Out of the Darkness

By Diane Fanning

Ten years ago this month, Krystal Surles encountered a living nightmare -- serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells. In "Live to Tell," the news-magazine 48 Hours revived that night of terror in interviews with the survivor, now 20; her family; and lead investigator John Allen, a Texas Ranger.

As I watched the show, the crime-scene photographs I'd pored over eight years ago throbbed and burned behind my eyes: The foot-long boning knife found in a field (below left) by Sells' home; the dead body of Krystal's friend, Katie Harris, bloodied and slumped on the floor. The trail of 10-year-old Krystal's blood leading out of the bedroom. The small, bloody hand prints marking her path down the hall. The dried river of red that ran out the doorway, down the steps and into the ground of the front yard. The long gravel road that led to the house, far away, where Krystal found refuge and salvation. Out of that darkness emerged an amazing young girl and a survivor in every sense of the word.

I felt thrust back in time to the cluttered room where I sat alone at a makeshift desk, flipping through one photo after another. I felt again the same horror, shock and building nausea that accompanied that two-dimensional glimpse into Krystal's nightmare.

I asked myself again: How did I manage to write that book? How did I navigate through one deadly crime scene after another? How could I look at those portraits of evil and sit for hours interviewing the man responsible -- a man Texas Ranger John Allen described as an animal in a human body?

The simple answer to both of those questions is Krystal Surles.

An urge to write this story washed over me after I watched her in the courtroom video just nine months after the crime. She walked in, head held high, past Sells and into the witness box. She looked sweet, pretty and innocent in a pink and white striped shirt. But the angry, diagonal scar the knife left across her neck made it clear that her innocence had been stolen long before she raised her finger and pointed at the monster who murdered her friend and left her for dead.

She awoke every night throughout the trial, screaming from nightmares brought on by memories of the bloody horror and her own harrowingly narrow escape. Yet she was able to do what she must to get justice for her friend Katie.

One small child, with the courage of a dozen grown women, stopped the two-decade killing spree of an evil, crafty criminal. She said she survived because Katie's soul came to her that night, giving her the will to fight for her life. No matter where her courage came from, the existence of so much of it in such a little girl took my breath away.

Now, Krystal (right) is a young woman speaking of her past but looking to her future. She possesses an abundance of poise and confidence. But the faint scar that traces a line across her neck speaks of the poignant pain and eternal grief she bears from witnessing the death of her friend.

Krystal Surles was my hero then. She is my hero now. God bless you, Krystal -- no matter where you go or what you do, may your everlasting courage serve you well all the days of your life.



Diane Fanning is author of Through the Window, the book that chronicles Tommy Lynn Sells' two-decade killing orgy ended by Krystal Surles' bravery. The book helped win a new trial and acquittal for a woman wrongfully convicted of one of Sells' murders.

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Out of the Closet

by Diane Fanning

Just when I thought law enforcement had forgotten Tommy Lynn Sells, along comes a former deputy with Missouri's Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department asking about a long forgotten body. And once again, Sells' name was dropped as a possible suspect. I thought by now he’d been considered in every single cold case that remained open in his home state in the 1980s and 1990s. Apparently not.

Back when Sells was arrested, on January 2, 2000, investigators across the country dusted off files of cold cases eager to see if Sells was a possible perpetrator. After 48 Hours aired the show about the serial killer, Texas Rangers Johnny Allen and Coy Smith came into their offices to discover hundreds of requests from detectives all across the country wanting to know if Sells could have been in the right place at the right time to commit an unsolved murder in their jurisdiction.

The inquiries and interview requests continued to flood into Texas up to Sells' trial in September 2000, when he was convicted of the murder and sexual assault of Katie Harris and the attempted murder of Krystal Surles in Del Rio, Texas. Sells was sentenced to death.

Some law enforcement agencies no longer wanted to waste resources on looking at Sells—after all, unlike some states, Texas is very serious about the enforcement of their death penalty. Other investigators, though, who hungered to find closure for family members and satisfaction in their quest for justice, continued travelling to Texas to question Sells.

I fielded a lot of requests for information, too. I heard from detectives, family members, prosecutors, defense attorneys, private investigators, and some from uninvolved but curious true-crime buffs. Among the latter group, I received hundreds of emails about the Darlie Routier case. Although she sits on Death Row for the murder of her two sons, many people still believe in her innocence. They wanted to know if Tommy Lynn Sells was in the Dallas area at the time of that crime. While there may be doubts about Darlie’s guilt, Sells had an ironclad alibi—he sat behind bars in a West Virginia prison. There was no way he was responsible for killing those two boys.

This summer, though, as Sells approaches the eighth anniversary of his death sentence, interest in the Death Row inmate seemed to have died down. The only question most people still asked was: Have they killed him yet?

Until this month in the boot heel of Missouri, that is. Renewed interest in a 1981 homicide case raised his name again. The remains of an unknown white male, aged 20 to 40 and ranging from 5-feet-nine to five-feet-eleven inches tall, were found in a wooded area on April 6, 1981. The corpse was clothed in green pants, a short-sleeved khaki shirt (above) and a pair of black loafers adorned with a buckle. His skull, however, was missing.

Two years and one week later, a mushroom hunter found the missing head in a nearby creek. In the area, there were only three missing men who fit the description of the victim. A comparison of dental records discovered no match to any of them. So, the remains and the clothing moldered away in a basement closet archive at the Southeast Missouri State University for the next two decades. Forgotten by all but one man.

Now he’s come forward, resurrecting the case, looking for justice. Will the authorities be able to tie it to Tommy Lynn Sells? The odds are stacked against them. In 1979 and 1980, when Sells wasn’t on the road, he was in Missouri. In 1981, though, his home base was Little Rock, Arkansas and he was just 17 years old. He has confessed to committing homicide at that young age but he never mentioned this case.

If not Sells, will they be able to identify anyone as the killer? Will they even be able to give the victim a name? It sounds unlikely after 27 years but scientists make a habit of transforming the impossible into the routine every day.

Forensic Science is an amazing and rapidly expanding field. What seemed like fantasy five years ago is now common forensic investigative technique in labs across the country. Who knows what microscopic trace evidence is nestled in the folds of his shirt or on the buckle of his shoe (above), waiting for a diligent individual to uncover.

One day, the unknown man in green pants may find justice after all.

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