Unseen - The Y2K Bunkbed Murders | The Case of Krystal Surles | UNSEEN

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

“I saw what he did to Katie and was scared he’d do it to me” On one of the last nights of 1999, Krystal is tucking herself into bed after a fun sleepover with her best friend Katie, but they are suddenly woken up by a window creaking open. As Krystal opens her eyes, a man holds a knife to Katie’s neck near the edge of the bunk bed. From that moment on, two things are on Krystal’s mind: surviving through the night, and making sure serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells is brought to justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Will you show us how you had your hands? I had him up like this. 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. This is 10-year-old Crystal Searles, one of the only living survivors of serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells. In the footage you see here, the killer himself explains in detail what happened inside the Harris family house. I walked over here and there's a little girl sleeping here. Then I looked in here, two girls sleeping in here.

I woke this girl up. The little girl on top was like this perjury fire. But when Sells left the house that night, there was one thing he never thought would happen. What is your emergency? I have a little girl just rang my door back in front of my life. It was like Deadman Tel Motel, and I thought I thought it killed him. Crystal Searle.

She was just 10 years old when she came face to face with death. But she survived, outsmarting her killer. It was her courage that got Tommy Lin-Sells arrested and brought to trial, finally putting an end to his 20-year-long rampage. I felt like he couldn't conquer me. He was going to be in that trial room because of me. The year is 1999. The coming of the new millennium is exciting for everyone, especially for Crystal Searles. She's moving to the quiet town of Del Rio, Texas, with her mother, Pam, and her two younger sisters, Mark and Amber. For Crystal, this means she will get to live right next door to her best friend, Kate. It's December 30th.

While the rest of the family is away, finalizing the move, Crystal is spending New Year's Eve at her best friend's house for a sleepover. We talked about Britney Spears and in sync. We kind of stayed up a little later, and we got in a little fight about where we were all going to sleep. But what started as a night of fun and laughter later turns into a living nightmare. At around 3.30 a.m., a man is awoken abruptly by a night. intense knocking at his door. He opens to the sight of 10-year-old Crystal, covered in blood, begging him for help. Right away, the man calls 911. But Crystal can't speak. She's holding

a hand to her neck. With shaking hands, she writes the following messages, stating that the Harris family needs help, asking them to hurry. More than 700 miles away at 6 a.m., Crystal's mother is woken up by a disturbing phone call. It was at Valverty emergency room asking me for my permission to lifelight Crystal, she had been attacked. And I said, absolutely, lifelight or where, and they said San Antonio. I didn't know anything other than Crystal had had her throat cut. As Crystal's mother, Pam, rushes to her daughter's side. She has no idea in what state she's going to find her. At the hospital, she learns that Crystal's wind pipes were severed, that her vocal cords were cut. When I got in her room, I saw this little girl with all

All of these tubes, she looked like this baby in this humongous bed. And I looked in her eyes and I said, are you okay? Angel, little mommy's here. Unable to speak, Crystal uses a pen and paper to communicate. The first thing she asks is if her best friend Kate is okay. She kept asking me and I couldn't tell her. Shift knows that no order is ordinary. When you order produce, Shipps sees the meals and memories. you'll produce with it.

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I couldn't tell her anything. Crystal's mother can't bear to break the news to Crystal that her best friend Kate is dead, and that Crystal is the only living witness that knows what happened. When I walked into the crime scene on the floor was a deceased young girl, the crime scene was extremely bloody. Shocked by the gruesome nature of the crime, Texas Ranger John Allen still has no idea what he's about to face. He's told that there's a surviving 10-year-old and that she's ready to talk. We told Crystal who we were, and at that point 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. From her hospital bed, Crystal does her best to write a description of Katie's killer. A police artist makes a sketch from this description. Right away, the sketch, as well as Crystal's details, ring a bell to a friend of the family, who saw a man named Tommy working as a used car salesman fitting that description perfectly. Police get their hands on the individual's picture and present a photo lineup to Crystal.

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 focused in on one photograph. And Crystal took her right index finger and put it on the photograph of Tommy Lynn Sitz. Texas Ranger John Allen makes Tommy Lynn Sells his primary suspect, but nothing can prepare him for who Tommy Lynn Sells really is.

