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50% off regular price for new customers. Upfront payment required $45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 month or $180 for 12 month plan taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when Network Terms you're listening to DNAID brought to you by Abject Entertainment. Be sure to check out some of the other great true crime podcasts from this network, including the Murder in My Family, Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, Zodiac Speaking Beyond Bizarre True Crime and Campus Killings. All of these podcasts are available for you to binge on right now. Wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe where you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. It was 1991. On Saturday, December 14, two boys named Adam and Drew, aged 12 and 13, were skateboarding on the grounds of Federal Way High School in the town of Federal Way near Seattle, Washington. It was a frigid morning, but boys don't feel the cold and Adam and Drew were carrying their boards and cutting through the school grounds around 9:20am heading to the Albertsons parking lot to board. Along the way they jumped in some frozen puddles, smashing the ice and laughing. You know boy stuff as they moved along the concrete path leading between the tennis courts and the bush covered hillside that led up to the outdoor track and practice field. A man surprised them when he popped up out of the bushes and started rapidly walking down the hillside ahead of them. There was no path there. The hillside was overgrown and a fence sat atop the hillside. The man looked back at the boys and even to the tweens he looked suspicious. They thought he was probably smoking weed in the bushes. The man continued moving at a rapid pace away from them toward the student parking lot 300ft away. Curious, the boys looked toward the place where the man had come down the hillside, which was covered in grassy weeds and four to five foot high brush. In the trampled down spot where the man had come from they saw a girl lying in the brush. She was on her back staring up at the sky, dressed in a high school drill team uniform with the top pushed up to her breasts. She looked dead because she was. The boys ran to Drew's house, a three minute sprint from the school, and shouted at his mom and stepdad, Wayne what they had seen. Wayne got in the car with Drew and drove to the location his stepson pointed out. At 9:33am a 911 call came into the King County Sheriff's Office from Drew's mother. She reported that her son and his buddy had found a dead girl wearing some kind of soldier uniform on a weedy hillside at Federal Way High School. Officers Keller, Gordon and Matson were dispatched to the scene. Federal Way Fire also responded, arriving at 9:35am and they pronounced the girl dead at 9:48. The officers secured the scene and took witness statements while Sergeant Flanagan called in Major Crimes. Detectives arriving at the scene at Federal Way High School took a look and noted the name Sarah on a piece of clothing by the deceased girl's body. She was soon identified as Sarah Yarborough, a Federal Way High School student. Police descended on the campus of Federal Way High School, located between South 304th and South 308th streets and bordered on the east by Pacific highway south and on the west by 11th Avenue South. Sarah was found in the northwest quadrant of the campus on a narrow, brush covered hillside. The hillside was maybe 30ft high and ended at the practice field above. At the bottom of the hillside was a concrete pathway maybe 10ft wide between the hillside and the tennis courts. The student parking lot where Sarah's car would be found was at the end of the concrete pathway. At 10:05am Detective Susan Peters was notified by her pager to call dispatch. By 11:44 she was at the scene. She was briefed by Detective Michael Hatch and Sergeant Spencer Nelson. Detective Peters would be the lead detective on the case, assisted by Detectives Hatch and Randy Mullinax. She assigned Officer Dana Malone to photograph the scene. Detective Hatch was assigned to collect evidence and make a videotape of the scene, and Detective Rick Chubb was assigned to sketch the crime scene. Then Detective Peters viewed the body. Her notes say the victim Is a white female lying on the bank east of the tennis courts. She appears to be approximately 16 to 17 years old. The teen lay on her back, her eyes open, her hands up around shoulder height. Her skirt was hiked up a little and twisted around to the side. Her sweater was pushed up, exposing her torso and breasts. She had a pair of nylon hose wrapped tightly around her neck. Her face was bloated and purple, consistent with strangulation. She also had some evident bruising on her face. White curlers were still in her red hair, and she was dressed in a drill team uniform, skirt and sweater. Her unlaced blue and white Nikes were on her feet, but it was apparent that at some point they had been off her feet. The nylons, it was guessed, were likely hers. A pair of socks lay on the ground three feet from the girl's body, along with a bra, a pair of underwear, a pair of blue drill briefs designed to be worn under the skirt, and a drill team jacket with Sarah embroidered on it. The clothing items appeared to have been placed neatly on the ground rather than tossed, and the victim appeared to have been redressed, minus the undergarments and her coat. This had all taken some time, which was noteworthy because even though it was a Saturday, there were people everywhere on the high school campus. Whoever had done this was remarkably brazen or diabolical. Around 12:45, the victim was identified by her drill team instructor, Katie woods, as Sarah Yarborough. The drill team had been scheduled to bust to a competition that morning, and Sarah had not shown up. With all the police activity on campus, 2 and 2 were quickly put together. After the identification, the entire drill team was assembled in the gym and told that Sarah Yarborough had been found dead. Most of them had already heard that someone had been killed Back in the woods near the tennis courts. There had been a lot of commotion on campus and rumors were rampant that a girl had been raped and shot. Neither was correct. Around 2:00pm Dr. Fligner from the King county medical examiner's office arrived at the scene and examined Sarah where she lay. The doctor advised detective Peters that the girl's core body temperature was 80 degrees. It was 47 degrees outside. She noted Sarah had petechiae in the eyes and no injuries to her hands. She also had an abrasion below her right eye. At 2:08pm Sarah's hands were bagged and she was removed to the medical examiner's office. She was brought into the autopsy suite. As she was found, her body was subjected to superglue fuming which was a way to detect whether there were any fingerprints on the body. At 3:38pm Dr. Flegner used the fluorescent light to scan her body and the results were negative for prints. But she had a shoe or boot impression on her left thigh that was distinct and was photographed as suspected. The cause of death was ligature strangulation. Someone had choked the life out of Sarah with her own pantyhose. There was also some evidence of manual strangulation. The ligature was wrapped tightly around Sarah's neck four times. She had a small abrasion above her right eye and a scrape on the lower left of her chin. She also had bruises on both knees. Petechiae were in her eyes and on her face. Her legs were scraped and dirty. The medical examiner was unable to detect any evidence that Sarah had been raped. I know, I know. We've heard this before and it always turns out to be wrong. But in this case, there was no sign whatsoever of sexual penetration. Dr. Fleigner stated there was no bruising in the vaginal area and no evidence of forced sex. Dr. Flegner analyzed the vaginal swabs from both the inside and outside of Sarah's vagina and found no evidence of sperm. And no semen or sperm was found anywhere at all in or on Sarah. Evidence texts poured over Sarah's clothing. The coat, the bra, the underwear and socks that were three feet from her person. They were in an odd pile, almost bundled together. And on those items they detected what's been referred to as copious amounts of semen. Mike Grubb from the Washington State Crime Lab reported to Detective Peters that there was semen on Sarah's blue briefs, her pink underpants, her left glove, the nylon ligature, and inside the drill team jacket on the left shoulder area. The positioning of the semen told the investigators that the sticky substance had been deposited on the clothing after the items had been removed from her body and placed on the ground. Based on the positioning of the clothing items found near Sarah relative to the semen, which was evident, the investigators could tell that the semen had been deposited on the items after they were already placed where they were found. The killer had stripped Sarah of her hose, socks, bra and underwear, strangled her, put her shoes and sweater back on, and then masturbated over the pile of clothing. So who was 16 year old? Sarah Yarborough? Sarah Louise Yarborough was born on June 4, 1975 in Seattle, Washington to parents Laura and John Yarborough. She was older sister to brothers Micah, age 14. And Andrew, age 11. Sarah grew up in Federal Way outside Tacoma, where her parents were both employed by Weyerheuser Corporation. Tom Holmquest. Her grandfather was an electrical engineer there, and her mom, Laura, was a nurse there. Her mother, Laura, described Sarah as fiercely intelligent but somewhat shy. The freckled redhead loved dolls, hot tea, poetry, nature, art and music. She had been a campfire girl and was a loving, fun and role