00:00:01
Now's the time for a great deal on a new Honda. It's time to drive smarter with high-tech features and excellent
00:00:09
reliability. Check out the Honda Civic, Accord, or HRV. For a limited time, well-qualified buyers can get a 4.99%
00:00:16
APR on a 2025 Civic or a 3.99% APR on a 2025 Accord or HRV. [Music] See dealer for financing details
00:00:28
exclusive at SI and Type R. [Music] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
00:01:15
for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is a man who is cleaner than your church shoes. Here is
00:01:21
the captain. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a
00:01:28
friend. This week we are excited to be featuring You Betcha by the cool folks at Sonder Brewing. You betcha is a New
00:01:36
England style IPA that is hazy and hoppy, fullbodied, and with a great tropical fruit explosion, ABV, 6 1/2%
00:01:46
garage, 4 and 1/2 bottle caps out of five. And let's give some thanks and praise to some cool folks right here.
00:01:53
First up, a cheers to Eve in London, England. And a big we like your jib goes out to Darcy from Charlotte, North
00:02:00
Carolina. Here's a cheers and a thank you to Alicia Russ in West Cornwall, Connecticut. A big tall hands in the air
00:02:08
to Taylor and Littleton, Colorado. And last, but certainly not least, here's a cheers to Teresa in one of my favorite
00:02:16
cities, Scottdale, Arizona. Everyone we just mentioned went to trimegar.com, clicked on the pint glass,
00:02:22
and that helped us fill up the old garage fridge for this week's show. And for that, we thank you. Yeah. BW beer
00:02:30
run for everything true crime. Check out true crimegar.com. While you're there, sign up on the mailing list. And
00:02:36
Colonel, that's enough of the beer business. All right, everybody. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's
00:02:42
talk some true crime. Capital punishment, the death penalty and judicial homicide is the state
00:03:04
sanctioned killing of a person as punishment. It's a death sentence for breaking the law and in many cases it's
00:03:11
the penalty for committing several criminal acts, mostly murder. The act of carrying out the
00:03:19
sentence is an execution. A prisoner sentenced to death is condemned and is commonly referred to as being on death
00:03:28
row. This form of punishment is reserved for the worst of the worst. Crimes that
00:03:34
are punishable by death are known as capital crimes, capital offenses, or capital felonies and vary depending on
00:03:42
the jurisdiction. Capital punishment has been a part of Ohio's justice system since the early 1800s. Back then,
00:03:51
executions were carried out in the form of public hangings in the county where the crime was committed. Today, all
00:03:58
executions, whether male or female, take place at the Southern Ohio Correctional
00:04:04
Facility. However, prisoners awaiting execution, are not housed there on a long-term basis. The Ohio men's death
00:04:13
row is at another facility. This is the new death row unit at the Ross Correctional Institution. One man that
00:04:21
is currently housed at Ross Correctional is James Dean Warley. Warley is a suspected serial killer. Many believe
00:04:31
that Worley is a predator and a sexual satist. He is suspected of killing several women and convicted of killing
00:04:38
one. Before James Worley was sentenced to die for his crimes, the state did so prove that the killing was purposeful.
00:04:47
So were the assaults and the abductions. I think James Wley has likely killed three women in separate similar
00:04:55
abductions spanning decades and all here in Ohio. Worley was elected to be executed
00:05:02
this month in May of 2025. However, executions have been on hold since 2018. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has stated
00:05:14
that the state cannot obtain the necessary drugs for lethal injection, halting all
00:05:21
executions. There are 114 people currently on Ohio's death row. Additionally, two new bills are being
00:05:28
considered by the Ohio legislature. One to abolish the death penalty and another
00:05:34
to reinstate it using nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution. This is true crime
00:05:44
[Music] [Music] garage. On a warm, sunny Tuesday in July 2016, it was time for Sierra Jan to
00:06:03
leave the home of her boyfriend. Her boyfriend's name is Josh. They are in a place called Metamora, Ohio, which is
00:06:11
located in Fulton County. This is the tippy top of Ohio, very north, just shy of the Michigan, Ohio state line. Yeah,
00:06:23
this is the same county that we were talking about last week. Correct. She had ridden her purple bike to his house
00:06:31
on that evening and she was going to leave, but Josh wanted to ride partway home with her. So, he gets on his
00:06:38
motorcycle and they set out. They're riding side by side. She's pedaling fast and he's kind of puttering along on the
00:06:46
motorcycle. Around about a/4 till 7, they separate. This is near Evergreen High School. So each start heading their
00:06:56
separate ways back to their homes. Sierra at the time is living with her grandparents. Keep in mind this is a
00:07:03
summertime. She's a college student and she's living with her grandparents for the summer between college sessions.
00:07:10
Well, and like you said, Josh was meeting her or riding her back halfway on his motorcycle, but he snapped a
00:07:18
picture of her through, I believe, his Snapchat account. Yeah. And in the picture, you can see her on her bike.
00:07:26
She's smiling. It's a beautiful evening out. He really rides with her to about a
00:07:33
mile from where she's living. So, very close to to her home. So, they part ways and now Sierra is biking home the rest
00:07:42
of the way by herself, but she never makes it home. So, we have Sierra's mother. Her name is Sheila. She says
00:07:49
that that night she happened to drive by her parents' home where Sierra was staying. This is after dark. She thought
00:07:58
that it was strange that her daughter's room the light was not on in the window.
