![](https://asset.us.mistertruth.com/2023/05/yaU4UvRp-image.png)
Patrick Leon Nichols has been found guilty of murder by a jury in the 1991 cold case murder of Federal Way teen Sarah Yarborough.
On Dec. 14, 1991, 16-year-old Sarah Yarborough was found raped and murdered on the campus of Federal Way High School.
She was last seen leaving her home to go to a high school dance competition. Her car was found in the school parking lot and her body was discovered in a wooded area on campus later that day.
In 2019, after using familial DNA, police matched DNA from the crime scene to a man named Patrick Leon Nicholas.
Nicholas was charged with first-degree murder with sexual motivation.
His trial began Apr. 17 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
“Had we had the opportunity and the ability years ago to run familial testing, we would have identified, conceivably, that brother, and it would have helped us to narrow down and figure out who ultimately was responsible for this particular crime,” said retired King County homicide detective Kathy Decker.
Yarborough was last seen leaving her home on Dec. 14, 1991, to go to a high school dance competition. Her car was found in the school parking lot.
On the day of the murder, witnesses worked with investigators to help create a sketch of a potential suspect seen shortly before Yarborough’s body was found, partially hidden, near the school’s tennis courts.