48 Hours - The Hunt for Sarah Yarborough’s Killer

Episode Date: November 19, 2023

A high school student on her way to drill team practice is found murdered on campus. What it took to close the case after 30 years. "48 Hours" contributor Natalie Morales reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audio book is free. Visit audible.ca. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, The Trouble Case Against Crosley Green,

wherever you get your podcasts. With a 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts, you can enjoy uninterrupted ad-free episodes of all your favorite 48 Hours podcasts for just $2.99 a month. Subscribe today. 16-year-old Sarah Yarborough is 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. It 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 because she had her whole weekend planned out. So she had a friend come over and stay with her that weekend. We went to a basketball game, went and got junk food at the grocery store, a little bit of fast food.

You know, we're 16. We were carefree. There was absolutely nothing that would make any of us think that the next morning everything would change. So Saturday morning, Sarah woke up kind of in a panic. She woke up and said, I'm late for practice. She put on her drill team uniform and ran out the door. She went to the school and discovered that she was early.

So she parked in her car and waited for the rest of her team to show up. car and waited for the rest of her team to show up. Shortly after the phone call started, where's Sarah? Do you know where she is? Sarah was found within an hour. Where was her body discovered? So her car was still in the parking lot. Her body was approximately 100 yards away, still on the school property.

Part of her clothing was removed. She had nylon stockings tied in a ligature around her neck. I just remember just saying, not Sarah, not Sarah, not Sarah, over and over again. The suspect is a white male, six feet tall, with a medium build. They had DNA evidence. They had everything. They had witnesses. That first week or so, it sounded like they had so much evidence. For at least a short while, it felt like, I think you said, of course they're going to catch him.

And then when they didn't and they didn't, your expectations change. You don't know if it's your 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. In 2014,

Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music.

In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of ten that would still have urged it. It just happens to all of them. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars

on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

How often do you think about December 14, 1991, and what happened on that day? Quite a bit. It's a very traumatic thing to go through. It's been over 30 years, but the details of that day have never faded for Drew Miller. I had my friend spent the night at my house. We woke up that morning, watched cartoons, ate cereal, left to go skateboarding. Drew, who was just 13 at the time, lived down the street from Federal Way High School near Seattle, Washington. The school grounds have changed quite a bit, right? Drastically, yes. The tennis court's the only thing that's still here.

Drew often took shortcuts through the school to go skateboarding, as he and his friend did that day. We used to hop the fence right here and cut through here. It was freezing cold that day, and there was ice in all of the mud puddles. We just, you know, started smashing them because it's fun. You know, it sounds like breaking glass. That's when Drew says they noticed a man in the bushes. Right where you see the edge of this dugout right here,

that was all bushes that were probably this tall. So we couldn't see him until he stood up. He's just staring at us from the bushes. That was pretty jarring. But then he just walked out of the bushes. So then we just assumed he's just smoking weed or something. The mysterious man kept to himself and walked ahead of the boys. Drew says they didn't think much of it until they came across a horrendous scene. There in the bushes where the man had just been was the body of a young woman. It was horrible, absolutely horrible. The way that he left her body, she clearly fought for her life. Drew says his shock turned to fear when he realized the man,

who was still just feet in front of them, was now staring directly back at him. Does that look still haunt you? Oh, 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 Yarborough. Even for experienced investigators, this scene was really hard to deal with. Just the innocent nature of this young woman in her school drill team uniform with her hot curlers still in her hair. This was just pure, unadulterated evil. Investigators believed this was a sexually motivated murder. She was partially clothed. Her jacket, her undergarments, her bra had been removed and placed next to her body. Police discovered that the car Sarah had driven that morning was parked in the school parking lot, 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 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? Because your great-grandma really wants a picture of you and your drill team. And she goes, okay.

It was just too incredible to believe that it could even happen. Sarah's parents, Laura and Tom Yarborough. 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've probably never seen or heard your parents cry much, but 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. Absolutely, yes.

Liberty Barnes, Christy Gutierrez, Amy Perotti, and Mary Beth Tomey were some of Sarah's closest friends. So this was after the last day of 10th grade, when 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, just being goofy. The fiery red hair. Was that her personality a little bit? Yes.

She was artistic, she was creative, she was smart, she was feisty. Imaginative. All of those things. She would be. 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 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. really happened. It really did just happen. It was all hands on deck. The sheriff's office put everything they had into solving this case 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 semen found on her underwear and on her jacket. We had a full male DNA profile. DNA technology was new back in 1991, but investigators hoped 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 this sketch?

Everyone, it felt like, at one point 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. As a kid growing up in Chicago,

there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app.

Mirror Murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defence attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created.

She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now.