00:08:03
She couldn't see the light on which she would say typically if she drove by her parents' home at night, Sierra was often
00:08:10
home and the light would be on. But she didn't think too much of it, right? Not until she receives a phone call later
00:08:18
that night from Josh. So he tells Sheila, Sierra's mom, that he had been texting Sierra for several hours by this
00:08:27
point, receiving no response. He gets worried. He starts to panic and he thinks I better call her folks and ask
00:08:35
what's going on. Well, she was out riding her bike, I believe, for exercise and then went to his house. So, as her
00:08:44
boyfriend, and I believe they were high school sweethearts, so they've been dating for quite a while. And anybody
00:08:50
that dated somebody for a long time, your your family start intermingling and intertwining. And so, okay, she had a
00:08:59
mile to get back to her grandparents house. Maybe she took a nap. Maybe she's taking a shower. There could be a
00:09:07
million reasons why she's not responding to me. But after a couple hours, you go,
00:09:11
"This is strange." cuz it wasn't like they had an argument or there there was no reason for her not to respond to her
00:09:18
longtime boyfriend. Yeah. And like you said, it's a longterm relationship even for how young they are. From my
00:09:24
understanding, they knew each other and were close even back in middle school. So, he knows the family well. The family
00:09:32
knows him well. And he's letting the mom know, "Hey, I'm worried. I've been trying to reach Sierra and it's
00:09:39
crickets. I'm not hearing anything." And the two of them quickly figure out that
00:09:44
nobody else has heard from Sierra since Josh last saw her either. And this is this is a young lady who is dependable
00:09:54
and predictable. And so this is totally out of character. Both of them understandably concerned. So Sierra's
00:10:02
mother says that she knew something was wrong as soon as she gets this phone call from Josh. She wants to doublech
00:10:09
checkck everything. She quickly confirms that Sierra's purple bike is also missing from the barn where it's
00:10:16
normally kept. So, she's not home. The bike never returned. From there, she and some of the family took to going to a
00:10:23
nearby carry out asking if anybody there had seen Sierra any point that evening with the answer being no. Sheila said
00:10:31
that from there it was just a downward spiral after that where she was riding that was just fields, corn fields. This
00:10:40
is a country road there. There's no uh bike path or sidewalk. Sheila tried and tried to call Sierra's phone, but by
00:10:50
this point, Captain, it's going straight to voicemail. So, this is 10:50 p.m. on
00:10:56
a Tuesday night. Not good. And after this, mom is frantic. She calls the police. She reports her daughter
00:11:04
missing. The cool thing here, this is not one of those scenarios where the police are like, "Oh, 20-year-old
00:11:12
college student. Of course, you can't get in contact with them. Of course you can't find them. They're probably out
00:11:18
having fun, out running the streets." No, this was this took very little convincing. Mom is explaining to the
00:11:25
sheriff's department, "This is what kind of kid my daughter is." And they're like, "Okay, we're gonna jump into
00:11:31
action immediately and and try to figure out what's going on here." Yeah. Or what's the other story we hear all the
00:11:37
time? Law enforcement going, "Well, of course you can't get a hold of her because she decided to start a new life
00:11:43
somewhere else." We're going to pause here and give a a quick shout out to the Toledo Blade, a fantastic news
00:11:50
publication, which covered this case way more thoroughly than any other publication that I could find. So,
00:11:56
you're going to hear us quote and cite from The Blade often during these episodes, but we wanted to highlight
00:12:02
what a great job, gang busters job they did on their coverage of this horrific story. So Sheila told the blade, quote,
00:12:13
"I was just trying to frantically get through to the Fulton County deputy that this isn't some kid who's run off for
00:12:21
the night. There is something seriously wrong. This is not right." End quote. And as said, they very quickly
00:12:28
recognized that this situation was dire. So Sheila called all of her and Sierra's
00:12:34
relatives in the area and everyone started looking for Sierra. Everyone started posting on Facebook about the
00:12:42
situation and word spread very quickly and several people came forward promptly and said that they had seen her. So a
00:12:50
jogger says that they saw Sierra on her bike. Police questioned this jogger. He really had no more information other
00:12:59
than to say, "Yeah, I was she was on her bike. I was jogging and and I saw her."
00:13:03
Did this eyewitness also see the boyfriend riding beside her? That I don't know. They also pulled in a van
00:13:11
operator, a person driving a van who also said that they had seen Sierra that night. Uh but this was the same deal. No
00:13:19
more information other than I had seen her. And we do know that based off of eyewitness statements, two independent
00:13:30
eyewitness statements that we just reviewed, that the one thing they did both agree on was Sierra was biking and
00:13:36
she was biking in the direction toward her home. Other than that, no one knew where she was or where she had gone.
