Brandi Worley savagely killed her two children, Tyler and Charlee, in the family’s residence on 17th November 2016, a day after her husband, Jason Worley, filed for divorce. Jason slept in the basement as Brandi stabbed their children severally in the neck before stabbing herself.
Worley called 911, casually telling the dispatcher, “I just stabbed myself and I killed my two children.” Disbelieving, the dispatcher asked Brandi’s mother to check on the children. The kids’ grandmother’s screams woke Jason, who was sleeping in the basement. “Now you can’t take the kids from me,” an emotionless Brandi told Jason.
Brandi’s imprisoned at an Indiana facility where she’ll spend the rest of her life
Tyler and Charlee were buried at the Greenlawn Cemetery in Darlington several days after their death. By then, the case had garnered international attention due to the efforts of YouTuber Philip DeFranco.
Jason contacted Philip through Reddit, telling him that his kids loved his content. “Two innocent children were killed, their futures stolen by the person that gave them life,” Philip said in a video. “So much love was just ripped from Jason’s life.”
Philip encouraged people to donate to a GoFundMe campaign to cater for the kids’ funerals and Jason’s living expenses. It surpassed $50,000 in a few weeks, and people continue donating to this day.
Brandi initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony murder. She’d recovered from her self-inflicted stab wounds when prosecutors filed charges against her. As she awaited trial, Worley declared an intention to claim the insanity defense.
However, in January 2018, Brandi pleaded guilty to the charges. Jason was present when Brandi entered her plea. He told Indy Star:
“She appeared to be just as unremorseful as she did in the 911 call. She spoke in a very matter of fact manner when describing her crime. It was heart wrenching to hear her speak as she did. All I want and have ever wanted was to have her out of sight and mind so that I may move forward from this horror.”
In March 2018, judge Harry Siamas sentenced Brandi Worley to 120 years in prison. “Sometimes there’s no explanation,” he said. “Darkness is in this world. And it penetrates minds and our hearts.”
Brandi said nothing during her sentencing. She’s incarcerated in Indiana Women’s Prison in Indianapolis, Indiana. Reports claim that she suffers from depression and exists in an ‘unemotional’ state.
Defense attorney Mark Inman told The Journal Review that Brandi displayed emotion during their first few meetings before becoming impassive. He suggested that it was her way of dealing with the situation. “That’s the only way she can deal with it at this point,” Mark said. “She doesn’t know why she did it.”
Brandi said she killed the children to prevent her husband from taking them
There’s no doubt that Tyler and Charlee’s murders were premeditated. The afternoon after Jason filed for divorce, the family attended Charlee’s dance practice, according to the County Prosecutor’s timeline of events.
The family returned home and had dinner before Brandi rushed to Walmart ostensibly to purchase pipe cleaners for Tyler’s school project. Brandi purchased a Kabar combat knife, which she placed in Tyler’s bedroom after arriving home.
She and Jason played with the kids before he put them to bed. Early the next morning, Brandi lured Jason into Charlee’s bedroom, where he straddled and stabbed him.
Charlee woke up during the killing and asked, “What are you doing?” Brandi said ‘nothing’ and told Charlee to ‘go back to sleep.’ After finishing Tyler off, she turned her attention to her daughter.
She then stabbed herself in the neck, but unlike her children, she survived. “She was more adept killing her small, sleeping children than killing herself,” said Montgomery County Prosecutor Joe Buser.
After the 911 dispatcher asked why she’d killed her children, Brandi said: “My husband wanted a divorce and wanted to take my kids. I don’t want him to have my kids.”
Jason stayed with Brandi because she attempted to drag the kids into their marital struggles
Jason and Brandi’s married in August 2009. They welcomed Tyler in 2009 and Charlee in 2013. Via a famous Reddit post on the sub r/relationship_advice, Jason detailed Brandi’s infidelity and use of the children to manipulate him into remaining married.
Jason wrote that he started suspecting Brandi of cheating when she protected her phone with a password. Brandi told Jason that she’d kept a big secret from him and felt guilty. Jason wrote:
“[She] told me that she was having our neighbor, a contractor, build a home office for me as my present. It struck me as odd as in our 6 years together she has never said she felt guilty about anything and always insists that she never regrets anything in her life.”
Still skeptical of Brandi, Jason perused her phone and found a flirty text Brandi sent to the neighbor building his office. Jason convinced himself that the message was innocent, believing that Brandi wouldn’t ‘do anything to hurt him.’
Eventually, he installed software on Brandi’s phone that allowed him to track her location and read her messages. In the presence of his neighbor, Jason read a conversation between him and Brandi in which they declared their affection for each other. He wrote:
“But then they tell each other that they love each other and it is all I can do to not leap off the couch and knock him out. But I contain myself and continue reading the conversation unfolding in front of me.”
Jason confronted Brandi and informed her that he would leave the relationship. Brenda responded by saying she would use his prior suicide attempt to convince authorities he was unfit for child custody. The next day, Jason returned home to find the kids crying: Brandi had informed them that she had to move out as Jason was mad at her.
“It was at that moment I realized she was going to drag the kids through hell if I left her so I swallowed my feelings and begged her to stay,” Jason wrote. “I’m afraid that after this much time, and the fact that I begged her back, that to say that I want a divorce now would only make her more vindictive towards my children and I.”
Unfortunately, Jason’s instincts were right.
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