In early June of 1993, one and a half years after Sarah Yarbrough's murder, local media were there as students gathered in the courtyard of Federal Way High School to honor her. Bill Fuller, a family friend who helped spearhead the move for a memorial to remember Sarah, unveiled it with help from Sarah's younger brother, Andrew. It was quite a day. A lot of tears as they looked at it and could see Sarah in that bench. Bill Fuller has known the Yarbros for, and his daughter was in Sarah's class. Bill Fuller, Sarah was fun to be around.

That was probably what we missed the most, is she was fun to be around. The bench reads, Carpe Diem, Seize 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. People cared about her so much. Andrew Yarbrough, 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 do recall that quite a bit, just having that kind of a constant reminder. Looking back, I feel like we didn't do a very good job with the boys. I think that we were so consumed by our own grief that we didn't take time to help them. I think we didn't really know how to help them. I mean, it wasn't something we had experience with. We didn't know anything about grieving ourselves or how to help them through it. And they weren't alone in their grief.

Shannon Grant, the last friend to see Sarah alive, says she lived with constant regret. I wish we could go back and do it all over again. That I would have asked the other drill team members what time practice was. You know, maybe dropped her off. I mean, there's a lot of the what-ifs. The milestones were especially painful. There was survivor guilt. milestones were especially painful. There was survivor guilt. Like, why am I filling out my college applications when Sarah wanted to go to college? This isn't fair. Every joyful occasion

had this sorrow that went with it that was, there's one missing from the crowd here. missing from the crowd here. Graduation day, June 12, 1993, was an emotional day, but even more so since it fell on what would have been Sarah's 18th birthday. Lori Yarbrough 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 Yarbrough says Sarah's friends helped ease her grief somewhat, and she thinks she filled the void for them as well. Sometimes I would say, well, I'm going to date this person, and I just wanted to let you know, because I wasn't sure if Sarah would approve of this person.

So they would seek approval through you. You became sort of their surrogate. Yes. As life slowly moved forward, investigators kept working the case. I describe it as like a relay race where the baton was handed off from one detective to the next over the years and decades. I kind of refer to myself as the fifth beetle in this investigation. By the early 2000s, investigators had received over 3,000 leads,

and advances in technology made them hopeful. They entered the DNA from the crime scene into the recently established CODIS 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 seemed hard to believe that the suspect but not have that linked to anybody, it just didn't make sense. It seemed hard to believe that the suspect

hadn't committed any other prior crimes where his DNA wouldn't be in the system. That's when he says detectives realized they had to go in a different direction. My name's Colleen Fitzpatrick, and I'm one of the pioneers of forensic genetic genealogy. 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 skeptical of this new investigative tool. The police thought I was crazy, you know, this little old lady with a crazy idea. And I was actually almost laughed out of 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 Yarbroughs 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, that way. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought

them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening,

you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. from the beginning it was very promising and the story took some really bizarre twists in 2011 20 years after sarah's murder when forensic genetic genealogist colleen fitzpatrick started working the yarborough 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 Yarbrough's close family friend who helped get that memorial bench built for Sarah. Naturally, that piqued our interest. From the beginning, Sarah's family and friends believed 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 by, she knew she was only getting closer,

especially after 2018, when forensic genetic genealogy was used to identify the Golden State Killer. Golden State Killer really started the big revolution. Things had evolved that we had the data to work with. The technology was in place that we could go for it. Then in September of 2019, Fitzpatrick's team made a breakthrough. They came up with two new possible suspects, brothers Edward and Patrick Nicholas, who, as the DNA showed, were distant cousins of Bill Fuller. You know, this is eight years of on and off and looking at it, never giving up. This is it. This is exciting. Edward Nicholas was a registered sex offender.

His DNA was in the system. It wasn't CODIS. But Edward's DNA wasn't a match. So they zeroed in on his brother Patrick, who in 2019 was a divorced loner who lived a couple of towns away from Federal Way. We learned that he was working at a auto parts store, lived alone, no children, no friends or acquaintances that would even visit him. Everything that he did was mostly by bus. He wasn't driving. Detective Free says he discovered that when Sarah was murdered, the bus route Nicholas often took happened to go past Federal Way High School. Back then, Nicholas was just 27 years old, and around that time looked very much like

the description of the sketch. It looked promising at that point, but we still needed to get a DNA sample from him to match up to the DNA evidence that we had. So in late September 2019, investigators came up with a plan. We assigned a team of undercover detectives to start doing surveillance on Patrick Nicholas in the hopes of obtaining a surreptitious DNA sample. Eventually, undercover detectives followed Nicholas to a laundromat. They saw him go outside and smoke a cigarette. And Patrick Nicholas was seen throwing the cigarette butt on the ground that was collected by our detectives.

That's what you needed. Yes. Right there, that cigarette butt. Yes. Actually, he dropped two cigarette butts and a napkin that fell out of his pocket, and all three items were collected. The DNA samples were rushed to the crime lab, and within days, detectives received the call they had been waiting for.