00:13:44
Then after midnight on the 20th, so this is the next day, searchers found a purple bicycle off of County Road 6 near
00:13:55
the intersection with County Road T. Anybody that lives out in the country, you understand right away when you hear
00:14:03
the words County Road 6 and County Road T, what kind of country roads we're talking about here. This is corn fields
00:14:11
and homes that are spread out. This purple bicycle, which matches the description of Sierra's bike, is found
00:14:20
half a mile from Sierra's parents' home. Deputies used a tracking dog starting from the point where Josh reported that
00:14:28
they the two had parted ways. The bike was thrown or shoved into a cornfield. And it it it's laying in this cornfield,
00:14:39
Captain about four rows deep. And this is tall corn. It's going to be a disturbing scene because like you said,
00:14:46
they find the bike, but they also find signs of struggle. Yes. Let's use the words of Roy Miller. He's the Fulton
00:14:52
County Sheriff. He said, quote, "There was a disturbance near the bike. There was some corn knocked down and such."
00:14:59
End quote. And it's signs of a struggle, I think, is is kind of downplaying it a
00:15:06
little bit. Once you figure out everything that that they find at this spot, it's going to be just
00:15:13
overwhelmingly alarming. So ABC's 2020 reported, quote, "Inveigators combed the area and found more clues tucked into
00:15:22
the cornfield. a screwdriver, men's sunglasses, a sock, a set of fuse boxes, motorcycle tracks, and evidence of a
00:15:30
struggle indicated by broken corn stalks and cornstalks with streaks of blood on
00:15:35
them. And we have FBI agent Megan Roberts who says, "It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. You just
00:15:43
had this eerie feeling that you knew that this was the sight of an abduction." Yeah. And this is also tough
00:15:51
for law enforcement because like you said this this story quickly we're only a day after she went missing but because
00:15:59
of social media this is blowing up and the picture that Josh took of her on the on her way back home on her bike that
00:16:08
that's basically going viral at this point especially in that Fulton County area. But what do we know if we're law
00:16:16
enforcement? Who was accompanying her on this ride home? Her longtime boyfriend.
00:16:23
Statistically, you're more likely to be murdered by somebody you know or somebody that you're in a romantic
00:16:29
relationship with. And now we have this, again, maybe not phrasing it correctly,
00:16:35
but this disturbing crime scene. And what do we have? Motorcycle tracks. And I think if you're law enforcement, you
00:16:42
start going, "Well, is this boyfriend telling us the truth?" Mhm. Yeah. We know the boyfriend has a motorcycle.
00:16:49
This is going to set up a a domino effect right away with the highway patrol blocking off roads and setting up
00:16:58
roadblocks, really igniting a massive search for Sierra, which would include 6060 firefighters, the use of search
00:17:09
canine dogs that were brought in from the capital city, Columbus, and a helicopter that was equipped with
00:17:17
infrared vision, which you See, anybody that watches true crime shows and documentaries, you'll see that these
00:17:26
infrared vision helicopters are often used, especially in these rural areas when we're talking about somebody
00:17:33
searching overhead for for wooded areas in corn fields. They will typically use this. However, the all of this
00:17:41
effort, they don't find her on that day. And then the next day, the search expands to over 100 volunteers searching
00:17:52
a 4mm radius around where the bike was located. Well, this is a great move by law enforcement because even though they
00:18:01
don't find her, at least we're searching that area for also any other clues that
00:18:06
could have been left behind. But obviously they they don't find a bunch because we do have a abduction site. So
00:18:13
that's where we're going to find the majority of our evidence. Yeah. They also recognize that the times, right?
00:18:20
And that's one thing that we've talked about a bunch here in the garage, how wonderful technology is and how
00:18:27
important it is and how helpful it has been to law enforcement when it comes to finding
00:18:33
somebody or locating a perpetrator or figuring out what happened to somebody. So, they make a public plea, right, to
00:18:42
anyone with home security cameras or Ring cameras or simply safe cameras to review their footage along the route
00:18:52
that Sierra would have been taking that night to see if, you know, anybody spotted her or had any idea what could
00:19:00
have happened to her. Well, think about this. the one of the simplest things that we talk about over and over and you
00:19:06
just said what five minutes back mom boyfriend trying to get a hold of her and then now they're calling and her
00:19:15
phone goes to voicemail. So that that doesn't tell us all the information but at that point we can say well she's not
00:19:23
on her phone she's not charging her phone that that gives us a frame of reference. Does that make any sense?
