Murder With My Husband - 235. The Barn of Horrors

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the chilling case of Sierah Joughin. When she fails to return home after a bike ride, her family and friends fear the worst. As concern grows, the police launch an investigation, retracing her steps from that fateful evening. Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Links: linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Case sources: ABC News - https://abcnews.go.com/US/barn-horrors-investigators-recall-clues-led-body-missing/story?id=104173438 ChillingCrimes.com - https://www.chillingcrimes.com/blogs/news/sierah-joughin Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/crime-news/what-happened-to-sierra-joughin-who-disappeared-in-2016 Medium.com - https://authorcindyparmiter.medium.com/a-history-of-violence-the-abduction-and-murder-of-sierah-joughin-1d481f5abba6 Wikipedia.com - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sierah_Joughin#:~:text=Murder%20of%20Sierah%20Joughin%20%2D%20Wikipedia,Asphyxiation%20(homicide) Mamamia.com - https://www.mamamia.com.au/sierah-joughin-murder/ CBS News.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/james-worley-sierah-joughin-ex-con-charged-ohio-college-student-murder/ Deseret.com - https://www.deseret.com/2023/10/27/23934885/2020-sierah-joughin/#:~:text=Worley%20was%20arrested%20and%20charged,later%20convicted%20of%20aggravated%20murder. Court News Ohio - https://courtnewsohio.gov/cases/2021/SCO/0701/180757.asp Supreme Court Ohio - https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/Clerk/ecms/#/caseinfo/2018/0757 20/20 on Hulu - https://www.hulu.com/watch/1625f6cc-b870-4ea8-a001-c90ad7dcb96e Happyscribe.com - https://www.happyscribe.com/public/20-20/she-was-almost-home Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Let me tell all you guys something.

Let me tell you guys something. Let me tell you guys something. Let my wife tell you guys something. Stop what you're doing. And if your finger is on the skip forward, you better pull it off the screen because you're not gonna want to miss this announcement our Halloween merch drop is available now we got it out a month early can we get a round of applause from murdering my husband for

finally doing something early also round of applause for those helping us with merch because they pushed us to do this a month early. There is some amazing options, lots of options, lots of options. Some that are a little bit more low key. Some that are, I don't know, a little bit more out there. Go check them out. I mean, Halloween merch. What more can you want? And yeah, if you didn't figure out it's a month early to make sure that you have it to wear all of October. So get it now so you can wear it all of spooky month. Okay. And if you are not catching our Thursday Twitch streams live streams on Twitch, you Tuesday and Thursday, yeah Tuesday morning, Thursday night, You're missing out you You are literally

Not living correctly also Also, we have a new YouTube channel just for our twitch stream content. It's clips. It's shorts We are actually posting three times a week on there. It's just different clips and funny and Cool moments from the streams and funny and cool moments from the streams and funny and cool moments from the stream. You can check it out. There will be a link down below if you're listening to the podcast. Same with YouTube.

There's going to be a link right there. We're going to post them all over Instagram, kind of everywhere. Check them out. Please check out our Twitch stream. Check out our new YouTube channel. Come say hi. It's a little bit more of Peyton and Garrett, but some true crime stuff as well. So yeah, those are all the announcements that we have.

If you're watching on YouTube, the lighting is really bad. We haven't gotten drapes for this window right here. And so it's really bright and my legs look pasty white. So please don't look at them. And you can see, there's kind of a lot that you shouldn't be able to see but that's okay Okay, was the lighting your 10 seconds or you got something better? The lighting can be my 10 seconds because Take your shirt off

