48 Hours - Krystal's Courage

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

10-year-old Krystal Surles was attacked on December 30, 1999, with her friend Kaylene Harris at her Del Rio, Texas home. A knife-wielding intruder slashed both girls’ throats and Kaylene died. Krystal not only survived the attack but was able to help a police sketch artist draw an image that led to the arrest of her attacker, Tommy Lynn Sells. After his arrest Sells confessed to the crime and revealed that he had been traveling across the country killing men, women, and children for twenty years and had never in the past left a witness alive. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 9/4/2010. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial, and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. A bizarre and maddening tale involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. A lack of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. December 1999, I was in first grade. My older sister Crystal and I were staying with friends in Del Rio, Texas, waiting for

my family in Kansas to move there with us. I was seven and my older sister Crystal was 10 and we were just moving down to Del Rio, Texas to start a new life with our family. I remember my sisters being kind of bossy and the age difference was big and we just didn't get along very well. We stayed at the Harris family's house and they had a big family.

The oldest son, Sean, then Justin, Lori, and Katie. And they lived kind of out in the desert. Like, there wasn't a lot of people close to them. It was off in the middle of nowhere. I was sleeping directly across the hallway from the room Crystal and Katie were sleeping in. I was going to sleep on the floor next to the bed, but they didn't want me in there, and I was made to leave. When I couldn't sleep in the room, I was so mad. And I remember I just laid in bed for like two hours, just fuming.

I was just so mad. I wanted to be in that room. I woke up to the sun coming through the window and I sat up and I saw a lady standing in my room that I didn't know and she just handed me a pair of shorts and a purple tank top and said put this on we gotta go directly maybe five steps away from my door was just a stream of blood it looked like somebody was stumbling was holding on to things there was blood on the wall, and just, it was everywhere. And then there was more outside. I just remember seeing it all the way down the front steps

and just off into the street. I knew somebody was hurt. I saw the blood. I could see everybody crying. Everybody was frantic. I just wanted to know what was going on. On December 31, 1999, I had a phone call at close to 6 o'clock in the morning as I was preparing to move from Kansas to Texas. It was a Val Verde emergency room asking me for my permission to life-flight Crystal.

She had been attacked. And I said, absolutely, life-flight or where? And they said, San Antonio. I didn't know anything other than Crystal had had her throat cut. If I looked her in her eyes I would know if she was gonna make it. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park.

They have to alert the military and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X.

In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad free right now. I first received the phone call regarding this attack and homicide at 5.30 a.m. on December 31st. When I walked into the crime scene, which was identified as the Harris residence, there was a bedroom, which I learned two small girls were sleeping in. On the floor was a deceased young girl. The crime scene was extremely bloody. The murder victim was identified as 13 year old Kayleen Harris who normally went by Katie. Katie Harris was a very popular 13 year old beautiful young girl who had everything in the world going for her. A young girl who fought very bravely for her life. And we knew a 10-year-old girl had survived Crystal Searles.

At that point in time, we didn't know to the extent of her injuries. And that was our only hope as far as any surviving witness. When I got in her room, I saw this little girl with all of these tubes, and one of the machines was breathing for her. She looked like this baby in this humongous bed. And I looked her in her eyes and I said, Are you okay, Angel? Mommy's here. I knew that a guy had slit her windpipe completely and nicked her vocal cords. And then she kept asking me is

Katie okay is Katie okay and I couldn't tell her I couldn't tell her anything it hurt and all but I think just that Katie she helped me through everything. Her soul came up and like stayed with me. As soon as I woke up from surgery, I was ready to talk. And my mom was like, you know, Crystal, we have to wait till the police get there, the detectives, and things like that. When we initially walked into the room, we told Crystal who we were, and at that point in time, I assured Crystal that we are going to arrest the person or persons who did this to her.