00:19:29
Well, yeah, the phone that would be an indicator that the phone is either off, broken and busted, or dead. And what
00:19:38
scares me about that is those are all kind of actionable, right? If the phone was shut off, I'm worried that it wasn't
00:19:46
her that shut it off. And I'm hoping that I I think when you set out looking for her, there's always the chance that
00:19:56
maybe she was in some kind of bike accident. And if that's the situation, then then maybe the phone broke. It
00:20:04
wouldn't be the first phone that broke in a bike accident. But after finding this scene, and I don't know what was
00:20:10
communicated from law enforcement to the family when they found this bicycle and
00:20:16
found that scene, they're already saying to themselves, "We just knew that this was
00:20:22
the the site of an abduction." I don't know if that was communicated to the family or not, but if I'm the if I'm the
00:20:29
detective, I'm going, okay, the boyfriend is riding her home. So, we have a a point where he leaves her. So,
00:20:38
we have that point and now we have this abduction site obviously, but we also have this information about when her
00:20:46
phone starts going to voicemail. So, now we got a rough timeline and I think that
00:20:50
helps investigators. Yeah. And the Fulton County authorities very smartly quickly called in the assistance of
00:20:59
FBI's Toledo office. Again, this is from ABC's 2020. They say, quote, Megan Roberts, who we've already introduced to
00:21:08
everyone, a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification, she got a call around
00:21:16
1:00 a.m. in the morning. This is after the abduction asking her to assist in processing this crime scene. And Miss
00:21:25
Roberts, who we quoted earlier, was brought to the abduction site, which she found very alarming. All signs pointing
00:21:32
to this being a forceful abduction case, and the federal agency's help was imperative. Right. You you know this is
00:21:40
an abduction, so call in the FBI. The investigators noted that in Josh's photo of Sierra, the one that you had
00:21:47
referenced there, Captain, taken literally within an hour of her abduction, she's Sierra's wearing a
00:21:54
Fitbit. Again, here's some more technology. They set to work tracking that device. And NBC reported that one
00:22:03
of the pings from Sierra's cell phone was near the Michigan border, several miles from where her bike was found. So
00:22:10
they commence searches in that area as well. Well, I think you can even narrow the timeline down even more because you
00:22:18
said like, well, within an hour, but we know whether she's less than a mile away
00:22:25
or a little over a mile away from her destination. Going at average speed, she should hit home within 10 minutes. So
00:22:34
basically within 10 minutes of him leaving his girlfriend, Josh leaving his girlfriend, this abduction takes place.
00:22:44
And then we have a post. This went to Josh's aunt or uncle. Somebody in Josh's family posted the following online. This
00:22:55
is on the 20th, so this is very quick here. Shortly after Sierra's discovered missing. says she went missing at County
00:23:04
Road 6 and 120 in Fulton County, Ohio. They took her right off her bike. Her bike was found lying by the side of the
00:23:14
road along with her sunglasses. This was not a hit and run. They have ruled that out. They pinged
00:23:22
her cell phone. The phone was either destroyed or turned off as it is not pinging anymore. On July 21st, a private
00:23:31
donor offered up $25,000 for as a reward for information about the disappearance and others
00:23:39
quickly piled on, bringing the amount to $100,000. Someone started a Facebook group, Bring Sierra Home, and it was
00:23:47
soon joined by thousands of people. Meanwhile, investigators asked for the public's help in looking for someone who
00:23:54
was riding a motorcycle with an openfaced black helmet at the area of County Road 6 somewhere between roads S
00:24:03
and T as in Sam and as in Tom where Sierra was last seen. This was because one, motorbike tracks had been found at
00:24:13
the abduction scene. to a farmer had come forward and delivered a bloody motorcycle helmet that he found by the
00:24:21
side of the road before the bike was even located. Police suspected immediately that it was related to what
00:24:28
had happened to Sierra because the blood was determined to be human. They knew they were looking for a motorcycle
00:24:35
riding suspect. Josh was the first man to come to mind since he had such a bike and was of course connected to Sierra.
00:24:44
But uh per 2020, they see Josh cooperated with authorities. He drew a map for them of where Joggin's route
00:24:53
showing where the couple departed and consented to searches of his residence, motorcycle, and truck according to the
00:25:01
investigators. And eventually Josh was cleared uh because he had gone home and we have
00:25:10
people putting him there at the home and two witnesses saw Sierra riding alone after the two parted ways. And the other
00:25:20
thing too is very quickly you know when you got to move quick as an investigator
00:25:26
you got to move quick and I'm not saying move quick to to clear people and move quick to move on to people. Your number
00:25:31
one job at this moment in your investigation is to find Sierra. Find Sierra. I need breadcrumbs. I need I
00:25:39
need breadcrumbs here to find this young lady. So, the first thing you're going to do is simply, hey, where's your
00:25:46
motorcycle helmet? And if he could produce a helmet, then you're starting to go, all right, this this is starting
00:25:51
to look like there's something else going on here. You make countless decisions every day,
00:26:06
but one of the easiest and most important decisions you can make is securing your home with Simply Safe.
00:26:12
Traditional security systems only take action after someone has already broken in. But Simply Safe's active guard
00:26:20
outdoor protection can help prevent break-ins before they happen. AI powered cameras backed by live professional
00:26:27
monitoring agents monitor your property and detect suspicious activity. If someone's lurking around or acting
00:26:34
suspiciously, those agents see and talk to them in real time, activate spotlights, and even contact the police,
00:26:41
all before they have had the chance to get inside your home. I love Simply Safe. We've been telling you about it
00:26:48
for years. And if you are a longtime listener of True Crime Garage, I do not need to explain to you why it is very
00:26:54
smart for you to get Simply Safe security. You need to secure your home. You need to protect your family. And you
00:27:01
need to secure your businesses and your properties. Simplysafe is a no-brainer. They're one of the best in the business.
