Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: I Can't Believe I'm Still Alive

Episode Date: December 30, 2023

In 1992, 19-year-old Fabienne Witherspoon tries to help a man who was down on his luck when he attacked her in her own home. In an effort to stay alive, she wages a physical and psychological war against the man who tries to kill her, Tommy Lynn Sells.Sponsors:PDS Debt: Right now, PDS Debt is offering a free debt analysis. It only takes thirty seconds. Head over to PDSDebt.com/survived to get your free debt assessment today.Huggies: Get your baby’s butt into Huggies best fitting diaper! Huggies Little Movers. We got you, baby. 

This episode is brought to you by Huggies Little Movers. Get your baby's butt into Huggies' best-fitting diaper. Huggies Little Movers. We gotcha, baby. An A&E original podcast. This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault and violence. Listener discretion is advised. I didn't care what happened to my body anymore. I just wanted to live. I just wanted to get out alive. I did not want my life to end that day in that way.

In 1992, 19-year-old Fabian Witherspoon was living in Charleston, West Virginia. I was living with my fiancé. He was being sent to Alabama for boot camp for the Army. We were living with his mother at the time. And while my fiancé was going to be away at boot camp, she thought, well, wouldn't you like your own space? My boss is going to go away and she has a cat. Would you like to cat sit for her? And so I was a little nervous at first, but I did respect her offering me some privacy and that little bit of time alone. So I said yes. In the morning of May

13th, I had decided to go to the health department downtown to get a pregnancy test because I thought maybe I might, there might be a possibility that I was pregnant. So I didn't have a vehicle or a bike or a bicycle or anything, so I had to walk down over the little bridge down into downtown Charleston. So when I went to the health department, they did the pregnancy test, just urine test, and they said it was negative.

And we were hoping, but we weren't on any pressure to have a baby right away. But if it happened, that was okay. So I was on my way back. I wasn't really happy or sad. It was a beautiful day outside, sunny. And I was just taking in the view and walking back. I saw a man that had a sign that said, hungry will work for food.

The woman Fabian was cat sitting for had generously left her a ton of food, but it was mostly food Fabian didn't eat, and she didn't want it to go to waste. Well, I was actually walking past him because he did look a little scruffy, but I grew up on Air Force bases. I don't think I really had ever seen a homeless person or holding a sign up saying they were hungry. So I kind of called over to him because he was on the other side of the road, of the bridge, and I said, come here for a second. And he came over and I said, are you really hungry? And he said, oh yes, I am. And he pulled out a picture of his wallet of three children

and very small children, I'd say all under the age of five. And he said they were living under a bridge and they were having hard times. He didn't have any employment right now. And they were very hungry and need of food and money. So I said, well, I have a bunch of food that your kids would love. Let's walk back this way. And in my mind, I was thinking, I'm not going to bring him into my house,

but I could at least get that food out to him so he could give it to his kids. So on the way back, I said, let's stop at this local gas station here, and I'll even get you a newspaper that has classified ads in it so you could possibly see something in there that interests you for a job and so I did that I went in and paid for the newspaper and we came back out and we were walking and we were having casual conversation he told me his name I just kind of told him that I was kind of new to town and that I didn't tell him anything about my personal life or that my fiancé was not there. When they got to the house, Fabian had the man stay outside

while she went in to put the food in bags for him. So I brought out the first bag, and I asked him if he needed a drink. And he said, yes, that would be great. So I went back into the kitchen and went and got the Coca-Cola. And when I was bringing it back to him, he was opening kind of the porch door that led into the house. And that made me nervous. And he was standing right there. So I gave him the soda.

He opened it. He was starting to drink it. And I said, well, there's a bus that's coming. I remember the show Guiding Light was on on the TV. so I knew it was around three-ish, I believe. And so I was thinking, there's a bus going to come around at certain times. It was my excuse to get him kind of going and help him to have some way of transporting the food. And then he said something that really made me uncomfortable, and I thought, oh boy, I'm really going to have to get him out of here.