model older sister to her brothers. A new driver, she sometimes took her little brothers to their soccer games and so on. Shortly before her death, she had developed a passion for art, learning to draw and sketch. She was an accomplished ballerina, dancing at the British Dance Academy, and her dance talents had won her a place on her high school's competitive drill team, which is why she was wearing a uniform when she was killed. Sarah was known to read constantly, often having her face in a book, and was an honor student at Federal Way High School, excelling in math and science and aspiring to be a pediatrician. She participated enthusiastically in extracurriculars and had just won a necktie contest at the school the week before she was killed. She wore her dad's Santa tie, which was voted best. She also loved to travel and had been to New Zealand twice with youth groups she was affiliated with, as well as traveling to Europe with her own family. Sarah had a small group of very close friends who described her as always cheerful and friendly. According to a memorial in the drill team yearbook in memory of Sarah. She was, quote, a beautiful spirit and a loving soul with bouncy red hair, a loving devotion to her family and God, a friend to all. The Yarrowborough family was Baptist and devout. Sarah read the Bible and participated in church activities and sang second soprano in the choir. The police reports I read indicated that Sarah had a boyfriend, Matt P. Who was also a student at Federal Way High School. Matt told the investigators that he and Sarah were an item, but Sarah's parents told police that Sarah did not have a boyfriend and she was absolutely not sexually active. Her mother, Laura, said her daughter was somewhat oblivious about boys and didn't seem to notice when they checked her out. She did have plans to ask a boy she liked, Jim B. To an upcoming school dance, but that was as serious as it got. It's really unclear whether Sarah was being dishonest with her parents or Matt exaggerated his relationship with Sarah. Laura said that Sarah was her best friend and a wonderful daughter. Their mother daughter relationship was extremely close, loving and supportive. A 1993 victimology by a King county police expert found that Sarah was a Typical teenage girl, except that she was a little naive and she was very intelligent. She was a hard worker and passionate about her hobbies and interests. The memo concludes, quote, I can say without hesitation that the loss of this girl has caused this family deep pain. This crime will impact this family, especially the brothers, for years to come. Without a resolution to this murder, the family may not ever recover. Neither would the community of Federal Way. It's impossible to overstate the impact Sarah's murder had on everyone who heard about it, from the police officers who worked it, to the students and staff at Federal Way High School, to neighbors and locals. The innocent, smiling redhead had been attacked and killed on school grounds somewhere where children are supposed to be safe. This area of the country was already traumatized by the recent specters of serial killers Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer. Washington State Police did not want another prolific serial killer on their hands. But Sarah's murder, so brazen and brutal, seemed just like something a budding serial killer would do. They came to believe that Sarah had been killed by a stranger who'd been loitering at the school that morning. The question was, was he waiting for any unlucky victim to come along or was he waiting for Sarah specifically?
- [15:14]
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- [15:44]
Tara Davis Woodhull
Hey, this is U.S. olympic gold medalist Tara Davis Woodhull.
- [15:47]
Hunter Woodhull
And I'm U.S. paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.
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Tara Davis Woodhull
As athletes, our lives are about having.
- [15:52]
Hunter Woodhull
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- [15:56]
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- [16:14]
Public Investing Advertiser
Support for the show comes from public the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, cryp now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an Investable Index with AI it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index, and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibility, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures.
- [17:17]
Narrator
Sarah's parents were particularly devastated because they were racked by feelings of guilt. You see, they had left town on Friday to take their sons to a weekend soccer tournament in Ocean Shores, 107 miles away. Sarah stayed home alone to go to her drill team competition. Her mother didn't want to leave her, but Sarah said she'd be fine. She was having a friend spend the night and she had drilled team all day. On Saturday, once Sarah was identified, a police officer showed up at the Ocean Shores soccer tournament looking for the Yarboroughs. Once he tracked them down on the sidelines, they were told they needed to call home. Tom called Laura's mom, Carol. She said they needed to come home right away. Sarah was missing. She hadn't shown up for drill team and there was no answer at the house. Laura and Tom drove the two hours home, leaving their son Andrew with his team. They'd been instructed to meet police at a friend's home. Unbeknownst to them, their own home was surrounded by TV crews. Police were waiting for them. What was it? They asked. What's going on? It was literally unthinkable. One minute there were soccer parents worried about their kids playing time or thinking about lunch. The next, their child was dead. Sarah's funeral was attended by 1,200 people who overflowed the Bible Baptist Church in Auburn, the church that the Yarboroughs attended. Her drill team attended dressed in their uniforms. Her friends carried her casket. Her desk in the front row of her Anglo Saxon literature class remained empty, unassigned to anyone new for the remainder of the school year. Let Me explain the scene at Federal Way High School. Sarah was found in the bushes above the pathway next to the tennis courts. Above her at the top of the bushy hill was the fenced practice field. The concrete pathway ended at the student parking lot, which sat below the end of the practice field above. And Sarah's father's car was found parked backed in in a parking spot very near the tennis courts. Sarah's car was found unlocked with her purse and things still inside, things that she would have taken with her to the drill team competition that day. Her portable drinking container of orange juice was still sitting upright on the passenger seat. Investigators noted drag marks through the brush on the hillside leading to where Sarah was found. They came to the conclusion that Sarah was likely attacked at or even in her vehicle, knocked unconscious with two blows to the face and dragged by the arms about 300ft to the spot across from the tennis courts. Her knees and shins got scraped and grass stained her skin and clothes as she was dragged. Her assailant finally reached a spot amidst the bushes on the hillside that seemed to out of the way and protected from prying eyes. Although this spot, as we will hear, was not protected after all. So who had attacked Sarah at her car? Had she met or run into someone she knew as she pulled into the school and this someone turned on her? This seemed the most likely theory at the outset for strangers lurking on school grounds at 8.15am on a Saturday was thought to be very unlikely. 20 major crimes detectives were pulled into the Yarborough case over the weekend as police grimly tackled every investigative avenue they could come up with. The most important of these was witness interviews. Detectives Hatch, Mullinax and Peters interviewed Mr. And Mrs. Yarborough. They related all the biographical information we just discussed, of course. The detectives asked whether Sarah had any enemies or could have had a liaison with a boy. No. Laura and Tom said they didn't know of anything out of the ordinary that was going on with their daughter. No strange phone calls, no strange cars, no threats or enemies, no boyfriend. They said she was quiet and focused on her drill team and ballet and her schoolwork. They shut down the possibility that Sarah had been up to something illicit while her parents were out of town. That was out of the question, they said. Detective Peters interviewed Shannon Sutton, Sarah's friend, who was believed to be the last person to see her alive. Shannon related what had happened during the last 12 hours of Sarah's life. Shannon had picked Sarah up at home around 7pm to go to the basketball game at the high school at Halftime they took her car to go to Jack in the Box Drive Thru for fries. After the game ended at nine, they went to Shannon's house where she picked up some stuff, said hi to her mom and then they left and went to Sarah's house. They stopped at Blockbuster and rented some videos including the Julia Roberts domestic violence drama Sleeping with the Enemy. Then they went to Albertsons where they bought chips and dip. The detectives wrote down that Shannon reported that one of the Albertsons courtesy guys said hi to them. They got to Sarah's house around 10. They made burgers and while they were fixing the burgers they got some prank phone calls from kids Eric W. And Jaden L. Both juniors at Federal Way. Shannon and Sarah had planned to pick up their friends Angie M. And Shannon King at some guy's apartment. Around 11:30 they drove over to Club west, building 42, apartment 102. Shannon Kay and Angie were with three guys. But Sarah and Shannon S. Only knew