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Faryion Wardrip: The Wichita Falls Killer Caught by DNA

5 hours ago
2 min read

Faryion Wardrip murdered five young women in and around Wichita Falls, Texas, in the mid-1980s. After serving time for just one of the killings and being paroled, he might have escaped justice for the rest — had a determined investigator not obtained his DNA from a discarded coffee cup years later, linking him to a string of cold-case murders. Out of respect for the victims, this account avoids graphic detail.

His case is a striking example of both the persistence of cold-case investigators and the power of forensic science to deliver long-delayed justice.

A killer among them

Born in 1959, Wardrip lived in Wichita Falls, where, between late 1984 and 1986, he sexually assaulted and murdered five young women. His victims — Terry Sims, Toni Gibbs, Debra Taylor, Ellen Blau and Tina Kimbrew — were all young, and their deaths sent fear through the community even as the crimes initially went unsolved.

Divided investigations

Because the murders occurred across several jurisdictions, separate law-enforcement agencies pursued isolated investigations, and the failure to connect the cases is often cited as a factor that delayed Wardrip's capture. A serial killer was at work, but the fragmented response obscured the pattern.

Justice, then freedom

In 1986, after the murder of Tina Kimbrew, Wardrip — overcome, by some accounts, and contemplating suicide — surrendered and confessed to that killing. He pleaded guilty and received a 35-year sentence, but was paroled after serving only about eleven years. He went on to remarry and present himself as a reformed, religious man, even as the other murders remained unsolved.

Stern man beside DNA helix and fingerprint, with police scene and title text The Wichita Falls Killer Caught by DNA.

The coffee cup

Years later, investigator John Little reopened the cold cases and focused on Wardrip. In a now-celebrated piece of detective work, he obtained DNA from a coffee cup that Wardrip discarded, and the sample matched evidence from several of the unsolved murders. The breakthrough finally tied the seemingly reformed parolee to the killings.

Conviction

Confronted with the DNA evidence, Wardrip confessed to the additional murders. He was convicted and sentenced to death, and he remains on Texas's death row. His case also touched on an earlier injustice, as another man had once stood trial in connection with one of the killings before being acquitted.

The Faryion Wardrip case is a powerful demonstration of how cold cases can be solved through persistence and forensic science. The five young women he murdered, and the families who waited years for answers, are the heart of the story — and a reminder that justice, however delayed, is worth pursuing.