember just saying not
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Sarah not Sarah not Sarah over and over again the suspect is a white male 6 feet
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tall with a medium build they had GNA evidence they had everything they had Witnesses in that first week or so it
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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
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then when they didn't and they didn't your expectations change you don't know if it's your next
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door neighbor you don't know if it's some random stranger there was that constant
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fear of is this going to happen again we literally had a monster in the community and we just we didn't know who
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it was is [Music] [Music] how often do you think about December 14th 1991 and what happened on that
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day quite a bit it's a very uh traumatic thing to go through it's been over 30 years but the
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details of that day have never faded for Drew Miller I my friend spent the night
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at my house we woke up that morning watch cartoons ate cereal left to go skateboarding Drew who was just 13 at
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the time lived down the street from federalway high school near Seattle Washington the school grounds have
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changed quite a bit right drastically yes the tennis Court's the only thing that's still here Drew often took
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shortcuts through the school to go skateboarding as he and his friend did that day we used to hop the fence right
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here and cut through here it was freezing cold that day I mean there was ice in all of the mud
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puddles we just you know started smashing them cuz it's fun you know it sounds like breaking
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glass that's when Drew says they noticed a man in the bushes right where you see the edge of
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this Dugout right here that was all bushes that were probably this tall so we couldn't see him until he stood
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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
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we just assumed he's just smoking weed or something the mysterious man kept to himself and walked ahead of the boys
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Drew says they didn't think much of it until they came across a horrendous scene
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there in the bushes where the man had just been was the body of a young woman it was horrible absolutely
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horrible the way that he left her body she clearly fought for her life Drew says his shock turned to fear
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when he realized the man who was still just feet in front of them was now staring directly back at him the that
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look still haunt you oh yeah yeah it's frozen in my mind the boogeyman then legitimate Boogeyman the boys raced to
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Drew's house and police were called to the scene when we approached the victim on
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one of the pieces of clothing we saw the name Sarah detective Scott strathy with
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the King County Sheriff's Office was one of the first officers on the scene and of course later we found out that that
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was Sarah [Music] yarboro even for experienced investigators this scene was really hard
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to deal with just the innocent nature of this young woman in her school drill team
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uniform with her hot curler still in her hair this was just pure unadulterated [Music]
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evil investigators believed this was a sexually motivated Murder She was partially clothed her jacket her
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undergarments her bra had been removed and placed next to her body police discovered that the car Sarah had driven
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that morning was parked in the school parking lot about 300 feet from where her body was found there didn't really
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appear to be any sort of a struggle in the car itself detective John free with the King County Sheriff's Office Major
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Crimes unit would later join the investigation she had a container of orange juice that she had made that
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morning it was just sitting in the front seat nothing was tipped over so the question was how did she get from her
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car to this hill what led her there Sarah was one of these people people that would help anyone with anything at
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any time and part of our working theory was was she coaxed into following you know the
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suspect did he say something like I'm looking for my lost dog or I can't find my car
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keys perhaps Sarah in an attempt to assist this person may have followed him to that
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area tell me about this one that was less than a week I think before she died I said could I take your
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picture cuz your great grandma really wants a picture of you and your drill team out she goes
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okay it was just too incredible to believe that it could even happen Sarah's parents Laura and Tom yarboro I
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mean who thinks that your daughter's going to be murdered Tom and Laura had the excruciating task of having to tell
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their two Sons the tragic news Sarah's youngest brother Andrew was just 11 years old at the time at that age you
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probably never seen or heard your parents cry much but that that pain in the voice is very very Vivid Sarah who
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had just started her junior year in high school had big plans for her future starting with college she didn't want to
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go to a state school she wanted to go to a school far away she loved to travel I
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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
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was always rooting for the museum curator Liberty Barnes Christy Gutierrez Amy pero and Mary Beth Tomy were some of
