Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Cross-Country Killer” Tommy Lynn Sells Pt. 2

Episode Date: June 3, 2021

By 1999, Sells had murdered men, women and children in multiple states, and showed no signs of slowing down. He might never have been stopped, had he not attacked a little girl who survived to identify him, and finally put an end to his decades-long murder spree. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, molestation, rape, and assault. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. The early morning hours of December 31, 1999, in Del Rio, Texas, 10-year-old Crystal Searles and her friend, 13-year-old Katie Harris, were in a bunk bed, whispering about the new millennium. As the clock ticked effort forward, they drifted to, to sleep. Crystal on the top bunk and Katie on the bottom. While they dreamed of the new year,

a nightmarish figure slinked into the room. The man was broad, with long hair and a look of pure malice in his eyes. It was Tommy Lynn Sells, the cross-country killer. Tommy slipped onto the bottom bunk next to Katie. She woke up, but before she could speak, Tommy pressed one large, calloused palm over her mouth. In his other hand, Tommy held a 12-inch boning knife, which he used to slice off Katie's clothing. That's when she screamed for help, waking her friend on the top bunk.

While Tommy was distracted, Katie wriggled out of his grasp. She tried to flee, but Tommy caught the 13-year-old, slid her throat, and let her limp body fall to the ground. All the while, Crystal lay frozen on the top bunk. As Tommy lumbered towards the bedroom door, she lifted her head to get a look at her friend's killer. But Crystal wasn't quiet enough. Tommy heard the rustle of bed sheets and sput around, catching sight of Crystal's eyes shining in the dark. Without a moment's hesitation, he lunged at the 10-year-old and dragged the knife across her neck. Then Tommy stalked out of the

room, buzzing with adrenaline. For him, it was just another crime in the books, but the seasoned killer had made a fatal mistake. Ten-year-old Crystal Searles wasn't dead, and she would bring him down. Hi, I'm Greg Polson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we finish our look into the life of Tommy Lynn Sells, also known as the Cross-Country Killer. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson.

Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parkast for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Last time, we explored Tommy's traumatic childhood, which included illness, sexual abuse, and intermittent homelessness, and how all of it led to his violent tendencies and ultimately to murder. Today, we'll dive into Tommy's most gruesome murders and see how his drug abuse and deterioration. mental health caused him to be less discerning with his victims, then we'll discover the fatal mistake that put an end to his reign of terror. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter.

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Try Activia today. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. In 1992, 27-year-old Tommy Lynn Sells was passing through Charleston, West Virginia. He'd been without a stable living situation for the last 14 years and never stayed in one state for more than a few months. Everywhere he went, he was an unidentifiable stranger. But unlike his name, his misdeeds were well known. He'd committed gruesome murders in

Mississippi, California, Arkansas, Missouri, and more. Unfortunately, local authorities had yet to connect these crimes, largely because Tommy hadn't established a clear M.O. He killed using whatever weapons he could find and targeted men, women, children, and whole families. Tommy wasn't going after a particular type of victim. He simply sought the high he got from taking people's lives. Taking this scattered behavior into account, some psychologists might typify him as a disorganized killer. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist,

but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. In the 1980s, special agents from the FBI Training Academy came up with a system to categorize serial killers as either organized or disorganized. Organized killers tended to have clearer MOs and, more methodical crimes. Disorganized killers, on the other hand, committed more chaotic, less premeditated murders. Of course, no person is so easy to define, and binary categories can't encompass the whole

of human behavior. Still, these typologies can help us try to understand Tommy's erratic crimes. In 2018, Mayher Sharma wrote a graduate thesis titled, The Development of Serial Killers, A Grounded theory study. In this paper, Sharma posits that the chaos of disorganized killers' crimes reflects the offenders' incompetence to carry out and maintain social relationships or interactions. This lack of healthy, intimate relationships increases the chances of potential sexual or sadistic acts as a part of the murders. This was certainly true for Tommy. At first, his crimes were motivated by childhood trauma or by the need for resources, such as food, drugs, and alcohol. However, over time, he became increasingly likely to sexually assault