Your shirt off because we have a we've had a lot of announcements and I know some people are like, oh my gosh You're talking too much. Yeah, that's kind of what we got. I've been playing pickleball again I just started playing pickleball again. So that can be my 10 seconds. And next week I will have a hot take for everyone. So be ready. On that note, let's hop into today's case. Our sources for this episode are ABC News, chillingcrimes.com, Oxygen, Medium, Wikipedia,

mamma mia.com, cbsnews.com, deseret.com, court news, Ohio, Supreme court, Ohio, 2020 on Hulu and happyscrab.com. All right, sense of community is important. I mean, whether we live in a city or a small town, most of us have neighbors nearby that we do count on from time to time. Whether we're close enough to ask them

for a cup of sugar when we're out or to grab the mail when we're away, or if you're our neighbors and Garrett left the hose on in the pool and suddenly our house is flooding. They could also go turn the hose off as well. Would like to clarify that I did not leave the hose on the people that clean our pool left the hose on and our wonderful neighbors did go and turn the pool off or the hose off after our house was flooded, but it didn't get into our house, but neighbors can also help with crime. If you know, it's just

having someone's door to knock on and say, Hey, my bike's missing. Did you take it? Or have you seen any one suspicious in the area? Neighbors are supposed that wasn't even in the script. I just make that up. I could tell because often I heard you like wrapped anybody suspicious in the script I just said. Did you just make that up? I could tell because all of a sudden I heard you like rapped. Anybody suspicious in the area? Neighbors are supposed to look out for each other. They should be people that you can count on. It's even written in the Bible, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But in reality, many of these people are perfect strangers to us, with nothing more in common than buying a piece of property in close proximity

To our own they have their own lives their own history and their own secrets That usually aren't disclosed when they buy the house next to you Which is why today's case will truly make you wonder how well do you really know the person? make you wonder how well do you really know the person that's living next door to you? So today's story actually takes us to the rural farm town of Metamora, Ohio. It's about 45 minutes outside of Toledo and it's pretty much what you imagine when you think of the rural Midwest. A place where the corn grows tall in the summer and comes down in the fall. A place where everyone knows everyone, if not by a nod and a smile.

Where you wouldn't think twice about letting your kids bike to their friend's house, especially on a beautiful summer evening. Just a sweet, wholesome, simple place. It's the last place anyone would expect today's story to happen. This was where Sierra Joggin grew up. On February 11th, 1996, Sierra came into the world and was immediately given the nickname C or Cece. Sierra's actually my age. She was said to be a bright ball of energy,

always lifting spirits and putting a smile on people's faces. Her mother, Sheila, always said spirits and putting a smile on people's faces. Her mother, Sheila, always said Sierra was the perfect child. She loved help out. She loved animals. She had no problem being silly and having a good time. Her mother actually said she was dedicated, caring and compassionate. Plus she had a confidence about her. She was comfortable in her own skin. Qualities that made people in the small town of Metamora gravitate towards Sierra.

Traits that made her one of the most popular girls in town. So after graduating from Evergreen High School in 2014, Sierra enrolled at the University of Toledo's Junior College of Business. And there she began a degree studying human resources. And this was the perfect role for Sierra who loved people and wanted nothing more than to support them and their wellbeing.

And at the same time, she interned at her uncle's stamping business. Now in the summer of 2016, Sierra was preparing to go into her junior year at the University of Toledo. But that summer, she actually needed a temporary place to stay.

She decided to move in with her grandparents simply because they had an extra bedroom available for her. Plus, it was within close proximity to her boyfriend's house. This was the high school sweetheart that she had actually been dating for years. It was a boy named Josh Kalinsky. Now Sierra's family loved Josh and it's partly because they were best friends well before they started dating. In fact,

they had known each other since they were both six years old, those very small town thing. They grew up together. And once they began high school, their relationship blossomed. Now Josh really loved Sierra, especially how passionate and strong her personality was. And he said he rarely ever wanna fight against her opinions. Now, come the summer of 2016,

Josh and Sierra were seriously discussing their future together. I mean, by this point, they'd been together for seven years and were talking about getting married after they graduated college. Both of them knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. It was just a matter of how and when, only that all changed on the night of July 19th, 2016. So it was around 5 PM that summer evening. Sierra mentioned to her mother that she was going to head over

to Josh's house. She planned to take her purple bike over as she had once or twice before. It was about a six mile bike ride. So on a warm summer's evening, the ride was definitely going to be sweaty and exhausting. But Sierra, who had been known to skydive, literally loved a good adventure. She took the most efficient route over and that was actually County Road six. It was a rural street that passed several corn fields and only a handful of houses along the way. It's currently

paint in small town. I was gonna say there's definitely places in my town where this would be a real thing. It's weird to see you're not so small, your small town be not so small anymore. I know. So Sierra actually wasn't worried about like coming into contact with someone dangerous. She was worried about getting hit by a car, but this route didn't also have very many cars on it. So she wasn't too worried about it. So when the 20 year old Sierra finally made it to boyfriend Josh's house, she was sweaty and said she regretted riding her bike that far in the heat. And Sierra and Josh actually didn't hang out for that long that night around 6 45 PM.