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Sarah's closest friends so this was after the last day of 10th grade and we're just kind of goofing around
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afterward and that totally I mean you can see there's Sarah right in the middle of it being
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[Music] goofy the fiery red hair was that her personality yeah she was artistic she
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was creative she was smart she was feisty imaginative all of those things she would be the last one to wait for
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someone always be there with a smile she would help with homework it was her ultimate
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kindness after Sarah was ripped from their lives they say their sense of safety was gone forever
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you grow up getting all the safety conversations with your parents and bad things can happen and it's all this sort
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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
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did just happen it was all hands on deck the Sheriff's Office put everything they had
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into solving this case as as soon as they could and the killer Left Behind important
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evidence Sarah had not been raped but the Killer's DNA was found on pieces of her
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clothing there was seen found on her underwear and on her jacket we had a full male DNA
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profile DNA technology was new back in 1991 but investigators hop that DNA would someday lead them to Sarah's
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killer in the meantime they had eyewitnesses I thought for sure somebody would know
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him Drew and his friend who was with him the morning they found Sarah's body worked with police and a sketch of the
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man they saw in the bushes was released to the public police would later release
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a more elaborate sketch I very vividly remember going through yearbooks going okay who looks like the sketch everyone
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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
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and his friend they just made me feel like I was the only person that could help them solve
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this I know that wasn't the intent like you know the officers are just doing their best how much pressure were you
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feeling it's unimaginable pressure and despite everyone's best efforts it would take years to find
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Sarah's killer this case was never forgotten [Music] [Music] in early June of 1993 one and a half years after Sarah
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yarbro's murder local media were there as students gathered in the courtyard of Federal Way High School to honor her
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bill Fuller a family friend friend who helped spearhead the move for a memorial to remember Sarah unveiled it with help
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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
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in that bench Bill Fuller has known the yros for years and his daughter was in Sarah's
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class Sarah was fun to be around that was probably what we missed the most is she was fun to be
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around the bench reads carpedm sees the day a mantra Sarah lived by encased in bronze are some of her favorite
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possessions ballet shoes a replica of Sarah's beloved dog Gibby and books nice that people cared about her so much
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Andrew Yaro now an adult admits that he struggled as a young teenager it was especially difficult to see those
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sketches around town of the man police believed murdered his sister you know there
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drawings of the person's face all over in businesses in town you know I do recall that quite a bit just having that
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kind of a constant reminder looking back I feel like we didn't do a very good job
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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
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really know how to help them I mean it wasn't something we had experience with we didn't know anything about grieving
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ourselves or how to help them through it and they weren't alone in their grief Shannon Grant the last friend to
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see Sarah alive say she lived with constant regret I wish we could go back and do it all over again that I would
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have asked the other AD do you members what time practice was you know maybe dropped her off I mean there's a lot of
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the wh ifs the Milestones were especially painful there was Survivor guilt like why am I filling out my college
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applications when Sarah wanted to go to college this isn't fair every joyful occasion had this yes sorrow that went
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with it that was there's one missing from the crowd here graduation day June 12th 1993 was
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an emotional day but even more so since it fell on what would have been Sarah's 18th birthday Lori Yarbro came to
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support her daughter's friends I do not know where she found the strength to do that she loved that green dress right
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yeah she wore green quite a bit with her hair Lori yarro says Sarah's friends helped ease her grief somewhat and she
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thinks she filled the void for them as well sometimes they would say well I'm going to date this person and I just
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wanted to let you know cuz I wasn't sure if Sarah would approve of this person so they would seek approval
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through you you became sort of their surrogate yeah yes as life slowly moved forward
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investigators kept working the case I describe it as like a relay race where the Baton was handed off from one
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detective to the next over the years and decades I kind of refer to myself as the
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fifth beetle in this investigation by the early 2000s investigators had received over 3,000 leads and advances