his victims, behavior that can be linked to the alleged sexual abuse he experienced as a child, as well as to his lack of healthy relationships as an adult. Even as this chaotic pattern emerged, law enforcement were in the dark about the truth behind Tommy's crimes. At this stage, he'd never been arrested for or linked to any of his murders, making him feel invincible. So he kept killing, slowly refining his methods. In 1992, he found a devious new way to lure in victims. He stood beneath an underpass in Charleston, holding a sign that read, Hungry will work for food.

Most people toss Tommy's spare change, which he used to pay for drugs or motel rooms. But Tommy didn't really want money. He was on the hunt for something very specific. A pretty young woman, generous. enough to invite him over for a home-cooked meal. Fabian Witherspoon fit that description. She was a 20-year-old with long, dark hair and was far too kind-hearted to ignore someone in need. In May of 1992, Fabian saw Tommy on the side of the road, looking thin and haggard. Feeling a pang of sympathy, Fabian walked over to him and offered to bring him to her home for some food. Tommy happily accepted.

As they drove, he spun a sad and largely false tale. He gave Fabian his real name, but also said he had a wife and children, making himself out to be a family man who was down on his luck. As he spoke, he watched Fabian, gauging her reaction to his lies. He felt a thrill when her face softened into a look of pity. It was a feeling he wanted more of. When they got to her apartment, Tommy followed her inside. She grabbed two large bags and started filling them with food from her cupboards.

Meanwhile, Tommy stood by the door, taking note of her movements and planning his attack. After filling a huge bag with food, Fabian asked Tommy if he or his family needed anything else. He said that his wife needed some new clothes. Too kind to refuse, Fabian went to her bedroom and started grabbing T-shirts for Tommy's imaginary spouse. Left alone near the front door, Tommy seized the opportunity he'd been waiting for. While Fabian dug through her drawers, Tommy snuck into the kitchen. He grabbed a knife, tiptoed into her bedroom, and stood behind her, breathing down her neck. Tommy's breath sent a chill down the 20-year-old spine.

She turned around slowly and stared at him. He no longer looked like the weather-beaten man she'd picked up off the side of the highway. Tommy seemed fair. with his teeth bared and a kitchen knife held high above his head, its silver blade pointed in her direction. He told Fabian to take off her clothes. She hesitated, but Tommy pressed the knife's cold blade against her throat, reminding her that she had little choice. When she'd undressed, he forced her into her bathroom and raped her. During the attack, Fabian forced away the powerful feelings of terror and revulsion. She allowed herself to focus on just one thing, survival.

She looked around the room, searching for anything she could use as a weapon. There was a ceramic duck on the back of her toilet. She grabbed it and hurled it into Tommy's head. The duck shattered, sending shards flying. Tommy stumbled back, dazed from the blow. Before he could get his bearings, Fabian started pummeling him with sharp pieces of the broken ornament. After a few seconds, Tommy regained his balance and strengthened his grip on the knife. He came after Fabian, but she grabbed his arm and wrestled the blade from his grasp. With the knife in her hands, she ran towards the front door, hoping to get away and find help. But Tommy grabbed her, pulling her back towards the bathroom.

Fabian wasn't a violent person, but Tommy gave her no other choice. With all the force she could muster, she brought the knife down, slicing into his abdomen. She pulled it back out and kept stabbing, frantically hitting Tommy wherever she could. Tommy was so full of adrenaline that he barely felt the blows. He tried to pull the knife out of Fabian's hand, and as they wrestled over the weapon, they both sustained cuts, scrapes and stab wounds. Ultimately, Tommy got the upper hand. He seized the knife, then bound Fabian's ankles and wrists with scotch tape and strips of torn bedsheets,

making it impossible for her to fight back. While she struggled to escape the bindings, he grabbed a piano stool from the living room and beat her unconscious before making a small slice across her throat. Then, utterly shaken by the close call, Tommy fled the apartment. Baby had awoke a few hours later. Memories of the attack slowly came into focus, and suddenly she panicked.

