Sierah Joughin
Twenty-year-old Sierah Joughin was abducted while bicycling in rural Ohio. James Worley, a convicted kidnapper, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to death.
On July 19, 2016, twenty-year-old Sierah Joughin went for a bicycle ride with her boyfriend near her home in rural Fulton County, Ohio. When her boyfriend turned back, Sierah continued riding alone. She never returned.
Sierah's bicycle was found on the road near the farm of James Daniel Worley, a 57-year-old with a 1990 conviction for abducting a woman on a bicycle in the same area. Investigators searched Worley's property and found Sierah's body buried in a shallow grave on his land.
Worley was arrested and charged with aggravated murder and kidnapping. Evidence included motorcycle parts matching a vehicle seen near the abduction site and traces of Sierah's DNA in Worley's home.
Worley was convicted and sentenced to death in 2017. The case led to the passage of 'Sierah's Law' in Ohio, which created a publicly searchable database of violent offenders, expanding beyond the sex offender registry to include other violent criminals.
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