And at that point in time, I was hoping I could back that up. I felt like it was her story, and when she was ready and comfortable, she would tell me what she wanted to tell me about it. We went to bed kind of late but I remember I woke up to like a scream. We went to bed kind of late, but I remember I woke up to like a scream. I was on the top bunk of the bed, and I just popped my head up a little bit, and I was looking around. I never sat up fully or anything, but the light was on so I could see. I could see at the end of the bed this scary guy. He had scruffy hair, long, dark, curly hair, and a big, scary, long, bushy beard that just

took over his whole face, and then his eyes were just dark and mean. But then I saw that Katie had blood on her and that he had a knife in his hand. He had a knife across her throat and his hand on her mouth and he just cut her throat. She fell to the ground. He still didn't notice I was in the room and he was getting ready to leave. He opened the door, almost had the light off, looked one last time and he saw me looking at him.

I was trying to scoot to the right side of the bed because he was on the left. He just reached over and cut my throat like this. And then I just remember laying there and the light turning off and I heard the door shut. I was laying there thinking, has he been to the other rooms? Does he know that the whole family's here? You know, is everybody hurt? Are they all dead?

And so I got on my hands and knees and I was crawling across the floor in the bedroom and I came across Katie on the floor. She was kind of making a gasping noise, or maybe she was choking. But then I was trying to comfort her. I laid next to her, rubbing her back, and that's when I realized I couldn't talk because all I wanted to say was,

everything's going to be okay, everything's going to be okay, but I couldn't. And then, I mean, as soon as she stopped making those noises, I had this feeling, you know? Get out of here. Get up. Come on. Go. Don't lay here. Go. It was dark outside, I was in my pajamas, no shoes, nothing, and I just decided, I saw a light in the distance, I was like, that's my goal, that's where I need to be.

I just got on the road and walked really slow to that light. Really, all I could think about was, just get to this house, just get to this house, just get to this house. And I just banged on their door, and I hear a gentleman, he's like, who's there, who's there, you know? And I can't talk, so I'm just banging as hard as I can on the door,

and then he opens the door. I have a little girl just rang my doorbell. She's covered in blood. I'm lucky to not be in that room, and I'm lucky to have an amazing sister that could handle being in that room. I wouldn't have made it like Crystal did. We had a forensic artist that was stationed in Midland, Texas at the time. She was contacted and brought to University Hospital.

I couldn't get the picture out of my head. And it amazes me how good that they sketched it compared to how we really looked at the time, because it was so perfect. We entered Crystal's room, woke her up, and I explained to Crystal, I told Crystal, we have a photo lineup. And if you see the man that was in that residence that did this to y'all, please put your finger on him. You could see her eyes moving from one individual photograph to the next. And then you could see that she came back and focused in on one photograph.

And I was standing beside her when she did this, and Crystal took her right index finger and put in on one photograph and I was standing beside her when she did this and Crystal took her right index finger and put it on the photograph of Tommy Lynn Sales, at that point in time, became our number one suspect. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror.

Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're gonna talk to the people who were there, and we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how

this was created. Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free with a 48 hours plus subscription on apple podcasts in the pacific ocean halfway between peru and new zealand lies a tiny volcanic island it's a little known british territory called pit can and it harbored a deep dark scandal there wouldn't be a girl on pitn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us.

I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Once we received a positive identification from Crystal, we turned around and headed back toward Del Rio, which is a two and a half hour drive from San Antonio. The Val Verde County Sheriff's Office had handled Tommy Lynn Sells before on some accusations that were made there in Del Rio against him. When we got to Tommy Lynn's residence, it was approximately 530 in the morning. We knocked on the door. It was opened. We went right on in and were met near the front doorway by Tommy Lynn's cells. His comment was, I'm glad I finally got caught. I was tired of doing this.

And then we told him he was under arrest for murder. The murder weapon was an 11-inch butcher knife. It had been sharpened throughout the years so many times that it was such a thin blade, and it was recovered beyond his residence where he told us he had discarded the knife. I remember the phone ringing in the room and me answering it and them telling me that they had caught Tommy Lynn Sells.

