It’s a chilly Saturday morning in 1991. A 16-year-old girl, full of life and dreams, pulls into the car park of her high school. She’s in her drill team uniform, hot rollers still in her hair, rushing to meet her teammates for a competition. But within moments, she’s gone—dragged into the shadows, her life brutally snuffed out. For nearly three decades, her killer walked free, leaving a community haunted and a family shattered. This is the story of Sarah Yarborough—and the relentless pursuit to bring her murderer to justice.
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| Sarah Yarborough |
Welcome back to True Crime Tales with Cosette, where we dive into the cases that grip our hearts and demand answers. Today, we’re exploring a case that shook a small Washington town to its core—a murder that went unsolved for 28 years, until cutting-edge science and dogged determination finally cracked it open. This is the story of Sarah Yarborough, a bright, talented teenager whose life was stolen in a senseless act of violence, and the extraordinary efforts to find her killer.
The Day Everything Changed
On December 14, 1991, Federal Way, Washington, was a sleepy, close-knit community just south of Seattle. Sarah Yarborough, a 16-year-old honours student, was the epitome of the all-American girl next door. She loved art, ballet, and her drill team, where she danced with a passion that lit up the room. Her mother, Laura, described her as a quiet bridge-builder, someone who brought people together with her infectious smile and kind heart.
That morning, Sarah’s parents were away at her younger brother’s football tournament. Her friend Amy Parodi stayed over the night before, and the two spent a carefree evening eating junk food and watching basketball. Sarah had big plans for the weekend—a drill team competition in Kirkland. She woke up late, rushed out the door with her curlers still in, and drove her father’s car to Federal Way High School, arriving just after 8 a.m.
But Sarah arrived an hour early. The car park was nearly empty, the school grounds quiet. She parked near the tennis courts, waiting for her teammates. What happened next would change everything.
At around 9:20 a.m., two boys—aged 12 and 13—took a shortcut through the school grounds to go skateboarding. One of them, Drew Miller, noticed a man emerging from the bushes near the tennis courts. He described him as tall, with shaggy blonde hair and “evil eyes". Moments later, the boys stumbled upon a horrific scene: Sarah’s body, partially clothed, lying in the brush just 150 yards from her car. She had been beaten and strangled with her own stockings, her drill team uniform still clinging to her.
The discovery sent shockwaves through Federal Way. A jogger had also seen a man kneeling over a girl but mistook it for a couple in a private moment. By the time police arrived, the killer was gone, leaving behind a grieving community and a trail of fear.
A Cold Case and a Community’s Fear
Sarah’s murder was a wound that refused to heal. The community rallied, raising funds for a memorial bench at the school, complete with bronze replicas of her ballet shoes, her beloved dog Gibby, and books she cherished. Her grandfather donated a state-of-the-art computer system to help police track the flood of tips—over 4,000 in total.
Investigators recovered a crucial piece of evidence: a full male DNA profile from semen on Sarah’s clothing and skin under her fingernails. Despite regular searches in state and national CODIS databases, no match was found. Two eyewitnesses provided a detailed description of the suspect—a young man, about 6 feet tall, with shoulder-length blonde hair—but the composite sketch led nowhere.
As years turned into decades, Sarah’s classmates graduated, started families, and built careers, but her memory remained frozen in time. Her friends, like Mary Beth Thome, spoke of the profound loss: “She loved art; she loved to dance. "What would she have become in those years that were taken from her?" she stated.
The lack of answers fuelled paranoia. Parents tightened curfews, and children walked in groups. Federal Way’s sense of safety was shattered, replaced by the shadow of a faceless killer. Detectives, led by figures like Kathleen Decker, never gave up, but the case grew cold.
The Breakthrough
In 2011, a glimmer of hope emerged. The King County Sheriff’s Office partnered with forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick and Identifinders International. Using genetic genealogy—a revolutionary technique that traces DNA through public databases—they linked the crime scene DNA to the Fuller family, descendants of a Mayflower passenger. Suspicion briefly fell on Bill Fuller, a family friend, but he didn’t match the suspect’s description and was quickly ruled out.
By 2018, the composite sketch was updated with age-progression technology by Parabon NanoLabs, reflecting what the suspect might look like nearly 30 years later. Then, in 2019, genealogists zeroed in on two brothers. One was eliminated due to a prior rape conviction with DNA in CODIS that didn’t match. The other was Patrick Leon Nicholas, then 55, who had never submitted DNA to CODIS despite a troubling criminal history.
Nicholas, 27 at the time of the murder, had a chilling past. In 1983, he held a woman, Anne Croney, at knifepoint in a park, attempting to rape her. He was sentenced to 10 years but released after just three and a half, with no requirement to submit DNA. In 1993, he was convicted of child molestation, pleading guilty to a lesser charge, again avoiding DNA submission.
Undercover detectives followed Nicholas to a Kent strip mall, where he smoked two cigarettes and discarded them with a napkin. The DNA from those butts was a match to the semen and skin samples from Sarah’s crime scene. In October 2019, 28 years after her murder, Patrick Nicholas was arrested at a bar in Kent and charged with first-degree murder.
Justice at Last
In April 2023, Patrick Nicholas stood trial. Prosecutors presented overwhelming DNA evidence, stating it was “590 billion times more likely” to match Nicholas than a random person. They also revealed disturbing items found in his home: a 1994 newspaper article about Sarah’s case and a torn photo of a woman in a cheerleader outfit.
The defence argued the genetic genealogy was unreliable and pointed out discrepancies in the eyewitness descriptions, claiming Nicholas didn’t match the acne-scarred suspect. But after nine days of testimony and just over a day of deliberation, the jury found Nicholas guilty of first-degree felony murder and second-degree murder, both with sexual motivation.
On May 25, 2023, Nicholas was sentenced to 45 years and 8 months in prison. Sarah’s mother, Laura, spoke of her daughter’s vibrant spirit: “She was the delight of my life… a person who built bridges and brought people together.” Her brother Andrew, just 11 when Sarah died, said the family lived under a “Damocles’ sword” for decades, never knowing if justice would come.
Anne Croney, Nicholas’s 1983 victim, expressed outrage at the system that released him early, allowing him to kill Sarah. “If he had served his full sentence, he would’ve been locked up in 1991,” she said.
A Legacy of Love
Sarah Yarborough’s murder left an indelible mark on Federal Way, but so did her legacy. Her friends and family continue to honour her through stories of her kindness, creativity, and zest for life. The case, one of the first to use genetic genealogy, paved the way for solving countless other cold cases.
As Detective Scott Strathy put it, “This was pure, unadulterated evil.” But Sarah’s light shines brighter. Her mother, Laura, said at the sentencing, “Nothing will bring Sarah back, but this is as much justice as we can expect.”
Sarah Yarborough was more than a victim. She was a daughter, a sister, a friend, and a dreamer whose life was cut short but whose memory endures. Thank you for joining me on True Crime Tales with Cosette. If this story moved you, please like, subscribe, and share to keep Sarah’s story alive. Until next time, stay safe, and keep seeking the truth.