who one of them was, a Mike D. The girls did not go inside. Angie and Shannon K. Came out and Sarah and Shannon S. Drove them home. Then the two girls returned to Sarah's house. They put on a movie and predictably fell asleep. At some point in the night Sarah asked Shannon if she wanted to go upstairs from the basement. But Shannon was too tired so she stayed downstairs. The next morning Sarah had to be up for her drill team competition. She Woke up at 7:50 and left the house at 8:10, panicking that she was late for the bus. When she left the house, Shannon reported Sarah's hair was piled on top of her head with curlers in it. She wore her drill team uniform including gloves and drill jacket and sneakers. She normally carried her drill practice shoes until it was time to put them on. Shannon didn't think Sarah wore any jewelry that day and none had been found with her body. Sarah grabbed her purse, her jewel team bag, the container of orange juice and drove to the school. After a while Shannon left Sarah's house to drive home. By the time she left and drove by the high school police crime scene tape was up. She went home and got some calls later from people looking for Sarah. Where is Sarah? She did not show up for drill team. Soon Shannon learned what had happened. The investigators asked Shannon about Sarah's personal life and she echoed Sarah's parents sentiments. Sarah was a typical if somewhat focused and non boy crazy high school girl. There was no drama and nothing risky at all in her lifestyle. Shannon's interview went a long way toward helping police establish the timeline for Sarah's last hours. They were eager to learn whether she had had plans to meet up with anyone that morning and she had her entire drill team. The team had a big competition that day at another high school and they were all supposed to meet at Federal Way High School and get on the school bus to the venue. Shannon told the investigators that Sarah had left the house at 8:10am in a panic because she was late. She was supposed to meet the team at the school at 8. Sarah threw on her uniform, said bye to Shannon, and gotten her dad's Honda Civic to drive to school because the 1986 Dodge Colt her parents gave her when she turned 16 was in the shop. Based on Sarah's dad's car being found in the student parking lot, police believe Sarah drove straight to the school located at 30611 16th Avenue south, about five minutes from her house, which was at 30627 4th Place South. She parked the car in the far corner of the student lot near the tennis courts. She was planning on heading to the school gym where the drill team was scheduled to meet. What Sarah didn't know was that she had the time of the meeting wrong. The team was meeting at 9, not 8. She was about 45 minutes early. Investigators believed that Sarah had realized her mistake and was sitting in her car, perhaps listening to music, reading or drinking her orange juice, when someone approached her. The investigators questioned all of the members of Sarah's drill team, trying to find out if anyone had seen her that morning. No one had. But one team member said they had arrived at the school around 8:25am and saw Sarah's car parked in the student lot. No one was around it and it was unclear whether anyone was inside. Let's return to the two tween eyewitnesses, Drew and Adam. Police interviewed them at length, convinced they had seen Sarah's killer. Even at the estimated distance of 150ft, the boys were able to give a good description of the man they'd seen. They worked with a police identikit to create a composite of the man they'd seen. He was a white male wearing a long dark trenchcoat, dark pants and dark shoes. They weren't too certain of his age and described him as 17 to 30 years old. But they said he was tall, 6ft to 6ft one, probably 160 pounds, with light brown or blonde shoulder length hair worn in a mullet. He had no facial hair, but had red marks on his face which were interpreted as acne and pockmarks. Although this Was not reflected in the first sketch released to the public. Police desperately wanted to find this mulleted trench coat wearing man. They started trying to identify everyone who was on the grounds of Federal Way High School that morning. It turned out there were more than 70 people in the building and on the grounds of the high school that day between 6am and 9:33am boys on the football team were weight training. About 20 kids were in Saturday school. Worse than regular detention. Think the Breakfast Club. People were walking or running on the track in school grounds and many of them double digits had seen the same thing. A man with long straight dishwater blonde hair in a long dark trench coat walking at various places such as the entry gate to the parking lot. Detective James Doyon later wrote in an investigative report, quote, at least a dozen Federal Way High School students saw the individual wearing the long dart trench coat on the morning of December 14th. None of them identified him as being a student at the high school, end quote. A man named David S. Called Detective Susan Peters and said he'd seen something. He told her in an interview that he had been at Federal Way high school around 9:15 to 9:30 that morning to meet his brother in law whose daughter was a student there. He drove toward the back of the school and parked at the track and field area. Quote, I was looking toward the fence from the inside. There was a young guy wearing a black trench coat and black pants and shoes, kinda evening dress. And I was walking toward him and he was walking toward me about 100, not more than 150ft and he stopped and looked at me. When I looked he was surprised and he looked at me and then he took off running toward the building area, end quote. He described the man as white, young, having collar length hair and cheekbones. He would recognize him if he saw him again. So Detective Peters arranged for David to have an identicate composite done. This resulted in a second sketch that was also released to the public. A witness named Anna S. Was interviewed and eventually hypnotized to maximize her recall. She was on the campus of Federal Way High School that morning. Her son Les was a student and he had Saturday school. So she drove to the back parking lot area. This was around 8:15. She dropped less and as she drove out of the parking lot area a small four door car passed her going the other way. Police believe this was Sarah and her dad's car. As Anna drove toward the street she saw a long haired man in a dark olive drab long coat walking toward the student parking lot. He had his hands in his pockets and his collar turned up. His head was down, so she didn't get a good look at his face. Anna was back home by 8:35, so police believed the timing was exactly right for her to have seen Sarah and the man who killed her before they converged. But then another witness came forward who would prove to be crucial. A man named Mustafa B. Reported to police that he had been out jogging that Saturday morning. Just as he did every morning, he left his house after 9. He ran onto the Federal Way High School grounds and into the parking lot and saw about three to five cars in the lot where Sarah's car was parked. At around 9:10am he was jogging near the tennis courts when he saw something on his right moving in the brush on the hillside adjacent to the practice field. While running by, he could see a white girl lying on her back on the ground with bare legs. A white man in his mid-20s was kneeling over her left side, his head close to her head. He was wearing a dark blue trench coat and dark pants. This was all just a glance. Mustafa minded his own business, thinking they were a couple making out, and continued on his run. He ran to the end of the tennis courts and came back around. Looking through the tennis court fence, he could not see the couple because the sun was in his eyes. He ran back slowly, he admitted, because he kind of wanted to see what was going on. He was in the middle of the pathway moving south with the tennis courts. On his right, he saw the man and girl again. His left hand was on her right thigh. His right hand was on her chest or torso. He was laying on his stomach, moving over her. Mustafa could see the man's chin and it looked like he was kissing or touching her, but he seemed to hover one inch above her. He had long straight hair that was hanging down as he hung over her. The man didn't see him. He didn't think the man was dressed, but Mustafa noted that the girl was wearing a cheerleading uniform, white and blue. She was wearing a skirt, but it was pulled up. Although he couldn't see her private parts, he saw white. It could have been her shirt or bra. She had reddish hair. He never saw her face. Because the man was bent over her. He never saw her move. Mustafa left and ran back out to the roadway. He assumed what he had seen was students fooling around. He ran the city streets for about 15 to 20 minutes and came back to do his sprints on the tennis courts, which he entered from the south. As he was on the courts, an older guy yelled to him that his wife had called the police and quote, the son of a bitch killed her. Looking over, he saw the girl was still lying on the ground. And as they stood there, the ambulance and fire truck arrived. That's when Mustafa realized what he had seen. Since he was by far their best witness, Mustafa was questioned numerous times about what exactly he had seen. He described the man he saw moving over Sarah, and his description gave rise to yet another sketch. The police released the sketches of the suspect to the public and asked for anyone with information to come forward. Over the years, they received more than 4,000 tips, but none of them led to the identification of the killer.