He had said, my wife is really in desperate need of underclothes. So of course that was a red flag to me, kind of creepy. But at the same time, I'm 19, I'm thinking, that is a legitimate thing. People would need something like socks or underwear or something. So I was very, very nervous. I was very concerned. I wanted to get him out of there. But I thought if I just run in my bedroom and go through my suitcase and grab out a couple of things, then I can bring him out to him and he could be on his way. And unfortunately while I had gone to the bedroom to do that, he had come in locked the doors and went into the kitchen I guess and got a paring knife and then came into the bedroom and I said I know I turn around and he was right behind me and just pointed the knife at me and said, do what I say and you won't get hurt. This is I Survived, the podcast where we talk to people

who've lived through the worst things imaginable and all the tragic, messy, and wonderful things that happen after a survival. I'm Caitlin VanMol. All kinds of crazy things went through my head. First of all, it was just unreal. I thought, you see this on TV. This can't be real. This is a dream. I'm scared for my life is how I felt mostly.

And at the same time, I remember looking across the bed and seeing a window. And knowing we were above the garage, I wasn't even thinking in my mind the height. But you even start thinking things like, could I jump out that window and have a better chance of surviving? If I stayed in here, what could happen? And your mind just starts racing and of course at first I just thought, I'm going to do what he says right now because I don't want to get hurt. But oh God, what does he want me to do? So I just, I started crying of course and said, please, please don't hurt me.

He told me to start undressing. I complied. I did what he said to do. And he was undressing himself as well. I was very embarrassed, fear and embarrassed. He led me to the bathroom right across the hall diagonally. And when we got in there, he basically told me the same thing just do what you're told and everything will be okay you won't get hurt and I was just more concerned about where the knife was I was really afraid that he was gonna

use the knife on me he had told me to get down on the ground and on the floor and it was between the the wall and the shower and then the toilet was behind me. And he did have me down on the floor, and he did rape me. And the whole time I was thinking, how am I gonna get out of this? Am I gonna die? I was more focused on trying to escape than I was what was actually going on.

Fabian quickly devised an escape plan using the double sliding doors of the shower. So I thought if I could get him in the shower, I could open one end of the sliding glass shower door, get in, and as he was getting in, I could quickly open the other one, get out, shut him in. I was just thinking of all kinds of ideas. So after the assault, the first assault, I said, well, let's get in the shower then. Because I started to sound like I was like, I'm going to comply more. Let's get in the shower. So I opened up the door and he was like, he even said, don't try any funny stuff. And I was thinking, I'm going to try everything I can. And as soon as I

got in the shower, I thought I've got to do this. I've got to do this quick. He got in right behind me and I did exactly what was in my mind. I slammed that shut. I started screaming help me, help, at the top of my lungs, please help me call the police help me and then i went through the back side and when i went to slam the door shut he caught it he got very upset and that's when he pushed me up against up over the toilet where i was facing the wall where my hands would be over the toilet and I remember looking down and there was a ceramic duck six seven inches high but I just was thinking you see the movies all the time we hit him over the head and they passed out and that'll help me get away I just remember taking the duck and picking it up and turning it around and just started hitting him over the head with

the duck until there was nothing left in my hand but the beak and he was still standing there. So he was really upset again. He pushed me down to the floor. He was more aggressive, more physical, just grabbing my arms and saying, why did you do that? And then I just started begging. I said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I messed up. I won't do anything again. I will do what you say. Just don't hurt me. And he actually trusted me enough that he placed the knife down on the countertop by the mirrors, which was closest to the door to get out.

And that's where all my focus was after that. So he did assault me again. And he even was talking, saying stuff like, well, I can come back later and come see you, like it was going to be a date or something. I could come back later and see you later. But that made me feel like he's believing me that I'm complying, that I'm going to listen,

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while keeping an eye on the knife that was still on the bathroom counter. I didn't want to hurt anybody. I just wanted to grab it so he couldn't have it to hurt me. And I just wanted to run down the hall and get out the front door. So when I saw my opportunity, I grabbed the knife and he was right up on me. And I just was not going to let him have that knife. I was doing everything I could to keep it away. I was taking his head and pushing his head up against the glass mirror. And I was even, I think I banged his head on the mirror a couple of times. And I just wanted to, I kept pushing him, edging him away from the door. So if I can get him over this way, I can get out the bathroom door and run down that hall.

So I remember just keeping the knife away and finally slammed his head really hard into the side cabinet. And then I was able to open the bathroom door and I started running down the hallway. And I just saw the door and that's all I wanted. And I had this knife in my hand right here. And I got, I thought I was gonna get there, and then before I knew it, he had me just by, grabbed me just by the back of my hair, and pulled me back, and there was a front bedroom,

and he threw me into that bedroom, and I just went flying. No matter what it took, I even remember thinking to myself, if you die in the process, you are not going to give up. You are going to fight. You are going to scream and fight your way out of this because he is not going to do this to you. You're not dying today.