She wasn't sure if Tommy was still in her house. The thought of him hiding somewhere, waiting for her, made her heart race. She pushed the fear aside and fought free of her bindings. Then she grabbed her cordless phone and ran down the stairs of her home, trailing blood with every step. Once she was safely outside, Babian called the police. Though he'd spun plenty of lies for her, her attacker had given her his real name. She told officers that a man named Tommy Sells had tried to murder her, and that as far as she knew, he lived near Riverbank at the corner of Washington Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Officers followed up on the lead, but Tommy had abandoned his former post. Luckily, other people living in that area of Charleston knew him. They pointed police to a nearby apartment where he'd taken up residence with a young woman named Gina Young. When officers knocked on the door, Gina informed them that Tommy had been in a fight and that he was in a bad way. She invited the detectives inside and led them to him. The police expected to find Tommy with minor injuries, a black eye at the very most, but when the cops opened the door, they were shocked to find Tommy on the living room floor, bloodied and writhing in pain.

He'd sustained countless cuts and multiple stab wounds to the abdomen, and he was in bad shape. But before anyone could press criminal charges, the police needed to call an ambulance. First responders drove Tommy to the nearest hospital, where tests revealed that his external injuries were the least of his problems. Internally, he was suffering from profuse bleeding, a cut spleen and kidney, and a collapsed lung. The injuries were life-threatening. As he laid in his hospital bed, Tommy realized Fabian had nearly killed him. She had seemed so kind, so weak, so easy to overpower. and yet she'd put him in the emergency room, and his mistake would let him in prison too.

Tommy stared at the IV pumping fluid into his arm and promised himself that he'd never jeopardize his safety that way again. It's as if he made a promise to himself that from now on, he'd only go after victims that he knew couldn't hurt him. He would only attack children. Coming up, Tommy serves time and emerges from prison more violent than ever. The worst serial killer, the creepiest cult, the most outrageous con. If you're a true crime fan, you've probably pondered these things. Well, now you can get answers, or at least some passionate opinions. Every week on our podcast's Crime Countdown, my co-host Ash and I,

rank 10 unsettling crimes centered around a common theme, debating each case with just a hint of humor to lighten the mood. Elena and I may not be experts, and we may not always agree, but we're counting down anyway. Follow the Spotify original from Parcast, Crime Countdown. Listen free on Spotify. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calericolour. diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection.

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Call 1-800-545-9979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. Now back to the story. In May of 1992, 27-year-old Tommy Lynn Sells got more than he bargained for when he tried to kill 20-year-old Fabian Witherspoon. Fabian fought back fiercely, sending Tommy to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. He spent a week in the hospital before being transferred into police custody.

He'd survived his wounds, but it looked like he wasn't going to slip away from authorities like he'd done in the past. The case against him seemed too clear-cut. However, the proceedings were more complicated. than police and prosecutors anticipated. Two things made it very easy for Tommy's lawyers to argue in his favor. Firstly, there were no witnesses to the crime and no way for Fabian to prove that Tommy initiated the attack. Secondly, Tommy's defense team discovered

that Fabian had recently filed an unrelated sexual assault charge against someone, but there hadn't been enough evidence to prosecute the case. When they also uncovered reports detailing Fabian's mental health, Tommy's attorneys used these findings to portray Fabian as an unreliable accuser. His lawyers intended to argue that he was innocent, and prosecutors floundered to come up with a strong case to refute that. In the end, to guarantee that her attacker would serve at least some jail time, Fabian agreed to the idea of a plea bargain.