00:27:08
The technology is incredible, and they're extremely affordable. Visit simplysafe.com/g to claim 50% off a new
00:27:17
system with professional monitoring plan and get your first month free. That's simplysafe.com/g. There's no safe like
00:27:27
simply. Summer is just around the corner and the folks at Mint Mobile have a hot
00:27:31
take. Getting a summer bod is out and getting your savings bod is in. This spring and summer, everyone wants skimpy
00:27:40
wireless bills and fat wallets. And with premium wireless plans for just 15 bucks
00:27:45
a month, you can have both without breaking a sweat or the bank. All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited
00:27:53
talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. I, like everyone else, used to have the big name wireless
00:28:01
service providers, but that came with an inflated monthly bill. With Mint Mobile,
00:28:07
I get that same quality and reliable service with a nice fit and trim monthly bill. This year, skip breaking a sweat
00:28:16
and breaking the bank. Get your summer savings and shop premium wireless plans at
00:28:23
mintmobile.com/tcg. That's mintmobile.com/tcg. Upfront payment of $45 for 3mon 5 gigabyte plan required,
00:28:33
equivalent to $15 per month. New customer offer for the first three months only. Then full price plan
00:28:40
options available. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Now's the time for a great deal
00:28:49
on a new Honda. It's time to take an adventure with rugged capability and commanding style. Check out the Honda
00:28:55
Ridgeline Pilot, Passport, or CRV. For a limited time, well-qualified buyers can
00:29:00
get a 1.99% APR on a 2025 Ridgeline, or a 3.99% APR on a 2025 Pilot, 2026 Passport, or 2025 CRV.
00:29:11
[Music] See dealer for financing details. As temperatures climb, it's easy to fall
00:29:19
into the same old routine. Familiar tanks worn in shorts, the usual lineup. Quint offers an effortless upgrade.
00:29:27
Elevated, easy pieces that instantly refine the everyday uniform without the extra cost, like 100% European linen
00:29:34
shorts and dresses from $30. Luxe swimwear, Italian leather platform sandals, and so much more. The best
00:29:42
part, everything with Quint is priced 50 to 80% less than what you would find at
00:29:48
similar brands. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quint gives you luxury
00:29:55
without the markup. And Quint only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices
00:30:03
and premium fabrics and finishes. For this summer, I needed some new everyday gear. I went to quint.com. I picked up a
00:30:12
flownit performance zip hoodie and a mesh performance training tea. And for those extra hot days, I got an ultra
00:30:20
light performance t-shirt. Everything that I get from Quint is of high quality, and the prices are amazing.
00:30:27
They fit well within my budget. And all the pieces from Quint are of such great quality that I can wear them out on the
00:30:34
golf course, wear them to the gym, or at even some of the finest restaurants in town. And I don't think that it's weird
00:30:41
that I picked up a 100% suede bomber jacket for summertime. It does get cold at night and I look amazing in this
00:30:49
jacket. Treat your closet to a little summer glow up with Quint. Go to quint.com/car for free shipping on your
00:30:57
order and 365day returns. That's qui nce.com/g to get free shipping and 365day returns.
00:31:21
quint.com/g. All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Tall cans in the air. Cheers to you, Colonel. Cheers to you,
00:31:27
Captain. Cheers to all the people in the back. Look, a lot of the cases that we talk
00:31:34
about, there are some horrific details and some things that are just downright difficult to discuss. In this case, this
00:31:44
case is no exception. It was an excruciating couple of days looking for Sierra, but finally, this would be on
00:31:52
that Saturday, there was news, and it wasn't the good kind. Around 6:00 p.m. on Friday the 22nd, the body of a young
00:32:01
woman was found buried not very deep near a rural road in Fulton County. The victim was gagged hog tied with black
00:32:12
duct tape and rope and handcuffed. She was wearing some clothing, a white bra socks and an adult diaper. She had hay
00:32:22
in her hair. Fulton County Sheriff Roy Miller held a press conference stating, quote, "At this time, we strongly
00:32:29
believe that this is Sierra." End quote. And sadly, soon after fingerprints would confirm the
00:32:38
identification. In a strange, you know, each one of these cases are unique for different reasons. But the strange turn
00:32:44
of events here, Captain, they had actually arrested someone on Friday morning on abduction charges. Yeah. So
00:32:51
the fact is that by the time Sierra is found, the authorities pretty much would believe that she was already dead. They
00:33:00
had this arrest of this guy. His name is James Dean Warley. He's 57 years old at
00:33:06
this time in our timeline. He had a significant criminal history. Yeah. And he lawyers up
00:33:15
immediately following his arrest. He's a big dude. He's a big, ugly, sloppy looking dude. And as said,
00:33:25
he's got a rap sheet, a a lengthy rap sheet. And and he's got a history of violence on that rap sheet. So, let's go
00:33:33
back in time on July 4th, 1990. We have a 26-year-old woman named Robin Gardner.