And I remember turning to Crystal and telling her, and she was like, yeah. But at that point, it wasn't about him. It was about Crystal. We would take walks in the morning and afternoon, and Crystal was walking along with her IV and stopped to get a drink of water. And the water fountain, of course,

they're kind of shiny and that's the first time that she saw her neck was in the water fountain. And so then she, you know, I knew she wanted to get to a mirror. She cried for a little bit, but she knew that it would get better. I think it brought back some of what she was going through. She was like, Crystal, it happened. There's nothing we can do now. But look, you're here, you know, and he's caught. And then, and think, if this would have never happened, he would still be out there. Who would he be hurting right now?

I'm just lucky. People, you know, say I'm brave and everything. No, I'm just lucky. Once Tommy Lynn Sales was taken to the Valverde County Sheriff's Office, he was very willing to cooperate with us. Confessions were obtained from him as well as his agreement to do a walkthrough

of the crime scene. You're doing this walkthrough of your own free will? Oh, yes. I thought this to be very odd. Here this guy is under arrest for murder, an attempted murder, and his wanting to cooperate with us to basically nail the nail in his coffin. I walked over here. Lo and behold, the window was left open that night. He was willing to cooperate with us to basically nail the nail in his coffin.

I walked over here and walked up. Lo and behold, the window was left open that night, which allowed access a lot easier. Then I came over here, and there's a little girl sleeping here. And I stood here for a minute, and then I looked in here, and there's two girls sleeping in here. He explained where the girls were lying. He explained he walked over to the bottom bunk where Katie was lying. I cut her bra and I cut the side of her, whatever she was wearing.

I stabbed her here and then she like jumped back and then I, you know. I walked over here and I went like this. We felt like the motive in this murder and attack on Crystal was sexual assault. We did find out that Sells was associated and friends with the Harris family. And we felt like he specifically targeted Katie. It's frightening that Sells had also made a comment that he actually thought about killing the six people that were in the trailer. One of the things that the Rangers offered for me to kind of get a better idea of what

Crystal had gone through to hopefully help her more in the recovery is to get to go through the crime scene and see with my own eyes what actually had happened. When I saw the crime scene I literally felt like my legs were going to fall out from underneath me. The blood, there was so much blood everywhere. And it was all crystals except for that one area where Kate was, where she laid and died. The little hand prints of my daughters, I just can't even describe the helpless feeling that I felt. But I needed to go through that so I knew her every step so that I could better be there for her in the long run. Following Tommy's arrest and on the way to jail,

he was pretty quiet. And what kind of took us back more than anything was his comment, I guess you want to know about the other murders. I asked the Rangers if I could sit in on an interrogation, not knowing what their answer would be. But I'm a smart enough journalist to know that in all the years I've worked in the news business, I never sat in on interrogation. And I guess it's a reporter's instinct to ask for things that they normally can't have.

In all my years of investigations, I've never allowed journalists in the same room with suspects. But we knew at this point in that that we could use assistance from getting his story out nationwide in hopes of finding other victims who possibly could could have survived i sat in an interrogation room for hours listening to tommy lindsell's go from state to state to state talking about the people he killed, the men he killed, the women he killed, the children he killed.

This is two females, and it happened in 91, close to Cabin Creek. That's when I realized we were dealing with a serial killer, a cold-blooded serial killer. My daddy told me a long time ago, that man tells no tale. I remember that to this day. We spent the next nine months with Sells

on additional homicides that he claimed to have committed. In the months and months that we spent with Sells, we have confirmed that he has committed 22 total murders. You know, you cover a story like this, I have to tell you, if you have children, you place your children in their situation. They were helpless, they were sleeping, they were totally vulnerable, and you've got this deranged killer climbing through the window with a knife. That knife was the ugliest looking knife I've ever seen in my life. I don't think it gets any scarier than that. People were happy to know that this man was no longer going to be in society.