- [32:03]
Capella University Advertiser
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- [32:33]
Tara Davis Woodhull
Hey, this is US Olympic gold medalist.
- [32:35]
Hunter Woodhull
Tara Davis Woodhull and I'm US Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.
- [32:39]
Tara Davis Woodhull
As athletes, our lives are about having.
- [32:41]
Hunter Woodhull
Experience, clear path, and a team that you can absolutely trust.
- [32:44]
Tara Davis Woodhull
So when it came to getting the.
- [32:45]
Hunter Woodhull
Best mortgage, we chose PennyMac.
- [32:47]
Tara Davis Woodhull
PennyMac is proud to be the official mortgage provider of Team USA and you.
- [32:52]
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- [33:03]
Public Investing Advertiser
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures.
- [34:06]
Narrator
Police spent countless hours following up on another potential lead, an unidentified car seen in the high school parking lot that day. Unfortunately, by the time Detective Doyon thought to obtain from the school the list of students authorized to park in the lot, the school had discarded the list. But several people had seen the vehicle that stuck out and could be related to the murder. Police thought a woman named Gay had come to the track early in the morning around 6am with her daughter. Gay noted that there was one car below in the parking lot and it appeared to be frosted over. The car wasn't on and she couldn't see if anyone was inside. She described it as a brown hatchback like a Pinto that was kind of beat up. Some football players, Todd M And Mark M. Showed up around 6:45 and they saw the car too. As they drove through the parking lot they both observed a quote tannish brown beat up Chevy Nova with a guy with scrubby looking hair in the driver's seat. Ten minutes later they saw this car down near the tennis courts. Another witness named Roy S. Said that On Saturday the 14th, around 9 to 9:30am he was driving southbound on Hoyt Road when a brown Chevy Nova came speeding into the intersection. The driver was a white male about 20 to 25 with longer brown hair and a brown jacket. He looked at the police composite and said that that looked like the driver he saw. These several sightings of a Chevy Nova led to the conclusion that this was the likely suspect vehicle. It was described by witnesses as a beat up and noisy tan or brown nova from the 1970s with black bumpers and white bumper stickers. Police ran a statewide computer check with the Department of Licensing in Olympia on 73 to 74 Chevy Novas trying to track down the one they sought. As you might be gathering, the King County Police launched a massive investigation into Sarah's murder, the first homicide in Federal Way in 1991. They tripled the manpower on the case. Here are some things that were done. Investigators tried to gather the names of all of Sarah's known associates and prioritized those very few who might have a motive to attack Sarah. Of course they spoke with Matt and Jim B. The guy her mom and friend Shannon said Sarah was planning to ask to the dance. Detective Peters also looked into a guy named by Sarah's close friend Michelle, who told the detective that about a year ago a guy named Brett had been pestering Sarah. Brett had stopped her when she was walking toward the Albertsons and asked her if she wanted to smoke with him. Sarah's little brother Micah was able to describe this guy since he had seen this incident with Brett as well as some others. Detective Peters seems to have ruled Brett out as there's nothing about him in the later case file materials. Expanding their inquiry beyond Sarah's inner circle and acquaintances, detectives prioritized talking to all the students, staff and citizens they could find who'd been at the school that day. Kids like Dawn R, Christina S, Josh W, Andy F. They tracked down the more than 20 kids who were in Saturday school that day, guys like Lee S. Some of whom became suspects, which I'll get into eventually. They identified and interviewed 71 people who were believed to be the sum total of everyone, quote, legitimately present at Federal Way High School on the morning of Saturday, December 14, 1991. The investigators also gathered the names of kids who were deemed troublemakers or miscreants and now young adults who had previously attended the school and fit the description and who had gone down the wrong path in life since high school. Detective Peters met with the school principal and security guards to ask if they had any helpful information about men seen on the grounds, disturbing or concerning incidents, ex students who might be problematic, and so on. They brought in an expert profiler from the Seattle police who had been trained by the FBI, Bob Guibo. He analyzed all aspects of the homicide and tried to determine whether it was the work of a potential serial killer or whether Sarah was specifically targeted. He believed her killer was a sexual psychopath, a person who came across as normal but thrived on a secret fantasy world and quickly descended into violence. The man was likely dirty and disorganized, and this was his first murder. Police surveilled Sarah's funeral looking for anyone with a mullet who looked like the suspect. Investigators made use of new computer capabilities to log tips and cross reference information. A brand new $40,000 five times faster computer was loaned to the King County Police Green river task Force by three area businesses who did not want to be credited publicly. The loan was facilitated by Sarah's maternal grandfather, John Holmquist, who was a senior scientist at Weyerhaeuser, where both Yarborough parents also worked. In the first year of the investigation. Sarah's Granddad spoke with Detective Doyon twice a week, was granted access to all case information, and helped peruse the tips and case info for any clues. Police needed the computer system to keep track of all the tips. By 20 December, less than a week after the murder, they had received more than 1,000 of them. This number would grow to 3,200 by the first anniversary and eventually 4,000 plus. Many of the early tips related to beat up Chevy Novas and men who looked like the composites. Detective Thomas Jensen was tasked with managing the computer databases and logging information about tips, leads and names separately from police. The Weyerhaeuser Corporation, where both of Sarah's parents and her grandfather worked, distributed 10,000 flyers through local chambers of commerce seeking information and offering a $10,000 reward put up by the company. The flyers featured the subject composite. They questioned Sarah's friends and pretty much everyone she was acquainted with. One of these was her self titled boyfriend, Matt. He was devastated by her death and fully cooperated with the police. In his interview, he said the two had talked on the phone for an hour in the night before the murder, which sounds wrong since Shannon said nothing about that. But Matt was specific, saying Sarah had expressed excitement about the drill team event the next day. He said he loved her and that they had plans to see each other later that day. As I said, it's unclear what this relationship actually amounted to, and Matt had an alibi, but his name came up at trial decades later. Continuing with investigative activities, the investigators collected a video recording of the basketball game played at Federal Way High School on the night of Friday the 13th and reviewed it to see if anyone stood out pestering Sarah. I watched it. It's incredibly grainy. I don't know how anyone could make heads or tails of it. The investigators checked people on the sex offender registry, which I always say somewhat facilely, but in this case there were 11,000 registered and unregistered sex offenders in the county. According to the Seattle Times, between 16 and 20 of those men lived in Federal Way and for obvious reasons, those men were prioritized. Police also checked on recent prison releases and showed the suspect's sketch at local drug treatment centers. They asked all patrol officers to notify the detectives about lower level sex criminals they encountered, such as Peeping Toms, exhibitionists and so on. They checked tenants residing in the low rent apartments surrounding the school. They checked everyone who received a police citation in the area on the 13th, 14th and 15th. They checked subjects known to assault females in King county and Pierce County. This Case was one of those rare large scale homicide investigations in which no one suspect stood out. There were eventually thousands of names in the case file, but just a handful rose to the level of a real viable suspect. Two of those were Deon T. And Ralph L. Both men were tipped as resembling the suspect's sketch and both were already known to police for previous incidents of law enforcement contact. Dion was interviewed by Detective DOYON and in November 1992, after he was tipped for looking like the composite. He was 19 and did not go to Federal Way High School. He admitted to Detective Doyon that he did