Terry Lee Sims, a 20-year-old white female from Wichita Falls, Texas, was murdered on December 21, 1984. At the time of her death, she was a student at Midwestern State University and worked part-time as an EKG specialist at Bethania Hospital. On the night of her murder, Sims had attended a Christmas party and was dropped off at a co-worker’s apartment where she planned to stay and study.
Her co-worker, Leza Boone, returned from a hospital shift the next morning and found the apartment ransacked. Sims was discovered lying in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor, her hands bound with an electrical cord. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times.
The autopsy revealed that Terry Sims had sustained eight stab wounds to her back, one to her upper arm, and numerous defensive wounds on her hands and fingers. Bruises on her face suggested she had been struck or had fallen during the attack. The forensic pathologist noted “tease wounds” inflicted to torment her. DNA evidence, including semen and a bloody fingerprint, was preserved at the scene. Initially, investigators did not connect her murder to others that followed, and the case remained unsolved for years.
Terry Sims was later identified as the first victim of Faryion Edward Wardrip, a white male serial killer who murdered five women between 1984 and 1986. All of his victims were white females between the ages of 20 and 25. Wardrip, who had worked as an orderly at Bethania Hospital, targeted Sims for no apparent reason. He confessed to breaking into the apartment after she locked him out, assaulting her in a drug-fueled rage, and stabbing her to death. He claimed not to remember whether he had sexually assaulted her, though forensic evidence confirmed it.
Wardrip’s killing spree continued with the murders of Toni Gibbs, Ellen Blau, Debra Taylor, and Tina Kimbrew. Despite similarities among the cases, authorities did not initially link them. It wasn’t until 1999 that Wichita County District Attorney Barry Macha reopened the cold cases. Investigator John Little obtained Wardrip’s DNA from a discarded cup, which matched evidence from Sims and Gibbs. Wardrip was arrested and confessed to all five murders.
Faryion Wardrip was sentenced to death for the murder of Tina Kimbrew and received life sentences for the other killings, including that of Terry Sims. He remains on death row in Texas. Terry Sims is buried at Crestview Memorial Park in Wichita Falls. Her tragic death marked the beginning of a series of brutal crimes that haunted the community for years.
