Chapter 1: the tragic murder of sierah
sierah joughin organization
February 11th, 1996, in the small town of Sylvania, Ohio, Sierah Joughin was born. She was a family-oriented, hard-working student who attended the University of Toledo and had aspirations to study abroad. On July 19, 2016, Sierah was leaving her boyfriend, Josh Kolasinski’s, house on her purple bike, but never returned home. Josh was the last person to have seen her alive. When Sierah never returned home, her family began to worry and notified the police. The authorities went out on a search for Sierah, and they found her purple bike in a cornfield near where she was last seen. In that same cornfield, the Investigators also found broken cornstalks with streaks of blood on them, indicating a sign of struggle. Along with the broken cornstalks and her bike, they also found a screwdriver, men’s sunglasses, a sock, a set of fuse boxes, and motorcycle tracks. An official investigation began along with a community-wide 3-day search for Sierah.
Hundreds of people scanned the areas of cornfields looking for Sierah or any type of clue leading to her. A local farmer had found a bloodied motorcycle helmet and reported it to authorities once he heard about the search for Sierah. He told investigators that he had found it the same day that Sierah went missing. The helmet, along with the motorcycle tracks, led investigators to believe that it had to be a motorcyclist. The obvious first suspect of Sierah’s disappearance was her boyfriend, since he was the last person to see her, and he rode a motorcycle. However, the investigators said that he was very cooperative, and the Joughin family said that they never had any suspicion that Kolasinski had any involvement in he disappearance.
Looking for a break in the case, investigators went door to door asking questions. They showed up at James Worley’s house on the same county road that Sarah lived on. Once there, Worley started acting very suspiciously and made self-incriminating comments, placing himself at Sierah’s suspected abduction. James Worley stated to investigators that he was riding his motorcycle on the day of Sierha’s disappearance. He said he was having issues. He claimed that it sputtered out into a cornfield and that he lost his helmet, screwdriver, and sunglasses. All of that information about the lost items had not been released to the media beforehand, making it extremely incriminating. With the suspicion that Worley had beeninvolved in the disappearance of Sierah, investigators got a search warrant. Upon searching the barn on the Worley property, they found a green crate filled with lingerie and an empty blood-stained freezer buried underground. Along with that, they also found duct tape, zip-ties, and handcuffs. With that being sufficient evidence, the police arrested James Worley 3 days after Sierah’s disappearance On July 22, 2016, the same day that James Worley was arrested, investigators found Sierah Joughin’s body. She was buried in a shallow grave in a cornfield 2 miles from the Worley residence. Sierah was handcuffed behind her back, and her ankles were duct-taped together and tied with rope. Her autopsy revealed that her cause of death was asphyxiation due to a plastic gag shoved in her mouth. Sierah Joughin was not Worley’s first victim. Robin Gardner was abducted by Worley in 1990. She testified at Worley’s trial. In 1996, Worley was questioned by police about the disappearance of Claudia Tinsley, but he denied having any involvement, and he was never charged. In 2020, James Worley pleaded not guilty to the 19 felony charges, claiming that there was insufficient DNA evidence. Ultimately, Worley was declared guilty on 17 counts, one being aggravated murder. Worley was sentenced to death for the count of aggravated murder and 25 years and 11 months in prison for all the other charges. His execution date was set for May 20, 2025, but as of October 2025, he has not been executed. The Joughin Family filed a wrongful death lawsuit that was settled in 2018, which led them to receive a settlement of $3.6 million and 3.08 acres of Worley’s property. Her family created an organization dedicated to preventing assaults and abductions. Justice for Sierah.
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