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in technology made them hopeful they entered the DNA from the crime scene into the recently established Koda
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system a national DNA database that includes profiles of convicted offenders the strategy was to continually try to
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see if there would ever be a match while also investigating leads but over time there appeared to be no match for us to
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have DNA evidence from the suspect but not have that link to anybody it just didn't make sense
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it it seemed hard to believe that this suspect hadn't committed any other prior crimes where his DNA wouldn't be in the
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system that's when he says detectives realize they had to go in a different direction my name is Colleen Fitzpatrick
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and I'm one of the pioneers of forensic genetic genealogy in 2011 investigators reached
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out to Fitzpatrick to inquire about using using forensic genetic genealogy the practice of using software to
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compare unknown DNA profiles to information from public DNA databases and searching family trees to identify
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suspects genetic genealogy is well known now and has been used to solve numerous
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cold cases but at that time it was in its infancy when I started in this field it didn't exist Fitzpatrick says most
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police agencies had been skeptical of this new investigative tool the police thought I was crazy you know this little
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old lady with a crazy idea and I was actually almost laughed out the room but the King County Sheriff's Office took a
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chance on Fitzpatrick it was for free I just wanted to see if it worked what are
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you going to lose if you try something the AR Bros were encouraged I think it wasn't until we
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met Colleen Fitzpatrick that I really be to think you know they're going to find
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this person and it didn't take long before Fitzpatrick came up with the name of a
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possible suspect that surprised just about everyone everyone went no way from the beginning it was very
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promising and the story took some really bizarre twists in 2011 20 years after Sarah's
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murder when forensic genetic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick started working the
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yoro case she traced Sarah's Killer's family tree back to a man named Robert Fuller whose family had come to America
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on the Mayflower I found numerous matches to the name Fuller when Fitzpatrick gave the name Fuller to the
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King County Sheriff's Office they immediately knew of one person with that last name Bill Fuller the Yo's close
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family friend who helped get that Memorial bench built for Sarah naturally that peat our
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interest from the beginning Sarah's family and friends believe Bill Fuller had nothing to do with Sarah's murder he
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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
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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
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murder at least two decades older than the man Drew Miller described there was no way that I could be even remotely
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connected to the case he fully cooperated with police and voluntarily gave them a DNA sample it
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didn't match the DNA found at Sarah's crime scene yet Fitzpatrick remained optimistic the good news is that we came
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up with a possible last name to investigate and this was the first break in the case in 20
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years Fitzpatrick knew that Sarah's killer was in the Fuller family tree somewhere so she and her team went back
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to work and as the years went by she knew she was only getting closer especially after 2018 when forensic
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genetic genealogy was used to identify the Golden State killer Golden State Killer really started the big revolution
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things had evolved that we had the data to work with the technology was in place
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that we could go for it then in September of 2019 Fitzpatrick's team made a breakthrough
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they came up with two new possible suspects Brothers Edward and Patrick Nicholas who as the DNA showed were
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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
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this is exciting Edward Nicholas was a registered sex offender his DNA was in the system was in
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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
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lived a couple of towns away from Federal away we learned that he was working at a at a auto part store lived
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alone uh no children no friends or acquaintances that would even visit him everything that he did was mostly by
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bus he wasn't driving detective fre says he discovered that when Sarah was murdered the bus
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route Nicholas often took happened to go past Federal Way High School back then Nicholas was just 27
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years old and around that time looked very much like the description of the sketch it looked promising at that point
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but we still needed to get a DNA sample from him to match up to the DNA evidence
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that we had so in late September 2019 investigators came up with a plan we assigned a team of undercover
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detectives to start doing surveillance on Patrick Nicholas in the hopes of obtaining surreptitious DNA sample
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eventually undercover detectives followed Nicholas to a laundromat they saw him go outside and smoke a cigarette
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and Patrick Nicholas was seen throwing the cigarette but on the ground that was collected by our detectives that's what