So less than two hours after arriving, Sierra decided that she needed to ride back home before it got too dark. And Josh told her he was going to escort her back. He didn't want her to ride alone. So he hopped on his motorcycle and followed Sierra. Now on the ride, Josh even took a Snapchat video of the two of them. He joked about going for a bike ride while Sierra was on her bicycle and he was on his motorcycle. This is obviously a joke that was shared between the couple and their friends. In the video, the two were laughing and smiling, but after that video

was taken, Sierra and Josh made a decision that would change everything. So Sierra stopped and told Josh he should turn back. She really didn't need him to escort her the entire six miles. She was already halfway back and would make it the rest of the ride home just fine. Now, after insisting several times that he just turn around, Josh finally gave in. So he stopped, he gave her a kiss, he said he loved her, and then he told her to text him as soon as she got home. Sierra promised, got back on her bike, and rode off.

Okay. Now around 9 p.m., Sierra's mother, Sheila, was driving past her parents' house when she noticed that Sierra's bedroom light was off. Now this was unusual for Sierra because she always told her family if she planned to spend the night somewhere. But Sheila just assumed, okay, maybe Sierra just went to bed early. And then around 10 30 p.m. Sheila gets a call from Josh. So mom is getting a call from the boyfriend and he says, have you heard from Sierra? She never texted me when she got home. I've been

trying to call her. It's going right to voicemail and I'm worried about her. Now Sheila immediately calls her parents house to see if Sierra ever made it back from Josh's house and they say, no, she's not in her room. She's not here and they go outside and her purple bike is nowhere to be found either. Oh no, dude. So everyone starts to panic. Their first instinct is maybe Sierra got into an accident, fell off her bike or collapsed,

is lying on the side of the road somewhere. This instantly makes me think of Disturbia. Why? Because their neighbor, because you talked about neighbors at the beginning. Oh, I get what you're saying. And their neighbor was freaky. I mean, he was a killer.

He was insane. So Josh and Sheila actually decided to go out separately, retracing Sierra's possible paths to try and find her. And that's when Sheila actually stumbles upon a police officer on the side of the road. And she pulls over and tells the cop how she's looking for her daughter who didn't return home. And the officer calls it in.

But a few hours later, around midnight, Sheila gets a phone call. A bunch of police officers have been called down to County Road 6. This is obviously the same road that Sierra had been riding home on. Turns out just a short time before that, a police deputy was traveling down the road when he noticed a row of matted corn stalks leading from the road into

the field. So he pulled over, followed the path of broken corn stalks, and he found an abandoned purple bike out in the field. Okay, first of all, good police officer right. It was actually less than a quarter mile away from Sierra's grandparents house like that's how close she had gotten. There was no sign of Sierra. It was just her bike standing upright propped up on its kick stand. There was no damage. Even the water bottle was still in its holder. kickstand, there was no damage. Even the water bottle was still in its holder. There were, however, signs of Sierra's DNA because there was blood on the handlebars

and on the seat of the bike. So police immediately spread out looking for any more evidence of where Sierra might have gone. Well, how would they put the bike in just anyways? They find a few clues, okay? But I mean, also keep in mind, they're just like scouring fields. They find a screwdriver, they find a sock, they find a pair of men's sunglasses. They actually do find some small streaks of blood on some of the corn stalks. And they also find motorcycle tracks.

So for now, officials keep these other pieces of evidence under wraps. They don't want what they found getting out to the media and disrupting any part of their investigation. But now, Sierra's friends and family are fearing the worst. Sierra obviously didn't just get in an accident. It appears that she had been targeted, maybe even kidnapped. Now the goal is finding her and bringing her home safely.

