The Cross Country Killer – Life of Serial Killer Tommy Lynn Sells –12.The Last Murder

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The Last Murder
When Sells went home, he came face to face with Jessica's wrath the second he pulled open the door. He'd been gone with her van for days, he'd missed work, and money was needed to pay the bills. The two of them drove to the Pico Convenience Store, where Sells attempted to get in contact with Bill Hughes on a pay phone. He wanted to arrange a pickup for his final paycheck. He went into the store for some smokes and ran into Terry Harris. The two of them talked for five minutes. Back home, the fight continued and Sells left to escape Jessica's anger.

He sought refuge at Larry's Lakefront Tavern, where he drank Coke and Jim Beam and talked to the waitress. According to the waitress, Noel Houchin, Sells was a major nuisance that night. He asked her for sex, asked where she lived, and then asked her for sex again. When she mentioned that her car was broken down, he offered to pay to have it repaired if she had sex with him. Finally, he told her he owned Amigo Auto Sales, and she could have any vehicle on the lot if she would just have sex with him.

According to Sells, he told her worked at Amigo Auto, not that he owned it. He also said he wasn't interested in her himself, but told her Bill Hughes was interested, and if she batted her eyes at him, he'd help her out.

At one point, Sells took a break from drinking. He paid his tab, collected his change, and left the bar to change from the shorts he was wearing to a pair of pants. When he emptied the pockets of his shorts, he realized that he must have grabbed someone else's money, too, when he scooped up the change.

He went back to the tavern and realized the money belonged to Sonny, a friend and a neighbor of his. He turned it over to Sonny and sat down for another Jim Beam and Coke. He was one of the final two patrons to leave the bar when it closed around two in the morning.

He stopped on his way home near a flea market where an older woman had an outdoor refrigerator. He reached inside to pull out some beer and venison. While he ate, he decided he would go to Terry Harris' home to get the money he believed was owed to him. Sells insisted, after his arrest, that he'd fronted cocaine to Terry Harris in exchange for five grand, but no evidence that corroborated this claim was ever found.

He left the property when the woman's son pulled up to the house. He then stopped by his trailer and picked up one of the long-bladed knives that he kept outside. Jessica was never aware he was home.

~

In the wee hours of December 31, 1999, six residents of a double-wide trailer were fast asleep. The man standing outside the residence attempted to trip the lock on the back door with his knife blade, but he failed. The family dog had begun barking in its pen, so he let it smell his hand and patted it on the head until it was quiet. Then he removed the screen from the window above an air conditioner and attempted to push up on the sash, but the drawn latch held the pane in place.

Tommy Sells moved quietly to the front of the house, to the window of fourteen-year-old Justin Harris' room. It was raised to allow the coolness of the mid-December air inside. The open window was the perfect entry point for Sells. He removed the screen, set it to the side, and eased himself inside the window.

Justin Harris had been blind since birth, so when he heard a noise, he thought his sister and her friend were teasing him again. He told them to stop coming into his room and promptly fell back asleep.

Sells walked into the next bedroom and used his lighter to see the occupant. Seven-year-old Marque Surles was fast asleep in her bed. Sells stood and stared at her in the flickering light, and then he turned away.

He walked down the hall to the opposite end of the trailer where he saw Crystal Harris – the mother – and Lori Harris – her twelve-year-old daughter – fast asleep. He touched Crystal on the leg. She didn't stir, so he left her alone.

He walked back down the hall to explore the final bedroom. Walking over the threshold, all he heard was the quiet breathing of the two people inside.

He pulled the door closed behind him as he caught the scent of children in the room. Ten-year-old Krystal Surles stirred on the top bunk. Sells froze, unable to identify the source of the noise because the room was pitch black. His right hand squeezed the knife handle, and in two steps, he was leaning over Kaylene 'Katy' Harris on the lower bunk bed. He told her to wake up, then lay down next to her with his hand on her throat. His other hand held a twelve-inch boning knife.

When she asked what he was doing there, he didn't respond. Instead, he slit open her shorts and her panties, slit her bra in two, and returned the knife to her throat while his free hand fondled her. She jerked free and tumbled out of bed to the side closest to the wall. She ran for the door, shouting for someone to go get her mother, but Sells was already there, blocking her path. He stabbed at her and drew first blood.

She said he'd cut her, and he flipped on the light and looked at the wound on her arm, pulling her toward him. Above, Krystal woke with a start and peered through the slats of the top bunk bed. First, she saw Katy, and then she saw a man she recognized as Tommy Lynn Sells with his hand clasped over Katy's mouth.

Without warning, Sells slit Katy's throat, and Krystal watched as the blood raced down Katy's neck. Sells pulled the knife back and sliced again, deepening the wound in the thirteen-year-old girl's neck. Then he lost control, and as Katy slid to the floor, he stabbed her multiple times. Then he turned and looked at Krystal, who had her hand at her throat. He told her to remove her hand, and she asked him not to hurt her, but that didn't matter to Tommy Sells. He slit her throat anyway.

As quietly as he had come in, he left the premises. Unaware that the other occupants were still alive, Krystal waited until she heard a car start and leave. She felt her way to the bedroom door and fled into the night.

~

About a quarter of a mile down the street, Herb Betz woke to his alarm clock going off at 4:45 that morning. He'd wanted to get up early so he could watch the world's first New Year's celebration, which would happen in New Zealand at five o'clock Texas time. When he heard the alarm, he changed his mind and went back to bed.

Outside, in her plaid boxers and a t-shirt, Krystal was stumbling down the road. There were no streetlights and no moon, and the road dipped and turned. She stepped onto the front porch of the nearest trailer, but then remembered that Terry Harris had had a dispute with this neighbor and ordered them not to go to this home.

So she turned and went further up the road to a white trailer with brown and green trim. It was the home of Herb and Marlene Betz. She rang the doorbell and waited. Herb glanced at the clock. It was two minutes before five in the morning. He pulled on his pants, wondering who was at his door. Krystal leaned on the doorbell again, and by the time Herb reached the door, the pounding of a fist echoed through his trailer.

Herb asked who was there, but Krystal wasn't able to speak because her voice box had been cut. Herb turned on the light and looked outside to see Krystal on his porch. She raised her chin and pointed at her bloodied throat, and Herb immediately called for his wife to call the police.

When the police arrived at the Harris home, they woke up Crystal Harris and her daughter when they entered. When asked if anyone else in the residence was hurt, Crystal had no idea what they were talking about. When she was asked if anyone was sleeping in the east side of the trailer, she told them that her daughter was back there with her friend.

When the officers reached Katy's room, they found her battered corpse. She was nude from the waist down. The cut in her neck was obscene, but they checked for a pulse anyway. They couldn't find one.

The family was removed from the trailer, and the investigation began.