Going West: True Crime - Sarah Yarborough // 370

Episode Date: January 6, 2024

In December of 1991, a 16-year-old Washington girl was found murdered in a field next to her high school by a couple of boys, who also got a look at the man behind the crime. But as police papered the composite across town and evaluated thousands of tips, a shocking revelation would come in the form of genealogical DNA testing. This is the story of Sarah Yarborough. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, happy new year. This is our first episode after five years of going west. Thank you everybody again so much and also thank you to Tisha and Justin for recommending today's case. I'm sure a lot of others have recommended it, maybe under a misspelling or something and that's why I missed it. But thank you anyway, this case recently saw some resolution so we thought it was the perfect time to dive into it.

Yes, happy 2024 everybody. Hope you're having a great year so far. Today's case is a Pacific Northwest case which obviously you guys probably know. Daphne and I love to cover those cases. So without further ado, this is episode 370 of Going West west so let's get into it. In December of 1991, a 16-year-old Washington girl was found murdered in a field next to her high school by a couple of boys, who also got a look at the man behind the crime. But as police papered the composite across town and evaluated thousands of tips, a shocking revelation would come in the form of genealogical DNA testing. Sarah Louise Yarborough was born on June 12, 1975 to parents Laura and Tom Yarborough, and she had three siblings, brothers John and Andrew and sister Jennifer. Now some sources state that Sarah was born in Portland, Oregon, while others say that she was born in Seattle, Washington.

But either way, the tight-knit, yard-brew family eventually settled into the charming city of Federal Way, Washington, which became an incorporated city just a year before this story takes place, meaning that it has its own elected city officials. Federal Way is located 25 miles south of Seattle and just 8 miles north of the city of Tacoma, and obviously it is surrounded by Pacific Northwest beauty, including stunning mountain views. Here in Federal Way, Sarah's father Tom worked as an electrical engineer and her mom Laura, who worked for the same company called Warehouse Sir, worked as an electrical engineer and her mom Laura, who worked for the same company called Warehouse Sir, worked as a nurse.

Sarah grew up in a very loving and religious home. She was creative, active, and had a huge heart. In fact, Sarah's eighth grade English teacher remembered that she played five different characters in a school play about the Holocaust, saying, quote, she put her energy and soul into each part. She carried an aura that seemed to shout out, I'm in love with life. Sarah was also very popular in school and she had a very close group of friends who remember

her bright red hair and fair skin and her magnetic personality, stating that she was, quote, a magical person. Yeah, and this group of high school friends that she had, you know, they were extremely tight. Like, I'm thinking of the movie Heathers for some reason, even though those were like mean girls and these girls weren't, but. The nice Heathers. Yeah, they were basically like the nice Heathers.

They were the popular girls, you know, very charming, and they were such a tight-knit group. Well, also, Sarah was a straight-age student at federal way high school, and she really wanted to attend a prestigious college, but she couldn't decide between becoming an engineer like her dad or a museum curator due to her love of history. And she also had big plans to travel, but sadly, Sarah would never get that chance. On Friday, December 13, 1991, 16-year-old Sarah was in her junior year at Federal Way High School, and she was really excited about this particular weekend for a few different reasons.

First, because her parents were out of town attending a soccer game that her brother Andrew was playing in, which meant that she had some teenage freedom and also the house to herself, and second, because the next day, she had a drill team competition for her school. So on that Friday night, Sarah and her friend Amy Perotti did what you might expect two teenage girls to do. They went to a basketball game, they ran by a convenient store to load up on junk food for the night before, you know, grabbing some fast food and heading back to Sarah's house for the evening.

Sarah's mom later said, quote, I was reluctant to leave Sarah, but she didn't want to come because she had her whole weekend planned out. She had a friend come over and stay with her that weekend. And that sleepover seemed to be a fairly normal and unremarkable evening, with Sarah's friend Amy stating, quote, we were just 16, we were carefree. There was absolutely nothing that would make any of us think that the next morning, everything would change. And of course, they live in a safe area.