So there's Facebook pages and missing persons posters and a reward of $100,000 from an anonymous donor. But the day following her disappearance, there's also a new and very vital clue. A farmer goes to the police with a motorcycle helmet that he had found on the side of the road the night Sierra had disappeared. He said he actually stopped and picked it up

because he thought it would be good for his son, only after he picked it up, he noticed it was covered in blood. And then when he saw the news about the missing Sierra the following morning, he feared that there was probably a connection and he brought it in right away. All right. It goes without saying breathing is the most essential act of our bodies, which is why congestion, sinuses, allergies and colds can take a big toll on our well-being.

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And it was her boyfriend, Josh. Okay. So Josh is brought in for questioning. And the first thing police ask is, did you and Sierra have any sort of fight the night that she disappeared? And He's like, no. Now, Josh is visibly nervous and he even tells the police that he's nervous. But I mean, who wouldn't be nervous in this situation? I just feel like I'm gonna be completely mind blown if it's Josh. I mean, maybe not that mind blown. I think I'll be sad no matter what happens. I

think I'm just not expecting it to be Josh. Okay, so he actually tells the police, he's like, listen, I know that like, I'm probably a suspect and I need to be eliminated. And so he is as helpful with the police as he can be. He draws them a map of the route they took home. He allows them to even search his home, his truck, his motorcycle. There they do find a pair of overalls with blood on them. But Josh is like, please take them, test them. It's deer blood. I was on a hunting trip. This is something that is confirmed by forensic analysis later, not to mention everyone who knew Josh and Sierra and Garrett said they had a great relationship. Sierra's family never for a minute thought that he was involved.

And after looking into Josh, the police say there isn't really a single piece of evidence suggesting that he had any motive or anything to do with Sierra's disappearance This is pretty out there But if you died randomly I Mean, I know your parents are probably listening to this. I hope they wouldn't think oh, maybe it was Garrett Because if they do think that then then I think we need to, I need to rethink my relationship with them.

But I hope they don't think that. What? You know what I'm saying? Like I hope their first reaction wouldn't be, oh, dang, it must've been Garrett. You know what I'm saying? I'll be so pissed. Okay.

Wait, what are your thoughts on that? No thoughts? I mean, I think that the husband is the first suspect. I'll be pissed. If Peyton dies and every single one of you listeners instantly are like, ah, it was probably Garrett. I never want to talk to you, any of you ever again. So police clear Josh,

and that leads them to an even scarier possibility. That means that this was a random abduction, probably by a complete stranger. So police figure, the next course of action is to start going door to door around the area. See if there's anyone that saw anything that knows anything, but there's one person in particular they want to speak to. And it's this guy named James Worley.

Now, James does live on a three acre property off County Road 6. So he's one of the houses that she would have ridden by. And he's in his early 50s. He runs a small engine repair shop out of his house, which he shares with his mother and his brother. And the reason police want to talk to him is because he's kind of a loud mouth. He's always calling into the police department with different complaints in the area, suspicious vehicles driving by parties. He's always calling into the police department with different complaints in the area, suspicious vehicles driving by parties. He's a

little snitch. So they figure if James Warley knows something, he will probably sing and he probably was out looking. And sure enough, when they knock on the door, James answers and he immediately starts setting off red flags. So when police mentioned that they're there to ask about the missing girl in the area, James goes, oh yeah, I know exactly the area you're talking about right up the street. He says my motorcycle actually broke down right near there earlier on the day she disappeared and then he says yeah, somewhere during that time I was trying to fix my bike and I lost my screwdriver and my sunglasses and my helmet. What all of those things were found at the crime scene and he just

instantly just says like hey guys, this is what's going on. Yeah, he says earlier before she was abducted. I think my motorcycle broke down and I lost all that stuff. Got it. So police are also noticing that while he's telling them all of this, he has what looks like a bunch of fresh scratches and bruises all over his arms, but James continues gabbing on about his story. He says he realized he couldn't fix his bike. He decided to roll it into the cornfields to hide it for a bit. He said he walked home and came back to get it with his truck later.