This man was no longer going to be able to kill men, women, and children again. Going back to Kansas was a relief, but at the same time I knew that I had to eventually go back to Texas and testify in front of him. But, you know, I was ready. I felt ready to do it. I wanted to. you know, I was ready. I felt ready to do it. I wanted to. yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you

know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. The trial took place nine months after the murder, and the headline here was that 11-year-old Crystal Searles was going to be the key witness, the star witness for the prosecution. We knew that it was going to be explosive. We knew that it was going to be emotional, particularly for Crystal Searles,

because she had never seen Tommy Lynn Sells since the night that he came to that house and slashed her throat. And she didn't know how she was going to react. Several days prior to the trial, Crystal was introduced to my two young daughters simply because I thought it might be a way for Crystal to put her mind at ease and take her away from what she was going to have to go through. and take her away from what she was going to have to go through. And she stayed with us at our residence. And what made things even harder was that she would wake up during the middle of the night and sit up in bed screaming, knowing that she was having nightmares about it.

And I walked over here, and I cut this one. Tommy's defense attorney, he knew that he had a killer. He was representing a killer. And his only strategy was to try to keep Tommy Lentzels off a death row. I felt fine to know that I had to eventually see him because I felt like he couldn't conquer me. You know, he had his chance, and he obviously, you know, didn't do what he wanted, and now look at him.

He was going to be in that trial room because of me, and I liked feeling that power. because of me and I liked feeling that power. I just had such a mindset that this is what I wanted to do and this is what I had to do. I put my my thoughts towards Katie like this is for Katie. This, she deserves this. The day I had to testify I, you know, I woke up I can do this I can do this. The day I had to testify, I, you know, I woke up, I can do this, I can do this. I said, Mom, don't cry. Please don't cry.

If I see you in the crowd bawling, you're going to distract me. You know, you're going to make me upset. Please don't. And then when they called me down, I was like, you're going to make me upset. Please don't. And then when they called me down, I was like, I'm ready, I'm ready. They, you know, said, do you want to walk by him? You could either walk by him or just walk through this door and get on the stand. And I said, I want to walk by him.

I'm not scared of him. To see her walk into that courtroom with her chest out as she took the witness stand, she was there for business. And, uh... She did it. Because his hand was over her mouth. Whose hand was over her mouth? His hand. But when I got up there and then had to talk, that's when my nerves came.

I had to point him out and look at him and say, that guy. The man with the blue jacket and the glasses? Yes. That's whenever I realized, that guy is right there. Now, Crystal, if you need for me to stop, at some point in time, I'll stop. I tried not to focus any attention on him, though, after I just had to point him out.

He was making me nervous. He was shaking his leg and wouldn't even look up at me or anything. What was the defendant doing and what was Katie doing? Katie was... Okay. He was... It was just really overwhelming at that point. My emotions took over, and I couldn't answer any more questions.

When I seen Crystal break down on that stand, I wanted to run up there so bad and hug her and tell her it's going to be okay. But I had made that promise to her the night before that I would not break down. And it was the hardest thing I'd ever done in my entire life. So they had to do a recess for 15 minutes and pull me aside. They just pulled me to the back room. My mom ran back there. My attorney and everybody was just back there saying, Crystal, you're almost done. You can do it, you can do it. I wiped my tears and I went right back out there and I was on it. I did it.

I had to walk in front of the jury and point out my scar and I had to lay on this table and showed how I popped my head up. Is this how you were lying down? Like this. Out of this whole experience with sales, that was probably the most difficult to sit here, sit there and have to listen to. Uh, because you realize just exactly what she had to go through. What she had to do to try and survive.

Can you tell us why you had your hands up close to your neck? Because I saw what he did to Katie, and I was scared he was going to do it to me. I think Garcia, the defense attorney, was taken with Crystal Searles after Crystal testified. He was smart enough not to try to cross-examine her in a vigorous fashion. You're a brave young woman.

Thank you. No more questions. For him to just say, I don't have any questions for you. I was like, really? You know, okay. Really? You know, you don't want to ask anything? Even his attorney just made me feel good about the whole situation.

