The Cross Country Killer – Life of Serial Killer Tommy Lynn Sells –9.The Horrific Spree Continues

donzhtm

The Horrific Spree Continues
Jamie and Debbie Harris and Debbie's eight-year-old, Ambria Halliburton, moved into a rental trailer in Gibson County, Tennessee, in January of 1999. Their new home was in the Caraway Hills area, a sparse community where thick clusters of trees separated the neighbors and provided them with privacy.

By the end of February, marital issues drove the two into separation. They moved out of the trailer; Jamie moved to Gibson, and Debbie thought she had another place to live. However, it didn't work out, so she ended up going back to their former landlady. Debbie wanted to move back into the trailer, but she didn't have enough money. The landlady, Dawn, agreed to accept the deposit money and let her pay the rent the following week. Debbie and Ambria settled back into the trailer on March 15.

Dawn last saw Debbie on Monday, March 29, when she brought the rent payment by. She was twenty-five dollars short, and Dawn agreed to let her have a few more days. Debbie thanked her and left, saying she was going to interview for a second job.

~

Sells related the events of that night to the Texas Rangers who had arrested him. He said he took a twenty-mile detour off Route 40 when he reached Jackson. Around midnight on March 30, he approached a small trailer. He knocked on the door, and it opened. He slipped inside quietly and found a knife in one of the kitchen drawers. As he crept down the hall to Debbie's room, he spooked a calico cat. It leaped off the bed and scurried into a hiding place.

Just past the dresser, Sells noticed an overturned bucket next to the bed that was serving as a makeshift nightstand. It had a picture and an alarm clock on it. He eased into the bed and put the blade of the knife to Debbie's throat.

Debbie didn't resist. She knew that she had to be quiet if she wanted her daughter to live. After he had raped her unresponsive body, Sells stabbed her multiple times. He stepped across the hall into the bathroom, holding the knife. He set it down beside the sink, picked up a bar of soap from the soap dish, and then cleaned the blood off his hands and arms.

When he turned and looked into the hall, Ambria was standing there silently. He chased her into the living room, where he caught her and slammed the knife into her tiny body with so much force it lifted her off her feet. He stabbed her again, and then she went limp. He shoved the knife into her a third time, loosening his grip, so she slumped to the floor.

Thinking he heard a noise from Debbie's room, he went back to the bedroom to be sure she was dead. He stabbed her one last time in the chest and left the knife there.

The neighbors noticed that Debbie's vehicle had been sitting in her driveway without moving for several days, but it was Easter weekend, and holidays often put people's regular schedules off track. For her part, the landlady had decided not to hassle Debbie when she didn't show up with the rest of the rent.

However, on Easter Sunday, a friend decided to pay a visit to Debbie's trailer. She opened the door, and what she found inside wasn't pleasant. The decay was in such an advanced state that it forced the arriving investigators to tack up a sign that read Danger, Biohazard.

At two in the morning on Monday, agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrived to process the scene. They worked until mid-morning to gather all the pieces of potential evidence. But they found nothing suspicious in the trailer – no DNA, fingerprints, or forensic evidence that pointed to the identity of the person who had done this. The bodies were then sent out for autopsy.

On the Thursday, Debbie and Ambria were both laid to rest in the Salem Church Cemetery in Gadsden.

A $2,500 per victim reward was issued by the governor for any information that led to the arrest, indictment, and conviction of the person or people responsible for the murders. More than twenty suspects were put forward, but all were exonerated.

Before the bodies had even been found, Sells was already states away. He hired on with a carnival in Greensboro, North Carolina. That job was to take him to San Antonio, where a nine-year-old girl would be his next victim.

~

Fiesta is a ten-day celebration in San Antonio, Texas, that begins in April. It features events that raise money for charitable programs, but for most residents, it's just an excuse for an extended party.

The 1999 festivities kicked off a story below street level, down on Riverwalk. Any place where the narrow walkway was broad enough, chairs were set up and tickets were sold. At the Arenson River Theatre, spectators squeezed into the long tiers of benches cut into the hill, and faces watched out the windows of apartment buildings along the San Antonio River. The Cavaliers rode on floats that glided down the waterway through the cheering crowd of close to 225,000 people.

Halfway through Fiesta, the Battle of Flowers Parade took place in downtown San Antonio. The floats were adorned with flowers, and high school bands dominated the festivities as they marched. They wound through the streets, issuing a siren call to everyone. Then, like modern day Pied Pipers, they led the spectators to the Alamo Stadium, where 3,600 high school band members would compete.

Fiesta in San Antonio would never be complete without a carnival, and working at this carnival in 1999 was Tommy Lynn Sells.

One of the largest celebrations was Fiesta del Mercado, which ran daily from the late morning until midnight. On April 18, Mary Bea Perez, a nine-year-old girl, went to El Mercado with her extended family. Like all the Fiesta events, this one was heavily patrolled by police officers on foot, bicycles, and horseback. It was considered a safe venue for families.

Around ten that night, Mary Bea and her uncle went to a booth where he bought a round of beer for the adults. He didn't realize she'd trailed behind him, and when he returned to the group, the third-grader was gone.

In the middle of the music and the heady aroma of food, Sells snatched Mary Bea and whisked her away. He hustled her into his truck and told her they were going to take a little ride. He then forced her onto the floorboard, where she huddled in fear.

A mile and a half from El Mercado, they came to a stop near the stockyards. Sells pulled Mary Bea out of the vehicle and led her through a hole in the fence. In that isolated area, he laid her down on a queen-sized mattress and forcibly undressed her as she fought back. When he finished raping her, he wrapped her t-shirt around her neck and strangled her to death.

At the fair, her family was frantic. They searched for her in the square for two hours. Then they went home in the hope they would find her there, safe. But she wasn't there either. They called the police to report her disappearance.

The entire city went on high alert. This type of thing just didn't happen at Fiesta. Families with small children thought twice about taking their children to the event after that. Prayers for her safe return came from pulpits across the town.

In the middle of their pleas, rain fell. It was heavy enough to wash Mary Bea's body downstream from the place where she'd been discarded.

Ten days after that night in El Mercado, a man who was fishing with his son in Azalan Creek found Mary Bea's body.

Her life had been almost as sad as her death. Her mother hadn't had enough food to feed her daughter, and so Mary Bea would be seen wandering around the neighborhood looking for handouts. No suspects were ever found, and Mary Bea was put to rest.

By the time she was, Tommy Sells was already in Kentucky.