For years, several murders in North Texas remained unsolved. The victims had seemingly disappeared from their ordinary lives, leaving investigators with few answers and families waiting for justice.
The breakthrough eventually came from an unexpected source: a man who was already serving time for another murder.
Ellen Blau
On September 20, 1985, 21-year-old Ellen Blau finished her evening shift as a waitress in Wichita Falls, Texas. She was also studying at Midwestern State University.
As Blau walked toward her vehicle, she was abducted by Ronald Dominique Wardrip.
According to Wardrip’s later confession, he forced Blau to drive to an isolated location in Wichita County. There, he killed her by strangulation. Wardrip later described the killing during an episode of Cold Case Files, saying that he had broken her neck.
He then left Blau’s body in a remote area and drove her car back toward Wichita Falls. The vehicle was eventually abandoned with her purse inside. Investigators also found blood inside the car.
Blau’s remains were not discovered until October 10, when an employee working for a county road crew came across her body in a field.
By then, the remains had deteriorated so severely that investigators could identify her only through dental records. Her clothing suggested that she may have been sexually assaulted, but the condition of the body prevented investigators from determining exactly what had happened.
One of Blau’s friends later recalled feeling uneasy around Wardrip. The friend had lived in the same apartment complex as him, creating a connection that would become important years later.
Tina Kimbrew
Wardrip struck again several months later.
On May 6, 1986, 21-year-old Tina Elizabeth Kimbrew, a waitress whom Wardrip had recently befriended, was found dead inside her apartment.
Wardrip later admitted that he had gone to her home and suffocated her with a pillow. He told investigators that Kimbrew reminded him of his former wife.
Neighbors had reported seeing a tall white man with dark brown hair and a baseball cap leaving the apartment complex. At the time, another man, Danny Laughlin, had been considered in connection with a different murder, but investigators eventually ruled him out because he did not match the description.
Three days after Kimbrew’s murder, Wardrip contacted police from Galveston and threatened to take his own life.
When officers arrived, he confessed.
Wardrip was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
He was eventually paroled in December 1997 and moved to Olney, Texas. There, he built a seemingly respectable life, became involved with a local church and married Glenda Diane Kelley in 1998. He later found work at a screen-door factory.
For a while, it appeared that Wardrip had left his violent past behind.
He had not.
The Cold Case Breakthrough
In January 1999, Wichita Falls detective John Little began taking another look at several older, unsolved murders, including the deaths of Terry Sims, Toni Gibbs and Ellen Blau.
Investigators discovered that DNA evidence recovered from the scenes involving Sims and Gibbs indicated that the two women had been killed by the same person.
Little also uncovered an overlooked connection between Wardrip and Ellen Blau.
During Wardrip’s earlier trial for Kimbrew’s murder, someone had mentioned that Wardrip admitted knowing Blau. That information had apparently never been properly followed up.
The detective began examining Wardrip’s background more closely.
He learned that Blau had lived only about a block from Terry Sims. Another connection emerged as well: Wardrip had previously worked as an orderly at the same hospital where Toni Gibbs, a nurse, had been employed.
The pieces were beginning to fit together.
But investigators still needed Wardrip’s DNA.
At the time, police did not have a direct DNA sample from him. Detective Little devised a simple way to obtain one.
Wardrip was working at a factory after his release from prison. During a break, Little approached him and asked for the paper cup Wardrip had been drinking from, giving him a seemingly harmless explanation for why he wanted it.
The discarded cup provided the evidence investigators needed.
Laboratory testing showed that Wardrip’s DNA matched DNA recovered in the murders of Terry Sims and Toni Gibbs.
On February 14, 1999, Wardrip was arrested.
Once in custody, he confessed—not only to the murders of Sims, Gibbs and Blau, but also to the killing of Debra Taylor in Fort Worth.
The cold cases that had remained unanswered for years suddenly had a common name.
Conviction and Death Row
On November 9, 1999, Wardrip received the death penalty for Terry Sims’ murder. He was given three additional life sentences for the other killings.
His case continued through the courts for years.
In 2008, a federal magistrate recommended overturning the death sentence, citing concerns about ineffective legal representation during the original proceedings. Later appeals, however, produced a complicated series of rulings.
In 2011, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court decision that had required Texas to either conduct a new sentencing proceeding or accept a life sentence.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later rejected another challenge concerning his legal representation.
In September 2020, the federal Fifth Circuit rejected Wardrip’s appeal, allowing his death sentence to be reinstated. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently declined to hear his petition, although part of his federal habeas case remained unresolved while the ineffective-counsel issue was being addressed.
As of 2023, Wardrip remained on death row at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas.
In October 2025, a federal magistrate judge recommended rejecting the remaining portion of Wardrip’s federal habeas petition. According to Wichita County District Attorney John Gillespie, if that recommendation survives further review and appeals, prosecutors intend to seek an execution date.
What began as a series of seemingly unrelated murders eventually became one of North Texas’ significant cold-case breakthroughs.
The investigation showed how old cases can remain alive for decades—and how a single overlooked connection, combined with modern DNA testing, can finally reveal the person responsible.
This story is based on publicly available information and reported facts. It has been independently written and presented for informational purposes. Images, if any, belong to their respective owners.