The DNA matched. 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 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 technology's 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 bawling. Just bawling. 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 of him? I have no clue. During his interrogation, Who did he interrogate? when detectives specifically asked him about Sarah's murder, he gave an alarming response. 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 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 anything. After one and a half 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, eight years before Sarah's murder, 21-year-old Ann 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, because 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 Anne'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 because I was thinking he couldn't swim. Swam as hard as I could. Swam for your life.

I swam for my life. Passersby 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. had actually only just been out for a few months when he attacked me. Days after Ann'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, Ann 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. Ann was never notified. She barely thought of him again until October 2019. The police knocked on my door and said that there were detectives in Seattle that wanted to talk to me about a cold case.

They informed Ann that Patrick Nicholas had been arrested again, this time for the murder of Sarah Yarbrough. They told me that there were similarities in the cases and I was crushed. It had never occurred to me that what I escaped from was a murder. 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 Yarbrough. How angry are you to hear that he was released that early? 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, three 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 CODIS database. But in pretrial 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 Yarbrough's murder, her accused killer, now 59 years old, went on trial. Sarah's childhood friends were there. I so clearly remember the morning before the trial started just going, I don't know if I can do this. Like, you know, I had so many different emotions flowing through,

and it was like, no, we need to be there. There was this absolute love for Sarah and the Yarbroughs that was so strong. Did you feel like they 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, genetic genealogy. Patrick Nicholas's public defender David Montes challenged how forensic genetic genealogy was used to first identify Nicholas. The first time that kind of defense had been used in Washington State. Wow, really? He's not the person that killed Sarah. The police needed an answer more than they needed the right answer. And so they turned to new, novel, 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 Yarbrough crime scene. And Detective Free says the numbers were astronomical. The odds were 1 in 120 quadrillion that... Quadrillion, yeah. Right. That it was somebody else. If the numbers pointed to Nicholas's guilt, law enforcement says so did evidence found at his

house near the time of his arrest in 2019. It was almost like a lair. There was no working electricity at this house, stacks of pornography all throughout the place. We also found a newspaper from 1994 that had on its front page an article about the Ceri Arbro case. 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. Montez 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 Yarbrough's presence was felt, especially when now-retired Captain Scott Strathy carefully unpackaged and displayed Sarah's clothing that had been in storage for over 30

years. Her drill team jacket, shoes, sweater, even her nylon stockings. This was like opening 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 of felt yourself crumble. After nine long days of testimony, the case went to the jury. I'll ask 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 Nicholas. 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 48hours.com. This is the state of Washington versus Patrick Leon Nicholas. Sarah Yarbrough's loved ones had waited over 30 years for this moment. We, the jury, find the defendant... But then, 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 degree murder and second degree murder. The jury ruled both had been committed with a sexual motivation. I remember hearing the family behind me cry.

And I made eye contact with the jurors and 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. to take into account all of Nicholas's crimes. The sentencing hearing was exhilarating in a way that I never expected. It was probably the most raw human courage I have ever seen in my life. Sarah's death left our family broken, and we've never been the same. The pain in my father's voice over the phone telling me Sarah was dead. Person after person took to the podium to say all that Patrick Nicholas had taken from them. Coming face to face with pure evil that day has deeply impacted my entire life. He took her life and what was sure to be a brilliant future from her.

In taking Farrah, 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, Anne Crony, who wasn't allowed to testify at Sarah's trial,

started speaking. He just did like a double take and shuddered when Anne 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 Wiggs addressed the court. I think about this poor child, this poor child, and what she experienced fighting for her life. Judge Wiggs 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. 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 don't know that we'll ever know. And that could have been avoided.

Forensic genetic genealogy helped solve Sarah's case. The 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 CODIS to search for possible family members. Remember, Patrick Nicholas's brother's DNA had been in CODIS for years. The legislation just doesn't exist in the state to allow that search. California uses it. The UK, as I understand, has New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Florida. Do you think it's time to get that law changed? We do.

We do. The Yarboroughs agree and hope that Sarah's case can make a difference. I would like to know that other parents don't have to wait 30 years. What do you hope her legacy is? I think her legacy is she was always someone who brought people together. She's brought all the people together that attended the trial. That's the kind of person she was. For Drew Miller, who at 13 found Sarah's body, the connections made at trial finally brought him some peace. Knowing he's in prison is fantastic, but knowing her family and friends is way more important to me because that's what's given me the actual healing that I needed. This is probably the beginning of our junior year. Sarah's friends will

always remain bonded by the past and Sarah's stolen future. Not only was she beautiful, her soul was beautiful, and the grace and the beauty that she carried and left with all of us. We won't forget her. We will never

forget her. We will never forget her. Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.