Taylor Wardlaw

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With no seller fees, you keep every dollar you earn. An aspiring young rapper vanishes without a trace. He had went to the front house, and that was the last time that she saw him. I was posting on Facebook and telling everybody that my brother was missing. His criminal record makes police think he may have been running from his problems. She said he had put a gun to her nine-month pregnant belly. But when an informant comes forward, the case takes a different turn. I asked what can you tell me, and it was an information bomb. He's been shot four times. At least one of their shots was in the back. I kind of was known when I heard about it. And the evidence points to a killer driven by rage and desire. She had been texting him about where was he and who was he with. Her rage was building over the course of those hours. I think something just kind of broke inside her mind. She killed him, disposed of him, and then helped everybody look for his body. That's just next level evil. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's December 22, 2021 in Columbia, South Carolina. While most residents are getting ready for Christmas, 29-year-old Taylor Wardlock is on the phone to police about her missing boyfriend, Terrell Sims. We got the call from Taylor Wardlock that Terrell had gone missing. She said that he had last been seen two days prior at her house, where they live together. Taylor says she's just now calling, because she initially wasn't worried. Terrell often leaves with his friends for days at a time. He had gone back home from her friend's house. Taylor said that Terrell left around six or seven in the morning, and she says that's the last time that she saw him. Taylor says that their relationship is not perfect, but they're in love, and they don't really have problems. Taylor suggested that Terrell kind of live by his own rules. So for him to be gone for one day wouldn't necessarily cause too much a alarm with her. The unusual part is that he wasn't contacting anybody. He wasn't answering the phone. Now she's afraid something might be wrong. You could tell that she seemed to be in distress. Worried. Missing person reports are considered high priority. The Special Victims Unit investigators began looking into the case. At the initial start of a missing person's investigation, our Special Victims Unit would check hospitals. We'll start talking with their friends. What kind of history they have, anything that gives us a pattern of life or background into who they are. Terrell Davon Sims was born July 6, 1995 in Columbia, South Carolina. Five minutes later, he was followed by his twin sister, Marcella. Terrell Marcella never stayed any career. They always find a way out of the career. I'm trying to get to Terrell and Marcella just so you know, I was like, they twins. But their family would face tragedy early on. Terrell and Marcella were babies when our mom passed. I had just turned 10. And she was in the hospital ever since Thanksgiving. I think it was December the 18th, 1995. When the twins were just four years old, their father died as well, making them and their older sister Rose orphans. Me and my brother and my sister had to go live with our aunt. We took care of each other. Growing up, you know, I had a lot of responsibilities with Terrell and Marcella. I would try to help out as much as I could. Though their childhood was not easy, the siblings took solace in each other. Terrell used to cheer me up because I was more software. And he was a little bit more tougher. He would always make me laugh and lift me up. As a teenager, Terrell's skill at making others laugh served him well in school. He was like one of those type of students that like to make people laugh at the classroom. Always getting in trouble. Terrell was a class com. Terrell's natural charm made him popular with the women in his life as well. He was a lady's man. He was loving, sweet, funny. And he would date different girls, and that's just how he was. When I met Terrell Sims, I'd seen this boy running around in the neighborhood with no shirt on, and he just drove my attention. He was so polite. I told him my name, and I told him that I liked him. And ever since then, we was unstoppable. When his aunt's health began to fail, Terrell dropped out of school to care for her. She needed him. So he didn't turn his back on her. Anything that she needed, he was right there. After his aunt died in 2016, Terrell left home to start a life for himself. He found an apartment in the Columbia section eight housing development known as the colonies. It's for the low income people. They help you and stuff like that. Terrell did work at the Hamachi restaurant. He would talk about the things that he would do, like wash dishes and stuff, and clean up. Terrell did what he needed to make ends meet, but his true passion lay in music. Terrell loved to come up with different rides, and he will always try to get me to listen to it. Terrell could sing. He's always sang on church and all type stuff. He was good. Terrell just loved music. Being a musician helped his image as a lady's man as well. By the time he was 23, Terrell had fathered three children. Terrell had different, maybe my arms, different children. He would feed them, cook for them, take care of them. Terrell loved all his kids, but Terrell just wasn't ready to settle down. Terrell didn't find that special one. In 2018, Terrell seemed to finally meet his match, a single mother named Taylor Wardlaw. She moved from New York to the colonies. Terrell, one day him and his homeboy, was