Taylor's murder was not believed to be related to the other four cases, until Wardrip confessed to her murder during questioning after his 1999 arrest. When she failed to return home by the next morning, she was reported missing by her husband. He then left her body at a construction site, where her body was found a week later. While outside, he attempted to make advances, which she rejected, and he killed her. He approached her and the pair danced he then asked to drive her home. He had met her while at a bar after her husband had left due to fatigue. Months after he murdered Toni Gibbs, Wardrip traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, where he killed Debra Sue Taylor (née Huie), 25. Gibbs was buried at the Clayton Cemetery in New Mexico. After two days of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked, which resulted in his release from custody. Laughlin was then tried, even though a comparison of Laughlin's DNA with DNA from the semen at the murder scene was unsuccessful and only circumstantial evidence was available. He also failed a lie detector test and he'd made suspicious statements as well. In 1996, Wardrip's DNA was matched to the biological evidence at the scene.ĭanny Laughlin, 24, was initially suspected of Gibb's murder because he often rode his motorcycle near the area where she was killed and because he had met her at a nightclub days before she was killed. Wardrip abandoned her vehicle near his residence after the attack. Gibbs had initially survived the assault and had managed to crawl one hundred feet before she died. Near her body, police found an abandoned bus, where her murderer likely conducted the attack. Gibbs had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. On February 15, her body was located in a field near Route 281, a day after she would have turned 24. Two days after her disappearance, her car was found within a few miles of the hospital. Toni Jean Gibbs, 23, disappeared on January 19, 1985, while employed at Wichita General Hospital.