00:33:41
She is biking alone on Obi Road. This is near White House, Ohio. So, we're going
00:33:48
to name a lot of these smaller towns, but this is all in the same general area. A lot of the locations we're going
00:33:56
to be talking about for persons that don't live in northwest Ohio, this is all pretty much Fulton County, Lucas
00:34:04
County area. So, the Toledo Blade covered this Robin Gardner case as well. This is James Worley's I was going to
00:34:13
say first abduction, but who knows? Um, but the the testimony that she gave, according to the blade at the
00:34:22
trial, was quote, "It was all cornfields." She said it was July 4th and the corn was high. There was nobody
00:34:29
around. Miss Gardner was riding her bike when she noticed a flatbed truck pass her in the opposite direction. A few
00:34:37
moments later, the same truck struck her from behind, causing her to fall from her bike and tumble into a small ditch
00:34:45
on the side of the road. Miss Gardner told jurors she stood up and she let her guard down when the first words out of
00:34:53
the driver's mouth were, "Oh my god, are you all right?" Then soon relief turned
00:34:58
to panic, she said when he, the the good Samaritan or pretending to be good Samaritan struck her hard on the head
00:35:07
with an unknown instrument and then put her in a strangle hold and held a flathead screwdriver to her throat. And
00:35:15
the man says, "Get in the truck or I'm going to kill you." This man would later be identified as James Dean Warley. Miss
00:35:22
Gardner did not know who he was at the time. He's telling her to stop screaming. He makes her get into the
00:35:28
truck. Once inside, he got a handcuff around her right wrist and Robin Gardner testified, "I didn't want him to get
00:35:37
both hands behind my back, so I held on to the steering wheel with my left hand." And she said, "We fought and
00:35:44
fought." Robin somehow manages to wiggle out of the driver's side door as Warley
00:35:51
was struggling to cuff her left wrist and a motorcycle just happened to be passing by. She runs up to the driver.
00:36:01
She's still got a a handcuff dangling from her right arm. She says to to the guy on the motorcycle, "Please help me.
00:36:08
He's going to kill me." And she says that she showed she pointed to the her bike which was in the ditch and she's
00:36:16
holding up her, you know, the handcuffs to show the motorcyclist, right? Well, Warley, James Worley tells the
00:36:23
motorcyclist, "Don't listen to her. She's crazy. Don't listen to anything she says." This the guy on the
00:36:30
motorcycle puts Robin on his bike and he drives her to her home where her mother
00:36:36
calls 911. These handcuffs too were law enforcement keys, which most handcuffs all take pretty much this the same key
00:36:46
or a very similar key, but not these ones. And so they had to remove them, physically remove them with bolt
00:36:53
cutters. Robin's hospitalized with a skull fracture and a concussion. She has a large laceration on her knee that was
00:37:01
consistent with being inflicted by a flathead screwdriver. But whether you're a detective, a chief of police, highway
00:37:11
patrol, pretty much anybody that is in this area, and I know that the story is where this abduction attempt was 26
00:37:21
years prior, you're going to remember it. If you're a a deputy and you run into this guy, this scary monster
00:37:30
looking dude, James Worley, you're going to go, you know, James Worley. Oh, yeah.
00:37:36
Did you hear what happened 26 years ago? That story had to get around. So when you come up in 2016 to this abduction
00:37:48
site and you see this screwdriver, don't you think some of law enforcement that would have been around that area for,
00:37:56
you know, working in that area for a long time might have known this story and sees that screwdriver and and starts
00:38:03
putting two and two together. Well, and James Worley even beyond this attack of Ms. Gardner, he's no stranger to the
00:38:14
authorities. Like they they're well aware of this guy for a multitude of reasons and and we'll
00:38:22
get into a lot of that. But thankfully, I say this a lot because unfortunately the the killers, the criminals, they
00:38:29
often get lucky and and that aggravates me to no end here, Cap Captain. But I also am very thankful that most
00:38:38
criminals are lazy or stupid or both. And Warley, I think, probably fits into both categories. He he stayed at the
00:38:49
scene of this air quotes accident. This is from the defense psychologist. His name is Dr. Fabian. This is from Dr.
00:38:57
Fabian's report. It says, "A park ranger was the first person to talk to Mr. Warley after the accident occurred. She
00:39:05
stated, "Mr. Warley came from the end of the truck to the park ranger. Worley reported to the ranger that he had
00:39:11
really messed up and could be in a lot of trouble. He was highly excited and seemed very upset. He was asked to wait
00:39:18
by his vehicle. Then he came back and wanted to tell his side of the story." He later admitted to the Waterville
00:39:27
Police Department that he had put handcuffs on Robin because he was frightened and he didn't want her to run
00:39:33
away. He claimed that it was her fault that the whole accident was the woman's fault because she cut in front of him
00:39:40
and he put the handcuffs on her cuz he thought she was going to leave the scene of the accident and he was just trying
00:39:46
to stop her from that. So I, you know, a citizen's arrest, I guess, is is his claim here because you could, one could
00:39:53
say this is a he said, she said. They're out in the middle of nowhere. It's her word against his. But but her word is
00:40:01
like gold when you see that she's handcuffed. Yeah. The handcuffs are what gave it away. Yeah. And of course, no
00:40:08
one's going to buy this guy's story. He gets charged. He ends up bleeding. And she also has a skull fracture. Yeah. He
00:40:15
pleads guilty to abduction and was sentenced to four to 10 years in prison. He started serving his sentence in
00:40:23
November of 1990 and was parrolled in December of 1993. So garage math here. That is almost a whole year less than
00:40:33
the minimum sentence that he was given. This is a incredibly violent offender and he received what I would refer to as
00:40:41
a slap on the wrist for this what what could have resulted in abduction, rape, and murder. But she just she was able to
00:40:49
fight him off. I think he should have been uh charged with attempted abduction, attempted murder. I mean, the
00:40:55
the skull fracture there there's your evidence. There's your argument in court. Well, yeah, he pleaded guilty to
00:41:02
abduction in that case. and this would not be his only conviction. So after he's released in in December of 93 and
00:41:12
now he's a felon and he's not allowed to own a gun, he violated that law and also
00:41:19
decided to undertake a large marijuana grow operation. He was raided and arrested and plead guilty to both those
00:41:27
offenses. This is in 2000 and he gets two years for that and serves time in Ohio prisons from October 2000 to
00:41:37
September of 2002. It looks like he stayed out of trouble up until this abduction of
00:41:44
Sierra didn't get. Yeah. Look, once this abduction, this failed abduction takes place in what, 1990, and you stay in
00:41:54
that community, you stay in that that county area, you're going to be on law law enforcement's radar for quite a long
00:42:02
time. Absolutely. Absolutely, Captain. An autopsy was conducted in the Sierra Joan case. This took place at the Lucas
00:42:13
County Coroner's Office. She was found bound and partially dressed in undergarments and socks. Her wrists were
00:42:23
handcuffed together. Again, use of handcuffs. Handcuffed together behind her back again with cuffs that law
00:42:30
enforcement could not open. So, this is almost mirroring Robin's case. Like I said before, the screwdriver they would
00:42:38
find eventually they're going to find keys that that fit these handcuffs. Unfortunately, the victim's wrists were
00:42:46
also tied to her ankles with rope. Her ankles were bound together with thick tape. She had head injuries and some
00:42:53
kind of wound to her left leg. The official cause of death was esphyxiation from a large yellow plastic gag that was
00:43:02
found in her mouth. This was like a cone-shaped type gag. I I think they believe it was like a dog chew chew toy.