Possibly the most infuriating part of this agreement was that it forced Fabian to drop the sexual assault charges she'd filed against Tommy. Even though he'd gotten away with many other attacks, Tommy's history of sexual assault wasn't a secret, so it seemed the easiest part of the story to prove. Yet the prosecution couldn't guarantee that a jury would find Tommy guilty, and they couldn't risk him being declared innocent. So they settled for a charge of malicious wounding, a term that didn't reflect the reality of what Tommy had done. For this crime, a judge sentenced Tommy to two to ten years behind bars.

This punishment wasn't nearly enough. Tommy's release date depended more on his behavior in prison than it did on his crimes against Fabian. If he pleased the right people, he could be out in just a couple of years, prowling the streets for new victims. And clearly, Tommy knew how to get what he wanted. At West Virginia's northern correctional facility,

he acted like a model prisoner. Within the first year of his incarceration, he became a trustee, that is, an inmate who was allowed to work on the prison grounds. The position gave Tommy the freedom and power he craved. He could spend short periods of time unsupervised, and it seems he even had access to the warden's office. Of course, it didn't take long for Tommy to abuse his elevated status. In 1994, after about a year behind bars, he and his fellow inmate found a pistol inside the prison. Instead of reporting the incident, Tommy took the gun and hit it inside the warden's office,

where he planned to keep it for himself. Unfortunately for Tommy, another trustee caught him in the act and turned him in. As punishment, authorities transferred him to Mount Olive Correctional Complex, a maximum security facility in West Virginia. Yet Tommy still made this work to his advantage. At Mount Olive, he practiced two skills he should have mastered long before, reading and writing. Tommy stopped regularly going to school at age seven, and his literacy skills hadn't improved since. In 1994, the 30-year-old read and wrote at about a second grade level,

but he was still determined to learn. Throughout 1994, his skills gradually improved. By the end of the year, he could write letters, giving him a way to communicate with people outside the prison. Unfortunately, this, like so many things in Tommy's life, had unforeseen consequences. That same year, Tommy met John Price, an inmate charged with causing the deaths of three people. Unsurprisingly, the two men became fast friends. They mostly talked about women. Their biggest problem with being locked up was the lack of ladies to sleep with. But soon, John thought of a solution, at least one for his new friend.

He had a 26-year-old sister named Nora, who he offered to introduce to Tommy. Around the beginning of 1995, Tommy met Nora when she came to visit. Although she could only see and talk to him through a panel of protective glass, she was immediately interested in the charming convict. But Nora wasn't exactly what Tommy expected. According to Diane Fanning, author of Through the Window, John had mentioned that his sister had a learning disability. She was pretty and kind, but she wasn't able to work most jobs.

So she survived primarily on supplemental security income checks. Still, Tommy saw this as an opportunity. He used his newfound writing skills to send Nora countless letters. He showered her with the affection she craved. And in a matter of weeks, she was totally in love with him. It should hardly come as a surprise to learn that Tommy had an ulterior motive. He didn't really care about Norris. He just saw her as a way to make money without much effort.

Tommy wanted a cut if her SSI checks. After months of conning her out of small sums of money, he finally revealed his endgame. In a handwritten note, he asked Nora to marry him. Extatic, Nora said yes. She didn't think twice about Tommy's criminal charges, his violent background, or the fact that he might be manipulating her. She believed he loved her, and that was enough.

In April of 1996, 31-year-old Tommy and 28-year-old Nora tied the knot in Mount Olive prison. Once the legal papers were filed, three-quarters of Nora's SSI checks went straight to her husband. But Nora seemed okay with this arrangement. She and Tommy continued exchanging letters, and she looked forward to the day that her husband would join her in the outside world. Unsurprisingly, she didn't get the... happily ever after that she dreamed of. After serving about five years in prison, 32-year-old Tommy was released in May 1997.