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you needed yes there that cigarette butt Yes actually he dropped two cigarette butts and a napkin that fell out of his
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pocket and all three items were collected the DNA samples were rushed to the crime lab and within days detectives
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received the call they had been waiting for the DNA match this was our suspect perfect match yes Patrick Nicholas was
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arrested there were so many suspects over the years was Patrick Leon Nicholas ever named as a suspect out of 4,000
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tips he was never named I was I was pretty in shock the news was a relief for Sarah's family and
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friends who had never given up hope that they would get answers one thing the detectives kept telling us was
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eventually technology is going to solve this case I trusted that and they turned
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out that they were right and I remember going out to my car and balling just balling finally finally they got
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him when Drew Miller who had seen Sarah's killer back in 1991 saw Patrick Nicholas's face he says
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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
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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
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his interrogation in church for when detectives specifically asked him about Sarah's murder he gave an alarming
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response what we investigating is is the death of a young girl her name s interestingly he asked what year this
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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
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this point are there other victims this is it I'm not going to say anything after one and a half hours Nicholas
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asked for an attorney and stop talking but his criminal record would speak volumes I am the one that got
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away on a quiet morning in June 1983 8 years before Sarah's murder 21-year-old an crony was sitting by her
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car along the Columbia River in Richland Washington when a man approached her he
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seemed normal kind of friendly actually just friendly I had asked him if he' done any water skiing yet cuz he said he
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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
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talk she became uncomfortable I noticed his voice was getting shaky and I told him I had to
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go I went to close the door and he put a knife to my throat everything kind of stopped at
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that moment he told me to take my clothes off Nicholas stuffed Ann's underwear into
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her mouth to prevent her from screaming forced her out of the car and led her to
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the river bank we got about halfway down the bank and he told me to stop I ran and dove in the river because I was
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thinking he couldn't swim swam as hard as I could swam for your life I swam for My
00:27:42
Life passers by found an at a dock nearby and called police as it turns out 19-year-old Patrick Nicholas was no
00:27:50
stranger to law enforcement and had a record he had raped two women and attempted to rape a third he'd been
00:27:59
convicted of rape as a juvenile and had actually only just been out for a few months when he attacked
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me days after an's attack he was tracked down arrested and pled guilty to attempted rape he told authorities I
00:28:17
realize that I have a problem concerning raping girls at his sentencing hearing an spoke
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out I was actually very angry and and asked the judge for the maximum sentence and the judge did agree and sentenced
00:28:34
him to 10 years so I thought it was over I thought that Justice had been served but Patrick Nicholas did not
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serve the full 10 years in prison he was released after just 3 and A2 years and was never notified she barely thought of
00:28:53
him again until October 2019 the police knocked on my door and said that there were detectives in
00:29:01
Seattle that wanted to talk to me about a cold case they informed an that Patrick Nicholas had been arrested again
00:29:08
this time for the murder of Sarah Yarbro they told me that there was similarities
00:29:13
in the cases and I was crushed it had never occurred to me that what I escaped from was a murder
00:29:28
what's more if Nicholas had served his full prison sentence he would have still been behind bars that December morning
00:29:35
in 1991 unable to murder Sarah Yaro how angry are you to hear that he was released that early and very it brought
00:29:45
up a lot of the old anger and even more anger because the system failed King County Deputy Prosecuting
00:29:52
attorneys Celia Lee and Mary Barbosa describe him as a serial Predator with a clear pattern all of the women were
00:30:00
approached at or near their car he would strike up conversation and then pull a knife and
00:30:07
tell them that they needed to walk where he would order them to take off their clothes and then rape them Nicholas had
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also been convicted of sexually assaulting a minor in 1994 3 years after Sarah's murder five
00:30:23
sexual assaults that investigators knew of none of which had required him to submit his DNA so there was no record of
00:30:31
him in the codus database but in pre-trial hearings the judge ruled that Nicholas's criminal history could not be
00:30:39
entered in as evidence she found that it would be unfairly prejudicial to the defendant but the prosecutors were
00:30:47
hopeful their case was strong enough I'll watch for the jury in early 2023 more than 30 years after Sarah
00:30:56
yar's murder her accused killer now 59 years old went on trial Sarah's childhood friends were there I so
00:31:05
clearly remember the morning before the trial started just going I don't know if
00:31:09
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
00:31:16
there was this absolute love for Sarah and the Y Bros that was so strong did you feel like they were a Lifeline for
00:31:25
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
00:31:33
DNA what was your strategy then in trying this case well we needed them to trust the science there was a field that
00:31:41
was emerging called forensic genetic genealogy Patrick Nicholas's public defender David Montes challenged how
00:31:48
forensic genetic genealogy was used to First identify Nicholas I want to dig into the science because the first time
00:31:56
that kind of Defense had been used in Washington state they use technology that is not only unen but just whack
00:32:04
