Tommy Lynn Sells Survivor Sketch

On December 31, 1999, near Del Rio, Texas, 10-year-old Krystal Surles survived an attack by serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells, who had just murdered 13-year-old Kaylene Harris in the same home. Sells slashed Surles’s throat, severing her trachea, but she managed to walk about a quarter mile to a neighbor’s house to get help. After surviving the attack, Surles described the attacker to investigators, allowing police to create a sketch that identified Sells. It led to the arrest of the serial killer, who was captured on January 2, 2000, and later sentenced to death.

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