She is 16 years old. She is super mature. Her parents shouldn't have to worry about leaving her, and the fact that something happened during the circumstance is just like one in a million almost. Yeah, and the weirdest part is the fact that, you know, nothing happened that night. It was the next day that this whole thing unraveled. Well, the next morning, which was Saturday, December 14, 1991, Sarah woke up in a bit of a panic. She confessed to her friend Amy that she had slept in and was going to be late for her

drill team practice, so she raced around the house, gathering her uniform and just bolting out the door with a jug of orange juice in her hand, and hot roller still in her hair, like she was in a huge rush to make sure that she could make it to practice. Now a witness noted seeing Sarah pull into the back parking lot of federal way high school at 8-10am in park her car there. But nobody witnessed Sarah get out of her car that morning. They had only seen the car itself. Now, granted this was a Saturday morning so there weren't very many people around

any way to witness Sarah exiting her car. That Saturday morning was very cold with temperatures hovering around 32 degrees Fahrenheit with a slight frost. So at 8.20am, another witness noticed that Sarah's car engine was still warm and had steam coming off the hood. Now this may not seem like a very important detail, but it does help us put together a timeline for the events that would follow. Yeah, because obviously if the car is still steaming, then that means she hasn't been there that long.

Well, and somebody else saw her at 810 so we can kind of, you know, ascertain that 810 she arrived and her car was still cooling down 10 minutes later. Yes. But the problem with this situation was that Sarah had actually not been late, but she had been early. So she thought that she was due to be at school at 730. But the bus that Sarah was going to take with her drill team wouldn't be departing until 9 a.m. This bus was supposed to take the drill team to Winita High School, which is located in Kirkland, Washington, just about 40 minutes north of Federal Way. At approximately 9.15 a.m. that Saturday morning, a 13-year-old local boy named Andrew Miller

and a friend of his who has never been publicly named, were skateboarding near the Federal Way High School campus when they decided to take a shortcut through the school property near the tennis courts. Now, this particular area does not look like it did in 1991, but back in 1991 near the tennis courts were row of dense and tall bushes bushes. Basically there's like this black top to driveway and then on the side of that is like a slight hill with a bunch of like tall brush. So Andrew and his friend were stomping the ice that was frozen in the potholes of the paved pathway next to these dense bushes. When they noticed something that felt kind of odd,

a strange man popped up from the bushes near them and stood there for a moment, just staring the boys down before turning and walking away from the area in the direction that the boys were headed. Now, obviously very confused to see someone appear from the bushes, especially at 9am, the boys felt creeped out, but also curious as to why this strange man had just been hiding there in the bushes. So the boys approached the area that the man had been standing and what they saw next would horrify them for the rest of their lives.

Among the thick tall bushes was the body of a teenage girl. She was partially nude with a pair of brown nylon stockings tied tightly around her neck. This young woman's blue jacket, her undergarments, and her bra had all been removed, and the name on the jacket was Sarah. And I mean, what are the chances that they would happen to be skateboarding in this exact area and see this creeper just pop out of the brush and then decide to investigate and that's what they find. Like the chances of that happening when there is nobody around are so freaking slim. Oh, absolutely.

And you know, this poor boy Andrew and his buddy, you know, they were absolutely horrified by this. Yeah, they were totally shocked, obviously, anybody would be, so they raised home to tell their parents right away. Now, one of the adults called 911 to report this gruesome discovery while another escorted the boys back to the crime scene. Police arrived to the scene shortly after

and discovered Sarah Yarborough's body, just 300 feet from the car that she had drove to school that very morning. So this just shows how she didn't make it far at all when she did get out of her car that morning to go to practice. But what investigators couldn't figure out was how Sarah ended up in that area in the first place.

So these are minds that she had been either dragged to the bushes by her killer or that she had been lured there. People who knew Sarah said that she was very caring and just a very helpful person in general, so had her attacker possibly used some kind of ruse to get her to a secluded area. attacker possibly used some kind of ruse to get her to a secluded area? It was also noted that Sarah had suffered contusions to her jaw and eye, which suggested that maybe her killer had punched her, knocking her unconscious before dragging her to where she was eventually strangled. Well, investigators didn't have much, but they did have two witnesses who could help them create a composite sketch of the man who had taken Sarah Yarbrough's life.

Now the man the boys had seen was a white male, about a six feet tall with shoulder length blonde hair cut into a mullet, wearing a dark trench coat and dark pants. And we're going to post that composite on our social so you guys can see along with other photos of this case. So go check that out if you guys want. And also that composite is uncanny and you guys will see. The boys also noted that the man had been driving what appeared to be a tan or brown 1970s model Chevy Nova.