He's mad. He's trying to come for the knife to get the knife. But all of a sudden I started realizing my left hand wasn't working. I'm trying to bend my fingers. I didn't understand why. And then I'm trying to struggle with the knife and keep doing this and we're on the bed and we're going back and forth. And then I had looked at my hand and there was just blood everywhere. I didn't realize that I had, when I flew back over the bed, I had come across my own hand with the knife falling back, and it had caused an arterial cut on my hand. I didn't feel any pain. I was just like, why is my hand not working?

In the struggle, Fabian and her attacker fell off the side of the bed. He managed to grab her arm and make her release the knife. He was now back in complete control. And then I remember laying back on the floor, and he had taken, crawled up over top of me and taken the knife, and I thought, this is it. He's going to slip my throat. I'm going to die. And I just thought, all of a sudden, I just thought, I'm going to die. And I just thought all of a sudden, I just thought,

I'm going to tell him I'm pregnant. I just went to the health department. I had a pregnancy test. It was negative, but I'm going to tell him I'm pregnant. Maybe he will feel sympathy for me. Maybe he will, I'll seem more humanistic and he won't kill me. And so I lied and I said, I'm pregnant. Please don't kill me, I'm pregnant, I just found out. And then I also thought, tell him your husband is coming home anytime and he'll be here anytime. I haven't even told him yet, please don't do that.

And he did stop pressing the knife against my throat. And then he quickly just flipped me over to where I was on my stomach and he took the quilt off the bed and threw it over me and he was pushing down and pushing down and I know I was screaming everything but I was terrified I was gonna start feeling him stabbing me in my back or something he wound up walking over to something in the other on the side of the room and coming back and and tying my hands and my legs together behind my back while I was on my stomach and I heard him walking away.

And I listened for the footsteps and I thought, what is he doing? Where is he going? You know, I'm just terrified of what he could possibly be thinking of or what he's going to do, and I know he's mad, and I messed up, I made him mad, and I heard a speak come right up to my head. And then the next thing I know, I just, something came down on my head.

Fabian didn't know this at the time because she was covered by the blanket, but he had gone to the other room and gotten a piano stool. He was using that to beat her in the head. I could feel warmth, wet and warmth, coming down over my head and my face, and I was like, that's my blood. That has to be my blood. And then I heard him start to walk away. And as he was walking away, I heard him say, I can't believe I'm still alive.

And I was thinking, you can't believe you're still alive. What is he talking about? Fabian didn't realize that in the struggle for the knife, she had stabbed her attacker several times. I'm just listening and listening, and he opened the front door, heard the front door open, heard a close. What I was thinking to myself in my mind was give him five minutes to get out far enough away, and I'm going to get up, and I'm going to get on the phone, and I'm going to call 911.

But Fabian does not remember calling anyone. The next thing I knew, I came to being walked down those concrete stairs naked, covered in blood, with a sheet wrapped around me, being put into the ambulance, and a detective and another police officer getting into the ambulance and saying, ma'am, what happened? What happened? And I started telling the story, and they said, do you know who hurt you?

And I said, he told me his name. He told me his name was Tommy Sells. And I saw them look at each other, and they said, we know who you're talking about. We know exactly who you're talking about. Police had recently stopped Tommy Sells for panhandling and gotten his information. Since he had told Fabian his real name, police were able to track him down very quickly. I remember I was in the hospital still when I found out from Detective Westfall that they

had pretty much gotten him about 30, 45 minutes after our encounter I believe. They told me that he was in ICU and that if they hadn't found him for maybe another 30 minutes or so he would have bled out, he would have died from his injuries. I do not remember stabbing him. I did not know I had stabbed him at all. I believe they said 23 times. And I was devastated. I was taken back by that.

And it might seem odd, but I was in the pit of my stomach, upset that I actually had it in me to hurt somebody like that. It bothered me a lot for a long time because it almost puts you in the same category as them. He was there to hurt me or he was there to stab me. And my only purpose for grabbing the knife was not to hurt him, was just to keep it from him and get away. I'm not that person. I'm not like him. Of course, defending yourself is very different

than entering someone's home without permission, raping them, and causing them severe injury. She may have almost killed him, but from her own knife wounds and head injury, Fabian was in for a long recovery herself. My injuries were an arterial cut to the palm of my left hand. They actually had a plastic surgeon come in and repair that for me. I never felt any pain during the whole entire incident.