walking on the block, and he seen Taylor and the other girl. And he drew attention to Taylor, and then they was talking ever since. Taylor, she grew up in a Bronx, and she came from a good home. She was just family oriented. When I first met Taylor, she just always wanted to be like an entrepreneur. You know, she wants to be her own boss. She had a good head on her shoulders. She always gave me this vibe that-- I know, she always had to go on for herself. My son, with Taylor, was born June 2014. We used to take care of him as a whole, co-parent in everything. When that relationship ended, Taylor moved south for a new start. Before long, she went to New York. she'd met and fallen in love with Tyrell. - She took care of him. Tyrell would brag about how she could cook all the time. - I felt like Taylor was a step up for him. He was doing a little better with her. He started to really want for himself more. - In 2020, they had a child together. And though neither were first time parents, they were overjoyed to start their own family. After dating for two years, it seemed Tyrell wanted to be more than just a father. - That's when Tyrell moved in with Taylor. Taylor would go to work in the morning and Tyrell would stay home and watch the kids. And then Tyrell would go to work at the Havati restaurant. And then Tyrell would take the kids. - Tyrell, she wanted to be the person that he spent the rest of his life with. My first impression of her as I got to know her, it was like, oh, she's stuck on him. - They had just moved into a new house together. They had this new baby together. So they seemed like they were moving in the right direction. - Now, just three days before Christmas, Tyrell is missing. - And no one seems to know where he is. - That ain't light so real. - No matter where it's real is, we're always let somebody know where he at. - Taylor doesn't know exactly how he left the house. He had been dropped off by a friend and she's not sure if a friend picked him up. - But according to Taylor, there might be a good reason why Tyrell isn't talking to anyone. It seems there once perfect relationship had recently taken a turn for the worse. She said that Tyrell was on Bonford domestic violence. - He had previously gone out of jail a few months prior to going missing. - Tyrell and Taylor had a, at tons of tumultuous relationship. At that point, she's worried that he may have gotten up in left town. - Coming up, a look into Tyrell's life hints at unspoken tensions. - We got the idea that Tyrell wanted to find a way out. - And a new witness comes forward with disturbing allegations. - Taylor said that Tyrell get come home late and they got into some sort of argument. - 48 hours after the last known sighting of Tyrell Sims, investigators respond in person to learn more information from his girlfriend, Taylor Wardlaw. Taylor tells investigators that she and Tyrell had a tumultuous history and about 18 months ago, it turned violent. - Police reports indicated that the summer of 2020, Taylor called the police to report a domestic violence event. She relayed to them that he had put a gun to her non-month pregnant belly, threatened her life. - There was nothing other than this statement to corroborate what happened. This was a he said, she said kind of situation. Ultimately, he was arrested because they did develop probable cause. - Tyrell had a few misdemeanors, but the charge of domestic violence seemed like a large step from his other charges. - Record show Tyrell sat in jail for almost a year before posting bail, missing the birth of their child. - He was released four months prior in August of 2021, but is currently facing charges of domestic violence of an aggravated nature. And he had an ankle monitor. In this case, there's an exclusion zone that's set and people that are on ankle monitor. They cannot go within 1,000 feet of the victim's address. There was a strict no-contact provision in his bond, so he was not supposed to be in contact with Taylor, certainly not living with her. And of course, he was. Taylor never updated her address with the ankle monitor company, so that was how they circumvented being able to maintain the relationship after he bonded out. - To investigators, avoiding being caught violating the terms of his bond seems like a compelling reason for Tyrell to disappear. The question is why he hasn't contacted Taylor or his family? - We found out that Taylor was actually the one that posted the bond for Tyrell back in August. - She sat in contact with him the entire time he was in jail. - Taylor was actually trying to get the case tossed out. - She even told us specifically that faster wrong, it was a mistake. - She said that she did not feel threatened by him and that she wanted him back in the home, so he could be a dad to their newborn. - When those domestic violent things started coming up, I was surprised because he never bruised at me and we've been together a long time. - Tyrell wouldn't pull no gun out on Taylor. He wouldn't do that. - According to Taylor, she and Tyrell had been trying to patch things up. On December 20th, authorities received a call from the ankle monitoring company, but it wasn't a top priority for them. - It's just an automatic notification to our office, but police had no information about whether he was involved in any sort of altercation or arguments with anybody else. - Her protocol, Tyrell's listed contacts, were also notified. - My cousin called me and told me that they called her about the ankle monitor being temporary, being cut off. So I got on the phone and I called Taylor. - Taylor was already aware that his ankle