It's January 2nd, police move in on Tommy Lynn Sells trailer. While the door is unlocked, Texas Ranger John Allen walks in and is met halfway by the suspect. He makes his arrest without any resistance. In fact, Sells even tells John Allen. I'm glad I finally got caught. And then we told him he was under arrest for murder. Confessions are immediately obtained from him, as well as his agreement to do a walkthrough of the crime scene. You're doing this walkthrough of your own pretty well?

Oh, yes. I thought this to be very odd. Here this guy is under arrest for murder and attempted murder, and his wanted to cooperate with us. I walked over here. Walk this girl up, and she jumped up and told this girl to go get her mom. I stabbed her here, and then she, like, jumped back, and then I, you know. The way Sells describes matter-of-factly what he did to Kate, including.

Crystal brings shivers down everybody's spine. But the odd behavior of cells doesn't end there. Back at the police station, he continues to give unprompted details of other crimes he's committed over the years. I sat in an interrogation room for hours, listening to Tommy Lin-Sells 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. We have confirmed that he has committed 22 total murders.

That's what I realized we were dealing with a serial killer, a cold-blooded serial killer. So how did a serial killer who for the last 20 years managed to escape police get put behind bars because of a 10-year-old girl? As Crystal slowly recovers from her neck injury, she regains the ability to talk and can finally share her side of the story. It's December 31st, 3 a.m. Crystal is fast asleep after a night of laughter with Kate. We went to bed kind of late, but I remember I woke up to like a scream.

She notices that the light is on, laying silent at the top of a bunk bed, she looks around, confused. I could see at the end of the bed, um, 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. The man doesn't notice that Crystal is awake, but she can see the man is holding Kate and that he has a knife.

He had a hand on her mouth and the knife on her neck, and she's looking at me. Kate then screams out to Crystal to go get her mom. At that moment, the man drives his knife across Kate's neck, dropping her to the floor. He then moves in and stabs her again and again. I heard Katie at the bottom of the bed or on the floor. She was like gasping for air and choking. She couldn't breathe. Crystal is horrified, but she's quiet, careful not to make a sound.

She wants to help her friend, but if she moves, the man will kill her. After a moment, the man walks out of the room. About to shut off the light and he looked one last time, and he noticed that I was there. Tommy Linsells has already made a victim. He doesn't hesitate when he sees that frightened girl on the top bunk. He closes the door and walks back to her side. 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 that. Without hesitation, Crystal drops to the floor and plays dead. She's praying that the man won't come back and check if she's alive, like he did with Kate. She has to stay absolutely still. I just remember laying there and the light turning off and I heard the door shut. So I got on my hands and knees and I was crawling across the floor in the bedroom, and I came across Katie. 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 then Kate goes quiet

with her friend dying in her arms Crystal realizes she could be next I had this feeling you know get out of here Get up. Come on. Go. I was laying there thinking, has he been to the other rooms? Does he know that the whole family's here? Is everybody hurt? Are they all dead? Crystal decides to head outside to find help at the closest house.

Before she opens a door, she hears a car drive off. There's no way to be sure it's the man who killed Kate, but she has to take the risk. It was dark outside. I was in my pajamas, no shoes, nothing. 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? And I can't talk, so I'm just banging as hard as I can on the door.

I have a little girl just rang my doorbell. Crystal is begging the man to tell the operator that the Harris family needs help, but all she can do is right while holding a hand to her throat. She writes for them to hurry, that her neck needs help. And to the man she writes, Will I live? January 2nd, Crystal is at the hospital, relieved that Tommy Lin-Sells is behind bars. But her nightmare isn't over yet. In less than nine months, she will have to face him in court,

because her testimony is crucial to the case to make sure Tommy Lin-Sells never hurts anyone else ever again. And she's terrified of what might happen. will she be able to go through with her testimony? If she fails, he might be released. And who knows what cells will do when he sees her in the courtroom? Like in the case of Mary Stauffer, who was kidnapped by her stalker, he attacked her with a knife in court and left a mark on her face.

In the weeks before the trial, the television show America's Most Wanted covers Kate and Crystal's story, and they arrange for Crystal to meet with another team who went through something very similar. And he, like, strangled me. He slipped both my wrists. You can barely see him, thank God, they're going away. And then he slipped my throat.

