Teen strangled with stockings on way to training yards away from her friends
A horrifying murder case in which a teen was murdered with her own stockings is to be brought to light once again in a new documentary.
Washington teen Sarah Yarborough was 16 when she was brutally killed in 1991, found with hot curlers still in her hair. The rape and killing in December that year was a cold case for years and it wasn't until the spring of this year that the killer, Patrick Leon Nicholas, was sentenced. The brutal murder shocked the local community at the time after the young girl's body was left close to where her drill teammates were practising.
READ MORE SpaceX Starship explodes as rocket forced to self-destruct after losing contact with Earth
Yarborough was 16 when she was brutally killed i (Facebook)So what happened and why did the case take so long to crack?
The murder
Sarah's parents - the family lived in the town of Federal Way - had left for their son's football tournament on Friday, December 13. At the time, the victim's mum Laura had said she did not want to leave her daughter alone at home.
Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe
"I was reluctant to leave Sarah but she didn't want to come because she had her whole weekend planned out," he said in a preview for the soon-to-be-released documentary. "She had a friend come over and stay with her that weekend."
Nicholas was sentenced this year (Facebook)
Two teens saw Nicholas lurking near the body (Facebook)Laura said the fact that she was staying with her friend Amy Parodi her worries were eased slightly. Parodi said the pair spent the nine watching a basketball game and eating junk food.
"We were just 16, we were carefree," she said. "There was absolutely nothing that would make any of us think that the next morning everything would change."
The next day, Sarah left her home for the final time - her curlers were still in her hair so she could make it to drill practice on time after she overslept. Later, Parodi became concerned as reports of her friend's disappearance emerged, but it didn't take long for the body to be discovered.
The stockings (CBS)A man was seen hanging around in a field next to the school car park. After he was spotted by teenagers nearby, he walked away.
The teenagers found the body when they inspected the site. One of the then-teen told the documentary: "Her body was still in the parking lot, it was approximately 100 yards away, still on the school property."
Of the horror scene, they added: "Part of her clothing was removed, she had nylon stockings tied in a ligature around her neck."
The trail to find Yarborough's killer went cold (CBS)The killer
Catching the killer seemed like a routine operation at first, but the trail went cold even with the perpetrator's suspect on Sarah's clothes and a description of the killer. The lack of a suspect pained the community for years as it became worried over a possible killer in its midst.
Scott Strathy, a detective who worked on the case, said: "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...
Nicholas in a 1994 mugshot (Facebook)"We literally had a monster in the community and we didn't know who it was."
Russian model killed after calling Putin a 'psychopath' was strangled by her ex
The clouds that hung over Federal Way didn't begin to clear until 2019, when forensic genetic testing led to Patrick Nicholas. Nicholas, a serial sexual assaulter, was out on parole when he brutalised the teen.
Anne Croney, who told CBS she had been assaulted at knifepoint by Nicholas eight years before Sarah's death, said: "The system failed. It really failed... He should have been locked up."
Nicholas was sentenced to 45 years behind bars (CBS)In May this year, Nicholas was sentenced to 45 years behind bars for the killing. Judge Josephine Wiggs, who handed down the sentence, said the crime was an "outrageous violation of a child."
She added: "His outrageous sexual assault upon a child, culminating in her murder a basis for an exceptional sentence."
KIRO 7 reported mum Laura Yarborough as saying: "We lived the last 30 years wondering when and if someone was going to be arrested and knowing that was kind of a Damocles sword hanging over your head and you never know when it’s going to fall."
For all the latest news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to The Mirror US
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
