Particle.news
Download on the App Store
14 ARTICLES
·
last wk.

DA Names Harry Nickerson as 1978 Branham High Teacher’s Killer After Cold Case Confession

A relative’s firsthand account of Nickerson’s confession finally cracked the decades-long investigation.

Image
Harry “Nicky” Nickerson was finally named as Diane Peterson’s killer this week. 
Image

Overview

  • On June 16, 1978, one day after Branham High School closed for summer, Diane Peterson was stabbed in the chest and left to die in a campus corridor, according to prosecutors.
  • Harry “Nicky” Nickerson, then 16, emerged as a suspect when his booking photo bore a strong resemblance to an eyewitness composite sketch and witnesses recalled him carrying a knife inscribed with “Teacher Dear.”
  • Extensive DNA testing by the Santa Clara County DA’s crime lab between 2023 and 2024 failed to produce a match linking any suspect to the crime.
  • In early 2025, investigators met with a family member who revealed that Nickerson confessed to the stabbing minutes after it happened, leading prosecutors to deem the case solved despite his 1993 suicide.
  • The DA’s Cold Case Unit, launched in 2011, has now closed over 30 cold homicides and this marks its fourth resolution in 2025, offering long-sought answers to Peterson’s family.