But while he was doing that, he actually spotted a purple bike in the cornfield as well. And he says he picked it up from its side and put it on its kickstand. Now all details that are not exactly public and James probably shouldn't have known that the purple bike was standing straight up also unless he was there. Wouldn't which he is saying he did do it. But wouldn't he I guess the crazy part too is the blood Because there was a blood on the back when he had noticed and also like why if a bike slung down What was putting it up right and then leaving? Yeah, you know what I mean? I'm not believing James right now, but then he says something even more triggering to the police

He says I'm not out there killing chicks, dude He then goes on and on about how he has plenty of girlfriends and he meets women online. He doesn't need to be kidnapping and killing 20 year olds, but that's exactly something who kills young women. Would say. Would say. Especially because police know James Worley

already kind of has a bit of a criminal record, which is probably why he was always so eager to rat other people out. Like in 2000, he was convicted of growing marijuana and possessing weapons while on disability, which is actually a third degree felony. He was released in 2002, 14 years earlier, but prior to that, James had served time for a much more violent offense. So back on July 4th, 1990, we're going back in time. A woman named Robin Gardner was living in White House, Ohio. It's about a 25 minute drive from our small town where our story takes place.

She was about the same age as Sierra when she decided to go out for a little bike ride before their family barbecue, just a good fourth of July bike ride. Robin said about a mile away from her house, she actually noticed a truck coming up behind her and that it hit her, sending her flying into a ditch along the side of the road. She says the man then stopped the car, got out, asked if she was okay. But meanwhile, he was actually approaching her menacingly. Then she noticed the hammer in his hand

just before he hit her over the head. She said the assailant then dragged her back to the car and tried to force her into handcuffs, but Robin fought back against the six foot attacker with every ounce of strength she could muster after being run over and hit on the head with a hammer. And it actually worked. A passing motorcyclist stopped when he saw the struggle. Robin hopped on the back of the stranger's bike and got away from the scene with her life. And when she got home, Robin immediately called the police who worked fast and actually tracked down her attacker. Who was it? 31 year old James Worley. What a surprise James.

Again, this was back in 1990. So James was charged with kidnapping. He took a plea deal, which meant he only served three years behind bars. So by the mid nineties, he was actually back on the streets of Ohio and guess what he attacks another woman. Dude, I I say this so much and I will continue to say it, but it will always continue to bug me. I will never understand like when someone gets out for doing something insane like that they go and do it again They get put back in and they get out again and the next time they escalate and kill the person someone actually find eyes I got some point. Yes. I know that James obviously it's his fault

But at some point our justice system has to take accountability. I don't know man. I know it's complicated. It's just frustrating Our justice system has to take accountability. I don't know, man. I know it's complicated. It's just frustrating. So then in 1996, this would be six years later, and actually the year that Sierra was born, Claudia Tinsley from Toledo was leaving her house one afternoon when her mother asked her where she was going

and who she was going with. And Claudia just pointed to a truck parked outside. Claudia hopped in the passenger side of the car. And after that, she was never seen again. When her mother went to the police to Claudia hopped in the passenger side of the car and after that she was never seen again. When her mother went to the police to describe the man in the vehicle, it led them back to none other than Mr. James Worley. Now James actually said, okay,

he was the one who picked Claudia up. The mother was right. And he said he drove around with Claudia for about 45 minutes and then dropped her off at some unknown location. And to this day, Claudia's body has never been found. Holy crap. And James has never been charged with her disappearance besides admitting that he was basically the last person

she was seen alive with. However, knowing all of this, I mean, the first girl was on a bike in his truck, the second girl has never been seen again after being with James. And now we have Sierra who was also riding a bike and is missing right next to his house. And the crime scene he claims he was actually at.

So police are like, we have our number one suspect. So on July 22nd, three days after Sierra was declared missing, police returned to James Worley's house with a search warrant. And this time, James was a little less forthcoming, but he let the police in to search his home anyways. And inside, police don't find anything of note. But when they tell him they're gonna search his barn,

he becomes a lot less cooperative. He immediately gets angry, he's nervous. And as they approach the barn, the first thing police notice is that the window on the front is spray painted black, so no one can see inside. And when they open up the doors, they find two things right away.