00:43:11
Yeah, it's just a horrific scene. And again found buried not very deep out off of a
00:43:17
country road. What the public I mean outside of people that knew Sierra there was a lot of information about her in
00:43:25
her obituary. She was born in 96 in Sylvania, Ohio. She grew up in Fulton County, graduated from Evergreen High
00:43:33
School. We've the high school that we we mentioned that she she was riding past on her bike that night. Her family
00:43:42
described her as someone who was full of life and had great a great sense of humor. She loved to travel. She spent
00:43:48
time exploring Italy. She loved horses. She had a tight bond with her family and
00:43:56
she she was close long-term relationship with her boyfriend. Correct. She was between her sophomore and junior year at
00:44:03
the University of Toledo. She was studying human resource management. She was a member of a business fraternity.
00:44:11
She played volleyball. That summer she had an internship at her uncle Howard's ice company where I guess it was the
00:44:21
intention was she was going to go work for him after she graduated from college. Like we said earlier, she knew
00:44:27
Josh they were going strong after dating since middle school or early into high school. They were in it for the long
00:44:36
haul. There was there's talk that they were talking about getting married, but Sierra uh they they had agreed that they
00:44:44
would wait until after college. Yeah. Anybody that dated somebody in high school and then starts continues on
00:44:52
dating that person in college, there might not be a lot of talks or serious talks, detailed talks about getting
00:45:00
married, but it it kind of becomes implied. Outside of uh James Dean Wardley's history of abduction, he
00:45:08
had plenty of other law enforcement interactions. Let's say police had been called to his property. So, he lived
00:45:17
with his brother and his mother. And his timeline is a little tricky for me. I couldn't pin
00:45:26
down exactly when this took place, but his mother moved to a nursing home. I wanted to figure out if this was before
00:45:35
he was arrested for Sierra's abduction and murder or after. And I couldn't quite pin that
00:45:42
down. But in regard to his interactions with law enforcement, a lot of these reports is
00:45:49
he's the one that called law enforcement to his property. So it here's a report.
00:45:56
James Worley called deputies about 15 times with reports for his home or neighborhood. Most complaints show a
00:46:05
persistent fear of people trespassing on his property or stealing from him. one such call from May of 2011 detailed
00:46:14
newspaper deliveries left on the driveway. So, you know how some people have those boxes uh attached to their
00:46:21
mailbox that is designated for the newspaper? He calls the sheriff's department because he's like, "Hey, the the
00:46:30
newspaper person, the delivery person is putting the newspaper in my driveway and
00:46:36
not in this enclosed not enclosing it in this box." And he's saying if if people
00:46:43
if the wrong person sees the the paper or multiple papers in my driveway, then they're going to know that I'm not home
00:46:51
and somebody somebody's going to come out here and break into my house. his home, his property is not you you can't
00:46:57
view it very easily from the road. And so it's it's secluded. I don't know if this is the marijuana paranoia or or
00:47:08
he's got stuff on the on this let's call it a farm on this farm that he doesn't want discovered or if he's just a
00:47:14
weirdo. I mean, it could be it could be all three. That's a combo meal. Yeah, I think we're going to get to that because
00:47:21
he spent most of his time in in a barn on the property. Yeah. So, he has all these interactions with police or or the
00:47:30
sheriff's deputies about people worried about people that may go up to his property or stealing from him. And in
00:47:38
some of these situations, he's chasing people that are, you know, in one situation, he
00:47:44
chased two boys that are on bikes. He's very anti-bicyclist. Very anti-bicyclist. And
00:47:52
and a search of this property, I think, is going to tell us a lot because it's going to it's going to show us that this
00:47:58
guy probably just isn't paranoid. He's probably got a lot to hide. So, let's go to Thursday, right?
00:48:07
We're going to jump back in time a little bit. This is the Thursday after Sierra went missing, July 21st.