He spent a few days with Nora, then hitchhiked to Michigan without saying goodbye. But his silence only lasted about a week. Struck by uncharacteristic guilt, he called Nora on June 1st and apologized for his sudden absence. He came back to West Virginia, but as soon as he was home, He started talking about leaving again.

Tommy was used to skipping town after committing a crime, but he'd been imprisoned in West Virginia for five years. Having local citizens and law enforcement know who he was put him on edge, and he needed to get away. Though Nora didn't want to leave her home, Tommy was determined. Sure, he could have left her, but his wife's benefit checks were his main source of income. Ultimately, Tommy got his way.

He convinced Nora to accompany, him to Tennessee, where they settled in a small town called Cleveland. There, Tommy could breathe easy. Local law enforcement didn't know his name or face. He was anonymous once again. However, it didn't take him long to ruin his reputation. He picked up right where he left off before he went to jail. He started abusing drugs again, and in late July, he received a ticket for driving without a license. Then about two weeks later, Tommy took off a game. He took off a Without saying a word to his wife, he hitchhiked and caught trains all the way to Oregon. Abandoned and lonely, Nora returned to West Virginia.

A month later, Tommy's guilt came creeping back. He was battling with himself. Part of him wanted to get high, really high, and not just with drugs. He missed the rush of killing, and it took everything in him not to start looking for new victims. But another part of him wanted to look for new victims. leave that old life behind. He'd married Nora as a way to get money. But perhaps the longer he knew her, the more he saw that she was a good person. He hitchhiked back to his wife in West Virginia, still unsure if he was capable of having a stable, monogamous relationship. It's possible this uncertainty led Tommy to a difficult and surprisingly responsible realization.

In order to maintain his marriage and stay out of trouble, he needed supervision. Just like when he was a teenager, 33-year-old Tommy went to his mother for help. Nina welcomed her son back with open arms, hoping that his time in prison and his new marriage had changed him for the better. In September of 1997, he and Nora moved into Nina's home in St. Louis, Missouri. With his mother's help, Tommy buckled down. He got a job at a local auto shop, stayed sober, and kept his anger rained in. Things were looking up, and soon after the moment,

move, Tommy received what should have been wonderful news. Nora was pregnant. But Tommy wasn't excited. He already had at least two children, neither of whom he had any contact with. He'd managed to avoid the responsibilities of fatherhood twice. But this time, he was expected to stick around. The thought filled him with anxiety. Tommy never had a real father figure in his life.

His biological father had passed the responsibility off to someone else. and none of his mother's partners ever truly cared for or supported him. In Tommy's mind, all relationships, especially parental ones, were transient and unreliable. Writing for the Journal of Men's Studies in 1998, Dennis A. Balcom notes that many men who feel abandoned by their fathers have lifelong struggles with relationships. Balcom goes on to explain that pregnancy and birth are specific heterosexual milestones that active. anxiety in abandoned sons. Balcom theorizes that this is because at each developmental junction, there are increased intimacy demands.

In other words, having a baby forces a level of intimacy that many sons of absent fathers fear. In Tommy's case, the anxiety was so severe that he turned to the only coping mechanism he knew, drugs. Just three weeks after moving to St. Louis, Tommy was back on heroin, and he quickly lost his job at the auto shop. Too ashamed to go home to his wife and his mother. He ended up in the last place he wanted to be, staying on the streets. There, addiction and the worst parts of his psyche took over, and drugs didn't get him high enough anymore. The only way to feel better was to kill.

Up next, Tommy goes on his final murder spree. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L. Every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime.

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But the highs of cocaine and heroin weren't enough to satisfy him. He grew desperate for the rush he got from killing, so he started stalking the city for new victims. And this time around, it seems that Tommy had a new rule. In order to avoid another brush with death or the law, he would only attack people who couldn't fight back. Children. But Tommy had difficulty finding victims. St. Louis was a relatively large city,

and violent crime rates were high at the time. In response to the increasingly unsafe environment, parents kept a close eye on their kids, making it hard for Tommy to strike. He grew frustrated with his lack of success, but then he realized that there was a simple solution to his problem. He just needed to travel to a smaller city, the kind of place where people were more likely to trust their neighbor. Luckily, he knew just where to go. In late October, he got his hands on a van and drove to Springfield, Missouri.

