SAN JOSE, Calif. – Nearly 50 years after a young teacher was found stabbed to death in a San Jose high school hallway, South Bay authorities on Monday officially identified her killer as a 16-year-old who took his own life and had confessed to a relative and had been seen carrying a knife that had the words: “Teacher dear.”
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said the boy’s DNA led prosecutors in the cold case unit to Harry “Nicky” Nickerson, whom they say stabbed Diane Peterson on June 16, 1978, at Branham High School in San Jose, the day after school closed for summer break.
It wasn’t until sometime this year that investigators learned that Nicky had told a relative he had killed the teacher – an allegation that had surfaced years ago, but couldn’t be corroborated until now, prosecutors said. …