A local family's search for a sibling lost since her adoption 32 years ago has led them to a Texas murder.In the past few weeks, family members have learned that their youngest sister was murdered in Texas in 1989.
Earlier this year, Ohatchee resident Robert Murphy was reunited, after years of separation, with two sisters who both live in California.
Murphy and his sisters, Annette Hix and Angie Younghusband, had all been searching for each other ever since their mother took them from their father's home and put them up for adoption in Orange County, Calif., 32 years ago.
For Murphy's grandparents, aunts and uncles, who live in Anniston, and his sisters, the reunion was a miracle.
Just one person was missing - the youngest sister, Sherry.
The three reunited siblings turned their search efforts to their youngest sister. They recently found court documents in Texas verifying she was murdered.
Mildred Worley, who is the four siblings' grandmother, said she didn't want to believe it when she heard what the family had found.
"We've been trying to find all of the children for years," Worley said. "I was hoping this wouldn't be our Sherry, but it seems like it is."
The family discovered Sherry's fate after paying a Web detective $250. The detective had promised to send them records to prove that he had found she had been murdered, but the family never received them, said Chandol Worley, the siblings' aunt.
Using the names of people the detective had mentioned, two of the siblings' uncles, Delbert Worley and Dennis Worley, both of Anniston, decided to investigate Sherry's whereabouts themselves. They asked an adoption researcher named Toby Hamms, who had helped them locate Hix in California, for help.
Between the three of them, they have found court records and documentation that Sherry was murdered, said Chandol Worley, Delbert Worley's wife.
Records they have gathered show that a woman named Sherry Louis Thomas was killed in 1989 in Killeen, Texas, near Fort Hood, by a man named Lee Price, Chandol said. The family does not know why she was murdered.
Price confessed to the murder and is serving two life sentences in a Texas prison for Sherry's murder and the murder of another woman, Chandol Worley said. She said he is up for parole in 2004.
Instead of focusing on Price, however, the family has turned its attention to finding Sherry Thomas' two children.
Chandol Worley said the family has found a friend of Sherry in Texas who knew her shortly before the murder. The friend has pictures of Sherry and her two daughters, and wants to help the family find the girls.
The daughters are Gloria Delacruz, 24, and Michelle Thomas, 18, Chandol Worley said. The family does not know where they are today.
"It's been really hard to find out if this is Sherry or not," Chandol Worley said. "But we know there were two daughters, and we want to get in touch with them."