monitor had been cut off and she knew the last point of the ping. The 6600 block of Monticello Road. That area of Monticello Road is pretty rural. Spaced out, there's a lot of big properties, a lot of woods, a lot of creeks, a lot of streams. - Taylor tells officers she got the notification 48 hours ago on the 20th, which means by now, Tyrell could be anywhere. (dramatic music) - Columbia police put out a statewide alert for other agencies to be on the lookout. - At the time, we're dealing with COVID. People are calling out at work. So we're having to work on modified schedules. - Since police don't have the resources for a man hunt, Tyrell's sisters take matters into their own hands. - I was posting on Facebook and telling everybody that my brother was missing. - With Tyrell missing for 48 hours, Taylor takes to social media to organize a search of her own. - Norman, when a person go missing, you'd be like, okay, let's get together as a family and let's find him. It was none of that. - Taylor had posted on Facebook as well that she was organizing a search party for Tyrell and it was around the area of Monticello Road because that was his last known location. - On December 28th, the social media blitzed seems to pay off. In the middle of the night, Columbia police department got an unexpected visitor at headquarters who wanted to speak with an investigator. She said that she might have some information regarding Tyrell's whereabouts. - She says he's in fact dead and she knows you did it. - Over a week after Tyrell sims disappearance, a mysterious informant comes forward alleging that Tyrell is dead. - The case is immediately reassigned to Sergeant Mitch Henry with the Violet Crime Unit. - I sat her down and I always saw my interviews very open and did, what can you tell me? And it was an information bomb. The first thing that she tells me is that Taylor, who is a friend to her, as well as a male that she knew [BLANK_AUDIO] name Youngsta, came to her house pretty late that night. She says they sat in her car talking for a while. Then Taylor suddenly made a startling confession. Taylor told her I did it, I killed Tarell. The witness says that Taylor said that he had come home late and they got into some sort of argument. She thought that he was cheating on her. Taylor told her that he had hit her and so she said she shot him. She had shot him four times, but one of them missed. At the time Taylor's car was in the shop, she had a rental car and she said that one of these bullets actually went through the sighting of the house outside and struck the front hood of her rental vehicle. According to the witness, Youngsta helped Taylor get rid of the evidence. The witness didn't get any impression that he had anything to do with the killing but did help Taylor move the body. Youngster tells Taylor, "I know a spot where we can dump him." So as they're driving out there, it's a good 30-40 minutes from Tarell and Taylor's home. They removed the ankle monitor from Tarell's leg and tossed it out a window. Taylor told her that they dumped the body off of a embankment in a small creek off of Monticelli Road. With the increased media attention, Taylor is desperate to go back and make sure her tracks are covered. According to the witness, Taylor asked her to help move the body to a different location, which the witness was refusing to do. The witness told us the area that the ankle monitor presumably would be, which is an area near Crane Creek. The witness says they then went their separate ways, but Taylor and Youngsta left something behind. They both accidentally left their cell phones in the car. That's why she just showed up in the middle of the night because she didn't want to be involved, so she gave them to us. Without knowing the involvement of these phones, we decided to collect them as evidence and send them off for forensic processing. While search teams combed the area around the creek looking for Tarell's body, Sergeant Henry digs further into Taylor's background. She grew a bit of Bronx, the Bronx is gritty, the Bronx is violent. She got into trouble, she grew up fighting, she always had that hostility at home. Taylor, she didn't have any arrests, but she did own a gun. She had a concealed weapons permit. We looked through pawn shop databases and just to see if any transactions had been made and the day that Tarell supposedly went missing, Taylor had actually gone and pond his grill. You haven't seen him, you're starting to get worried that he might be missing, but you're out here selling one of his favorite pieces of jewelry. When detectives ask Tarell's loved ones what they think of his relationship with Taylor, they're less than complimentary. Tarell's sister's kind of paying Taylor as very controlling. Tarell was never the type of person to be with one woman and Taylor knew that. Taylor would do different things far as tracking, monitoring his calls, she would do a lot of stuff to keep tabs on them. He couldn't do nothing without her knowing. Tarell been trying to end the relationships for a while and I don't think Taylor could have felt the fact that Tarell didn't want to be with her anymore. We knew who the suspect was, we were in communication with Taylor, we just had to prove that it was her. As Sergeant Henry wraps up his interviews, he gets a call from the search team. They haven't found Tarell's body yet, but they have found something else. They were able to locate this ankle monitor about a mile up from the creek. It gave a lot more credibility to our witnesses' statement and we were able to actually pull some data off of that device. You could track his