feel he looked like the composite sketch, down to the acne scars, but maintained he didn't know Sarah and said he had nothing to do with her death. Dion was alibi'd by his mother, who said he was home that morning and helped her load her truck for the dump. This was verified by a woman who rented a room from Dion's mom. Deon failed a polygraph and agreed to give a blood test for DNA comparison. He maintained he was innocent, but unfortunately for him, he wasn't very bright and said things like, I'd be surprised if my DNA was on Sarah because I don't remember doing anything, or as far as I know, I was home asleep. These statements didn't sound like even he was convinced of his innocence. DNA tests cleared Dion, but that would not prevent his name being brought up at trial decades later. Ralph L. Was the subject of a tip and was cleared by DNA, a precautionary test done after Detective Doyon had cleared him because his medical records showed his arm was in a cast at the time of Sarah's murder. His brother Robert was also the subject of a tip from a caller who said the sketch looked like the caller's neighbor, Robert. Robert had a burglary conviction, so he was of interest to police too. But both men were eventually crossed off the list. 1991 came to an end and 1992 rolled around, with Detective Peters continuing to conduct interviews and follow up on people who looked like the composite. Instacart helps you get what you need fast, like when the watch party at your place finally makes it out of the group chat. Suddenly you need snacks, drinks, and all the things nobody planned for. With Instacart, you can get groceries and party essentials delivered. Just download the app, place your order, and it shows up in as fast as 30 minutes. 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- [45:04]
Narrator
In June 1992, Detective Jim Doyon of the Major Crimes Unit was assigned as the full time lead detective on the Yarborough case. He did an incredible amount of work over many years to come, organizing all the files and coming up with creative ways to drum up leads. He and Detective Thomas Jensen operated as an efficient team using the loaned Weyerhaeuser computer system to categorize, follow up on and clear tips which numbered over 3,100 at this point, only 900 of which had been cleared. They used NCIC background checks, interviews, polygraphs, DNA comparisons and alibi confirmations. Many of the tips related to Chevy Novas, but some were more interesting, such as two separate tips that named the same sex offender from California and another that crossed over with suspects from the Green River Killer case. Detective Doyon also arranged for the Federal Way News to run a story reminding the public that the case was unsolved and timed it to coincide with the day that school commenced in September 1992. Only 12 additional tips came in, a low number, which was surprising to Detective Doyon. He had had potential suspects got his hope ups, men like Logan H. And Alan R. But they were eventually ruled out just like everyone else the investigators focused on. From what I saw, Detective Doyon was very interested in a student at Federal Way High School named Jason Roberts. Doyon interviewed him on October 1, 1992. Jason was only 16 years old and had been dropped at the high school that morning for Saturday school, a requirement for kids for whom after school detention was deemed insufficient punishment. At a 15, his father dropped him off in front of the school with his buddy Joel S. He met up with Les S and had a smoke in the student parking lot. He saw a small white car but didn't see any others. He also saw a white male checking the auto shop class doors. This male had long blond hair and was wearing black combat boots, a long dark trench coat to his ankles and dark jeans. He appeared to be in his 20s and had acne. The male was walking around the back of the school and was scrubby looking as Jason said. Jason and Joel walked the long way to avoid him because he looked scary. Detective Doyon characterized the trenchcoat guy as a butt rocker, someone who listened to heavy metal. Jason said he knew who Sarah Yarborough was but never saw her that morning. Jason's blase attitude drew Detective Doyon's interest and he interviewed Jason's friend Joel as well. For some reason, the detective wasn't fully satisfied with their answers and he requested a blood sample from Jason that would rule him out. As a side note, Jason went on to murder a Federal Way police officer. In July of 2003, Officer Patrick Marr, a father of three, intervened in a fight among Jason, his father and his brother over a theft the two were accusing Jason of. This was all in the parking lot of a Federal Way convenience store. Jason, one of the people involved in the fight, ran away and tried to scale a wooden fence. The officer hauled him down and Jason fought with him and was able to grab his weapon first. He aimed the gun at his ex girlfriend and his brother and when the officer tried to disarm him, Jason shot him in the abdomen under his bulletproof vest. Officer Marr died at the scene and Jason went to prison. Back to our story. In October 1992, Detective Doyon was meticulously recontacting the 31 students who were scheduled to attend Saturday school at Federal Way high school on December 14, 1991. He was intrigued that the notes of the original investigators reported that many of these Saturday students arrived on the campus from as early as 8:15am Many reported seeing the victim's car in the student parking lot. Some reported observing the male subject who was wearing the long trench coat. I'm contacting each one in person on the school campus so that they in turn can walk me through their movements that day. Additionally, I want to see each one of these students in person to assess their physical appearance and their responses to me to date. 9-30-1992. I have interviewed and obtained statements from six of these persons. Two have been a particular interest to me. Both male students report seeing the male with the long black trench coat at different times in the student parking lot. I'll provide the following description of the suspect. These are all Detective Doyon's notes. Quote, A white male in his late teens to early twenties, around six foot tall, give or take an inch, around 150 to 160 pounds. Nothing unusual about his walk. No jewelry worn by the suspect has been noted. He has blonde hair. Most likely it is a light brown to medium blonde. The hair is long past the neck, messy, scraggly. It covers the forehead almost to the eyes. It is either feathered or curly in the back. The hair was tucked into the trench coat collar. Possibly the suspect had acne like big white zits around the cheeks. The trench coat he was wearing was likely black, cheap, maybe from military surplus. Four to six inches below the knees. Button up versus zippered, no belt. A possible breast flap or double breasted wristbands on the sleeve, probably decorative, not functional detailing. The suspect was wearing dark blue jeans, not western style, probably Levi 505s, loose at the bottoms. Was also wearing black jump boots, lace up type, like the punk rockers or butt rockers wear. Walking with his hands in his pocket. I'm jumping ahead a little, but. In May 1993, police released a new suspect sketch that perfectly captured this description. The sketch by Federal Way architect and certified police artist Rob Erickson took eight hours to perfect and was rated a 9.7 out of 10 in terms of accuracy by the witnesses. It was widely circulated in the Seattle and King county areas. Detective Doyon received 35 tips within a few hours of the release of this sketch and doggedly investigated them all. Detective Doyon expanded all these projects to investigate suspects involved in arson and individuals known to police to wear long dark trench coats. He hand searched every report at the Federal Way precinct going back to 1985, searching for white males who met the physical parameters of the suspect as well as any contacted by law enforcement near the high school and any vehicles associated with those persons. It was a herculean effort. You've heard me say that. Some potential suspects were ruled out by DNA. By the early 1990s, the DNA era was firmly underway. Although it was still novel to the public. The semen on Sarah's clothing was subjected to RFLP testing, the only kind available in the early 1990s at the Washington State Police crime Lab. King County Police then used the Profile developed from the semen on the clothing to compare to suspects. An article in the Valley Daily News reported that the police had obtained a search warrant for a blood sample from a man who lived in Federal Way at the time of the murder, who was known to police for various drug arrests. The sample from this man was to be subjected to, quote, genetic fingerprinting to determine whether he was Sarah's killer. According to Detective Doyon, who spoke to the Valley Daily News, this Guy was just one of 3,000 men who were on the detectives list of people to be investigated. By this