There, Tommy found exactly what he was looking for. In Springfield, Tommy targeted 13-year-old Stephanie Muniz. Haney. At the time, Stephanie's mother, Suzette, was sick with pneumonia, and her fiancé Rob often left Stephanie alone while he stayed with Susette at the hospital. After selecting them as prime targets, Tommy staked out the family's apartment. Around 11 p.m. one night, he watched Robb leave to visit Suzette. Rob's mind must have been occupied by the thoughts of his ailing fiancé, because he forgot to do something that could have saved Stephanie's life. He did didn't lock the front door.

As soon as Rob pulled out of the driveway, Tommy crept into the apartment and moved through the home until he found Stephanie's room. She was fast asleep, so he quietly tore a piece of tape off a roll and pressed it over her mouth. Stephanie's eyes shot open. She tried to yell, but the tape smothered her cries. It all happened in a flash. Tommy dragged her out of bed and threw her into the back of the van. The van. He sped to an isolated section of the Missouri countryside where nobody could hear her scream. Tommy stopped the vehicle in the middle of nowhere. He grabbed 13-year-old Stephanie and injected her with a near-fatal dose of cocaine. This amount of the drug didn't have the stimulant effect that one might expect. Rather, it likely resulted in heart palpitations and a very high body temperature, which left Stephanie dizzy, nauseous, and confused. That was exactly what Tommy wanted. In that condition, Stephanie couldn't fight back.

There in the wilderness, Tommy raped the teen, strangled her to death, then dropped her body in a small pond. As soon as they noticed she was gone, Stephanie's mom filed a missing person report, but officers didn't find her body until over a month later. Even then, law enforcement had no idea what to make of the crime. It seemed completely random, and they couldn't establish evidence. and he leads. While investigators puzzled over Stephanie's murder, Tommy planned his next. His latest attack hadn't satiated his twisted desires at all. Shortly after Stephanie was discovered, he was back on the road, on his way to Nevada, hungry for blood. But again, he had trouble locating victims, and instead of committing new crimes, he spent the next few months on a

macab pilgrimage, revisiting the scenes of his previous murders. In the sunny Nevada desert, Tommy felt a twisted nostalgia for his past crimes. He relived the night that he killed a fellow hitchhiker a decade earlier. He remembered giving the young woman LSD, then strangling her until the light went out of her eyes. When he grew restless, he caught a ride to Arkansas. There, he finally remembered the evening that Hal Aitken's chased him into the woods. 15 years had passed since their encounter, but the memories of his escape made Tommy's face flush with pleasure. According to Dr. Jack Levin, a sociologist and criminologist at Northeastern University,

a serial killer's crimes are often his greatest accomplishments in life. He wants to reminisce about the good times he had, inflicting pain and suffering on his victims. At 33, Tommy's life hadn't amounted to much. He'd never been able to keep a job and didn't have a stable home. He had two children and another on the way, none of whom he had any intention of caring for. In his dark and twisted mind, the only points of pride were his grisly crimes.

Reliving these murders gave Tommy the feelings of power and control that he craved. Remembering the terrible things he'd done was almost as good as actually doing them. Almost, but not quite. Eventually, reminiscing on past murders wasn't enough. Desperate to feel the rush of violence, 34-year-old Tommy hitchhiked to North Carolina in April 1999. He got a job at a carnival, which took him to San Antonio, Texas,

an ideal place to find young victims. Throughout the first half of April 1999, Tommy operated rides and sold funnel cakes, all the while keeping his eyes peeled for unicomical. accompanied kids. On April 18th, the perfect opportunity arose. Nine-year-old, Mary Bia Perez was a third grader who wandered away from her family. Tommy made sure she never returned. When he saw Mary, the 34-year-old left his post at the carnival. He snatched Mary and pressed her against his chest, stifling her screams. Somehow, in a sea of people, he didn't attract any attention.

