On 11/18/23 21:20, Blue state failures wrote:
> On 18 Nov 2023, Brother James <elonx@protonmail.com> posted some
> news:ujc397$3mf5o$1@dont-email.me:
>
>> Another incompetent Democrat failure involving mental illness.
>
> The 1991 murder of Sarah Yarborough shook the community of Federal Way,
> Washington, to its core — a 16-year-old girl found strangled on the campus
> of the local high school, still partially dressed in her drill team
> uniform. It was an image that stayed with even the most experienced
> investigators, and Sarah's family and friends were forever affected by her
> death.
>
> Generations of King County investigators worked the case – chasing down
> over 4,000 leads – but for decades the identity of Sarah's killer remained
> a mystery. When an arrest was finally made 28 years later, the suspect's
> criminal history revealed an alarming pattern of behavior, and to one
> woman, sparked outrage at what she calls a failure of the criminal justice
> system.
>
> "48 Hours" contributor Natalie Morales covers the case in "The Hunt for
> Sarah Yarborough's Killer" airing Saturday, Nov. 18 at 10/9c on CBS and
> streaming on Paramount+.
>
> It was a cold December morning in 1991 when the 16-year-old was found
> strangled to death on the campus of Federal Way High School, about 20
> miles south of Seattle. Sarah's body had been found in an area of
> overgrown brush, about 300 feet away from her car in the school parking
> lot. Sarah had arrived at school that morning thinking she was late to
> meet up with her drill team, and investigators were unsure of how she
> ended up so far from her car.
>
> Sarah had not been raped, but investigators extracted a full male DNA
> profile from semen found on Sarah's clothes. For years, King County
> Sheriff's detectives continually compared that unknown DNA profile against
> the CODIS database but there wasn't a match. It wasn't until 2019 that
> they finally got their break.
>
> Through the use of forensic genetic genealogy — the practice of using
> software to compare unknown DNA profiles to information from public DNA
> databases and searching family trees to identify suspects — investigators
> identified a man named Patrick Nicholas as a possible suspect. Undercover
> officers surveilled Nicholas and obtained a cigarette he had smoked. The
> DNA from that cigarette matched the male profile found on Sarah's
> clothing. Nicholas was arrested and charged with the murder of Sarah
> Yarborough.
>
> Soon after Nicholas' arrest, police in nearby Oregon knocked on the door
> of Anne Croney and told her that detectives in Seattle were interested in
> talking to her. Croney knew Nicholas because eight years before Sarah
> Yarborough was murdered, he had held Croney at knifepoint.
>
> In June 1983, Croney had gone to a park by the riverfront in Richland,
> Washington, to think by the water. She was sitting on the hood of her car,
> when a young man approached her and started up a conversation. He said his
> name was Pat Nicholas, and they chatted for a bit about the area. Croney
> asked him if he had gone water skiing in the river yet since it was a
> popular thing to do there, but Nicholas replied that he couldn't swim.
>
> Soon Croney noticed Nicholas' voice was becoming shaky, and she became
> uncomfortable. She said she had to go and went to the driver's seat of her
> car. As Croney went to start up the engine, Nicholas came around to the
> driver's side of the car and put a knife to her throat. He ordered her to
> take of her clothes, then stuffed her underwear into her mouth to prevent
> her from screaming. He proceeded to walk her down to the secluded area by
> the riverbank. About halfway down, Croney remembered Nicholas couldn't
> swim, and took off — diving into the river and swimming out as far as she
> could. "I swam for my life," says Croney.
>
> Nicholas was soon arrested and pleaded guilty to attempting to rape
> Croney. Police learned that he had recently been released from a nearby
> treatment facility, where he had served time as a juvenile for raping two
> women and attempted to rape a third. Multiple victims had been approached
> near their cars, where Nicholas would strike up conversation with them,
> pull a knife, order them to undress and rape them.
>
> While in police custody for the attack on Croney, Nicholas admitted to
> police that "I realize that I have a problem concerning raping girls. I
> was going to force the girl to have sex with me that day in the park, and
> I realize that is not right. I want help for my problem." Croney spoke at
> Nicholas' sentencing hearing, and a judge sentenced him to the maximum
> term: 10 years in prison. Croney thought justice had been served and
> moved on with her life, hardly thinking of Nicholas.
>
> But that all changed in 2019, when detectives told Croney about what had
> happened to Sarah Yarborough. In her first interview about the case,
> Croney tells Morales that learning of Sarah's murder changed her entire
> outlook on what had happened to her. "I was crushed," says Croney. "It had
> never occurred to me that what I escaped from was a murderer."
>
> What's more, Croney believed that Nicholas had served the full 10 years of
> his prison sentence. But he hadn't. He had been released on parole after
> just three-and-a-half years. "48 Hours" reviewed copies of Nicholas' file

Only 3 1/2 years. Unbeliebable!

> where it was noted that he did not have any "major infractions" while in
> prison and did not have a drug or alcohol problem. In one evaluation, it
> was written that he "would be safe to be at large given an ongoing
> therapeutic relationship and parole supervision." So, in 1987, Nicholas
> was released from prison early, with the understanding that he would go
> into an outpatient sex offender treatment program. It is not clear how
> long he stayed in that program.
>
> But one thing is clear to Croney – if Nicholas had served his full
> sentence, he would have still been behind bars that December morning in
> 1991, unable to murder Sarah Yarborough. "The system failed. It really
> failed," says Croney. "He should have been locked up."
>
> https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sarah-yarborough-murder-patrick-leon-
> nicholas-washington-state-in-prison-for-attacking-another-woman-released-
> early/