And this was amazing. I mean, they knew what the guy looked like. They knew what his car looked like. These are incredible things that anybody wants to have in an investigation. So when the crime scene was analyzed and searched for evidence, it was determined that Sarah had not been raped, but there was seeming found on her clothing, which would also help us later on. And not so much during this time, because it it was 1991 and DNA testing was very much in its

infancy, but investigators did have the foresight to collect the perpetrators DNA in the hopes that one day, scientific advancements would lead them to a killer if they didn't catch him in the meantime. Now aside from that DNA evidence, nothing else was left behind by Sarah's attacker. So police really had to lean on the public and the composite sketch that they had to track this piece of shit down. But first, police had to break the tragic news to Sarah's family that their beloved sister and daughter had been murdered.

And again, you can only imagine how horrible they felt. They were leaving her alone, and they thought that everything was going to be OK. How could something happen in that short span of time when they were just going to her brother soccer game? Like just absolutely unthinkable. Yeah, and a lot of residents that lived in federal way at the time said that this was kind of a turning point for them.

They basically said that federal way had always been one of those places where you could leave your door unlocked, but after this crime, everything changed. Sarah's mom Laura recalled that tragic day saying quote, when we got there, that was when they told us her body had been found. Her death left us broken. we've never been the same. My husband and I have three years that are a blank, they're just gone. Our lives went from full color to fuzzy grey. Sarah's younger brother Andrew, who was just 11 years old when her life was taken, echoed

this by saying, quote, I recall the pain in my father's voice over the phone, telling me that Sarah was dead. I recall the sounds of my parents crying through the walls at night as I laid in my bed. On December 20, so six days after Sarah was murdered, a memorial was held to honor her memory with about 1,200 friends and family members congregating in the Bible Baptist Church in Auburn, Washington to share stories and mourn their loss.

Sarah's youth pastor proclaimed, quote, literally the whole community is grieving. Her life touched us all in some way. Sarah was a special gal. But not only was the community grieving this tragic loss, but they were also on high alert because a predator was still on the loose and many wondered if this was an isolated attack or if other unsuspecting victims would follow. One classmate of Sarah's remarked quote, school isn't supposed to be like this, with everyone afraid and wondering and just scared all the time. School is supposed

to be safe, but ours isn't right now. And obviously because nobody felt safe at this time, the varsity wrestling team actually escorted the girls basketball team to and from practice. And I'm sure, obviously, probably wasn't just the girls basketball team, but this really goes to show you how worried everybody was. Just everybody was on edge. Yeah, nobody knew who did this or why it happened. And especially with these young people and the fact that they're watching out for each other is really amazing in this in this town where things like this just don't happen. Well, and a lot of Sarah's friends that she went to school with, you know, they looked

at that composite sketch and they're basically flipping through the yearbook going, you know, they looked at that composite sketch and they're basically flipping through the yearbook going, you know, is it could it be this person, could it be this person, was it a person who had graduated the year before and, you know, was like hanging around the high school still? Like, they assumed that it was somebody that everybody knew, like, you know, like a classmate. But they just had no idea. And just by the way, that year, the population of Federal Way was around 67 or 68,000 people, so it's not the smallest town, but it's also not huge. Yes, it's not massive. Right, so along with the posters

of the composite sketch just papered across town, please begin to conduct interviews with witnesses, and more than 4,000 tips came flooding in during the early days of the investigation. Everyone held out hope that the person responsible for this brutal crime would be apprehended very quickly, like I said, especially because they have a composite of the guy they know what his car looks like. But sadly, that just wasn't the case. Sarah's grandfather, John Homequest, who worked as a senior scientist for Warehouseer,

loaned $150,000 worth of computer equipment to the police department in order to simplify the process of analyzing this case. But it appeared that nothing was bringing investigators any closer to catching Sarah's killer. They even administered blood tests to local men who matched the description of the perpetrator to see if their DNA matched the killers. But unfortunately, none of them were a match. And there was one person of interest in this case who was never publicly named, that the police said was very promising and had been implicated by more than 17 different people, including someone from his own family.

But again, there was no match. Like even when they felt they were very, very close, they just weren't hitting the nail. I mean, they were hitting a roadblock at this point. Even though they were working super super hard. So with nowhere else to turn and, you know, every lead and tip followed up on extensively, King County investigators and Sarah's family were just left to wait out this endless nightmare, just hoping that someday DNA technology would advance to the point that it would lead them in the right direction. Sarah's case at this point had now gone cold. A year after Sarah's death, the Yarborough's neighbor Bill Fuller, whose daughter was good friends with Sarah, and who also worked with Sarah's

father and grandfather, decided to create a tribute for her with the help of local students. Sarah's classmates raised and donated $5,000 to put towards a memorial concrete bench that would depict a bronze stack of books with a pair of ballerina slippers on top. It would also include a statue of Sarah's beloved dog Gibby standing with its front paws on the bench. And the words that were inscribed on the bench were Carpe Diem, meaning seize the day, words that Sarah lived her life by. The memorial bench was revealed in early June of 1993 by Bill Fuller and Sarah's younger brother Andrew, with a crowd of Sarah's classmates standing by to celebrate her life. A week later on June 12, 1993, emotions were running very high.

