SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) — Nearly 50 years after a young teacher was found stabbed to death inside a San Jose high school on the first day of summer break, cold case investigators identified her killer publicly for the first time on Monday.
Branham High School teacher Diane Peterson was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old boy, Harry “Nicky” Nickerson, on June 16, 1978, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said. Nickerson had a knife with the words, “Teacher Dear,” written on it, investigators said.
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One day after the 1977-1978 school year ended, Branham High School teachers were cleaning their classrooms for summer. A student found Peterson lying on the floor near her classroom with a stab wound in her chest.
Investigators cracked the cold case after meeting with Nickerson’s family member this year, according to the DA’s office. Minutes after the killing, Nickerson went to their home and confessed to stabbing the teacher, a family member admitted to police.
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“Just this year, investigators learned that he had confessed the killing to a family member. Nickerson committed suicide in 1993,” SCCDAO wrote.
Nickerson was not a Branham High School student, Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker told KRON4. While detectives have never established a firm motive, “detectives at the time theorized that Diane inadvertently interrupted a drug deal on campus the day after school let out for the summer,” Baker told KRON4…