Kriti Mehrotra
It was early in the morning of December 31, 1999, when everything turned upside down for 10-year-old Krystal Surles as she came face to face with heinous serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells. The truth is, as explored in CBS’ ’48 Hours: Live to Tell: Krystal’s Courage,’ both she and her 13-year-old friend Kaylene “Katy” Harris were attacked as they slept, but only the former survived. What no one could have ever imagined was that this little girl would then unflinchingly face every aspect of her heavy, life-changing trauma head-on just to ensure true justice was served.
Krystal Surles’ Childhood Was Marred With Familial Struggles
Since Krystal was born to Pam and Mark Surles as the eldest of three girls around the late 1980s, there was always a sense of responsibility placed on her, which turned real when she turned 5. That’s because this was around the time when both her parents reportedly became involved with drugs, just for it to take over their lives — they not only fought a lot but also got in trouble with the law. However, because the matriarch was clear on the fact she wanted a normal lifestyle and family, she suddenly packed up her bags, left the home they all shared, as well as filed for divorce.
Pam didn’t want her little girls to be without stability or a roof over their heads, so she left them in the care of Mark, yet he admittedly couldn’t stop using and dealing, no matter how hard he tried. Therefore, then 6/7-year-old Krystal had no choice but to step up, meaning she essentially took over the role of both parents and handled everything for her younger sisters, Marques and Amber. From cleaning the house to cooking their meals and from managing their overall schedules to putting them to sleep, she did everything all alone until their mother showed up upon getting sober.
Unfortunately, though, Mark couldn’t follow in his ex-wife’s footsteps and actually ended up getting apprehended for his offenses, so he was in prison by the time December 31, 1999, rolled around. As for Pam, she was in Kansas after sending her two older girls to stay with long-time friends — the Harris family — in Del Rio, Texas, so as to prepare for their permanent move to the Lone Star State. All this, along with her understandable anger towards her father, undoubtedly made Krystal very emotionally mature for her age, which is how she knew exactly what to do when the tragedy came.
Krystal Surles Wasn’t Tommy Lynn Sells Primary Target
According to reports, Tommy broke into the Harris family’s trailer home through an open window in the early hours of December 31, 1999, after getting closely acquainted with them some time prior. He then checked all the rooms and noticed 7-year-old Marques sleeping on the bed in one while her sister Krystal as well as Katie shared a bunk bed in the other before attacking the 13-year-old. According to reports, he sexually assaulted the teenager and stabbed her around 16 times prior to pulling her to himself to slash her throat so that she fell to the ground, all the while unaware Krystal was awake.
The 10-year-old had admittedly awoken to strange sounds around her, following which she was careful to lift only her head to see what was going on and saw a scary man at the foot of the bed. Krystal had the advantage of being on the top bunk, so she captured his image in her head — long, dark, curly hair with a big, bushy beard and eyes that were dark and mean, per her own accounts. After all, she saw him holding a bloody Katy with one hand on her mouth while the other was holding a narrow knife across her throat before he slashed and moved away to leave through the door.
Before this stranger fled, though, he turned around to take one last look at the room and that’s when he caught Krystal with her head up from the bed as well as a genuinely terrified look in her eyes. Nevertheless, when he moved towards her, she put up her hands in defense, which she had no idea would actually end up saving her life despite him succeeding in deeply slicing her throat too. The adrenaline then had the 10-year-old getting down and staying with a gurgling Katy until she took her last breath before she crawled on her hands and knees to a nearby property to ask for help.
Krystal Surles’ Statements Led to Tommy Lynn Sells’ Ultimate Capture
Because the scary stranger had made sure to hurt Krystal, she had no idea whether anyone in the home was alive or not, so she didn’t take any risks and immediately left the property to seek aid. She wasn’t really aware of it at the time, but she was losing a lot of blood with every crawling step — the only thing running through her mind was she needed to keep moving and get out of the house. Thankfully, when she made it to the nearby estate and continued banging on their door, an older man opened the door, saw the state she was in, and didn’t hesitate to contact the emergency services.
It turns out that not only was Krystal’s windpipe split open, but her vocal cords had also been nicked, so she was rushed to the nearby hospital to receive extensive medical intervention. Yet, when she awoke, there was already a fire in her eyes — she didn’t shrink away from describing the assailant or recounting all the details of the ordeal to detectives that very same day. Then, she unflinchingly worked with officials to identify Tommy Lynn Sells from a photo line-up before also agreeing to testify against him when he stood trial roughly nine months later.
Krystal lost her cool while on the stands upon seeing Tommy sitting right in front of her with his head down, but she was determined to ensure he could never hurt anyone else ever again. Therefore, following a 15-minute recess, the literally physically scarred young girl walked back in and told the jury everything that transpired on that fateful New Year’s Eve without a single break. Thanks to her accounts, he was found guilty of both murder as well as attempted murder in 2000 before later being convicted of at least 21 more murders based on his own confessions plus additional evidence.
Krystal Surles is a Proud Family Woman Today
Although it took Krystal some time to get back into a normal routine of sorts, she seemed utterly resolved not to let her past define her so as to continue leading her life as a true, whole survivor. She even mended her relationship with her father as time passed, and it was to such an extent that she happily resided with him in Idaho in the late 2000s before pursuing further education. In fact, on social media, she has since even asserted that “Her childhood may have been untraditional, but the memories I have I will always cherish. There was never a lack of love in our home!”
Coming to Krystal’s current standing, it appears as if she is still based close to her family around the state of Idaho while also building her own alongside her husband of nearly 9 years. She has chosen to keep the details of her private life away from the spotlight, yet we do know she shares a wonderful home, two adorable young boys, and a couple of pets with him. Krystal has since even changed her name to Floy Hollenbeck to protect her loved ones, but she has gotten the courage to start speaking up about her past again upon wholly dedicating herself to her faith in early 2022. In fact, she and her youngest sister Amber started a podcast called ‘Mommas with Traumas’ in early 2024 to discuss topics like addiction, grief, their childhood, and true crime – unfortunately, they lost their middle sister, Marques, in 2023.
Read More: Is Tommy Lynn Sells Dead or Alive?
