The episode titled ‘Live to Tell: Krystal’s Courage’ of CBS’ ’48 Hours’ delves deep into the brutal murder of 13-year-old Kaylene Harris and an attempted murder of her 10-year-old friend named Krystal Surles in late 1999. As the latter survived the attack, she played an important role in helping the police capture the perpetrator — Tommy Lynn Sells. It was only after his arrest that the authorities learned that he was a serial killer with multiple victims across the nation.
Tommy Lynn Sells’ Childhood Was Full of Traumatic Experiences
Born on June 28, 1964, in Oakland, California, Tommy Lynn Sells had a rough childhood as he and his siblings were brought up by a single mother. Quite early in life, he saw the passing of his twin sister, Tammy Jean, as she died from meningitis. Moving from one place to another, Tommy began drinking alcohol at the age of seven. Three years later, he started doing drugs as well. Around his adolescent age, he reportedly indulged in indecent acts with his grandmother and mother, after which he was abandoned and kicked out of the house, forcing him to lead a nomadic life since the age of 14.
In the following couple of decades, he committed a series of heinous crimes, including sexual assaults and murders. After his capture in 2000, he made the bold claim of being responsible for more than 70 murders across the nation in the last two decades, earning him the nickname “The Coast to Coast Killer.” However, out of those claims, at least 22 were confirmed by the authorities. As per his claims, at the age of 15, he broke into a house in Mississippi and committed his first murder. He also claimed that he murdered a man in a Los Angeles restaurant with an ice pick.
Tommy Lynn Sells Took Dozens of Victims Across the Country
One of the first murders he confessed to was that of 28-year-old Ena Cordt and her four-year-old son, Rory Cordt, on July 26, 1985, in Springfield, Missouri. He claimed that she tried to steal from his backpack after they had sex in her house, which is why he killed her and her son, who was a potential witness. A couple of years later, on May 1, 1987, in Lockport, New York, he also allegedly killed 27-year-old Suzanne Korcz, whose cause of death could not be determined due to decomposition. After a few months, he claimed that he struck again, this time in Lovelock, Nevada.
On October 15, he alleged that he picked up a hitchhiker named Stefanie Kelly Stroh and offered to take her to Reno, Nevada. As per his claims, he strangled her to death and covered her body in concrete before disposing of it in a hot spring. Just a month later, on November 17, 1987, in Ina, Illinois, he was allegedly responsible for the massacre of the Dardeen family. After getting picked up by Keith Dardeen, Tommy was welcomed home for dinner. By the end of the night, he had killed Keith and his three-year-old son, Peter, and severely beaten his pregnant wife, Elaine Dardeen, who reportedly gave birth to her daughter. As per his claims, he didn’t even spare the newborn.
Until the day he was arrested in 2000, the serial killer allegedly took several lives — Kent Alan Lauten on December 18, 1988, in Tucson, Arizona; Teresa Hall and her daughter, Tiffany, on December 9, 1991, in Marianna, Florida; Stephanie Mahaney on October 15, 1997, in Springfield, Missouri; Yvette Sophia Mueller on December 14, 1997, in Las Vegas, Nevada; Debra Harris and her daughter Ambria Halliburton on April 4, 1999, in Gibson, Tennessee; Mary Beatrice Perez on April 18, 1999, in San Antonio, Texas; Haley McHone on May 23, 1999, in Lexington, Kentucky; and Bobbie Lynn Wofford on July 5, 1999, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
In 2014, the Death Penalty Was Finally Implemented
Her last murder came on New Year’s Eve of 1999 in Del Rio, Texas, where he broke into a trailer home and sexually assaulted and killed a 13-year-old girl named Kaylene Harris. Sleeping in the same room as Kaylene was 10-year-old Krystal Surles, whom he tried to kill as well. However, she ended up surviving and managed to get help from the neighbors despite having a severe injury. A few days later, on January 2, 2000, Tommy was arrested at his trailer home without any resistance from his side. During his various interrogations, he confessed to killing Kaylene and attacking Krystal, in addition to murdering dozens of men, women, and children in different states.
Several months after his arrest, Tommy Lynn Sells took a guilty plea and admitted to murdering Kaylene Harris and attempting to murder Krystal Surles on December 31, 1999. On September 18, 2000, he was convicted of the same and given the death penalty. In 2003, he was not only indicted for the murder of Stephanie Mahaney, but he also received a life sentence for the murder of 9-year-old Mary Bea Perez of San Antonio. In his 2010 jailhouse interview with ABC News, he allowed the world to take a deep dive into his murderous mind. He said, “I am hatred. When you look at me, you look at hate. I don’t know what love is. Two words I don’t like to use is ‘love’ and ‘sorry,’ because I’m about hate.”
Explaining what he felt while murdering, he opened up, “The first time I did a shot of dope, it was the best feeling I ever had in my life. The first time I killed somebody, it was such a rush. It was just like that, a shot of dope every time I did it, it was that rush again, and I started chasing that high.” In early 2014, his execution date was scheduled for April 3 of the same year. When the day finally arrived, he refused to make a last statement and was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit near West Livingston, Texas.
Read More: Krystal Surles: Where is the Survivor Now?