time in October 1992, they had already tested about 15 MET, 14 of whom had voluntarily contributed DNA samples and been ruled out. 500 persons whose DNA was already on file with the crime lab had also been eliminated. Despite all this work, 10 months after the murder, Detective Doyen hadn't made much actual headway. Detective Peters had located and ruled out the beat up brown Chevy Nova, having identified the owner who knew the police were seeking a car like his and was on campus that morning but had not come forward. It turned out though that he had a legitimate reason to be at the school that day. He was subjected to a polygraph and eliminated by DNA comparison. After that, the investigators had concluded the suspect came to Federal Way High School on foot. They had absolutely eliminated any possibility that Sarah knew her killer, which made catching him all, all the more urgent. The crime of opportunity was committed by a sexual deviant and fantasist who had escalated after probably engaging in lower level crimes like peeping and exposing himself. His blitz attack on Sarah was disorganized and sloppy. Detective Doyon noted he left cement all over Sarah's clothing. Doyon told the Federal Way News, quote, you can't change your DNA. If I never solve this case, technology will. By the time the first anniversary of Sarah's murder came around, Detective Doyon had ruled out several men whom he had considered very good suspects. These included the aforementioned Dion and Ralph and Jason. Others were A Corey N. And a Chad A. Who had been expelled from the high school in 1990. A Carl G. An auto thief who was arrested in Idaho and looked like the composite, and Sean F. Who looked like the composite and graduated in 1986. Detective Doyon admitted discouragement, telling the Federal Way News, I'm back to square one. It was very hard to believe that with multiple witnesses seeing the suspect and having his DNA profile, the case wasn't open and shut. Still, Doyon was convinced the case was solvable and felt that the suspect was likely named somewhere in the massive case file, of course. Sarah Yarborough's family was interviewed for the first anniversary of her murder. The Federal Way News talked to her mom, Laura, who said, quote, we are coping. It's really difficult. A lot of people don't realize when you lose a child by homicide, it's a full time job to recover. You do what you have to do. But it's hard. It's like a sword hanging over your head. Every time the phone rings, I wonder if it's a detective telling me they've caught him. You always wonder if he's behind you in line at the grocery store or on the street corner. When Sarah's high school class graduated in the spring of 1993, they unveiled a granite bench memorial to her at the school. Students started the group sarahs, which stood for supporting and raising amounts to help scholarships. Using funds donated to the organization. Scholarships were given to three 1993 graduates to add to the poignancy of the moment. Graduation for the class of 1993 took place on what would have been Sarah's 18th birthday. The bench was unveiled by Yarborough, family friend Bill Fuller, and Sarah's brother Andrew. Inscribed on the bench is the phrase carpe diem and bronze figures of Sarah's dog, Gibby. Some books, a backpack, two ballet slippers and a necktie. All things evocative of the cheery redhead who was taken from them all.
- [55:36]
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- [56:06]
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Hey, this is U.S. olympic gold medalist Tara Davis Woodhull.
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- [57:40]
Narrator
Anniversary of Sarah's murder, Detective Doyon had polygraphed over 100 people and collected DNA samples from 20. This testing and eliminating went on for years, no doubt getting up the hopes of Detective Doyon each time. For example, in April 1994, another man was ruled out by DNA. This man, unlike the previous tested, had refused to give a DNA sample. King county police had to obtain a court order to require him to give one. According to the News Tribune, this POI attracted police interest because he had an extensive criminal record. He had been convicted 27 times of criminal acts, including a sexual assault and burglary in Santa Barbara, California in which he threatened to strangle a woman. Detective Doyon told the publication that he still had 140 solid tips that needed to be pursued. He firmly believed that the case would be solved by DNA, telling the News Tribune in April 1994 that, quote, if I was the person who murdered Sarah Yarborough and left my DNA at the scene, I'd be sweating. At some point he'll be living a normal life and get a knock on the door. How prescient. On the third anniversary, Jim Doyon was still working the case full time. He told the Seattle Times he had read the 30,000 page case file three times and personally checked into 1700 tips. A reward for information stood at $21,500. Police were still hopeful that the case, which they described as active and still generating Five tips a month would be solved sooner rather than later. Sarah's grandfather, John Holmquist, very involved in the police investigation, remained confident in the police as well. He told the Seattle Times, quote, I think Doyon is going to solve it. Well, he tried, but sometimes hard work and creative investigating fail to pay off. By January 1995, Doyon told the News Tribune that they had investigated 4,000 leads and looked into 39 suspects, polygraphed and blood tested three dozen men and interviewed hundreds of people. The case remained open because tips continued to come in and the community continued to express grave concerns about the possibility of a murderer roaming the grounds of their schools. But even Detective Doyon admitted that unless progress was made soon, the case might be placed on inactive status by the spring of 1995. He said, Nobody wants to hear this, but sometimes people do get away with murder. It's been a frustrating three years. I wish I had something good to tell Sarah's family. I really do. I was interested to read in this article in the News Tribune that Detective Doyon said even if the case was closed, there might be hope because the FBI was, quote, investigating the idea of creating a statewide DNA bank for criminals convicted of violent or sexual offenses. Police could use the bank much in the way fingerprints were used. Samples from suspects could be matched with blood or semen found at the crime scene. The DNA bank would be a revolutionary crime fighting tool, end quote. Of course, this was reporting on the advent of codis. Everyone felt strongly that Sarah Yarborough was the inexperienced killer's first slaying. But it would not be his last. He might even have already struck again. A DNA database could help them catch him. Within a few short years, CODIS was a reality. In 1999, Detective Doyon met with the Washington State Police crime lab manager, Lynne McIntyre. She agreed to conduct STR DNA testing on the semen found on Sarah's clothing. They had significant amounts of semen to work with and the testing resulted in an STR profile of the suspect that was entered into CODIS. No hits were found in the database. The 10th anniversary of Sarah's homicide on December 14, 2001 was sobering for everyone. It was hard to believe that if she'd been allowed to live, she would be 26 years old. Instead, she was frozen in everyone's memory as forever the curly haired teen in a drill team uniform. The News Tribune did a massive expose on the decade old Kees and how Sarah's family was coping. It had been incredibly hard for them, they said, feeling like pariahs being recognized everywhere that they went as that family, Laura felt her presence made people sad. Yet the community rallied around the Yarboroughs. On the first Mother's Day after Sarah's slaying, Laura was inundated with cards. The Yarrow bros. Had moved to Rosedale to open a B and B, and they helped on weekends with bereaved parents of dead children. Sarah's friends continued to include Laura, staying in contact and updating her on their graduations, weddings, babies. By this time, Detective Doyon had been reassigned, charged with leading the investigation into Gary Ridgeway. When he was arrested, Detective Jim Allen took over the case. But not before Detective Doyon verified that the DNA of the Green river killer, Gary Ridgeway, did not match the suspect in Sarah's case. No one thought it would, but they had to be sure. By May 2003, the tip count was 3,544. This included hundreds of tips about Chevy Novus, which still came in even though investigators had ruled out the car as being involved. Detective Allen's notes say, quote, some tips that involve high profile individuals have been worked more than once. Dion T is one. End quote. Detective Tom Jensen had computerized the tips, but his entire database was lost when the system crashed in the mid-1990s, setting back the tip clearing process light years. Also, by 2003, the King County Police had submitted 32 different samples for