really he's not the person the kill the police needed an answer more than answer and so they turn to new nov
00:32:16
untested technology genetic genealogy is a new field it really hasn't been tested
00:32:21
out should we be making important decisions based on something that is not well or deeply understood but the
00:32:29
prosecutors said that argument was moot because Patrick Nicholas's DNA matched the DNA found at the yarro crime scene
00:32:37
and detective free says the numbers were astronomical the odds were one in 120 quadrillion that quadrillion yeah right
00:32:47
that it was somebody else if the numbers pointed to Nicholas's guilt law enforcement says so
00:32:55
did evidence found at his house near the time of his arrest in 2019 it was almost like a lair there was
00:33:03
no working electricity at this house stacks of pornography all throughout the the place we also found a newspaper from
00:33:11
1994 that had on his front page an article about the Ser Ares and going through one of the kitchen drawers we
00:33:18
found a torn photograph taken from a magazine a woman in a cheerleading outfit when the
00:33:28
prosecutors showed that photo in the courtroom the oxygen left the room yeah Mont has downplayed their significance I
00:33:38
think both of those pieces of evidence were not especially strange given the General State of his house there were
00:33:44
Stacks and stacks of newspapers all over his house this is evidence tape Patrick
00:33:51
Nicholas didn't Flinch as the evidence was shown showing no emotion throughout the trial but Sarah yarbro's presence
00:33:59
was felt especially when now retired Captain Scott stray carefully unpackaged and displayed Sarah's clothing that had
00:34:07
been in storage for over 30 years her drill team jacket shoes sweater even her nylon stockings this was like a opening
00:34:19
a a time capsule all of a sudden they were real things they weren't even photographs they were the things she had
00:34:27
on her body body when she died you just you S Felt yourself crumble after nine long days of
00:34:36
testimony the case went to the jury oh I for the jury it took them just over a day to reach a verdict I was shaking and
00:34:45
like just that like there was so much adrenaline and so much anticipation we the jury find the defendant Patrick Leon
00:34:53
everything just dropped and it's like what [Music] why do you think it took law enforcement
00:35:00
so long to identify Patrick Nicholas as a suspect take a look at a timeline of the case at 48
00:35:12
hours.com this is the state of Washington versus Patrick Leon Nicholas Sarah yarbro's loved ones had waited
00:35:19
over 30 years for this moment we the jury find the defendant Patrick not guilty of the crime of Murder in the
00:35:27
First degree premeditated Patrick Nicholas was found not guilty of the first charge
00:35:34
premeditated first-degree murder I remember dropping my head to my hands I was angry I was in disbelief when that
00:35:43
first one came in not guilty I closed my eyes but there were other charges and there was still hope of a conviction
00:35:51
guilty of the crime of Murder in the First Degree guilty in the second degree Patrick Nicholas was found guilty of
00:35:59
first-degree murder and second degree murder the jury ruled both had been committed with a sexual
00:36:05
motivation I remember hearing the family behind me cry and I made eye contact with the
00:36:12
jurors and nodded at them you know they got it they got it right I feel so grateful for those detectives for the
00:36:20
boys for the previous victims for every witness who took the stand so grateful that all these people came
00:36:29
together two weeks after Nicholas's conviction dozens of people had been involved in every part of Sarah's case
00:36:36
gathered back at the courthouse for his sentencing hearing prosecutors asked the
00:36:40
judge to impose extra time to take into account all of Nicholas's crimes the sentencing hearing was exhilarating in a
00:36:50
way that I never expected it was probably the most raw human courage I have ever seen in my
00:37:04
life Sarah's death left our family broken and we've never been the same the pain in my father's
00:37:13
voice over the phone telling me Sarah was dead person after person took to the podium to say all that Patrick Nicholas
00:37:21
had taken from them coming face to face with pure evil that day has deeply impacted Ed my entire life he took her
00:37:30
life and what was sure to be a brilliant future from her in taking Sarah he took the
00:37:36
innocence of every one of us to face Patrick Nicholas and to say what they had been wanting to say to his face for
00:37:44
30 years Patrick Nicholas is pure evil there was so much power in the room it was electric and then an crony who
00:37:54
wasn't allowed to testify at Sarah's trial started speaking he just did like a double take and shuddered when an
00:38:02
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
00:38:10
on a system of justice that is designed to protect us from predators like Nicholas and this system failed me it
00:38:18
failed Sarah her family friends and countless others I asked the court to please not make the same mistake after
00:38:25
everyone spoke judge Joseph wigs address the court and when I think about this poor
00:38:33
child this poor child and what she experienced fighting for her life judge wigs put her fist on the thing and said
00:38:46
this was a child she kept saying that and all I could think was oh my gosh that's right we were children
00:38:56
y Nicholas has received a sentence of almost 46 years for Sarah's family and friends the sentence brought mixed
00:39:04
emotions I don't know that this is Justice it is a verdict and it is putting someone away for something that
00:39:12
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
00:39:22
however many other people were hurt during that time I I don't know that we'll ever know and that could have been
00:39:29
avoided forensic genetic genealogy helped solve Sarah's case but prosecutors say similar technology could
00:39:36
have identified Patrick Nicholas years earlier if only familial DNA searches were allowed in Washington state in a
00:39:44
familial DNA search an unknown DNA sample is compared against profiles already in codus to search for possible
00:39:53
family members remember Patrick Nicholas's Brothers DNA had been in codus for years the legislation just
00:40:02
doesn't exist in the state to allow that search California uses it the UK as I understand York New York Wisconsin
00:40:11
Minnesota Colorado Florida do you think it's time to get that law changed we do we do the Y burus agree and hope that
00:40:20
Sarah's case can make a difference I would like to know that other parents don't have to wait 30 years
00:40:29
what do you hope her Legacy is I think her Legacy is she was always someone who brought people together she's brought
00:40:38
all the people together that attended the trial that's the kind of person she was for Drew Miller who at 13 found
00:40:46
Sarah's body the connections made at trial finally brought him some peace knowing he's in prison is fantastic but
00:40:55
knowing her family and friends is way more important to me because that's what's given me the actual healing that
00:41:04
I needed this is probably beginning of our junior year Sarah's friends will always remain bonded by the past and
00:41:12
Sarah's stolen future Not only was she beautiful her soul was beautiful and the grace and the beauty that she carried
00:41:21
and left with all of us we won't forget her we will never forget her [Music] new CBS next he's not breathing a