He simply threw the young girl in his truck and sped away. Tommy drove the nine-year-old to an abandoned area near a small San Antonio Creek. The place was practically a landfill, an old mattress lay amongst trash on the ground. Tommy threw Mary onto the makeshift bed, raped her, then strangled her with her Mickey Mouse T-shirt. Tommy threw Mary's body into the creek, where a fisherman found it 10 days later. As with his previous crimes, police couldn't establish any suspects for the murder. And by then, Tommy had ditched his truck and caught a train north to Lexington, Kentucky. But he wasn't totally in the clear.

In Lexington, his drug use escalated and his grip on reality weakened. Just as he had in earlier years, he became less discerning and more prone to making mistakes, including one chillingly close call. In May of 1999, Tommy Spott. She nodded 13-year-old Haley McCone alone in a public park. She swayed back and forth on the swing set, gazing at the afternoon sky. Tommy watched her from afar, waiting to see if a parent or sibling came to her side. But minutes passed and nobody showed up.

It was just what he hoped for. Tommy snatched Haley right off the swing and forced her down a barely wooded walking trail. Hidden only by the thin trunks of a few trees, Tommy raped her. Then, in the middle of the attack, a couple strolled by. Tommy pressed his hand over Haley's mouth and froze. Barely daring to breathe, he watched the man and woman pass them by. Heartbreakingly, the couple didn't notice the killer standing mere feet away, and as soon as they were out of earshot, Tommy strangled Haley and left her body in the trees. After that, Tommy fled the scene and found a place to get drunk.

That same night, Kentucky authorities arrested him for public intoxication, but they released him the very next morning, oblivious to the murder he'd committed just hours earlier. He immediately got high and took a train in the direction of Madison, Wisconsin. Just days later, Tommy was back in police custody for threatening Madison locals with a box cutter. Officers jailed him for about a month, then released him back onto the streets in late June. In a matter of days, Tommy got him. got his hands on a truck and gunned it south to Oklahoma. He didn't waste any time.

In early July, 1999, while drunk and high on cocaine, he kidnapped 14-year-old Bobby Lynn Wofford from a convenience store just north of Oklahoma City. He brutally assaulted her, but no matter how much pain he subjected her to, she kept fighting back. Not wanting to repeat the incident with Fabian Witherspoon, Tommy shot Bobby and threw her body off the side of a rural road. Without looking back, he sped all the way to South Texas. Something inside him had snapped. No matter how many drugs he took or murders he committed, it was never enough.

As soon as he got to Del Rio, Texas, he started looking to commit a crime that could actually sustain him. Tommy spent his first six months in Del Rio abusing drugs, getting his bearings in the city, and searching for the perfect victim. He didn't want his next murder to be random like most of his others. This one would be targeted, calculated, and cruel. He wanted to achieve the ultimate high to reach the kind of ecstasy he'd been chasing for decades.

In order to succeed, Tommy needed people to trust him. The best way to do this, he reasoned, was to attend services at the local church, where he met a kind, generous couple named Terry and Crystal Harris. The first thing Tommy noticed of, the Harris's was their daughter, 13-year-old Katie. The moment he saw her, he decided that she was his perfect victim. Tommy Eves dropped at church and around town to learn more about the family.

He discovered that in December of that year, they planned to help their friend Pam Searle relocate from Kansas to Texas, and that Pam's 10-year-old daughter, Crystal, was going to stay with the Harris family during the move. More importantly, Tommy learned that Terry Harris planned to drop to Kansas on December 30th to help Pam pack her belongings. That night, his wife would be left to care for the children by herself. It was the perfect chance for Tommy to ring in the new year and make his gruesome mark on the town.