00:48:13
Sheriff's deputies. They're canvasing the area. They stop at James Worley's home. This
00:48:20
is 10627 County Road 6. Now, they're going to interview him. They're going to question him. But, but really truly,
00:48:29
Captain, this is just like everybody else in the area. They're just looking for people that have possibly seen
00:48:35
Sierra, seen her on her bike or biking that evening. He lives about 7 miles approximately from the abduction site,
00:48:44
but he's on the same road. Now, this is important to note that the investigators
00:48:49
did not know that the the persons that are talking to Wardley on the on July 21st, 2016, they don't know about his
00:48:58
history of abduction, his history of violence in this moment. But these canvasers, we'll call them, said he
00:49:09
immediately started acting suspicious. In their report, they say Mr. Wley makes a statement about how he was riding his
00:49:16
motorcycle and his bike, meaning his motorcycle, was having issues. He says it sputtered out. He went into a
00:49:24
cornfield and then again, thankfully he's dumb. and he says, "I lost my helmet, fuses, a screwdriver, and my
00:49:33
sunglasses." And of course, the law enforcement officers are they're shocked. This information's not been
00:49:41
released to the public yet, right? Information that only the killer would know. We we found a screwdriver at the
00:49:50
abduction site. We found these glasses, but the damning piece of evidence is that we found this motorcycle helmet
00:49:57
that has blood on it that we know is human blood. Mr. James Dean Warly dumbass puts himself squarely at the
00:50:06
scene. So, the investigators know those items were found. They know motorcycle tracks were found right recovered right
00:50:13
where Sierra's bike was located. And then he starts saying other odd statements like I don't I don't steal
00:50:21
from chicks and oh I I don't steal people. He says I don't steal people. Not a normal thing to to say. No. And
00:50:31
these canvasers I don't steal I don't steal people. Just to let you know. Never have. Never will. I've I've stolen
00:50:38
some gum every now and then. But I don't steal people. The canvasers observed what appeared to be fresh marks on the
00:50:45
arms of Mr. Worley and what appeared to be bruising on his lower legs. And so this behavior along with what they
00:50:56
witnessed, their observations, this is going to lead to a search warrant. They're going to go and
00:51:04
get a search warrant for two cell phones. One of which is Sierra Jogggin and the other belonging to James Dean
00:51:14
Warley. What they learn here, Captain, is this is from the cell phone records. James Worley spent almost 2 hours in the
00:51:24
area of that abduction scene. And in regard to his activity that night, they're asking him, "Did you see Sierra
00:51:32
at any point? Have you seen this young lady?" This is from the Toledo Blade where it says Worley initially told
00:51:39
investigators that his motorcycle broke down and he alternated pushing and riding at home where he remained for the
00:51:46
night. He later said he left again that night in his truck to look for his lost helmet, sunglasses, and
00:51:53
screwdriver after investigators told him he was captured on surveillance video from Evergreen High School. Okay, this
00:52:01
portion he's not just offering up. This is after they tell him, "Well, we we've seen you on camera
00:52:09
in this area as well." So now he has to explain why he's seen on camera on his motorcycle and then later a truck is
00:52:18
seen matching the description of his truck. He repeatedly denies any involvement in Joan's disappearance. He
00:52:26
did ask investigators at one point, "How do you kidnap or take somebody on a motorcycle?" He offered up no
00:52:33
explanation for the blood that was found on his motorcycle or the helmet that was
00:52:37
retrieved, which investigators told him the blood was determined to be from a female. I did have questions about this
00:52:44
myself here, Captain, when even before finding his statement about how do you kidnap or take somebody on a motorcycle?
00:52:52
I wondered the same thing. I wondered the I mean it could it could be done and and unfortunately it has been done, but
00:52:58
it would be difficult. But it looks to me, trying to parse this together from the evidence, it might mean that he
00:53:08
would he's at this scene. They put his cell phone at this abduction scene or near the abduction scene for
00:53:15
approximately a 2-hour time period. And him leaving on the motorcycle makes sense. And then coming back in his
00:53:21
truck, he may have come back in the truck to transport her away from where he attacked her. Well, like you said,
00:53:28
he's he's roughly what, seven miles from the abduction site. Mhm. So, it's not a
00:53:35
a far trip or a lengthy trip. James Wley triggered massive alarm bells in the law
00:53:42
enforcement canvasers minds. As soon as they left, of course, the first thing they did was run his record. And when
00:53:49
they did, they learned about Robin Gardner's case. It wasn't a giant leap to figure out that he had done something
00:53:56
to Sierra. Police now had grounds to obtain a search warrant for James Worley's property. Lot more to get to in this
00:54:16
horrific case. Join us back here in the garage. Same bat time, same bat channel.
00:54:21
Until then, be good. Be kind. Don't laugh. [Music] Now's the time for a great deal on a new
00:55:03
Honda, it's time to take an adventure with rugged capability and commanding style. Check out the Honda Ridgeline
00:55:10
Pilot, Passport, or CRV. For a limited time, well-qualified buyers can get a 1.99% APR on a 2025 Ridgeline, or a
00:55:18
3.99% APR on a 2025 Pilot, 2026 Passport, or 2025 [Music] CRV. See dealer for financing details.