Family of Ohio College Student Sierah Joughins 'Devastated' After Police Identify Her Remains
The family of Sierah Joughin, the 20-year-old Ohio student whose remains were discovered by police last Friday after she went missing last Tuesday, is mourning her loss.
"Our family is in complete shock and utterly lost," Tara Shaffer Ice, Joughin's aunt, tells PEOPLE via text message. "Right now we are overwhelmed with grief and planning something [Sierah's funeral] that seems unimaginable."
Joughin, a University of Toledo student, was reported missing by her family after she went for a bike ride and didn't come home. Police arrested James Dean Worley, 57, last Friday and have charged him with aggravated murder and abduction. Police positively identified Joughin's remains on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Fulton County sheriff's office.
On the night she disappeared, Joughin had been riding her bicycle down a local county road alongside her boyfriend, who was riding a motorcycle, before the pair parted ways on good terms for the evening, authorities have said.
During the investigation, Joughin's family tried to remain optimistic.
"We are struggling and trying to stay hopeful. We just want her to come home safe and [whoever has her] to just leave her where she is and let us have her back," Ice said last week.
Joughin hoped to study abroad this fall, her mother, Sheila Vaculik, told PEOPLE last week, before her body was discovered.
"She's very dedicated, caring, compassionate," Vaculik said.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Worley served prison time after pleading guilty to attacking and abducting a woman who was riding a bike in 1990, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE. He was released on parole in 1993, NBC reports.
He is being held at Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio without bond and has not been assigned an attorney or entered a plea, officials say. He will next appear in court Wednesday afternoon.
A GoFundMe page has been started to help Sierah's family.
