Tommy Lynn Sells was a serial killer who confessed to being involved in at least two UM cases: the Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible arson/murder/disappearance and the murder of Darlie Routier's two sons.

He was executed in Texas on 4/3/2014 for the murder of a 13 year old girl. He committed at least 17 murders while traveling around the United States. He has claimed to be responsible for many more crimes. Some of those confessions were likely false, but police do believe there are murders he committed that they were unable to conclusively link to him.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/convicted-serial-killer-tommy-lynn-sells-executed-texas/story?id=23184667

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Lynn_Sells

He also confessed to the murder of Stephanie Stroh, who was featured in a special alert on missing persons. It's too bad we'll never know for sure.

Found another UM case he claimed to be responsible for:

Stefanie Stroh http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Stefanie_Stroh

ETA: You beat me to it, Wishful!

That article chilled me to the bone.

I remember seeing Krystal Surles on a Justice Files rerun from 1999 or 2000 shortly after she survived Sells' attack. That Sells claims he thought about "the one that got away" every day makes me sick.

I don't believe the death penalty is ultimately morally correct, but I do have to admit, reading that article really reminds me why there are so many people who support it. The details of the 1987 murder of that entire family in Illinois are unspeakable.

I don't buy his other confessions at all.

I just read a long article about Sells' life of crime and feel sick to my stomach. Good riddance. I'm also disgusted that he was given such a short sentence for raping and nearly stabbing to death a 20-year-old in the early 90s; she turned his own knife on him and he went to jail for a minute amount of time. If only they had known then about all the murders he committed. Reading about the murdered family was also probably the most horrific crime I have ever read about. The husband was apparently really security conscious and paranoid :( Sells still was able to gain entry to the house and made up some lie that the husband had made advances on him and provoked the murders.:rolleyes:

Warning, it's very disturbing. http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/tommy_sells/index.html

Krystal Surles is a brave young lady. I also felt sick reading about him saying he thought about her every day. Articles say that she looked him straight in the eyes as she testified against him and pointed him out. It won't bring their loved ones back, but hopefully the families and friends of Sells' victims will have some peace knowing that he'll never harm another person again.

This is the first I've heard of him confessing to murdering Darlie Routier's kids. I did a little research and saw that he was in prison from June 1993 until 1997. The murders happened on June 6, 1996. He did have a habit of confessing to several murders that he might not have committed, but the timeline doesn't add up on the Darlie case. IMO all evidence points to Darlie but that's another thread topic.

That article chilled me to the bone.
The details of the 1987 murder of that entire family in Illinois are unspeakable.



The Dardeen family? He also claimed responsibility for the murder of Joel Kirkpatrick in Illinois, but I don't think they have any proof of it for sure.

I'm not a bit sorry that he was executed. He's never going to get better and he's never going to stop killing. It seems fair that he should give up his life when he as viciously taken so many others.

The details of the 1987 murder of that entire family in Illinois are unspeakable.

I read a book about him and this part scared the hell out of me for days. Glad the scum is gone from the Earth.

Was he ever considered in Angela Hammond's disappearance? He committed crimes in Missouri in 1983, 1985, 1997, and 1998 in St. Louis, Forsyth, Springfield, and Portageville. He lived in St. Louis MO, Frisbee MO, and Holcomb MO.

He traveled with carnivals, rode trains, stole cars, and hitch hiked around the country.

He was released from a Wyoming prison in January 1991. From there, he went to Colorado, Florida, South Carolina, and ended up in West Virginia in April 1992. Angela Hammond was abducted in Clinton, MO on April 4, 1991. Traveling from Colorado to Florida could have easily taken him through that part of Missouri. Sells would have been 27 years old at the time.

His preferred victims were girls and petite women. At one point he owned a pick up truck which friends bought from him sometime in the late 90s because they felt sorry for him. At another time prior to that, he stole a truck to sell its tires to friends who needed truck tires. So he can be connected to pick up trucks, I just don't know what kind. He also worked at a used car lot, IIRC.