First, it looks like the dirt on the barn floor had been raked, like someone was trying to clean something up. And also the place reeked of bleach, bleach in a barn. Now investigators start moving things around and after shuffling some barrels of hay to the side, they find this green crate. And inside this crate, they see Ziploc bags labeled with like all sorts of women's clothing. I'm saying bags that say stockings, tube tops, jean shorts, underwear.

And then they also find duct tape. They also find a freshly made sandwich in a bag in this thing, which makes police wonder, is Sierra actually still alive and being held captive somewhere nearby and he's taking this thing to change her clothes and feed her like it's his little cubby? I mean, why else would you have an almost brand new sandwich sitting in your barn?

So police are completely scrambling at this point and they find along the rear side of the barn is a piece of plywood that's laying over the floor. And so they decide to lift it up. They remove the floorboard and underneath is one of those giant chest freezers. So they race to get this thing out of the floor. Like they need to remove it out of the floor

and they open it up. Only there's nothing left inside, but a wet carpet lining the interior, which looks to be soaked in blood and bleach. Okay. Now inside that barn, they also found a corner with a blood soaked mattress with handcuffs and zip ties on it.

Holy crap, This is insane. So they're like, hi, James, why do you have a bloody fridge and a bloody mattress in your barn? And he goes, oh, this is my own makeshift pornography studio. With blood? So this is stomach turning. And it's more than enough for police to arrest him that afternoon. James Worley is charged with aggravated murder,

kidnapping, assault, possessing criminal tools and a few other offenses. But the question is where is Sierra like she wasn't found in the barn. So as police are bagging and tagging evidence, they actually get a phone call from a nearby farmer. He lives about two miles down the road from James and he has noticed a disturbance in his cornfield like someone was digging a hole on his property. So police rush over and find what looks like a covered up grave. They begin removing the dirt slowly noticing the smell of decomposition as they got further and further. And that's when they spot her. It was the body of Sierra Drogon. In the 95 degree heat,

they actually spend the next five hours exhuming her body, refusing to take a break until she's out of the grave. Sierra was found with her wrists handcuffed and her ankles bound with rope. She also had, I'm going to give a trigger warning. If you don't want detail, keep just skip ahead a little bit. She had what appeared to be a rubber dog toy stuffed down her mouth. This episode is brought to you by CIBC. From closing that first sale to opening a second store as a business owner, you've hustled to accomplish a

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Now during her autopsy, the medical examiner believed that this was what had actually caused her death. It was real asphyxiation. Sierra also had a hairline fracture along the back of her skull, which police think is caused by a motorcycle helmet being used to knock her unconscious. And then she was then abducted. There was however, no signs that Sierra was sexually assaulted. So after James's motorcycle was processed by forensics, they found Sierra's blood on his bike, as well as on zip ties, a can of mace,

and a ski mask that was confiscated from his property. They also found pieces of duct tape that had both James and Sierra's DNA on it. Plus they had learned that on the day Sierra was kidnapped, James had used his computer to look up pornographic sites and had Google searched terms like hogtied teen, hitchhiker, forced, helpless, and gag. What the freak? This isn't, okay. So when James Worley's trial began in 2018,

156 jurors were actually dismissed from the case before the hearing could even begin. Several of them were excused because they actually knew or lived in close proximity to James Worley or the Joggin family. It actually took about three months to put together a jury. And when the testimony finally began, the prosecution painted a compelling picture of what likely happened to Sierra that night. They said James Worley, who was pleading not guilty to the charges at hand, despite all of the evidence against him,

likely spent the day on those pornographic websites. And when he was riding around on his motorcycle later that night, he ran into Sierra by pure chance and decided to act on his fantasies. He likely pursued Sierra into that cornfield, hit her over the head with his helmet, and then waited there in the cornfield for nearly two hours until it got completely dark.

This was a theory that was supported by James's cell phone location data. He sat in that cornfield for two hours. He then went home on his motorcycle, got his van, and returned to pick her up before bringing her back to the barn where he likely killed her and then buried her body later that night,

just a few miles away in his neighbor's cornfield. Now the defense tried to work a very weak angle. They said that James did not know Sierra and that he had no motive for the crime. He also didn't really know the other one. It's, I don't know. It's kind of interesting sometimes how, I guess he has a right to have a defense team, but.

