Criminal Files: Serial Killers - Faryion Edward Wardrip
- 7 years ago
Faryion Edward Wardrip (born March 6, 1959) is an American serial killer who murdered five women in Wichita Falls, Texas, and the surrounding counties from 1984 to 1986. In 1984, Terry Lee Sims, 20, a nursing student, was found stabbed and sexually assaulted at her home. She had heard Wardrip causing a disturbance outside and he lunged toward her as she went outside to investigate. Wardrip stated he targeted her for "no apparent reason" and broke her door down after she locked him out. Because of her resistance, Wardip bound the victim's hands with an electrical cord. Sims was estimated to have lived minutes after the attack was over. Police officers preserved a semen sample and a fingerprint found on Sims's shoe for future analysis. The print and semen were later positively identified to be those of Wardrip. Sims was buried at Crestview Memorial Park in Wichita Falls. Toni Jean Gibbs, 23, disappeared on January 19, 1985, while employed at Wichita General Hospital. Two days after her disappearance, her car was found within a few miles of the hospital. On February 15, her body was located in a field near Route 281, a day after she would have turned 24. Gibbs had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. Near her body, police found an abandoned bus, where her murderer likely conducted the attack. Gibbs had initially survived the assault and had managed to crawl one hundred feet before she died. Wardrip abandoned her vehicle near his residence after the attack. In 1996, Wardrip's DNA was matched to the biological evidence at the scene.
Danny Laughlin, 24, was initially suspected of Gibbs' murder because he often rode his motorcycle near the area where she was killed and because he had met her at a nightclub days before she was killed. He also failed a lie detector test and he'd made suspicious statements as well. Laughlin was then tried, even though a comparison of Laughlin's DNA with DNA from the semen at the murder scene was unsuccessful and only circumstantial evidence was available. After two days of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked, which resulted in his release from custody. Gibbs was buried at the Clayton Cemetery in New Mexico. Months after he murdered Toni Gibbs, Wardrip traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, where he killed Debra Sue Taylor (née Huie), 25. He had met her while at a bar after her husband had left due to fatigue. He approached her and the pair danced; he then asked to drive her home. While outside, he attempted to make advances, which she rejected, and he killed her. He then left her body at a construction site, where it was found a week later. When she failed to return home by the next morning, she was reported missing by her husband. Taylor's murder was not believed to be related to the other four cases, until Wardrip confessed to her murder during questioning after his 1999 arrest. Prior to Wardrip's confession, Taylor's husband had been believed to be the culprit. He had passed three polygraph tests but was still suspected by police Suspicions about Taylor had "destroyed his life" as members of his own and his wife's family "turned against him". Taylor was buried at Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth; date of death is listed as March 24, 1985. In 1999, a Wichita Falls detective, John Little, began a cold case investigation of the unsolved cases of Sims, Gibbs, and Blau. Samples of DNA from the scenes where Terry Sims and Toni Gibbs were found, were later matched, indicating that both victims had been killed by the same person. Little had known Gibbs personally, as had his wife, and he had also participated in the search for her body. He began to believe that the murders of these women were linked, but such a linkage had not yet been investigated because the murders had occurred in different jurisdictions and therefore different local police departments had investigated each case. Little's investigation revealed a previously unknown link between Wardrip and Ellen Blau. One of Little's fellow officers had stated that Wardrip had admitted to knowing Blau while he was on trial for Tina Kimbrew's murder. This lead had not been investigated at the time it emerged. Wardrip himself stated that the agency would have been able to find a suspect much sooner if they had "paid a little bit more attention. Little then found additional evidence linking Wardrip to the three unsolved murders: Ellen Blau had lived one block away from Terry Sims, and Wardrip had been employed as a custodian at the same hospital where Toni Gibbs had worked as a nurse. At the time, police had no DNA sample from Wardrip, so Little used a simple ploy to obtain one: Wardrip had been convicted for the murder of Tina Kimbrew, but in 1997 he was paroled and was working at a factory.
Danny Laughlin, 24, was initially suspected of Gibbs' murder because he often rode his motorcycle near the area where she was killed and because he had met her at a nightclub days before she was killed. He also failed a lie detector test and he'd made suspicious statements as well. Laughlin was then tried, even though a comparison of Laughlin's DNA with DNA from the semen at the murder scene was unsuccessful and only circumstantial evidence was available. After two days of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked, which resulted in his release from custody. Gibbs was buried at the Clayton Cemetery in New Mexico. Months after he murdered Toni Gibbs, Wardrip traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, where he killed Debra Sue Taylor (née Huie), 25. He had met her while at a bar after her husband had left due to fatigue. He approached her and the pair danced; he then asked to drive her home. While outside, he attempted to make advances, which she rejected, and he killed her. He then left her body at a construction site, where it was found a week later. When she failed to return home by the next morning, she was reported missing by her husband. Taylor's murder was not believed to be related to the other four cases, until Wardrip confessed to her murder during questioning after his 1999 arrest. Prior to Wardrip's confession, Taylor's husband had been believed to be the culprit. He had passed three polygraph tests but was still suspected by police Suspicions about Taylor had "destroyed his life" as members of his own and his wife's family "turned against him". Taylor was buried at Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth; date of death is listed as March 24, 1985. In 1999, a Wichita Falls detective, John Little, began a cold case investigation of the unsolved cases of Sims, Gibbs, and Blau. Samples of DNA from the scenes where Terry Sims and Toni Gibbs were found, were later matched, indicating that both victims had been killed by the same person. Little had known Gibbs personally, as had his wife, and he had also participated in the search for her body. He began to believe that the murders of these women were linked, but such a linkage had not yet been investigated because the murders had occurred in different jurisdictions and therefore different local police departments had investigated each case. Little's investigation revealed a previously unknown link between Wardrip and Ellen Blau. One of Little's fellow officers had stated that Wardrip had admitted to knowing Blau while he was on trial for Tina Kimbrew's murder. This lead had not been investigated at the time it emerged. Wardrip himself stated that the agency would have been able to find a suspect much sooner if they had "paid a little bit more attention. Little then found additional evidence linking Wardrip to the three unsolved murders: Ellen Blau had lived one block away from Terry Sims, and Wardrip had been employed as a custodian at the same hospital where Toni Gibbs had worked as a nurse. At the time, police had no DNA sample from Wardrip, so Little used a simple ploy to obtain one: Wardrip had been convicted for the murder of Tina Kimbrew, but in 1997 he was paroled and was working at a factory.