Christy Reed had survived a brutal attack in 1999 when she got home from school. The brave young 14-year-old then stood in court to face the man who also killed her 16-year-old sister. I asked for him not to be in the courtroom, but they couldn't do it unless he said something bad or, you know, looked at me weird. looked at me weird. Yeah, am I scared because he's gonna be sitting out there? During the encounter, Crystal notices the little gold ring that Christy is wearing. It was this ring that gave Christy strength when she testified in court, as a reminder of her sister.

Do you have any tips or anything like your friend's name was Katie? Yeah. Concentrate on her because you're helping her and yourself. It's scary, but once you get it out, you're like, you feel a lot better. At September 12th, nine months after the attack, the trial begins for Tommy Lynn Sells. Let me have the defendant rise and face the jury and all that. The day I had to testify, 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.

11-year-old Crystal Searles was going to be this key witness, the star witness for the prosecution. She had never seen Tommy Lin-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. The jury is presented with extremely emotional testimony, while Tommy Lin-Sells remains indifferent. What I was told was an intruder. It entered the premises and... They discovered that it was my own daughter. It was in the house.

I just cried and cried. Soon, it will be Crystal's turn to tell the jury what she went through, with cells just a few feet away from her. Moments before she has to go to the courtroom, a surprise is delivered directly to Crystal to help her through her last struggle. And I'm to tell you that this is to help guide you, okay? Come on! Inside, she finds the cross ring that Christy was wearing, the same ring she wore in court. As you face this journey from the moment, you begin. I'll guide you, and you'll have the strength to win.

And then when they called me down, I was like, I'm ready, I'm ready. They 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 am not scared of him. Were you ever awakened during the night? Yes. What was it that awakened you?

Katie's voice saying, help. His hand was over her mouth. Whose hand was over her mouth? His hand. The man with the blue jacket and the glasses? Yes. Let the record reflect that the witness has identified the defendant, Tommy Lin, cells. He was standing behind her.

This is hand over her mouth, the knife right here. He was, he was... As Crystal struggles to finish her accounts of that night, the judge gives her a short recess to let her recover. If she's not able to go through with it, she knows what might happen to cells. I put my thoughts towards Katie. I just had such a mindset that this is what I wanted to do, and this is what I had to do. This is for Katie. She deserves this. What happened next?

He moved the knife and split her throat. He started walking towards me. Did you say anything to him? Yes. What did you tell him? I told him, I'd be quiet. I promise I won't, I won't say nothing. I'm not making the noise. He said, move your hands.

And why did you say move your hands? your hands. Will you show us how you had your hands? I had them up like this. 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. As she struggles to go through with her testimony, she finds comfort in the gift Christy gave her. He reached over the last door to my throat, just laid there and because then I was dead. Tell us why you did that?

Because if you knew I was alive, he would have came back and killed me for sure. Well, Crystal, you can stand down then and this completes your examination. Thank you and you are excused. As soon as I stepped off the stand, I felt so good. I felt like he couldn't conquer me. He had his chance and now look at him. He was in that trial room because of me. And I liked feeling that power.

After only a few hours of deliberation, the jury quickly comes back with a unanimous verdict. You, Tommy Lin-Sells, have been found guilty of the offense of capital murder. They decided to give Tommy Lin-Sells the death penalty. The serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells, who escaped police for 20 years, is finally brought down. And it's because of one little girl's courage that he will never hurt anyone ever again. There's not a doubt in my mind that Crystal has lost a lot, if not. not most of her childhood. She really has been a survivor.

Crystal came face to face with a serial killer and survived. Her road to recovery wasn't an easy one, and she may never fill that gap of losing her best friend. But as the years pass, Crystal is able to find Solis in her family and newfound friends. She's closer than ever with her two sisters. It's such a beautiful thing to see her with her sisters. Even today, she still is like a mother to them.

She graduated and every day continues to make her friend Kate proud. Cripple, Boy, Cyril. Of course I think about Katie. I think about, you know, if she's here, what would she be doing, maybe what would we be doing? I don't ever think about Tommy Lynn Sells. I don't ever, ever give him the time of day. 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. Just, I'm just glad to be here. Crystal Searles is living proof that even after tragedy, there is a life worth living. I think just that Katie, she helped me through everything, her soul.