Terry Sims

Terry Lee Sims worked as a part-time EKG specialist at Bethania Hospital in Wichita Falls, Texas while attending nearby Midwestern State University. Sims and co-worker Leza Boone had finished working their evening shifts at the hospital at approximately 11:00 pm on December 20, 1984. Then leaving work, Sims rode with Boone to a mutual friend's house to exchange Christmas gifts. Sims was planning on spending the night at Boone's residence on Bell Street so Boone could help Sims study for her final exam the following day. Unexpectedly, Boone received a call to return to the hospital to work the midnight shift. She drove Sims to her residence, and gave Sims the key to her apartment, dropping her off at approximately 12:30 am on December 21, 1984.^[12][13]

At 7:30 a.m. that same morning Leza Boone returned home after working a double shift at the hospital. After repeatedly knocking on her locked front door, and receiving no answer, Boone went to the landlord and was given a key to her residence. When she gained entry she saw that the living room had been ransacked. Boone immediately ran back to her landlord's residence asking for help to find her friend Terry. The landlord entered the apartment, and found Sims lying deceased on the bathroom floor, in a pool of blood. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death.^[12][14][15]

Apparently, while Boone was away at work, Sims had heard Faryion Wardrip causing a disturbance, and she went outside to investigate. Wardrip lunged at Sims, and she ran back into the apartment and locked the door. Wardrip had targeted Sims for "no apparent reason" and broke the door down, after she locked him out. Wardrip, standing at 6 ft 6 in (198 cm) and weighing 220 pounds (100 kg), grabbed the 5 ft 3 in (160 cm), 94-pound (43 kg) Sims and assaulted her. Because of her resistance, Wardrip bound the victim's hands with an electrical cord. Sims was estimated to have lived several minutes after the attack was over. Police officers investigating preserved a semen sample, and a fingerprint, found on Sims' shoe for future analysis. Over a decade later, the print and semen were positively identified to be those of Wardrip.^[12][14][15]

Terry Sims was buried at Crestview Memorial Park in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Toni Gibbs

Toni Jean Gibbs, 23, disappeared on January 19, 1985, while employed at Wichita General Hospital. Gibbs was no more than 5 ft 1 in (155 cm) tall and weighed 94 pounds (43 kg). Wardrip came across Gibbs at about six o'clock in the morning, after he had been out walking all night. He knew Gibbs because she was a registered nurse (RN) at the same hospital where he worked as an orderly. Gibbs offered Wardrip a ride and after he got in her car, he began hurling her around and screaming at her. He then forced Gibbs to drive down an isolated dirt road to a field.^[16][13]

Two days after her abduction, Gibbs's car was found within a few miles of the hospital. On February 15, utility workers found her naked body in a field at the southwest corner of West Jentsch Road and Highway 281 in Archer County, 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the Wichita county line, one day after what would have been Gibbs' 24th birthday.^[16] Gibbs had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. Toni Gibbs had a total of eight stab wounds: three on her back, three on her chest, and two defensive wounds on her left forearm and thumb.^[16][14][8]

Near her body, police found an abandoned school bus, where her murderer likely conducted the attack. Authorities discovered Gibbs' clothing inside the bus. Gibbs had initially survived the assault and, stripped of her clothing, she had managed to crawl 100 feet (30 m) before she died. After the killing Wardrip then abandoned her vehicle, after legally parking it at the intersection of Van Buren and McGregor Streets in Wichita Falls, less than a mile from his residence.^[16][14][8] Four days after Gibbs's body was discovered, Wardrip quit his job at the Wichita General Hospital.^[17]

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 made suspicious statements. 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. Since only one of the twelve jurors believed Laughlin was guilty, prosecutors decided not to retry Laughlin.^[14]

Gibbs was buried at the Clayton Cemetery in New Mexico.