As it would have been Sarah's graduation day from federal way high school, and even more heartbreaking, it would have been Sarah's 18th birthday. Sarah's mom Laura was in attendance to support Sarah's friends, kids that considered her a second mother. Unfortunately, there would be no further leads in the case for another 18 years. Exactly, because 18 years after her graduation and about 20 years after her murder in 2011, after the unknown male DNA that had been collected from Sarah's body had been entered into Kodis without any matches. Detectives decided that it was time to think outside of the box and try a very

new and fairly untested method. They sought the help of a woman named Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic scientist who had led the way for forensic genetic genealogy testing. Now most of you know what genetic genealogy is, we've talked about it a lot on this show, but for those who don't, it is the process of combining DNA testing with traditional genealogical methods to identify biological relationships and trace ancestral lines. This again was fairly new at the time, but Detectives felt like it was the key to solving Sarah's case because they weren't getting a match in Kodas.

So they reached out to Colleen, just hoping that she would be able to take the unknown DNA and compare it to online public DNA databases to try and make a familial connection. And to their surprise, Colleen was able to come up with a name. And the name she came up with was Fuller. Now, obviously, this was very interesting because we've already talked about a Fuller in this episode Heath mentioned Bill Fuller, the Yarborough's next-door neighbor who had also been the creator of Sarah's Memorial Bench. But the name Fuller was actually traced all the way back to the 1600s to a man named

Robert Fuller who had immigrated to the United States on the Mayflower. But still, investigators had to look into this and when they did, they quickly realized that Bill Fuller simply did not match the composite sketch or the profile of the killer. Like Bill was short, unlike the killer, and he was 48 years old in 1991, so the age didn't match up either with the description that the witnesses gave to the police. Because the killer would have been in his mid-20s or so. And on top of this, Bill's DNA was not a match to the killer's DNA, so he was officially ruled out.

But what's interesting about this is that there's going to be a bit of a twist. So even though investigators still didn't have the name of the man who had murdered Sarah, they had a very, very promising lead. So now it was time to begin looking at relatives of Bill Fuller to see if maybe a distant relative could be connected. But it would take another seven years to get closer to finding a match. Now, in February of 2018, Colleen Fitzpatrick was able to determine that Sarah's killer was of Northern European descent, and that he most likely had either green or blue eyes. Then over a year later in September of 2019, Colleen finally was able to narrow down the

list to two potential suspects with the last name Nicholas. The suspects actually happened to be brothers named Patrick and Edward Nicholas, and the crazy part was that they were actually distant cousins of Bill Fuller, although Bill was unaware that these men even existed. So first, investigators set their sights on Edward, because his DNA was actually in Cotus, so it would be easy enough to test his DNA against the killers to see if it was a possible match. And although Edward was a registered sex offender, which is how his DNA was submitted in the first place, it was determined that it wasn't a precise match. So now it was time to focus their efforts on Patrick Leon Nicholas, Edward's younger brother,

who in recent years was a divorced auto part store employee, who people described as being a loner, and pretty fucking strange. And he happened to live in Covington, Washington, just 14 miles from Federal Way, where Sarah lived and was ultimately killed. Well get this, in 1991, Patrick was 27 years old and lived even closer to Federal Way than he did in 2019. Not to mention Patrick was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, just like the witnesses had described. And if this wasn't enough to keep detectives' interests, they also discovered that back

in 1991, Patrick's bus route would pass right by federal way high school. But the only problem was that when investigators checked Kodis to see if Patrick's DNA was in the system, they found out that he had never been asked to submit it, despite the fact that he had a lengthy criminal history. Which obviously explains why when they put the DNA of Sarah's killer into Kodis, they didn't find it, so it's just a shame that it wasn't in there previously, because they wouldn't have had to jump through all these hoops to get his DNA a different way, you know what I mean? But let's talk about Patrick's criminal history starting with his rape conviction in 1983.