He has some things in common with Angela's case. She described a filthy bearded man, she and Rob described a pick up truck, the crime happened in MO, and Angela was a very petite young woman.

Not sure what date this mug shot was taken:

http://murderpedia.org/male.S/images/sells_tommy_lynn/sells_002.jpg

This is what he looked like in 1999:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv.com/graphics/photos/serial_killers/predators/tommy_sells/3-1-Tommy-Lynn-Sells.jpg

Was he ever considered in Angela Hammond's disappearance? He committed crimes in Missouri in 1983, 1985, 1997, and 1998 in St. Louis, Forsyth, Springfield, and Portageville. He lived in St. Louis MO, Frisbee MO, and Holcomb MO.

He traveled with carnivals, rode trains, stole cars, and hitch hiked around the country.

He was released from a Wyoming prison in January 1991. From there, he went to Colorado, Florida, South Carolina, and ended up in West Virginia in April 1992. Angela Hammond was abducted in Clinton, MO on April 4, 1991. Traveling from Colorado to Florida could have easily taken him through that part of Missouri. Sells would have been 27 years old at the time.

His preferred victims were girls and petite women. At one point he owned a pick up truck which friends bought from him sometime in the late 90s because they felt sorry for him. At another time prior to that, he stole a truck to sell its tires to friends who needed truck tires. So he can be connected to pick up trucks, I just don't know what kind. He also worked at a used car lot, IIRC.

He has some things in common with Angela's case. She described a filthy bearded man, she and Rob described a pick up truck, the crime happened in MO, and Angela was a very petite young woman.

Not sure what date this mug shot was taken:

http://murderpedia.org/male.S/images/sells_tommy_lynn/sells_002.jpg

This is what he looked like in 1999:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv.com/graphics/photos/serial_killers/predators/tommy_sells/3-1-Tommy-Lynn-Sells.jpg
That's a very good possibility. Though was sells known to conceal bodies ? No trace of Angela was ever found. I have not read of any cases where sells made any effort to conceal his crime or the body of a victim. He was openly confessing to crimes ( even ones they say he could not been involved with) but never mentioned anything about Angela.

That's a very good possibility. Though was sells known to conceal bodies ? No trace of Angela was ever found. I have not read of any cases where sells made any effort to conceal his crime or the body of a victim. He was openly confessing to crimes ( even ones they say he could not been involved with) but never mentioned anything about Angela.

I think he mostly left his victims in their homes, but not all of them.

He abducted a nine year old girl from a carnival, then dumped her body in a stream. She was found about 10 days later.

Sells definitely concealed some of his victim's bodies. He used concrete to anchor the victim's feet, and then would throw the body in a lake or pond. He also buried other victim's. Some he just left out in the open.

Sells definitely concealed some of his victim's bodies. He used concrete to anchor the victim's feet, and then would throw the body in a lake or pond. He also buried other victim's. Some he just left out in the open.
Oh ok I had not looked too deeply at him. He did seem to openly talk about his crimes though and never mentioned this one but who knows could be a possibility. If the Clinton police and preserved the crime scene (the phone booth) they would have possibly had fingerprints as well as DNA . Instead they suspected rob until it became obvious he was no part of it

Oh ok I had not looked too deeply at him. He did seem to openly talk about his crimes though and never mentioned this one but who knows could be a possibility. If the Clinton police and preserved the crime scene (the phone booth) they would have possibly had fingerprints as well as DNA . Instead they suspected rob until it became obvious he was no part of it

Sells is pretty notorious for confessing to crimes he had nothing to do with. I don't think Sells is a likely candidate for the Angela Hammond case. Most of his crimes were home invasion type crimes, and his preferred method of killing was with a knife, usually while the victim's were asleep.

I am watching him on Unusual Suspects...he was in Texas a lot. I am one that supports Darlie, I wonder if he really did murder those boys.