DNA testing and comparison to the suspect sample in the case. None matched. In 2005, Detective Allen submitted both Sarah's clothing and her left and right hand fingernail clippings for testing. The nylons that had constricted her throat were tied in a knot. Swabbings for possible cellular material were collected from areas that may have been handled by an individual making the knot. These swabs were combined and extracted for DNA content using standard extraction procedures. However, the DNA obtained proved to be female, consistent with Sarah's reference sample. As for the fingernail clippings, the DNA proved to be Sarah's own. Safer a trace component of DNA from another source. Too minute for comparison purposes, the updated DNA tests detected semen on samples. TS1, the cutting from the underwear, TS2 the underwear, TS5, Sarah's glove and TS9, the nylons. The DNA profiles from these items were consistent and consistent with the DNA from the semen on Sarah's jacket. It was not a surprise, but was very solid evidence to be tucked away in the event of a trial that the same man had left his DNA all over Sarah's personal items. Over the next decade and a half, Detective Allen oversaw the collection of DNA from untold numbers of male persons of interest. There were so many listed that I actually had to start skimming the file. Some of these were suspects in other cases. Some were the subjects of tips who looked like the suspect's sketch. Some were men who inserted themselves into the investigation. One of these was a guy named Desmond M. Who had mailed a letter to Detective Doyon on August 26, 1992, eight months after Sarah's murder. This was a very long, typed letter that laid out Desmond's detailed theory of the crime, which was that Sarah had deliberately gone to the school early to meet with her killer and things had gone awry. There was no basis for this theory other than that Sarah was smart and punctual. So Desmond didn't buy that she'd mistaken the drill team bus departure time. As a result of the somewhat pompous and flowery letter, Detective Doyon investigated Desmond just as thoroughly as he did any other promising tip. Subject and saliva from the envelope was tested and compared. In 2006, like Desmond's, the DNA of some of the men considered one was tested without their knowledge. Bottles were collected, and envelopes from at least two other letter mailers were tested. In 2009, a King county cold case squad of three investigators was assigned to address agency cold cases, utilizing a $500,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice. The investigators included retired sheriff's Detective Tom Jensen, who had more than 20 years of investigative experience and since week one had worked on the Yarborough case with Detective Doyon. In 2010, the detectives undertook a cold case review of the Yarborough case, including review of all the files and assessment of the physical and other evidence. In 2011, Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick met with the Seattle PD and Jody Sass, the Washington State Patrol crime lab technician who had been working the case for years. Dr. Fitzpatrick wanted them to try Y DNA testing to try to identify Sarah's killer, but they didn't understand the new concept and shot it down. But then Ms. Sass helped Dr. Fitzpatrick convince Detective Allen of the King County Sheriff's Office to try the new Y DNA technique. Detective Allen sent Dr. Fitzpatrick the YSTR profile of Sarah's killer. This was written by Dr. Fitzpatrick, quote, using ysearch.org, a public YSTR genetic genealogy database. I was quickly able to match the killer's YSTR profile to over a dozen entries with the name Fuller, who were descendants of Robert Fuller, a resident of Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1630s. Robert Fuller had not been a passenger on the Mayflower. But it was determined through genetic genealogy and historical records that he had been a relative of the Mayflower Fullers. Because the killer matched Robert Fuller's descendants, he was probably also a descendant of of Robert Fuller and also related to the Mayflower fullers. End quote. Dr. Fitzpatrick told the investigators barring a non paternity event, Fuller is the last name of your killer. Detective Allen was very familiar with the case file and immediately recognized the name.
- [67:23]
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- [67:54]
Tara Davis Woodhull
Hey, this is US Olympic gold medalist.
- [67:56]
Hunter Woodhull
Tara Davis Woodhull and I'm US Paralympic gold medalist Hunter Woodhull.
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Tara Davis Woodhull
As athletes, our lives are about having.
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A clear path and a team that you can absolutely trust.
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So when it came to getting the.
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- [68:24]
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Narrator
Suspicion fell on William Fuller, a longtime Yarborough family friend whose daughter Elizabeth was Sarah's classmate. He had actually been quoted in the Tacoma News Tribune and multiple other papers in 1993 when he was interviewed at the time of the graduation of his daughter Elizabeth's and Sarah's Federal Way High School class. Elizabeth knew Sarah well and the Fullers were described by the paper as family friends of the Yarboroughs. Bill was an organizer of the Sarah Yarborough Scholarship Fund, a memorial. He talked to the paper about a memorial planned for Sarah and how the kids wanted to honor her at graduation. He had helped design and build the memorial bench for Sarah installed at the high school after her death. Somewhat surprisingly, news about the lead involving the last name Fuller leaked to the media. An article in the Federal way mirror on January 13, 2012 was the earliest use I've seen of the term forensic genealogy. It reported that the suspect DNA had been sent to Identifyers International to be processed through genealogy databases. The article read, quote, based on the analysis of the suspect DNA profile, it has been learned that the suspect is a member of the extended family of Robert Fuller, who arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1630s. The suspect in Sarah Yarborough's murder may have the last name Fuller. So this was now in the media. They were looking for someone named Fuller. Even the Daily Mail covered the situation, citing an authority at the General Society of Mayflower Descendants as the source for its statistic that there are 34,000Americans that can trace themselves back to one of the 26 Mayflower families. But now they had the name of just one of them. Yarbo family friend Bill Fuller was contacted by reporters before he was even contacted by detectives. They asked Fuller how it felt to know his name was possibly the name of the killer, and he said, well, when you know you didn't do it, you don't worry about it. But the investigators were not far behind and Bill Fuller was interviewed on January 13, 2012 by Detective Allen. He came involuntarily to speak with detectives. He said he and his wife and five daughters knew the Yarlborough family well because his daughter Elizabeth danced with Sarah. They went to school together, and they were active in the same church youth group at Grace Community Church. He also knew the parents through Weyerhaeuser, where he worked on the morning of the murder. He Said he went out running in his neighborhood around 8 or 9am he ran about 5 miles and it took him between 45 minutes and an hour. He said he typically ran at the track at the Sacajawea Lower School that was around the corner from Federal Way High School. He saw nothing whatsoever unusual. Detective Allen asked Bill Fuller about his theories and he said Sarah absolutely was not the type of person who would have made an arrangement to meet up with someone. So they all assumed it was a stranger attack. The detective had to ask Fuller some awkward questions, including did he ever have sex with Sarah? Did he ever have his hands around her neck? Any reason why his DNA would be there? No, no, no. He said, quote, I expect you to ask me to take a DNA test. Bill said he absolutely would be willing to do that. He had nothing to worry about. Let me point out here that although the investigators had received information that their killer might be named Fuller, and there was a Fuller who was not only in the case file, but very close to the family and totally trusted by Sarah, Bill Fuller did not look like the suspect seen by Mustafa, Drew, Adam and the others. Fuller was 48 when Sarah was killed. And when he voluntarily gave a DNA sample, it was determined he was not the killer, nor was he the father of the killer. His sample excluded him from the investigation. Dr. Fitzpatrick explained in writing, quote, Bill Fuller's YSTR profile matched the assailants on 16 of the 17 y filer loci. Although less than an exact match is not considered forensically significant, the one step match was genealogically indicative