Jury finds Patrick Nicholas guilty in 1991 killing of Federal Way teen Sarah Yarborough
SEATTLE — A King County jury on Wednesday found Patrick Nicholas guilty of murder with sexual motivation in the killing of Federal Way High School student Sarah Yarborough.
Yarborough, 16, was strangled while she was waiting outside her school to go to a drill competition.
It’s been decades, but the impact of Yarborough’s 1991 murder during their junior year still lingers just beneath the surface for those who knew her in high school all those years ago.
“She loved art, she loved to dance, what would she have become in those years that were taken from her?” Yarborough’s friend, Mary Beth Thome, said, “I think she would’ve been a beautiful person, and I think it’s really sad that the world didn’t get to see who she would’ve become.”
Investigators put out a sketch of the suspect based on eyewitness accounts from two 12-year old-boys who had seen a man in the area at the time of the murder, and for years tried to find a match to DNA found at the murder scene with no leads.
Days passed which turned into years that then stretched over decades with no arrest.
In October 2019, there was a break in the case when genetic genealogists gave detectives the name of Nicholas, and they were able to match his DNA to DNA found at the murder scene.
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According to court documents, Nicholas lived in the area around the time and had arrests for rape and child molestation, yet somehow his DNA was never entered into any databases tracking offenders.
Detectives surveilling Nicholas picked up cigarettes and a paper napkin he’d discarded, and DNA on one of the cigarettes matched DNA on several items of Yarborough’s clothing at the scene, and an arrest was finally made.
Court documents said, Nicholas, who was 55 at the time of his arrest and 27 when he allegedly killed Yarborough, strangled Yarborough with her nylons. He was charged with first-degree murder and rape.
By the time Yarborough was murdered, Nicholas had already been to prison for first-degree attempted rape in Benton County, where he approached a young woman in her car and threatened to kill her with a knife, according to court documents. Nicholas forced her to take off her clothes in her car, then walked the woman toward a river, where she jumped and swam away, court documents said.
A sentencing hearing is set for May 25.