Debra Taylor

Two months after he murdered Toni Gibbs, Wardrip traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, with the intention of looking for a job. In Fort Worth, he met 25 year old Debra Sue Taylor (née Huie), in the early morning hours of March 24, 1985 while at a bar on East Lancaster Street. Debra Taylor had been at the bar with her husband Ken Taylor, but Ken left early because he was tired. Debra remained at the bar. Wardrip approached Taylor and asked her to dance. She accepted his request, and the two spent time together in the club.^[13]

Waldrip then asked to drive Taylor home, which she agreed to. While outside, Wardrip attempted to make sexual advances, which were rejected by Taylor. This rejection infuriated Wardrip, and he killed Taylor, leaving her body at a construction site in east Fort Worth.^[13] When Debra failed to return home by the next morning, she was reported missing by her husband. Her body was found by two construction workers on March 29, 1985. Taylor's murder was not thought to be related to the other four cases until Wardrip confessed during questioning after his 1999 arrest.^[18][19]

Prior to Wardrip's confession, Taylor's husband was believed to be the culprit. He had passed three polygraph tests but was still considered a suspect by police.^[18] Suspicions about Taylor had "destroyed his life" as members of his own and his wife's family "turned against him".^[14]

Taylor was buried at Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth; her date of death is listed as March 24, 1985.

Ellen Blau

On September 20, 1985, Wardrip abducted 21 year old Ellen Blau in Wichita Falls, Texas. The abduction occurred as Blau was walking alone to her vehicle, after leaving her evening job as a waitress. She was also a student at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. Once abducted, Wardrip forced Blau to drive to a secluded area where he eventually killed her by strangulation. He stated in a Cold Case Files episode that he had broken her neck.^[20] Leaving her body in the secluded area, Waldrip drove Blau's car back into Wichita Falls and abandoned it along with her purse. Her blood was also discovered on the inside of the vehicle. A county road crew employee found Blau's body in a field in Wichita County on October 10, 1985.^[13]

When her body was found, it was in a very advanced state of decomposition, to the point where she could only be identified by comparing dental records. She may have been sexually assaulted, as her underwear had been pulled down, but the condition of her remains prevented accurate analysis. No semen samples were available. One of her friends had lived in the same apartment complex as Wardrip and had stated that she felt uncomfortable around him.^[14]

Blau was buried at Bnai Jacob Memorial Park in New Haven, Connecticut; her date of death is listed as September 20, 1985.

Tina Kimbrew

On May 6, 1986, Wardrip killed 21 year old Tina Elizabeth Kimbrew, a waitress he had recently befriended.^[21] He went to her apartment and suffocated her with a pillow because she "reminded him of his ex-wife". Prior to the discovery of her body, neighbors told police that they had seen a white man, 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) tall, with dark brown hair and wearing a baseball cap leave the complex. Danny Laughlin (who had been suspected in the death of Toni Gibbs) was ruled out as a suspect because he did not fit this description.^[22]

A few days later, on May 9, Wardrip called the police from across the state in Galveston, threatening to commit suicide. Once the police arrived he confessed to the murder.^[22][8] He was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He was paroled in December 1997 and he moved to Olney, Texas, where he remarried and became an active supporter of the local church, gaining a good reputation. He eventually got a job at a screen door factory.^[14]

Kimbrew was buried at Wilbarger Memorial Park in Vernon.

Books

• A true crime book based on Wardrip's crimes, Body Hunter, was written by Patricia Springer in 2001.^[26][27]
• Dark Dreams: A Legendary FBI Profiler Examines Homicide and the Criminal Mind, Chapter 11, "A Serial Killer," profiles Wardrip's crimes. Authored by Roy Hazelwood and Stephen G. Michaud, ISBN 9780312253424, publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2001.^[6]
• Scream at the Sky, another book about Wardrip's crimes and related investigations, was written by Carlton Stowers in 2003. The title originated from Wardrip's account of Terry Sims' murder.^[28]
• The book Criminal Cold Cases , chapter: "Cold Sweat", section: "Faryion Wardrip: The Silver-Tongued Preacher", outlines Wardrip's religious efforts while on parole and his crimes. Written by Charlotte Greig, ISBN 9781848587007, publisher: Arcturus Publishing Limited, 2011.^[29]

Television

• A 2001 episode of Discovery Channel's The New Detectives, titled "To Kill Again", Season 6, Episode 8, 50 minutes, highlighted the forensics used to capture Wardrip.^[30][31]
• A&E Television's Cold Case Files also covered the case titled "Killer in the County", Season 1, Episode 16, 42 minutes, air date: March 2001.^[32][33]
• Investigation Discovery's Shattered covered the case in Season 2, episode 1 titled Shattered - Seven and a Half Minutes.
• The TruTV series Forensic Files covered the case in 2002, Season 7, Episode 25, 22 minutes, titled: "Sip of Sins".