Like, even though he had to be there to defend him, that he was still on my side. As soon as I stepped off the stand, I felt so good and relieved, very relieved. Just pressure off my shoulders. I got through this. I'm fine, you know. And we're going to find out what's going to happen to him soon. The jurors went out to deliberate. It was, I don't know, it was kind of an eerie feeling for a lot of people who were close to this trial because no one thought it would be long, but no one thought it would be as short as it was either when they came back with the verdict.

It was an hour and ten minutes. They came back. The jury walked into that courtroom and announced to the court that they had found Tommy Lynn Sells guilty. There was silence in the courtroom, and then there was relief. When the verdict came in, after the verdict came in, the only question was whether Tommy Lynn Sells would receive life in prison or whether Tommy Lynn Sells would be put to death. We didn't know it at the time, and even up to and even after the trial. We didn't know that Crystal was keeping a lot inside.

She had a secret, and we wouldn't find out until much later what it was. There's not a doubt in my mind that Crystal has lost a lot, if not most, of her childhood. She really has been a survivor her whole entire life, with more than just Tommy Lynn's house. I don't think that this tragedy would have turned out the way it did unless she was brought up the way she was. Because it made her think, it made her strong, and when the tragedy happened, she knew what to do. Before it all really happened, Pam and I, we started using drugs.

Pam and I, we started using drugs. Before we knew it, we were on a huge roller coaster ride. The drugs just kind of took over. We were getting in little bits of trouble here and there with the law. We were really fighting really bad. I wanted a family. I wanted a normal life. I didn't want the drugs and everything that comes with that lifestyle. So I filed for divorce. She just up and moved away. She got cleaned up. In the meantime, I had the girls. Some tough times there. Crystal was amazing. From age 6, 7, she was a mom. She took care of everybody.

My dad would sleep for days at times, and I had to take care of my little sisters. Me being in second grade, they're younger than me, they were babies. Changing my sisters' diapers or feeding them, getting them to bed, and getting myself up for school in the morning. I was kind of, I say it as a joke, but it's true. I was the stinky kid in class. I mean, I was late to school every day. I didn't really ever have time to take a shower.

I never wore matching clothes. I walked to school. You never saw my parents or my sisters or anything. I was just the random girl at school. Way before the attack, I just remember Crystal taking care of me. She was there always. She was the backbone in our family for a really long time. She was the strong one and she was little. Crystal took on the mother, the father, the everything role. She did everything for our family.

She always did everything. She cleaned the house and cooked for us, and she always cared about us more than she cared about herself. When she got clean, my mom decided to take us girls with her, and she came and picked us up from my dad. And at that point, my dad was still choosing to do the things that he was doing before. I couldn't quit using. I couldn't quit dealing.

I became mad at my dad, like, you're choosing this over us? This doesn't make any sense, you know? Do you not love us? I remember for a couple weeks just listening to the other kids outside that they played with. They were coming over asking for them. I had to tell them they were gone. We were gone for quite some time and then in that time frame he got caught for what he was doing. When my dad went to prison she was mad at him for a really long time and she stopped taking his calls and she was just angry because she felt, why can't you be here, Dad?

Why can't you help me? And he couldn't and it made her mad. Whenever the attack happened and I knew that my dad couldn't come, it devastated me. I wanted him to be there just like my mom was, but I knew that he couldn't be. Eventually as years went on, people were curious, like, oh yeah, you know, where was your dad? You know, stepping back out of the situation, then it's kind of like, well, he wasn't there.

I was in Ada County Jail. I'd been there about three months. I got a visit at 10 a.m., which is not visiting time. I remember walking down the hall, and at the end of the hall, I could see my mom and my sister. I sat down, and my mom proceeds to tell me that Crystal had been attacked. I just can't express the emotions. They just started pouring out. It's probably a good thing I was locked up though. I would have killed that son of a bitch. Tommy Lynn Sells was convicted of capital murder. And then the state went into phase two of this capital murder trial.