Tommy spent the evening leading up to his attack in a familiar place, a bar. More out of habit than desire, he pestered the bartender to have sex with him. She turned him down but continued pouring him drinks until he was seeing double. Then around 2 a.m. he lumbered out of the bar and towards the Harris' home. Even after a night of heavy drinking, Tommy moved with confidence and steadiness. For him, killing had become muscle memory. He stepped onto the Harris's front porch, popped open a window and climbed inside. Carrying a 12-inch boning knife in his hand, he crept through the home

until he found Katie Harris asleep. He slipped into the bunk bed and sexually assaulted her. Katie screamed and nearly escaped, but before she could reach her bedroom door, Tommy slid her throat. He was about to leave when a rustling sound made him turn around. On the top bunk, a pair of eyes shone in the dark. Tommy stomped back to the bed. He grabbed 10-year-old crystal surls by the arm

and dragged the knife across her neck. Tommy sliced the girl's windpipe, but incredibly he missed her carotid artery. Blood poured from the wound, but she could still breathe. While Tommy slipped back out of the window and into the night, Crystal lay still, pretending to be dead. Then she climbed out of the bed. Terrified that everyone else in the house had been killed, Crystal ran to the nearest neighbor, Herb Betts.

Her severed windpipe made it impossible to speak, so she grabbed a piece of paper and frantically wrote, The Harrises are hurt, tell the police to hurry, will I live? Herb couldn't imagine that the 10-year-old would survive, but he tried to stanch her bleeding anyway. He called Del Rio authorities, while officers surveyed the crime scene, an ambulance rushed crystal to the hospital.

Miraculously, surgeons repaired the 10-year-old's windpipe and saved her life. She woke up dazed by anesthesia, but with a sharp memory of the previous night, She gave police a description of her attacker, helping them create a sketch of his face. Authorities showed the sketch to Crystal and Katie's families, and they realized it looked like someone they'd seen around town, a man named Tommy. When police showed her Tommy's photo in a lineup, Crystal confirmed that he was Katie's killer. After that, officers swiftly tracked

Tommy down and arrested him, finally ending his 20-year killing streak. But the true horror of his crimes was only just coming to light. Once officers finally had him on homicide charges, Tommy seemed quite happy to keep talking about the crimes. After all, they were his proudest accomplishments. In the end, he confessed to over 70 murders, although reportedly only 22 have been confirmed. Using Tommy's statements, police departments across the nation connected cases that had been cold for years. And finally, a pattern emerged. Authorities saw how he traveled from state to state, killing anyone he could. As news of his crimes made headlines, he became known by a new moniker, the cross-country killer. But it was his final murder that sealed his fate. In the fall of

2000, a judge sentenced him to death by lethal injection, punishment for the brutal slaying of Katie Harris. He spent 14 years on death row and was executed in April of 2014. After spending years talking about his crimes, the 49-year-old declined to give any last words. Despite his silent final moments, Tommy Lin-Sells left scars. For many, they were left in terror at the thought that a man who embodied pure evil outsmarted police for two decades. But in all honesty, Tommy wasn't particularly clever. The only thing that kept law enforcement off his trail was his constant movement, his transience. The instability that plagued Tommy's youth became his greatest strength. He could slip away from almost any crime dissolving like a phantom.

But for his victims and their families, the cross-country killer was, and still is, a very permanent memory. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with another episode. For more information on Tommy Lin-Sells, among the many sources we used, we found through the window, the terrifying true story of cross-country killer Tommy Lin-Sells by Diane Fanning, extremely helpful to our research.

You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Russell Nash, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Karas Allen, with writing assistance by Mallory

Cara and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Bennett Logan, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Spring break isn't what it used to be. It's better. This spring, stay three nights and get a $50 Best Western gift card. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western.

Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest, and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat

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