00:41:43
surgeon's girlfriend found dead provided those drugs was this a case of a controlling doctor's depravity this was
00:41:50
not just some simple accident this was much more a new 48 Hours next on CBS in streaming on Paramount
00:42:01
[Music] plus welcome back to another episode of postmortem I'm your host an marie green
00:42:23
and today we're answering your biggest questions from our latest episode the hunt for Sarah Yarborough's killer
00:42:30
joining me are 48 Hours correspondent Natalie Morales and producers Chris Young Ritson and Lauren Clark who
00:42:37
reported and produced this episode welcome thank you anarie hi amarie hi thank you for having us so you know one
00:42:45
of the reasons why this story kind of really hits you is because you almost feel like you knew Sarah in high school
00:42:53
she's the kid that you wanted to be friends with she has everything going for she's an incredible young woman
00:42:58
everyone agrees big plans for the future and then it is ripped away from her so before we dive into postmortem I just
00:43:06
want to play a little bit of an overview from this week's episode we used to hop the fence right
00:43:12
here and cut through here on December 14th 1991 13-year-old Drew Miller and his friend were walking
00:43:21
through Federal Way High School outside Seattle Washington when they noticed a man in the bushes he's just staring at
00:43:29
us from the bushes that was pretty jarring the mysterious man walked away but he left behind a horrific
00:43:38
scene there in the bushes where the man had just been the boys discovered the body of a young woman 16-year-old Sarah
00:43:47
yarboro it was absolutely horrible Drew says his shock turned to fear when he realized the man who was now just feet
00:43:55
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
00:44:02
the boogeyman then legitimate Boogeyman the boys raced home and police were called detective Scott strathy with the
00:44:10
King County Sheriff's Office was one of the first on the scene even for experienced
00:44:17
investigators this scene was really hard to deal with just the innocent nature of
00:44:25
this young woman in her school drill team uniform with her hot curlers still in her hair this was just pure
00:44:36
unadulterated evil Sarah had not been raped but the Killer's DNA was found on pieces of her clothing it sounded like
00:44:45
they had so much evidence Sarah's friend Amy pero had hoped that the killer would
00:44:51
quickly be found for at least a short while it felt like of course they're going to catch him and then when they
00:44:57
didn't and they didn't your expectations change Sarah's friend Shannon Grant you
00:45:03
don't know if it's your next door neighbor you don't know if it's some random stranger there was that constant
00:45:07
fear is this going to happen again you know Natalie Drew is an adult right as he's speaking to you and so you sort of
00:45:15
have to remember that he was a 13-year-old boy at the time and as he goes through the episode and describes
00:45:22
you know what he saw and how it changed his life one thing that I never really considered is that he felt incredible
00:45:30
pressure he felt because he had seen this guy he should be able to help them solve the case yeah I mean he was under
00:45:37
such tremendous pressure and he still feels that all these years later you know nearly 30 years later you do have
00:45:44
to remember he was 13 years old but yet he locked eyes with this guy he and his friend they got a clear look at him and
00:45:52
as he said that look would forever haunt him detectives worked with him over many
00:45:57
years to get what they thought was a really accurate sketch but yet at the time when you think what that picture
00:46:02
looked like as as Sarah's friend said when they look through their High School yearbook it could have been anyone from
00:46:09
those yearbook Pages because you know that's what everybody looked like back then they had the mullets that was the
00:46:15
style that was you know the hairstyle back then what was it like for Drew to testify a trial to lock eyes with this
00:46:22
man again it was it was a lot Drew had really been an Anonymous for many years cuz he was a minor at the time his name
00:46:30
wasn't publicly released he wasn't he kind of knew who the Yos were but he wasn't you know friends with them and he
00:46:36
felt kind of isolated so at the process of going into trial and knowing to have to testify and that had he'd have to be
00:46:43
there on the stand looking at Patrick Nicholas it was a lot but the community that developed at trial like so many of
00:46:51
Sarah's friends and family and neighbors just people waned to support the yoro family but they also ended up helping
00:46:57
Drew too for so many years he had this horrible image of Sarah in his mind he he saw her in death but then through
00:47:05
getting to know her family and her friends they filled in who she was in life and that has meant so much to him
00:47:11
um even at the sentencing hearing some of Sarah's friends gave him like a packet of photographs of Sarah and he
00:47:17
talks about that all the time that they the image of her in his mind has now changed and that's that's really part of
00:47:24
the healing that he needed for himself in his life when we did our interview with Drew we did it at federalway high
00:47:29
school and there in the courtyard of the high school is a memorial bench that's dedicated to Sarah and it was emotional
00:47:36
because Drew brought a flower and he put the flower on the bench and he sat there
00:47:43
and he had his head in his hands and it was a very emotional moment because you could just see him reflecting and you
00:47:49
could really see how this this all affected him so it didn't make the show but it was a very emotional moment it's
00:47:57
so interesting how these tragic moments create almost kind of a new family this one family is completely ripped apart by
00:48:05
the loss of their daughter and all these other people now even though the the connective tissue is tragic are now part
00:48:13
of her Legacy and part of that family so Nell what was your biggest takeaway from
00:48:18
this case for me it was you know there there was so much initially there were eyewitnesses there was DNA EV EV so why
00:48:29
why did it take investigators nearly 30 years to find Sarah's killer police did receive leads and tips but Patrick
00:48:39
Nicholas the man who ends up being the murderer was never named that's so interesting let's listen to a clip by
00:48:47
the early 2000s investigators had received over 3,000 leads and advances in technology made them hopeful they
00:48:55
entered the DNA from the crime scene into the recently established CODIS system a national DNA database that
00:49:02
includes profiles of convicted offenders the strategy was to continually try to see if there would ever be a match while
00:49:11
also investigating leads but over time there appeared to be no match for us to have DNA evidence from the suspect but
00:49:20
not have that link to anybody it just didn't make sense it it seemed hard to believe that
00:49:27
this suspect hadn't committed any other prior crimes where his DNA wouldn't be in the
00:49:33
system Patrick Nicholas had a criminal record and he had attempted to rape a woman as you saw in our story The
00:49:41
Survivor an crony who tells her incredible and harrowing story that happened back in 1983 and while it was
00:49:49
on his record and he served time for it his DNA was not entered into the codus database back then he also had another