movements, we see that Tarell went to Irwin Street, then he went to his friend's house and then he came back to Taylor's house. He came home around like four in the morning. The last time that Tarell's ankle monitor pinged was on Muscle Road around 7.45 am. The discovery tells investigators they're close to locating Tarell, but they have a daunting task ahead. So while we've narrowed down our search area, it's still a very large swath of area of creek beds and forest and we don't have necessarily those same resources to conduct that search. Coming up, investigators identify Taylor's alleged accomplice. His run name is Eddie Brown and it seems they both had a potential motive. She was playing to leave Tarell for Eddie. She had just had enough. With a discovery of Tarell Sim's ankle monitor, investigators are becoming convinced Taylor Ward Law is a suspect in a potential homicide. But without a body to prove it, they need to proceed with caution. We're ready to talk to Taylor but we're not ready to interrogate her yet. We want to talk to her just as a follow-up to the missing persons investigation. We don't want her to have any symptoms that were onto her as a homicide suspect. We need to know what she knows without her knowing that we know that. Taylor pretty much gives us the same story that she gave the initial investigator. Since Taylor is sticking to her story, detectives turn their attention to her alleged accomplice. I asked the witness if she knew who Youngster was and she had met him a few times previously but didn't have a, you know, official name for him. Investigator now and is very good at identifying and finding people so I said we'll let their person into trying to figure out Youngster's identity. Another one of my team members they started calling up all the local rental car agencies to see if anyone had rented a car to Taylor and sure enough one did and they said yeah when we got the car it had some sort of damage to the hood that she didn't report. It's a bull, just like the witness said it would be. We process portions of the car with a compound that will illuminate in the presence of blood and we found that there were traces in the trunk of the car. They can't be sure the blood is terels until it's tested. As samples are sent to the lab for analysis, investigator Nellen is having a breakthrough of her own. The witness said that Youngster had assisted in dumping his body and she gave us his Facebook name. I did my due diligence and went to Taylor's Facebook page and located one of her friends that was Youngster and I identified him. His one name is Eddie Brown. At the time he lived with his aunt in the colony apartment. Taylor had several Facebook pages that interacted with Eddie Brown. Investigator Nellen was able to ascertain that Eddie may have a more romantic connection to Taylor. Now we're looking at someone that may have premeditated this murder. for romantic interest. -Nowlin checks security camera footage at the apartment complex on the day Torelle disappeared and makes another discovery. -The rental car came into the colony apartments at 4.33 in the morning. Was there for 10 minutes? You could see Taylor getting out of her car with her two children and take them inside of Youngsta's apartment. -When she comes out, the kids are still in there, but she and Eddie get back into the car and they drive off. -Based on what the witness told us, we believed at that point when she comes in to pick Eddie up at 4.30 in the morning, Torelle's already dead. -The rental car appears outside the apartments again around 8.30 AM, giving Taylor and Youngsta plenty of time to get rid of Torelle's body. The question is, where? -While we're canvassing, we found a camera right on my cello and we just on a wind sight. Let's pull this footage. -We see Taylor's rental car with a bullet hole in the front of it driving outbound Monticello. And then coming back within about 20 minutes. -And we tried to create a map of how far can you get from this camera box, drive 10 minutes away, and drive 10 minutes back. And with that, we decided to organize a multi-jurisdictional search party. -We started calling in other assets from the state. We had drones that were up. We had divers stretching through some of the creeks. -We have boats, we have helicopters, we have planes. We have more people than I can even count. -On January 5th, investigator Nowlin makes a gruesome discovery. -The search team had checked off all of the areas that they were designated to search. So I just followed Shaver's Creek. I pulled up there and I looked down and see a trash bag with what looked like a body in it. [music] -After over two weeks of searching, investigators have just discovered the body of Torelle Sims in an embankment. -Because it was so cold and the creek was so shallow, it actually preserved his body very well. -There were still a lot of features that were still evident. -Tatues could still be seen. We can still make out that, yes, that is Torelle. -Once the body is recovered, officers are able to make a positive identification while they await autopsy results. For Torelle's loved ones, the news is devastating. -I've been crying and gone through emotions before because I already felt like he was gone. -So when I heard it, it was like, I was, no. -I'm glad they found him. Reddened them not finding him at all. It was emotional, but at the same time was a little bit of justice. -Later that day, Taylor Wardlaw is arrested and charged with murder. -When we arrested her, she had been on the phone. All she did was just say, "I'm going to have to call you back." She knew the game was up at