In June of that year, on a peaceful morning, just eight years before Sarah was murdered, a 21-year-old woman named Anne Crony was sitting on the banks of the Columbia River enjoying the views when a man who looked to be her age walked up and struck a conversation. The man who was Patrick Nicholas, although she didn't know his name, of course, explained that he had just moved to town, so Anne asked if he had tried water-skying on the river yet, but Patrick told her that he couldn't swim. After this small interaction and later explained, quote, he seemed normal, kind of friendly, just friendly. But Anne began to feel pretty unnerved when Patrick's voice began to shake, almost like he was anticipating doing something drastic. So on that note, Anne told Patrick that she had to go and began to walk back to her car

in the parking lot of Howard-A-Mon Park in Richland, Washington. She was able to get into her driver's seat, but just before she was able to close the door, Patrick came running up with a knife and held it to Anne's throat. Patrick then forced Anne out of her car and demanded that she take her clothes off, stuffing her underwear and her mouth so she couldn't scream before leading her back to the riverbank. About halfway there, Patrick told Anne to stop and turn around, but Anne was very smart and remember that Patrick had told her that he couldn't swim. So within an instant, Anne took off sprinting toward the river where she dove in and swam

with every ounce of energy that she had. Now thankfully she was able to get away and swim back to a nearby dock where very concerned citizens helped her and called 911. I just can't even begin to describe how smart Anne was in this moment. The fact that she remembered, like that he said, you know, hey, I can't swim and like, she devised this plan of like, how am I going to get away? I'm just going to jump into the water. This motherfucker can't swim and that is how I'm going to get away like so so genius

well and the fact that they happen they're very very short conversation that they happen to even go there talk about water and the fact that he even mentioned that he couldn't swim is crazy so just absolutely amazing that she was able to get away now Patrick was 19 at this time but police discovered that she was able to get away. Now Patrick was 19 at this time, but police discovered that this was not the first time that he had had to run in with the law. As a juvenile, he had already raped two other women and had attempted to rape a third before crossing paths with Anne Crony. Now what's even more disturbing is that Patrick had been released from a juvenile detention center less than 90 days before he attacked Anne, meaning that, you know, this guy was

already imprisoned and he gets out and he's doing the same shit. Which we see all the time and it's so disappointing. Yeah, so Patrick was eventually arrested and he pled guilty to first degree rape on July 29, 1983, and was sentenced to 10 years in a Washington state prison. Before being sentenced, though, Patrick made a statement to the court saying, quote, Yeah, I mean this guy is so unhinged and this part is about to piss everybody off because Patrick only ended up serving Three and a half years of his 10-year sentence Meaning that he should have still been in prison on that cold December 14th morning if he had served his full term Meaning that Sarah would have been alive if he had served his full term. Meaning that Sarah would have been alive

if he had served his full term, which he should have, especially if you go to prison and you get out and you offend again, and then you admit in court that you have a problem with raping girls and you get let, why are you let out early? Yeah, I honestly just, I don't understand this, but that's not all that this piece of shit did

because in 1993, Patrick Nicholas was convicted of sexually molesting his six-year-old stepdaughter, which he pled guilty to a fourth-degree charge of gross misdemeanor assault. Well, now investigators knew that Patrick was more than capable of committing horrible acts, but was he the right guy? Well, King County assigned two undercover detectives to follow Patrick in hopes that they could obtain some form of his DNA to test against the DNA they already had. The detective started surveilling Patrick outside of a laundromat in Kent, Washington, where they watched him step outside to smoke a cigarette and drop the butt on the ground.

But that wasn't all he left behind because he had also accidentally dropped a napkin that he had stored in his pocket on the ground before heading back inside to the laundromat. And this was the break investigators needed. So they raced over and grabbed the cigarette butt and the napkin and placed the items into evidence. Obviously, it would take some time before the results of those items and the Seminole DNA sample could come back, but when it did, it was a one-and-quadrillion match. So police finally had their guy, and Patrick Nicholas was arrested on October 19, 2019, 28 years

after Sarah Yarbrough's murder. Patrick was arrested at a Kent Sports Bar and was taken into custody without incident, but as detectives began to interview Patrick, they came to the realization that he could have been responsible for more unsolved murders in his long criminal career. While sitting in the interview room, Detective said, quote, ''We're investigating the death of a young girl. Her name is Sarah Yarborough. And to the investigator's surprise, Patrick asked, quote, ''What year?'' Then he refused to speak any further

and demanded an attorney. Yeah, and that's just so eerie because the fact that he's saying, what year? It's like, well, did you have anything to do with murders on a different year? Yeah, like if you're not a murderer, that's not the question you ask. You say, I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know who that is. I've never killed somebody. You don't say, when was that? Let me just go through my catalog of people I've killed. Yeah, exactly. And so that was kind of what was going through investigators' minds. So in one of the most disturbing revelations in this case, when investigators searched Patrick's home, they found a newspaper article from 1994 detailing Sarah's murder.