00:50:00
uh charge first deegree molestation of a minor back in 1994 but he was able to plead that down so he ended up not
00:50:08
having to submit his DNA so that's why he got away for nearly 30 years and you know at the time of an's crime and her
00:50:16
attack in 1983 there was no cotus database that wasn't established until 1999 so you know it seems like an
00:50:23
outrage now but back then it just wasn't part of of the standard it was really frustrating learning that he had
00:50:31
attacked another woman another young woman um and crony I want to play a little bit of her sound I noticed his
00:50:39
voice was getting shaky and I told him I had to go I went to close the door and he put a
00:50:48
knife to my [Music] throat everything kind of stopped at that moment he told me to take my clothes off
00:51:01
Nicholas stuffed an's underwear into her mouth to prevent her from screaming forced her out of the car and led her to
00:51:08
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
00:51:16
he couldn't swim swam as hard as I could swam for your life I swam for my life it's incredible that an has a presence
00:51:24
of mind to know hey jump into the water I just had a conversation with this guy he says that he can't swim I'm throwing
00:51:30
myself in there it's really remarkable it's truly incredible in fact an is just one of the most courageous people I have
00:51:38
met and I've met a lot of survivors over the years of reporting on these kinds of
00:51:42
stories there was also a moment um that she revealed to us in our interview that
00:51:47
she wanted to to take back that part of her life and and in order to do that she
00:51:54
decided to do a triathlon over the summer diving right back into those very Waters that saved her life she swam this
00:52:03
time to accomplish an incredible goal completing a triathlon I think you hear a lot of survivors saying I wanted to to
00:52:11
get myself back my power back and in that moment she did just that I was so moved by the fact that this moment in
00:52:19
her life didn't Define her at all yeah um she could talk about it it's not like she was putting it a Bo in a black box
00:52:25
and not acknowledging it but she didn't let it be anything more than a speed bump in her life you know yeah Natalie
00:52:36
that's a great story after Nicholas was convicted for attempted rape of an crony
00:52:40
the judge sentenced him to 10 years the maximum sentence but then Nicholas is released early on parole just three and
00:52:48
a half years later did anyone even call an crony to let her know that he was out
00:52:53
or or was that not the protocol nope Amry unfortunately the answer is no she was not notified at all um and she just
00:53:00
told us that you know she assumed that Patrick Nicholas had served most of his sentence and that obviously wasn't the
00:53:08
case you know he was only in prison for three and a half years and I think this speaks to the way that victims were
00:53:16
treated back then you know 40 years ago and told us she was quite upset when she
00:53:20
found that out thinking I got Justice for what happened to me and thinking that he had served that whole time and
00:53:27
then finding out that that had not happened really crushed her and it's particularly devastating because if he
00:53:32
had served the full sentence he would have still been in prison in 1991 when he attacked Sarah yarboro and then we
00:53:40
wouldn't even be talking about her murder why was he released so early I mean it we got the records from you know
00:53:47
back then and they really you know like he went through the parole board process
00:53:51
they considered him you know he didn't have any major infractions on his record he admitted to everything that he done
00:53:57
he admitted to Ann's attack he said he had a problem he realized it and he wanted to get help so part of the terms
00:54:03
of his parole was that he would enter into a treatment program that he would be getting this help that he needed um
00:54:10
but as we see it wasn't wasn't enough but he did actually meet the standards at the time when we get back we're going
00:54:16
to get into Sarah Yo's trial forensic genetic genology was at the heart of this case but with Nicholas's attorney
00:54:24
really calling into question the technology would the jury believe the science we're going to get into that
00:54:30
after the break welcome back Lauren you were in the courtroom during the trial what were
00:54:44
her friends and Family's reaction to finally seeing this case go before a jury I mean it was it was big for them
00:54:52
they'd waited a long time for this and you know Natalie and Chris and I know we cover lot of Trials Court can be like a
00:54:58
very cold and intimidating environment but I got to say I have never seen a community come together the way they did
00:55:05
at this trial it was not just Sarah's friends and family it was neighbors it was members of the Y Bros church it was
00:55:11
Sarah's former classmates adults they're in their late 40s now they they came together from around the country people
00:55:17
flew back to be there for the Y Burrows and support them through this everybody kind of among Sarah's friends they all
00:55:23
had their little roles one friend Liberty who we interviewed she had a snack station set up outside that
00:55:28
courtroom every day she and her husband they had bottles of water they found out
00:55:31
what candy Laura Goro liked it just it made such a stark experience feel warm you know you would think that so many
00:55:40
people have gone on with their lives to return to this area for this special they did but also you know this was they
00:55:47
were teenagers when this happened a lot of them kind of carried this internally with them for so long and so I mean it
00:55:54
was like a therapy session almost these people are incredible and and crony showed up as well what was it like when
00:56:01
she came to the courthouse though well it's interesting because nobody nobody knew who she was an tells us about how
00:56:07
the first time she went there weren't any seats on the side of the yardboro so she sat on the other side and she could
00:56:13
tell like she was getting some looks that people were kind of looking her up and down trying to figure out who is
00:56:18
this person and then you know out in break in the hallway some of Sarah's friends actually approached her and said
00:56:24
like how are you connected with the kid and she introduced herself and she said you know I'm the one who got away he
00:56:30
attacked me back in 1983 and they all describe it as just hugs immediately and like we're here
00:56:36
with you we're so happy you came thank you for being here like it's so important to us that you are here and
00:56:42
during the sentencing hearing she shared a v a very powerful Victim Impact statement uh because she was not able to
00:56:47
testify at trial because none of Nicholas's previous criminal history could be entered in as evidence why
00:56:53
couldn't it be talked about yeah you know it's at the discretion of the judge in every case of whether prior bad acts
00:56:58
are going to be allowed in as testimony at trial in this case the prosecution put forward motions that they wanted to
00:57:04
have Nicholas's criminal history entered into trial and the judge ruled against allowing it because this case was going
00:57:09
to be decided on this crime singularly forensic genetic genealogy played a vital role in finding Sarah's killer but
00:57:17