I mean, what can you do when it's sometimes these attorneys have to be like, dude, like really man, my really defending this. And also they argue that although his DNA was found on majority of the evidence recovered by police, it wasn't on all of it. Plus they referred back to one witness report that said a man with red shorts was spotted in the cornfield near Sierra's bike that night. Only no red shorts were found at James Worley's home. Okay. Now, ultimately the case against James Worley is stronger because the star witness for the prosecution was Robin Gardner, who said, like Sierra, way back when,

she was also a strong independent woman who just so happened to cross paths with the monster that was James Worley, but she got away with her life and Sierra didn't. So when all was said and done, the jury returned to read the verdict. The 58 year old James Worley was found guilty of aggravated murder and the kidnapping of Sierra Joggin, as well as all the other counts he was charged with.

Now the question was what would become of James Worley? His sentence hearing was on April 16th, 2018. James spent 45 minutes at his sentencing talking about how he was innocent, how he did not kill Sierra and how he had been framed for this crime. Dude, what a loser. There, the judge replied, if I thought there was a snowball's chance in hell that you were innocent, you would still be looking at a life sentence. Instead, the judge gave James Worley the death penalty. That's all I'm going to say is yeah. In addition, he received 11 years in prison for kidnapping,

8 for assault, 11 months for possessing criminal tools, and 36 months for tampering with evidence. His execution date is actually set for May 20th, 2025. So what do you think it'll go through? I don't know. So Sierra's family has worked hard in the years since to make sure her fate doesn't become someone else's. And so I want to end on this on Sierra's legacy. Not only has the family carried on her legacy

through a nonprofit dedicated to keeping their community safe from repeat offenders, which is what Gary already said, Sierra's death also sparked the creation of a new bill that has been passed through the Ohio Senate. So during the search for Sierra, police had mentioned to her family that there was actually no local state or federal database that tracked all offenders. But her family believed if something like that was available to law enforcement, they may have noticed that James Worley, who had already done this to basically two other girls, one that was on a bike, if his name had popped up immediately when they ran the people around the area that

she disappeared, they might have caught him before he killed her. Hasn't exist. Right. So in December of 2018, the family helped to get a new law enacted known as Sierra's Law. 2018 the family helped to get a new law enacted known as Sierra's law The statute led to the creation of a violent offender registry in Ohio So while the public can't access the site online They can go to their local sheriff's office and request that the search be performed on their behalf Thus making sure that none of their neighbors are a threat to their family or if their daughter goes missing

They can say hey police, please run and see if there's any violent offenders near this area. Sierra's family also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Warleys and it was settled in 2018 and the family actually received over $3 million. But more importantly, they won the rights to the three acre property where Sierra was killed, which meant Sierra's family and friends would no longer have to drive down County Road 6 and look at the barn where Sierra's life was taken. And this is because the family,

obviously after getting ownership, had the barn destroyed. Now, Sheila, her mother told reporters, I'm not gonna lie, there is an emotional gratification in tearing down and burning something that you loathe so much we look forward to removing the darkness and opening it up and letting the light shine in and That is the story of Sierra Jogan yeah, I think just so sad and heartbreaking and

senseless Senseless and again just so frustrating when someone who's been out of prison or out of jail for something so violent violent offenses I guess just two ways to look at it I'm sure I've actually been pretty sure some last time did put the statistics that the statistic down and it was the percentage was really high those that do we can then re-offend violently. But it also is hard because it does, how do I say this correctly, ruin the chance

or take away from those who don't re-offend and who do change and who do reform. Because honestly, all that is going to stick out is those who continue to re-offend because that's gonna overpower the good because it usually just does. So. And obviously there are more answers like we could maybe change the, the reformation process or whatever. But as it is right now, too many violent offenders are getting out

and eventually killing people. Like how many times in these cases is it, Oh, well he kind of already did this or she kind of already did this or she kind of already did this. And now it's, it's honestly ridiculous. Now it's happening again. All right, you guys, that was our story for this week and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

I hate it. Goodbye.