Sarah Yarborough was murdered in 1991. Can DNA give us the face of her killer?

UPDATE: Arrest made in 1991 rape, murder of Sarah Yarborough at Federal Way school

Authorities hope modern DNA technology will lead to a breakthrough in a 27-year-old cold case.

King County Sheriff’s Department released new renderings of a suspect in the 1991 murder of 16-year-old Sarah Yarborough on Friday afternoon.

Yarborough was last seen Dec. 14, 1991, when left her home to attend a dance competition at Federal Way High School. Her body was found on campus later that morning.

The high-profile case stumped the King County Sheriff’s Office for decades, but they hope a rendering created using the suspect’s DNA will help them solve the crime. The original description of the suspect: A 6-foot-tall man with shoulder-length blonde hair.

The images were created by Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based DNA technology company, and show what the suspect might look like today, with an updated hairstyle and at ages 18 and 25. The company specializes in DNA phenotyping, a process that uses DNA evidence to predict physical appearance.

Using DNA evidence, Parabon produced predictions for the suspect’s ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling, and face shape. The attributes were used to create new composite images. Parabon created the image assuming a body mass-index of 22. The default BMI was used because the number can not be determined by DNA.

Those who have information about the crime are asked to call the sheriff’s office at 206-296-3311 or email mcutips@kingcounty.gov.

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Sarah Yarborough was murdered in 1991. Can DNA give us the face of her killer?."