I am horrified.
20-year-old University of Toledo student Sierah Joughin went on a bike ride. She and her boyfriend, who was riding his motorcycle next to her, departed ways when she was a mere half mile away from her home in Metamora, Ohio. She never made it.
Joughin was reported missing by her family on the night of July 19th. They found her bike on the side of the road and concluded that she had been abducted. They searched for her for several days, blowing up social media feeds with pictures of Joughin and prayer requests. On Friday evening, investigators discovered her body, buried in a shallow grave in a field off of a country road.
The 57-year-old man being charged with her abduction and murder, James D. Worley, kept a hidden room in his barn that had restraints for holding people against their will and a carpet-lined freezer with human blood in it, along with several other disturbing objects. Cell phone information indicates that Worley spent two hours there while Joughin was missing. Although he has not yet admitted to his crimes, he hinted to his mandated therapist that this was not his first abduction/murder, and that he "learned from each abduction he had done and the next one he was going to bury."
This was not his first abduction. In 1990, Worley went to prison for hitting a woman riding her bicycle with his vehicle, then grabbing her and restraining her while threatening to kill her. He also made a laceration with a screwdriver on her knee. The woman managed to escape and run to a nearby motorcyclist, who had stopped to see what the disturbance was about. Joughin hadn't been so lucky. Because of this and other potential murders he may have been involved in, officials are considering whether or not Worley is a serial abductor.
This is sickening. A young woman thought she was safe in her quiet, country town while riding her bicycle by herself near her home, and this twisted man destroyed her for it. No matter how safe of a town you think you live in, you can never be too sure that your neighbor won't assault and potentially murder you in cold blood, and that is devastating.
What kind of world are we living in? I am a soon to be 19-year-old college student attending a university only an hour and a half away from where the incident occurred in my own little quiet country town. This easily could have been myself or another classmate.
I am now afraid to do something as pleasurable and simple as ride my bike alone.
Had Joughin been a man, would Worley have still committed this horrible crime? It is difficult to tell, but based on his past assault case, it seems unlikely. Women already experience fear whenever they are out in public alone. We are told to travel in packs so that we are less of a target. We clutch our keys between our knuckles as we walk to our cars, prepared to attempt to stab anyone who touches us while praying it won't happen to us. Our hair stands on end whenever we find ourselves alone with a male stranger, no matter how innocent that man may be. We live in fear wherever we go, and the only place that truly felt safe was our homes. And now, we must fear so much as stepping outside of our yards alone, even if we just wanted to enjoy a walk or bike ride.
This is frankly unacceptable, and I am deeply saddened that we cannot escape the fear of being potentially harmed by strangers.
My heart is heavy, and I send my condolences to Joughin, her family, and everyone who knew her. I pray that this world learns to love more than it already knows how to hate. I pray for a world that no one has to live in fear like this, and that justice is served. I pray for peace.