No pain until the plastic surgeon came in to repair my hand, and he injected my hand with Novocaine and I just started screaming and crying in pain. It hurt so, so bad and I remember that we were in the bay in the ER and I remember there was a little boy next to me and he was upset and kind of crying and whining a little bit to his mom and I kept thinking the whole time I've got to stop crying. I've got to stop crying because this poor child is gonna think well that lady can't even hold it together She can't stop crying, but it was hurting so bad. They repaired that and I think I got a stitch or two on my neck from where he'd press the knife in here. But I think the worst thing for me for injuries was when I found out it was a piano stool

that had been the edge of it brought down over the whole entire side of my head. And they had to shave my head from like a strip from the front all the way around to the back and stitched my head. And I just remember that's when I felt the most tearful and the most sad and hideous. And like I was Frankenstein and it looked horrible. And you already feel terrible what happened. You're already starting to judge yourself that you made a bad decision,

that you tried to help somebody, and you feel like you were naive, and you made a stupid choice. I thought you looked like a Frankenstein with all these stitches across your head, and it's shamed, and just felt humiliated and ugly and defeated. Yes, they did do a rape kit,

and they had a rape counselor come in at the same time. And I do remember, I didn't really wanna talk to her. I didn't really want to go into detail or say anything that happened. I didn't feel comfortable talking to her. I appreciated her wanting to be there and wanting to assist me, but I didn't feel like I wanted help. After Fabian learned of her attacker's arrest, she didn't have to be afraid of him still being out there.

But that only made her turn inward. There's so many things that go through your head when you know he's in custody. He's not going to hurt you anymore. Now instead of worrying about him, you start reflecting on yourself. I was very relieved when I found out that he was arrested. I felt like I could breathe a little bit better. I knew he was in jail. I knew he couldn't hurt me. So the biggest thing at that time was just more constantly that just repeating itself in his head and

what I could have done differently. If I could have jumped out that window, maybe that would have been better than what I remember. Or why were you so stupid? Why didn't you just keep walking? She felt a lot of blame for what happened, though absolutely nothing about her attack was her fault. But she was determined to testify, and her first opportunity was at a preliminary hearing. I was going to testify no matter what. I didn't even think about not doing it.

I just thought that was just part of the plan. I just knew that that was my job, to go in and tell my story and make sure some justice was done. I was very nervous when it came to testifying against him in court. First of all, I was pregnant with my first child. I was quite pregnant, about six or seven months. I had traveled from Baltimore, Maryland, down to Charleston, West Virginia, to a place I didn't want to revisit again. So I was extremely nervous.

I'd never been in a situation like that before where I would have to tell a story in front of a whole bunch of people and everybody's eyes are on you and you're afraid what you will remember and what they're going to ask you and you might not remember. And you don't want to stumble on your words. You want to be precise. But at the same time, he's sitting over there in the corner. You can see him in the corner of your eye. And you don't want to look at him. And then your husband's there and you know he's listening.

And that makes it difficult too because you don't want to say those things in front of someone you love, not just because you don't want them to hear what horrible things happened to you, but at the same time, still your dignity, things you'd rather not have them know, or would be easier said if they weren't in the room. But you feel like, I feel like I had to have tunnel vision and kind of not really focus on looking at anyone while I was telling my story, just so that I didn't see the way people were looking at me or reacting to me. And I just wanted to tell what happened and hurry up and get it over with and go back home. After the preliminary hearing and Fabian's testimony, a plea deal was reached that would give Tommy Sells two to ten years in prison.

When I found out that Tommy Lynn Sells was going to be sentenced to two to ten years, I, in my mind, I thought for sure or had a good feeling that he would serve the max, the 10 years. I had no idea he would only serve five or less. Sells served only five years for attacking Fabian and got out of prison in May of 1997. I was not alerted of anything to do with when he was let out of jail or prison. I did not know. They never told me.

I believe Tommy Lincels, from what I went through with him, was capable of doing a lot more to me. I think he wasn't expecting someone to fight back. At least it didn't seem that way. When I did, he did get more aggressive. I saw in his eyes the aggression, the mean looks, kind of what he wanted to do to me. I think he wanted to do worse.

