Sells and his twin sister, Tammy Jean, contracted meningitis[citation needed] when they were 18 months old. While Sells suffered a high fever, he survived. His sister, however, died from the inflammation. Shortly thereafter, Sells was sent to live with his aunt Bonnie Woodall in Holcomb, Missouri. He lived with Woodall until he was five.
When Sells was eight he began spending time with a man from a neighboring city named Willis Clark, who would later be suspected of child molestation.
Sells started traveling in order to find work. Because he was homeless at the time, he hitched rides, hopped trains and at one point stole a vehicle. He held several different jobs, often doing menial labor.
Murders
Sells claims he committed his first murder at age 16.
While working as a carny in Missouri during the summer of 1985 Sells met 29 year old, Ena Cordt. According to Sells, Cordt invited him to her home where they had consensual sex. The bodies of Cordt and her four-year-old son were found three days later.
Sells is suspected as the perpetrator for the following crimes:
* The murder of Suzanne Korcz in New York during May 1987
* The November 1987 murder of the Dardeen family in Illinois.
* Killing a co-worker in Texas during April 1998.
* The murder of Katy Harris in Texas in 1999. v
Sells has recently claimed to have killed upwards of 70 people, according to an interview with Columbia University forensic psychiatrist and personality expert Dr. Michael H. Stone in Discovery Channel's Most Evil.
On December 31, 1999, in the Guajia Bay subdivision, west of Del Rio, Texas, Sells fatally stabbed 13-year-old Kaylene 'Katy' Harris 16 times and slit the throat of 10-year-old Krystal Surles. Surles survived and received help from her neighbors. Ultimately, Sells was apprehended using a sketch from the victim's description.
Tommy Lynn Sells is currently on death row in Livingston, Texas.