Well, we're shooting for the death penalty, you know. That's what we want for him to get. And then we're like, is that really what we want? You know, we're not the type of people to ever wish death upon anybody. The judge gave the case to the jury. The jury went out and deliberated, and within a few hours, they came back in, and they decided to give Tommy Lynn Sells the death penalty. and they decided to give Tommy Lynn Sells the death penalty.

He has done his fair share where he deserves it, but it took me a long time to realize that. I've never been the type of person to feel good about something so bad. You know, it was weird. It was very awkward. Certainly the jury wasn't aware of the gruesome details and all the other homicides that Sells has committed. And it's almost as if you feel like when he received that death penalty, he's getting that death penalty for all the other homicides he's committed. I thought he received exactly what he deserved.

I mean, Sells is an animal inside a human body. It was time for us to get back to everything as normal as possible. We had lost that, but that's what we were fighting to get back. I believed in Crystal from the beginning. I knew she went through her phases. I knew she was sad, but I knew her, and I knew she would come through it. There was no doubt in my mind, there was no doubt in my parents' minds,

Crystal was gonna come through this because that's who Crystal was. My mom and my two younger sisters and me all slept in the same bed, probably for like two years, and I slept not very good. They would be sleeping and it would be like five in the morning and I'm still awake just with my eyes open.

I'm not necessarily scared, but I'm thinking, if somebody comes in this window, I'm gonna go out this window. If somebody comes in this door, I'm gonna go out this way. I just had like a game plan. And another weird thing was that I, whenever my family was sleeping, I would fill them. Just make sure that they were alive, just breathing.

When the incident happened with Cressidol, it was like a slap in the face. That was the door that opened up that just said, it just woke me up, said, do you love your kids or not? He was in jail for three years. I honestly started forgiving him whenever he got out. He was on the right path and I was very proud of him. He came, you know, to my graduation. Crystal Floyd Searles. Thank you. Our relationship today is kind of a struggle.

She's 20 now. I feel like she's still a kid. And since I was locked up for a while, you know, I haven't been there to be a dad. So now I think I'm overdoing it. I need to back off a little bit. But we're doing better. Every day we do better.

He's making up for it. He is. Slowly but surely, everything's coming together. And I'm just lucky that I have this second opportunity, or we both do, to become father and daughter again. She's proud of herself, but she just finds it hard to be happy about what she's done when Katie's dead. I mean, no matter if she puts this man away, no matter if he's put to death, no matter what anything,

Katie's still dead, and Crystal has done everything she can, but she can't change that. Of course I think about Katie. I think about, you know, if she was here, would we still be friends? What would she be doing? Maybe what would we be doing? But in the same sense, I try not to think about it too much. It would make things too hard. I think about this case basically ten years after the fact

simply because I drive by this crime scene almost daily. I have to pass by it going to my ranch. There's not one time probably that I don't look over there and look at that window that cells climb through. It's such a beautiful thing to see her with her sisters. Even today, she still is like a mother to them. After take it back, I take it back. After the attack, we became way closer.

It makes you realize what you have and how fast you can lose it. And I will never, ever say bye to my sister Mad. I will never say goodnight to her Mad. And I'll never, ever be mad at her again. Keep on laughing. her kid. Keep on laughing! I don't ever think about Tommy Lynn Sells. I don't ever, ever

give him the time of day. He's... he's dead to me. It just... It makes me really thankful. That's what he did. He didn't ever bring me down at all. And these are happy tears. I'm just glad to be here.

Once you cover a story like this, it becomes a part of you. The people become a part of you. Virtually everybody says you're a hero. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think about that? I don't know. I don't think I'm a hero exactly. I think I'm just really, really lucky. I've never met a youngster that brave before in my life.

I know a lot of adults who wouldn't be able to deal with that. Hi. How are you? How are you? I'm doing great. It's so good to see you again. Good to see you too.

I could consider him part of my family, part of that tight-knit group, I guess you could say. So what about, you got a boyfriend? Yeah? They said to me that I helped them through this. No, they helped me get through it because they were so strong together. In 2014, Tommy Lincels was executed by lethal injection. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.