On November 17, 2016, Brandi Worley brutally murdered both of her children and then tried to kill herself just one day after her husband filed for divorce.
FacebookBrandi Worley murdered her two children, Tyler and Charlee, in the middle of the night.
On November 17, 2016, Jason Worley woke up in the small town of Darlington, Indiana, to the sound of his mother-in-law screaming. To his horror, he discovered that his wife, Brandi Worley, had murdered their two children.
“Now you can’t take my children from me,” she allegedly said.
The horrific murder of Tyler and Charlee Worley, ages seven and three, came just after Jason had told Brandi that he wanted to file for divorce.
But her stoicism ever since has unnerved many, and the judge in her case noted that: “Sometimes there is no explanation [for murder]. Darkness is in this world… And it penetrates minds and our hearts.”
Why Jason And Brandi Worley Were Divorcing
Before their marriage went sour, Jason and Brandi Worley had been married for seven years. They were engaged for two, and got married in 2009. Soon afterward, Brandi became pregnant with their first child, but the couple faced challenges when Tyler was born 10 weeks early.
At that point, the new parents made a promise to each other — to prioritize the well-being and happiness of their children above all else. “We always said the children would come first, before each other or our marriage,” Jason recalled, according to the Journal & Courier.
GoFundMe/Tyler & Charlee Worley FundJason Worley with Tyler and Charlee in an undated photo.
Four years after Tyler was born, the couple had another child, a daughter named Charlee. But as time went on, Jason began to suspect that his wife was being unfaithful to him.
As Oxygen reports, a Reddit post that appears to have been written by Jason describes how his wife cheated on him. “I’m [30/m] having a hard time coping with my wife [29/f] having cheated on me with our neighbor [51/m]” the post explains. Advice poured in from all corners of the Internet and, in November 2016, Jason told Brandi that he wanted a divorce.
“She understood why we were getting a divorce,” Jason later said.
Though PEOPLE confirms that he filed for divorce on Nov. 16, 2016, Jason and Brandi Worley continued to act like everything was normal. That day, they went to a dance program for Charlee and ate dinner together at home.
Then Brandi Worley told Jason that she needed to go to Walmart to get pipe cleaners for one of Tyler’s school projects. But instead of pipe cleaners, Brandi bought a knife.
The Murders Of Tyler And Charlee Worley
On the night of Nov. 16, 2016, Jason spent time playing with the children. Unbeknownst to him, Brandi had hidden her newly purchased knife in Tyler’s room. He bathed the Tyler and Charlee and got them ready for bed. “I told them that ‘I love you and I’ll see you in the morning,'” he recalled.
He never imagined that it would be the last time he would see them alive.
GoFundMe/Tyler & Charlee Worley FundCharlee and Tyler Worley were stabbed to death by their mother, Brandi.
Just a few hours later, early on the morning of Nov. 17, Brandi Worley woke up Tyler and suggested they have a “sleepover” in Charlee’s room. There, she straddled her son and stabbed him multiple times with a combat knife.
Charlee briefly awoke during the attack, but Brandi told her that everything was ok. Trusting in her mother’s words, Charlee fell back asleep. But once Tyler was dead, Brandi then killed Charlee with the same knife. At some point, she also tried to take her own life by stabbing herself in the neck.
Then, Brandi Worley called her horrified mother. She ordered Brandi to call the police — and then raced to Brandi and Jason’s house.
At around 4:35 a.m., Brandi made a chilling call to Montgomery County 911. In a shocking admission, she confessed to stabbing herself and killing her two children. She remained surprisingly composed as she calmly informed the dispatcher about what she had done and revealed that she had also consumed a large amount of Benadryl.
“I just stabbed myself and I killed my two children,” she said.
“You stabbed yourself and killed your two children?” the dispatcher questioned.
“Mmm-hmm,” Worley responded.
With slurred speech, she informed the dispatcher that her children were dead were on the floor in her daughter’s room. Then she revealed her motive. She explained that her husband wanted a divorce and custody of their kids, and she was fearful of losing them, so she resorted to murder.
“My husband wanted a divorce and wanted to take my kids,” Brandi told the dispatcher. “I don’t want him to have my kids.”
Police Find A Gruesome Crime Scene At The Worley Residence
When Brandi Worley’s mother arrived at the house, she got on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, who told her to check the children’s bedrooms to see if Brandi was telling the truth. She obeyed and, finding the children, became hysterical, crying: “my babies” and “I don’t know, I just don’t know.”
The piercing screams of terror from Brandi’s mother awoke Jason. He ran up the stairs and found his mother-in-law crying in the kitchen. Brandi, sitting nearby, callously told him: “Now you can’t take the kids from me.”
Police quickly responded to the house and took Jason outside, where he heard the horrible truth from the crackling of one of their radios: “Two deceased children in the house.” Inside, Brandi told paramedics that she had tried to die by suicide but she’d “somehow screwed that up” and that she “didn’t want [the children] to live without [her].”
FacebookBrandi Worley murdered her children in November 2016, and will spend the rest of her life in prison.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Brandi was taken to the hospital to treat her self-inflicted wounds. During her interaction with law enforcement and medical professionals, she seemed “matter-of-fact” and not remorseful.
Brandi Worley was charged with two counts of murder. But as time went on, her “matter-of-fact” demeanor didn’t change.
Brandi Worley Pleads Guilty To Two Counts Of Murder
At Brandi Worley’s trial, she plead guilty to the horrendous act of murdering her children. Throughout the legal process, Brandi exhibited a complete lack of regret for the heartbreaking crimes she committed.
Brandi received a diagnosis of depression, a condition that appears to have drained her of all emotions. Mark Inman, her attorney, explains that this emotional detachment has become her way of coping with the challenges she faces. The gravity of her actions, and the toll on her mental well-being, has left her disconnected from the tragedy that she caused.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s OfficeBrandi Worley was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 120 years in prison.
Brandi Worley was found guilty of murder and handed separate sentences for the deaths of each of her children. She was then sentenced to 55 years for the murder of her son and 65 years for the killing of her daughter – 120 years in total. These sentences will be served consecutively, effectively imprisoning Brandi for life.
For Jason Worley, nothing will ever ease the pain of losing his children. But he seems thankful that Brandi will spend the rest of her life behind bars. “All I care is to never see her again,” he said. “Out of sight and out of mind.”
After reading about the tragic case of Brandi Worley, read about the woman who grilled her daughter alive. Then, learn about the 28 children killed in the Atlanta Child Murders..