that Bill Fuller could be a cousin along the direct male line of the killer. In addition, Bill's genealogy indicated that he too was a descendant of Robert Fuller. But considering the number of generations that had elapsed since 1630, William Fuller could even be his 15th cousin. There was no way to estimate that relationship based on YSTRS alone, end quote. In other words, Bill Fuller was likely a very, very distant paternal cousin of the suspect. Again, Dr. Fitzpatrick, quote, the unusual situation developed that although the killer was still unknown, we had his possible last name, his genealogy, back to 17th century Massachusetts. We had connected his family to passengers on the Mayflower and had even identified a patrilineal cousin. End quote. Branching out from Bill Fuller, police investigated other Fullers living in the area. They obtained voluntary DNA swabs from a G. Fuller Sr. And his son G. Fuller II. In late 2016, they also obtained a blood card from a nearby county's medical examiner's office for a John Fuller. They located another Fuller who sort of matched the suspect description, lived in Federal way and was the right age. In 1991, they obtained his DNA through a ruse after failing to grab surreptitious DNA. His Y STR profile was a match to the suspect's sample, but his STR profile did not match. It was a lot of work for nothing. In 2014, Dr. Fitzpatrick did some more pioneering work on the case. She wanted to compare the relationships between the killer and Bill Fuller, knowing they were related and being convinced that locating other relatives would help fill in the gaps and perhaps identify the killer. This is from a piece written by Dr. Fitzpatrick. In July of 2014. The Sarah Yarborough case became one of the first forensic cases to undergo autosomal SNP testing with the aim of genetic genealogical analysis outside of the direct to consumer DNA testing pipeline. The results indicated that the killer was Caucasian, European and probably had brown hair and blue eyes. Detective Allen worked with Detective Tom Jensen to filter leads based on these characteristics. Unfortunately, the relationship estimate generated by Identitas for Bill Fuller and Sarah's killer was inconclusive. Their connection was too remote to be predicted by Identitas algorithms. As a note here, Identitas Corporation had developed a forensic chip, one of the earliest uses of SNPs to compare relatedness and predict DNA based physical characteristics. But IGG as we know it using consumer DNA databases was still a few years away. The investigators would have to wait a little longer. In early 2018, Detective Kathleen Decker inherited the case after Detective James Allen retired. She had been one of the original investigators on the case and was intimately familiar with it. And she pushed the investigation forward by contracting with Parabon Nanolabs to produce a phenotype of Sarah's killer, A computer generated image using his DNA. This was released to the media on February 22, 2018 in hopes of developing more tips and leads. The image showed a blonde white man with blue eyes. And since unlike in most cases, they had an idea what Sarah's killer's hair looked like. He had a small mullet in one image and shoulder length hair in another. Composite images showed him at age 1825 and as of 2018, the DNA data indicated that the suspect was of Northern European descent. And the knowledge that he was blonde and blue eyed helped to drastically cut down on the number of men in the case file detectives needed to look into. They delved into the file looking for men who had the physical characteristics identified by Parabon. Detective Decker focused on a potential suspect with the last name Bober of Tacoma, Washington. He was about 26 at the time of Sarah's murder and was from the area. Detective Decker's notes say, quote, for the past several years, subject Bober has been involving himself in the investigation. He has called my office multiple times over the years with information on a variety of homicide investigations. Since the release of the newest rendition, Bober has made calls to others expressing concern that his DNA may be found on the victim. Along with the similarities of Bober's appearance to the rendition and his refusal to provide DNA. In the past, Detective Decker has authored a search warrant to collect DNA from Bober for elimination and search his residence for any and all evidence pertaining to this investigation. End quote. On Tuesday, March 20, 2018, Detective Decker teamed up with the FBI Special Agent Terry Postma to stake out Bober's apartment and initiate contact with him. Detective Decker started by calling Bober on his cell phone and spoke with him for over an hour, trying to persuade him to come out and give her a DNA sample. Eventually, she went to the door and introduced herself and asked if he would voluntarily provide a DNA sample. Bober said no. She explained that she had a search warrant that mandated his compliance. He changed his tune, saying, I have nothing to hide. Although he seemed agitated, he allowed Detective Decker to swab his mouth and then sat in a chair outside his apartment while the police searched it. They collected a number of pieces of paper with the handwritten names of known King county cold cases being investigated, but nothing actually incriminating and Bober's DNA did not match. They plodded onward. On November 20, 2018, Detective Decker got a call from a Jamie H. Who said that his brother Joseph resembled the snapshot image. He thought Joe might have killed Sarah. He wore a trench coat, lived as a transient, and had mental health problems. Detective Decker filled out a tip sheet on Joe and tracked him down in Seattle. I don't know if she obtained DNA, but Joe was eliminated. On December 5, 2018, Detective Decker spoke with Lindsey Wade, senior investigator with the Office of the Attorney General. You'll remember I worked with Detective Wade on the Jennifer Bastian case. Her passion project has been to try to plug the holes in CODIS by obtaining and entering DNA samples from men who should be in the system, but had somehow avoided it. She had noted a local guy whose DNA should have been in the system because he had a 2003 drug conviction, but he never went through the Department of Corrections, which is where the samples were collected. So his DNA had never been entered into the database. Why did this matter? His name was John E. Fuller. He had died in 2009 of a drug overdose. But the Pierce County Medical Examiner's office still had his DNA. They agreed to obtain the sample and get it into codis. Detective Decker's notes say, quote, I also noted that a booking photograph of Fuller shows him with a lazy left eye. One of the initial composite drawings based upon an eyewitness viewing showed the suspect having a lazy left eye. Fuller also has blonde hair and blue eyes, which is consistent with the genetic information from Parabon Labs. The theory that the suspect had a lazy eye was not in any of the early case file materials I reviewed. Arguably, one of the sketches might depict a mild lazy eye. And clearly Detective Decker thought so. This deceased John Fuller's DNA sample was sent to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab. And here are Detective Decker's notes about the results. Quote. On January 9, 2019, I received a call from WSPCL scientist Denise Rodier. Reference the latest DNA findings on John E. Fuller. I was advised that he is not a direct match to the suspect DNA, but he is likely a relative of the killer, Possibly an uncle to or a first cousin of the killer. I also confirmed through Denise Rodier that a lazy eye may be genetic and passed down to offspring. End quote. They were back on the Fuller trail. Detective Decker and FBI Special Agent Terry Postma started tracking down all Fullers in the state who had criminal records, but whose DNA was not in CODIS. One was a D.J. fuller. He had a lazy eye and was the right age in 1991 to be the killer, but he'd moved out of state and they couldn't find him. Another was a JG Fuller, from whom they requested a buckle swap. He declined, saying, I don't see why I'd want to do that. Detective John Hawkins identified W.S. fuller, who lived in Federal Way. Born in 1943, he was a little old to be the suspect. Detective Decker followed up on a T. Fuller, who had an extensive criminal history and was arrested in Portland, Oregon on December 4, 1991, just days before Sarah's murder. He also had some arrests in Snohomish county, but mostly in Oregon. As they were continuing to work on all these Fuller potential suspects, Detective Decker learned from a kinship analysis performed by Parabon that John E. Fuller, the dead guy whose blood card they had found, did not share any DNA after all. With the Yarborough suspect. That lead was a bust. But there was hope. Igg had now solved scores of cases over the year. Plus since the arrest of the Golden State Killer, and Detective Decker wanted to try it this is the end of part one of the Sarah Yarborough case. Part two is available right now.