that point. -Taylor immediately asks for a lawyer. -Teevers have told us, "Yeah, but I still want a lawyer to come out and roll out and hit." -Okay. Say, "Z" won't work. -Mm-hmm. -On January 5th, 2022, a body that was believed to be the victim was located in Shh. -Favers Creek. -He's dead. -While Taylor is held in custody, investigators proceed to search the home for any evidence of a struggle. -There was a gun box for a 9-millimeter rouger in a safe in the house, but the gun was unaccounted for. -There was one swab from the living room door frame that presentively tested positive for blood that came back to Nelson's profile. -While investigators make plans to speak to Eddie Brown, the medical examiner's autopsy report gives them an idea of what happened in the apartment. -Once the autopsy is conducted, it gives us an estimate about how long he's been deceased, which had been, at this point, roughly two weeks. It tells us he's been shot four times. -The projectiles that were collected were consistent with being fired from a 9-millimeter. -It's possible that the first shots were to the front, but somebody that is running away, there's no justification to shoot them in the back. -All of that just goes to show a cover-up of a killing versus if it was self-defense. -In the days that follow, 30-year-old Eddie Youngsta Brown is apprehended and questioned by police. - Eddie was nervous. He knew that he didn't kill Trel. He didn't want to go down for that. -He did provide a statement. Eventually admitting what his role was in this, which was assisting Taylor in putting the body from the home into the trunk of the car and then removing the monitor and assisting her with dumping the body into the creek. - Based off of our interview with him, we were confident that we had enough evidence to get a conviction for accessory after the fact to the murder, so we ended up charging him with that. - Eddie is released on Bond, while prosecutors prepped the case for trial. -While waiting for trial, we're starting to get back some of the results from the forensic exams that we've done, specifically on the cell phones. -Taylor's phone records reveal a woman consumed by jealousy and thoughts of murder. -This wasn't a spur of the moment, choice. She'd been contemplating this for a while. - When prosecutors review the evidence, witness statement, and video surveillance footage, it's clear to them, Taylor Wardlock conspired to kill her boyfriend, Terrell Sims. The final piece of the puzzle is motive, which her cell phone records provide. - We started to get back text messages, emails, different exchanges. - Between Taylor and Eddie, and what we come to learn is there was a relationship going on between Taylor and Eddie. She was playing to, in some capacity, leave Terrell for Eddie. -Taylor might have been cheating with another man, but that didn't mean she could handle the thought of Terrell with another woman. - The only motive that we could clearly see was just her anger towards him that she thought he was cheating on her. She had been texting him in the days leading up about why he wasn't coming home and where was he and who was he with. -Everything that we gathered from her phone, it was just she was jealous. - If I can't have you, nobody can. - To the prosecution, Taylor was a powder keg waiting to explode, and it finally happened on December 20th. - She was calling him over and over and over that night. I'm sure that her rate was building over the course of those hours. - In her text messages, there's no outright pre-meditation being said, but it's the reading between the lines. - She's texting Eddie while this is all going on, saying that she thinks he's out cheating on her. He finally came home around 3.30. And then there's no phone activity for about 33 minutes. We'll never truly know what happened that night. My best working theory is an argument broke out between him and Taylor. Taylor could have started because of her insecurities and worries about his infidelity. So we believe Taylor snapped. She pulled out a gun and shot him. She obviously had a plan because she knew to go immediately to Eddie. I think that she had just had enough. After she convinced Eddie to help her get rid of Terrell's body, Taylor came up with a cover story and reported him missing. I think it's really crazy how she killed him, disposed of him, and then helped everybody look for his body. Taylor spends the next two years in jail awaiting trial. It was very obvious in this case that they were going to go the route of self-defense, considering that he was already on an ankle monitor for allegedly assaulting her a year and a half prior. But this was truly someone that she was scared of and why would you call him so many times that night? In an unexpected turn of events, the case never makes it to court. On March 25, 2024, Taylor cuts a deal with prosecutors and pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter. She sentenced to 20 years in prison. I felt like the time that Gay and Taylor wasn't enough. I felt like justice wasn't a serve enough for them. I think God that she did plead guilty. It's not like I was happy, but I know God has the last say so. She didn't have to do what she did. Regardless, she can't see her kids. And there'll be a delts by the time she come out. So whether it was justice or not is losses in both places. Terrell, he was a good person. I mean, he might not have been perfect. But if he can do anything to help anybody, that's what Terrell would do. I would miss his last, his run on test measures, sending me pictures of his kids, joking. We was robbed of more memories, more time.