the defense really put it into question let's take a listen Patrick Nicholas's public defender David Montes challenged
00:57:25
how forensic genetic genealogy was used to First identify Nicholas I want to dig
00:57:30
into the science because the first time that kind of Defense had been used in Washington state they use technology
00:57:37
that is not only un proven but just whacky really he's not the person the kill the police needed an answer more
00:57:46
than they need the right answer and so they turned to new no untested technology genetic genealogy is
00:57:55
a new field it really hasn't been tested out should we be making important decisions based on something that is not
00:58:03
well or deeply understood Hey listen if any of you are on any of these genealogy
00:58:08
databases I am I'm all into this stuff I'm on like two of them but you get notifications all the time that you got
00:58:13
an eighth cousin or a 10th cousin you know it's it's we're related to everyone so you can kind of see where he's coming
00:58:21
from in terms of this argument but is it a strong argument how reliable is the science behind genetic genealogy well
00:58:28
you know it it is a relatively new way of cracking cold cases perhaps the most notable being the Golden State killer
00:58:36
case the forensic genetic genealogist in our story Colleen Fitzpatrick she is considered one of the Pioneers at the
00:58:43
Forefront I think a lot of our 48 hour viewers May recognize her because she has been on a couple of past episodes as
00:58:51
she is so well known in this field and she spent years searching building out the genetic family tree of the possible
00:59:00
killer and she narrowed it down to these two brothers Edward and Patrick Nicholas
00:59:05
interestingly enough Edward's DNA profile was in cotus for a sex offense that he had committed but he was not a
00:59:14
match Patrick wasn't in cotus at the time so investigators still needed a true DNA sample and so detectives
00:59:23
surreptitiously collected DNA while Patrick Nicholas was at a laundromat he dropped some cigarette butts they picked
00:59:30
them up and it was a perfect DNA match and if anybody wants to argue with the science here is the number for an exact
00:59:35
match one in 120 quadrillion I can't even tell you how many zeros that is but that tells
00:59:44
you how exact of a match this is should viewers be concerned about law enforcement having access to their DNA I
00:59:53
think this is something that that Law Enforcement wants to be very clear on now because there have been a lot of
00:59:57
kind of guide rails put up particularly since the Golden State killer was arrested you know now it's really only
01:00:03
you have to opt in for your DNA to be searchable on one of these databases but like in general that like they're not
01:00:09
searching ancestry in 23 and me it's they have to be these certain opt-in databases that's interesting um
01:00:16
ultimately the fact that Nicholas's DNA match the sample found on the body rendered the defenses argument moot he
01:00:23
was found guilty of first and second degree murder but he wasn't found guilty of premeditated murder why is that in
01:00:31
this case we didn't interview any jurors um but Lauren did speak to a couple of them after trial basically they told her
01:00:39
that there wasn't enough evidence to prove you know how much if at all that Patrick Nicholas planned the murder but
01:00:47
then they also said you know after the trial they were told about Nicholas's uh previous criminal history and when they
01:00:52
heard about kind of his pattern of behavior they said you know maybe that could have changed things for us if we
01:00:58
had known that maybe we would have gone the other way on this but it's just it's
01:01:01
so hard to tell I want to talk about the judge judge wigs she spoke really passionately at sentencing about how
01:01:07
Sarah was just a child when she was murdered she sentenced Nicholas though to 46 years not life did the length of
01:01:15
the sentence surprise any of you this actually um is on the higher end of sentencing judge wigs who is an
01:01:24
incredible judge I mean you saw the power she kind of slams her hands down and says this was a child and she like
01:01:32
hit the table with her fist you felt that her outrage when she was looking at Patrick Nicholas um she went above the
01:01:40
sentencing guidelines because of Nicholas's other crimes in including the attack against an cron she was able to
01:01:46
share during the sentencing yeah and you know um Patrick Nicholas was 59 years old by this time so it's effectively a
01:01:54
life sentence for him it was bittersweet because you know Patrick Nicholas he lived a free man for 30 years you know
01:02:02
so yeah Sarah didn't have that time so it's a life sentence but it was bittersweet for for the family and the
01:02:10
friends what was it like talking to the people who knew Sarah best she's still such a huge part of their lives they
01:02:18
they talk about her as if it was just yesterday these memories are still so fresh in their mind was such a formative
01:02:25
time in their life lives for all of them they all were victims in a way these young women had to live life um thinking
01:02:32
that could that be the guy next door you know could it be him I walked away feeling like I could have been friends
01:02:39
with these these women I mean we're all somewhat of the similar age group looking through their pictures and the
01:02:44
photo albums it was like looking at a slideshow of my own youth growing up and just feeling like I was a part of that
01:02:53
in a way this murder took place on the campus of a high school so I mean it's not just the people who were friends
01:03:00
with Sarah but EV all of these kids had to I presume at times walk past this location I mean how did the school
01:03:07
handle it at the time so this crime took place on a Saturday morning and what we
01:03:12
learned is that school was back in session just two days later on that Monday can can you imagine so so these
01:03:20
kids all had to go to school walk by the police the media the yellow tape the crime scene every single day and and for
01:03:29
so many of them they were traumatized Sarah's friends told us that they really leaned on each other and one of one of
01:03:37
Sarah's friends told Natalie that her teacher basically made an announcement and said we will not be learning much
01:03:43
for a very long time except basically how to deal with trauma one of the things that I thought this hour kind of
01:03:50
reinforces is the ripple effect of a crime but instead of being defined by that moment they created a community out
01:03:58
of it they supported each other they pulled together closer what will you guys take away from covering this case I
01:04:06
think that that is the greatest takeaway right there anarie it's the people she loved the Friendship she formed those
01:04:14
are the people who are her Legacy and continuing her story and her journey and they are together for life in this I
01:04:21
mean it's really created these bonds and helped them heal in a way that um I don't think everybody gets Sarah left a
01:04:30
Legacy of Love Simple so true simple that is it for this week's postmortem Natalie Chris Lauren thank you so much
01:04:38
for joining me thank you again so much Amry be sure to watch 48 hours Saturdays at 109 Central on CBS and streaming on
01:04:49
Paramount plus and be sure to follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcast and you can also listen at free on the
01:04:56
Amazon music or wry app