DNA from cigarette helps convict child rapist
- By Web Desk -
- May 13, 2023
In a shocking incident, a child rapist who murdered 16-year-old Sarah Yarborough was convicted with the help of DNA from his cigarette.
The 16-year old was raped, strangled before getting murdered in a wooded area in 1991, in Federal Way.
The Patrick Leon Nicholas,59-year-old hailing from Washington. was convicted with the first degree with sexual intent and murder in the second degree, while dropping one count of premeditated first-degree murder.
He was arrested for the murder of Sarah Yarborough in October 2019, using advanced ancestry DNA techniques.
Despite the defense’s arguments that Nicholas did not match the killer’s description, he was found guilty. The prosecution’s main evidence against Nicholas was DNA evidence.
Over the years, the police had received hundreds of tips and looked into several suspects, but it wasn’t until Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, discovered that segments of Nicholas’s DNA matched evidence from the crime scene, including DNA from discarded cigarettes in 2019, that he became a prime suspect.
Sarah was alone in a parking lot just before school was due to begin when Nicholas grabbed her and dragged her into some nearby bushes where he assaulted her. Later, two 12-year-old boys discovered Sarah lying motionless on her back.