Harry Nickerson

Early life Nickerson was born on January 9, 1962, in Wheeling, West Virginia, to Doris Jean Lucas (d. 1993) and Glen William Nickerson (d. 2018). He had an older brother named Glen William "Buddy" Nickerson Jr., an older sister named Glenna, and another brother named Richard. According to retired San Jose police officer Richard Boone, the Nickersons were a notorious and violent family, adding: "We were always going out there on 415s, which was [code for] a family disturbance". In 1978, she was scheduled to be laid off due to low enrollment at the school.

On June 16, the day after school had concluded for the summer, Peterson was cleaning her classroom. Other contemporary reports claimed that she stumbled to the school's main corridor while shouting for help before collapsing. She was pronounced dead en route to Good Samaritan Hospital. He did not attend Branham but was considered a long-time suspect in the case. The following year, another witness came forward and told police that Nickerson had confessed to killing Peterson after she spotted him in the process of a drug deal.

2023–2025 In 2023 and 2024, extensive examinations of DNA evidence left at the crime scene were unable to identify a suspect. They interviewed the relative who was "emotional" and appeared to be "relieved after having kept [the] secret for almost 50 years". He was suspected to have been involved in six armed robberies, and he stabbed a bouncer in 1981. Prosecutors claimed that it was revenge for what had happened to Harry the month prior. He maintained that he was innocent and was released from prison in 2003 after the Santa Clara County district attorney's office decided to not pursue a new trial, following years of pressure from Glen Nickerson and his lawyers.

Death Nickerson was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on August 31, 1993, aged 31.