Tabla de Contenidos
In this period, Sells spent some time in prison and rehab, but his crimes continued:
- In 1987, he killed twenty-year-old Stefanie Stroh. That same year he murdered twenty-seven-year-old Suzzanne Korcz. It is also believed that he brutally killed the Dardeen family, consisting of Keith Dardeen, his wife Elaine, his youngest son, and their newborn daughter.
- During 1988 he committed several crimes: he killed Ken Lauten in Arizona, in a drug dispute. Some time later, in Utah, he murdered a woman and her three-year-old son. Later, he stole a car, and raped and killed eleven-year-old Melissa Trembly in Massachusetts.
- In 1989, he murdered two women, a prostitute and a twenty-year-old girl. In Roseburg he killed a woman hitchhiking. Also, while working at one of her temp jobs, he robbed her boss and was in jail for two weeks. That same year he was also charged with public drunkenness and forced to attend an alcohol detoxification program.
- In 1990 he was arrested again for theft of a vehicle and was imprisoned until 1991 in the state of Wyoming. During his time in prison, he underwent psychological tests and was diagnosed with various mental disorders, including: borderline personality disorder, antisocial disorder, schizoid disorder, psychosis, depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and substance abuse.
Crimes between 1991 and 1999
In these years, his crimes were increasingly frequent and violent, and most of his victims were children:
- In Florida, in 1991, he murdered Teresa Hall and her five-year-old daughter.
- A year later, in South Carolina, he was arrested again for public drunkenness. He was later imprisoned again for raping, beating and stabbing a twenty-year-old girl. However, they released him in 1997.
- That same year, he attacked Julie Rea Harper in Illinois and stabbed ten-year-old Joel Kirkpatrick to death. In Missouri, he kidnapped, raped, and strangled thirteen-year-old Stephanie Mahaney.
- During his confinement he married a woman named Nora Price. After being released in 1997, he lived with her in Tennessee for a while; however, he abandoned her shortly thereafter and continued her travels.
- In 1999 he committed several crimes. He raped and murdered twenty-eight-year-old Debbie Harris and eight-year-old Ambria Harris. Additionally, he raped and strangled nine-year-old Mary Perez. In Kentucky, he raped and murdered thirteen-year-old Haley McHone. In Wisconsin, he was arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
- He killed fourteen-year-old Bobbie Lynn Wofford in Oklahoma.
- In Texas, he murdered thirteen-year-old Katy Harris and attempted to kill ten-year-old Krystal Surles, who miraculously survived the attack and would later become a key witness in the investigation that led to Tommy Lynn Sells.
Key case in the investigation
That December 31, 1999, little Krystal Surles was at the house of her friend Katy Harris. Sells entered the room where the girls were and slit their throats. Katy was killed instantly, but Krystal managed to survive by pretending to be dead. After asking a neighbor for help, she was able to receive medical attention and, later, admit and testify against Sells. Krystal also helped sketch the killer’s face and identify him.
Two days later, that is, on January 2, 2000, the authorities arrested Sells in the mobile home that he shared with his wife and children. He did not resist the arrest or ask about the reason for his arrest.
During his interrogation, he confessed to murdering Katy and attempting to kill Krystal. In the months that followed, he also admitted to killing other men, women, and children in various parts of the country.
Confessions, sentence and death
On September 18, 2000, the trial against Sells began. Sells pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death for the murder of Katy Harris and the attempted murder of Krystal Surles.
In 2003, he also pleaded guilty to strangling and killing Mary Perez, a crime for which he was sentenced to life in prison. Likewise, he was accused of other crimes, but he did not receive more sentences because in some cases there was not enough evidence and his participation in others could not be proven.
In 2002 the writer Diane Fanning began to communicate with Sells through letters, while he awaited his execution in Texas. In one of them, Sells confessed to murdering Joel Kirkpatrick. His mother, Julie Rae Harper, had been found guilty of his murder and was serving her sentence in prison. This confession allowed the subsequent release of Julie.
After several years in jail and without making any other statement, Tommy Lynn Sells was finally executed in Texas on April 3, 2014, by lethal injection.
Bibliography
- Harrington, R. The brutal texan: the shocking true story of serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells. (2018). Roger Harrington.
- Jota de Hoces. Made in USA Killers: American Serial Killers. (2019). Spain. Jota de Hoces.
- Fanning, D. Through the window: the terrifying true story of cross-country killer Tommy Lynn Sells . (2012, audiobook).
- https://www.lavanguardia.com/sucesos/20201127/49733439289/tommy-lynn-sells-vagabundo-psicokiller-asesino-costa-a-costa-crimenes-azar-las-caras-del-evil.html