And they also found a magazine picture of a cheerleader in his kitchen drawer among loads of pornographic material. And remember, Sarah was a part of the drill team, and she was murdered in her drill team uniform. Which have a lot of similarities to the types about fits that cheerleader's wear. Exactly. And, you know, it's just unbelievable

that he would still have this newspaper from 1994. I mean, this obviously just really seals the deal here. It's like they already have his DNA. They've already got, you know, his description from the past and those matched up. And now it's like you've got a newspaper from 1994 of Sarah's murder like still to this day. Yeah, you're the guy. Investigators also noted that Patrick Nicholas was basically a hoarder living in filth

without working electricity and boxes and trash just stacked everywhere. So this was just a disgusting human being all around. So 59 year old Patrick Leon Nicholas's trial began on April 17th, 2023. And I imagine that his trial was pushed off because of COVID, and his trial took place at the Norm Malang Regional Justice Center in Kent, Washington, where he faced three charges. Two counts of first degree murder, and one count of second degree murder, all for the same crime, but differing on why he committed it.

Sarah's brother, Andrew, remarked, quote, Over the life of this convicted murderer, he does not possess the ability to experience remorse or feel emotions the way normal people do. He does not belong in the free society with the rest of the people in this room. So the jurors deliberated for nearly a day and a half before finally convicting Patrick to first-degree murder with intent to commit rape and second-degree murder which accused Patrick of killing Sarah in the course of attempting to the crime of indecent liberties against her.

But obviously for some reason, the jury didn't believe that Sarah's murder had been premeditated, so for that charge, he was found not guilty. All of Sarah's friends and family were in attendance to watch her murder or be sentenced, including one of Patrick's other known victims, Anne Croney, as well as Andrew Miller, who was the boy that discovered Sarah's body. Now and Crony spoke at his trial, stating quote, the system failed, it really failed. He should have been locked up. When Patrick was released in 1987 after his attempted rape conviction and sentence, the court stated quote, he did not have any major infractions well in prison and did not have a drug or alcohol problem And would be safe to be at large given an ongoing therapeutic relationship and parole supervision Yeah, right.

But it's like obviously this guy messed up so many times in his life and They're like, oh well, you don't have a drug and alcohol problem So you don't seem like you're a danger to society. But from his own mouth, he's a problem with raping girls, so how is that not enough? Yeah, and the thing here is that, you know, he was supposed to be going through like this therapeutic relationship and pro-supervision, but if you ever joined an outpatient sex offender treatment program or not, it's basically still a mystery, like nobody knows if he had to go through that program or not is basically still a mystery like nobody knows if he had to go through that treatment or not.

Patrick Nicholas was sentenced on May 10, 2023 to 45 years and eight months in prison for Sarah's murder and will likely never see freedom ever again. At 59 years of age currently his release date would be 2069 at the age of 105, so I don't know that he's going to make that long. Patrick was also ordered to pay restitution to the Yarborough family, but the amount has yet to be determined. Sarah's mother Laura spoke of Patrick's sentencing, quote, the trials like a marathon. It's a slog. I didn't realize it was going to be quite this draining or exhausting or go on so long.

But she did find peace in knowing that Patrick Nicholas would never be able to hurt anyone else ever again. So it was a very bittersweet display of justice, but nowadays Laura can't hear her daughter's voice in her own head anymore. Sarah's family added that they are eternally grateful to every investigator who had worked on Sarah's case over the course of 30 plus years, and that Sarah's legacy of love that behind will never be forgotten.

Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I'm so glad that the story finally got justice and that police kept pushing to get that DNA match and use modern technology to do so. It's just such a shame that her family had to sit for so many years in this town not knowing who amongst them was their daughter and their sister's killer. And you know, obviously I know it's this guy's job to defend Patrick Nicholas,

but the guy that was defending him in court was basically just trying to like dog on genetic genealogy, saying that it's untested and it's unreliable and can't be trusted. But you know, there's no other way around this. I mean, this guy was responsible for that crime, and I'm so glad that he was finally put away after so so many years me too So thank you guys so much for listening to this one again Thank you everybody who recommended today's case and we'll see you next week. All right guys So for everybody out there in the world. Don't be a stranger danger. Thank you.

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