Faryion Edward Wardrip (born March 6, 1959) is an American rapist and serial killer who assaulted and murdered a total of five women. Four of the women were killed in Wichita Falls, Texas, and the surrounding counties. One woman was murdered in Fort Worth, approximately a two-hour drive southeast of Wichita Falls. Wardrip's killing spree began at the end of 1984 and lasted until the middle of 1986. All of his female victims were white, were between the ages of 20 and 25, weighed less than , and were under tall.
With the murders occurring across multiple jurisdictions, officials from three law enforcement agencies - the Wichita Falls Police Department, the Wichita County Sheriff's Department and the Archer County Sheriff's Department - initially led isolated murder investigations. These investigations were for three of the murders that occurred within a radius of each other. This separation led to multiple news agencies reporting that the isolated investigations delayed Wardrip's capture.
Within 72 hours of the May 6, 1986 murder of Tina Kimbrew, Wardrip called authorities and confessed to her murder. He was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison. After serving less than one-third of his sentence, Wardrip was released on parole in December 1997. He was required to wear an ankle monitor allowing authorities to constantly track his location; he was restricted to movements for work, home and church.
In 1999, the Wichita County District Attorney's Office reopened the murder cases of the victims that occurred in their jurisdiction. DNA evidence found at the scene of two murders were linked to the same killer. Because Wardrip's murder of Kimbrew occurred in 1986, the lead detective became suspicious that he may have been behind the unsolved murder cases. As Wardrip was out on parole and there was no national database of DNA profiles for violent offenders at that time, authorities immediately launched surveillance of Wardrip and managed to secure a sample of his DNA, which was linked to two victims. He later confessed to the murders of the third and fourth victims. In 1999, at 40 years old, Wardrip was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the first murder, and three life terms for the other three killings.
Background
Faryion Edward Wardrip was born on March 6, 1959, in Salem, Indiana, to George and Diana Wardrip. He was his parents' first born child and has two brothers. There are no news articles or television reports of Wardrip experiencing any type of mental or physical abuse during his childhood. He dropped out of high school in the twelfth grade.
In 1978, at the age of 19, Wardrip joined the United States National Guard. After 6 years of service, Wardrip was released from the National Guard under a less-than-honorable discharge. The discharge was due to smoking marijuana, disorderly conduct and multiple absences without leave (AWOL). During his military service he was not deployed into combat duty.
In March 1983, at 24 years old, he married his first wife, 20-year-old Johnna D. Jackson. The couple had two children together. The marriage was tarnished by Wardrip's drug and alcohol abuse. This same year he worked as a janitor at the Wichita Falls General Hospital and within twelve months he was promoted from janitor to orderly.
Due to his addictions, he was unable to maintain employment and was bouncing between jobs. Johnna's parents helped the couple financially by paying their rent and buying their groceries. Tired of Wardrip's lack of responsibility and addictions in December 1985, Johnna separated from Wardrip taking the children with her. She soon filed for divorce which was granted in October 1986.
Murders
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.