I do believe he left me for dead. The piano stool crashing that down over my head, I believe he thought that she's gone. She feared he would do worse to someone else, and unfortunately, she was right. Very early in the morning, on December 31st, 1999, 13-year-old Katie Harris and her friend, 11-year-old Crystal Searles, were sleeping in Katie's room.

Cells broke in through the bedroom window. He killed Katie and cut Crystal's throat, leaving her for dead. But Crystal survived, and thinking Sells had killed everyone in the house, she ran to a neighbor's house to get help. Sells had only been in Katie's room, so the rest of the family was completely unaware of what happened.

Crystal worked with a sketch artist, and Katie's family recognized the man from church. It was Tommy Sells. Sells was arrested and confessed to murdering Katie and attempting to murder Crystal, but he had even more to reveal. Sells also confessed to the 1987 murders of Keith and Elaine Dardeen and their three-year-old son, Peter. Elaine was pregnant and went into labor during the attack. Sells murdered the infant as well.

He was also connected to the murders of 27-year-old Suzanne Kors, 21-year-old Stephanie Stroh, 21-year-old Stephanie Stroh, 13-year-old Stephanie Mahaney, Debbie Harris and her 8-year-old daughter Amber, and 13-year-old Bobby Lynn Wilford. Sells was found guilty of killing Katie Harris and attempting to kill Crystal Searles.

The only other murder for which he was tried was the 1999 murder of 9-year-old Mary B. Perez. Sells was convicted and sentenced to death. Years later, on April 3, 2014, Tommy Lynn Sells was executed in Texas. The day he was executed, I was at home. I chose to be alone because I didn't know how I would react. But I also didn't think it was going to happen since his case was apparently one of the first cases of them using the synthetic drug to put him to sleep.

So I kind of figured it would be stayed, the execution would be stayed and wouldn't happen. So they actually, the way I found out that it happened was I wasn't even watching the news or TV. A nursing instructor from my past had actually text me and said, I heard about what just happened. I was thinking about you. I know, and your story, I hope you're doing okay. And that's when I knew it must have happened. I was thinking about you. I know it and your story. I hope you're doing okay."

And that's when I knew it must have happened. So then I turned on the news and found out that it had happened. And I actually didn't have any emotion at all. 30 years later, Fabian has learned a lot from her attack. I learned that I'm stronger than I think, that I'm capable of more than I think, that I can get through just about anything because it's been a long haul since then. I just learned that I'm a lot more than I ever thought I was

and I have a lot more confidence about myself and stop being ashamed of things and start feeling a little bit more proud and that you can use these experiences for good. You can use these experiences to tell other people maybe they'll learn something. Maybe they won't make the same choices you did, or maybe if they're ever in that predicament, they may decide they want to fight back too. Today, Fabian is a nurse practitioner living in Illinois.

I wear many hats. I work as a nurse practitioner. I work still as an RN in Illinois. I also teach an online course through the local community college. I do home health care privately and I do some telemedicine as well. So I do a lot of different things. Try to keep myself busy, a little bit here, a little bit there. Nothing's too long, nothing's ever boring. And then I have my three wonderful children. They're all grown now, 21, 22, and 27.

I have two grandbabies, and one was just born not that long ago, just a couple months old, a little boy. And then I have a darling granddaughter, and she's six, and they're beautiful. I do believe I'm a survivor. Do I have survivor's guilt? Do I sometimes feel silly for what happened or that it could have been prevented? Yes, but at least I know I had it in me to fight back, to stand up for myself, and that that is who I am. Because I would never have told you before that I would have been like, oh, just like, I would just pass out. But apparently that's not

the case. And sometimes you don't find that about yourself until you're actually in the situation. But I definitely did learn that about myself. To speak to someone at the Rape Abuse Incest National Network, call 1-800-656-HOPE or 1-800-656-4673. You can also live chat with someone at RAINN.org. That's R-A-I-N-N dot O-R-G. I Survived is hosted and produced by Caitlin VanMol and Law and Crime Network. Audio editing by Brad Mabee. For A&E, our senior producer is John Thrasher, and our supervising producer is McKamey Lynn. Our executive producers are Jesse Katz, Sean Gottlieb, and Shelley Tatro. This podcast is based on A&E's Emmy-winning TV series, I Survived. For more I Survived, visit AETV.com.

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