 Daughter wakes up to serial killer sitting at the end of her bed. As parents, there will always come a point in our children's lives that we have to step back and learn to trust that they'll be okay without us for a little bit. This is one of the most difficult things that all parents have to do. Whether it be sending them off to their first day of school, off to summer camp, or even just an overnight at a friend's house for a sleepover. Sometimes though, our fears about what might happen to our children when they're out of our sight can shift horribly from paranoid fantasies to brutal reality. It is a parent's worst nightmare to think that something may happen to their child and they are unable to protect them. It was 6am in the morning when Pam got a phone call about her two girls, both of whom had been sleeping at a friend's house the night before. It was a Friday, New Year's Eve, and Pam's two daughters had stayed at a friend's house the night before. The family was in a transition stage as they were moving from Kansas to Texas. Pam felt that it was good for her daughters to make new friends. The move was hard on her young kids so Pam was doing all that she could to try to make this transition for them easier. In the wake of the move it was the least she could do in the with her kids out and having a sleepover at a friend's Pam was a bit nervous. They were in a new state with people they didn't know very long and her daughters were staying at a house she was not all too familiar with. Pam was happy though about enjoying a night to herself. At 6am Pam got a call that would change her life forever. The phone rang and at such an early time Pam immediately wondered who was calling and why. When she picked up she found out that her daughter Crystal was in the emergency room. They told her to get there right away as Crystal was fighting for her life. Texas Ranger Johnny Allen first got the phone call about a half hour before Pam fled. He had been told that there was a violent attack at the Harris House. He knew right away this was a very serious situation as there was kids involved and immediately jumped in his car to head to the scene. Upon arrival Johnny found out that one of the Harris children, 13-year-old Kaleen, had been brutally stabbed by a home invader. The crime scene was beyond bloody, even for such a horrific crime. But apparently Kaleen wasn't the only victim of the attack. Kaleen Harris, or Katie as she was called, was a very popular young girl. She was beautiful, outgoing and had everything in the world going for her. She did all the things that most kids do growing up and had great plans for her future. She had made friends with 10-year-old Crystal and her little sister Mark, who had moved into the area recently and the group were having a sleep over the night before the attack. They never could have imagined that they would not be safe in their own home. Crystal and her little sister Mark, who was 7, were staying at the Harris Home in Del Rio, Texas. In general, like many sisters of that age, they didn't get along very well. Although the sisters would fight and make up quite often they were very protective of each other. But in the Harris household, which consisted of a rather big family, their behavior was nothing new. The Harris family lived in the middle of a fairly deserted area, they didn't get many visitors, so they felt safe, or so they thought. Like many young girls, sleepovers the night consisted of many fun activities. From playing dress up to watching a movie and eating popcorn the sleep over wasn't anything out of the norm. The girls enjoyed each other's company and laughed and played all night long. What they didn't know and nobody could have known at the time was that this sleepover was going to become very tragic for two families. Katie and Crystal had stayed up late and slept in the same room. Crystal awoke suddenly in the middle of the night to the sound of someone screaming. There was bunk beds in the room that the kids were sleeping on. She was on the top bunk and the sound had come from the floor below her. Instead of hopping out of bed, she leaned over and looked around. At the end of the bed was a man she'd never seen before in their room. The man, basically a shadowy form in the darkened room, had long, dark, curly, scruffy-looking hair and a bushy beard that took over his whole face. As a young girl who just woke up to someone screaming you can imagine how frightening this must have been for her. His eyes were dark and mean and Crystal could see that her friend Katie was on the floor beneath him. She could not tell exactly what was going on but it seemed as if Katie was struggling with the man. At this point Crystal was beyond scared but did not want to make a noise and alert the man to her being in the room. At that point she thought the guy did not know that she was there and she didn't know what to do. Before she could even move to do anything and seemingly out of nowhere, the man took a knife out. She was unsure where the knife came from. Then he held to Katie's neck and slashed her across the throat. At this point, the murderous stranger was so enthralled by what he was doing that he didn't even notice the 10-year-old girl cowering on the top bunk. The man looked to be in a rage so Crystal hit under her covers after seeing him use the knife on her friend. Then the man slowly walked to the door and looked as if he was about to flip off the light. Then he stopped and turned around one last time. His eyes met Crystal's, and in those eyes she saw that she was about to meet the same fate as her friend. The murderer had seen Crystal looking at him and now he was headed towards her. He couldn't walk out now knowing that Crystal had seen his face. She tried to scoot to the right side of the bed because he was on the left, but his reach was too great. He reached over and just like he did to Katie, he cut her throat. He did so effortlessly, as if it was an afterthought. It was lucky for her that his attack was little more than an afterthought however, because she somehow survived and now was clinging to life. Crystal's serles lay there for what felt like a long while. At this point the intruder now had slashed both Katie and Crystal's throats. Katie was in much worse shape though than Crystal was. They both were slowly dying. The light turned off and she heard the door shut. Though she could feel the wetness around her throat and a pain stinging her neck, the injured girl made her way to the floor and to her friend's side. Katie was worse off, bleeding out and choking and making a gasping noise. She didn't know what to do. All Crystal could do was comfort her friend. Even though she was injured herself she was brave enough to try and help her friend survive. She tried to talk, but no words came out. She wanted to tell her that everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay, but she couldn't. Instead, she rubbed her back and cried, and comforted her until the sound stopped and she knew that Katie had departed the world. Now Crystal is in for the fight of her life to survive and not succumb to the same fate as Katie. With her friend now deceased and sitting in a blood-soaked room Crystal knew that she needed to get help quickly. She was bleeding pretty bad and it was only a matter of time that she would also pass if she did not get help. She thought to herself, get out of here. Get up. Come on, go. Don't lay here. Go. She knew that she had to escape. She was in her pajamas, barefoot, but she knew that she needed to find help. Unfortunately there was a major issue for her to figure out. By now you are probably wondering where the parents are. How come the parents did not hear the screams and come in to help the girls? Well the reason was because the Harris's parents weren't home. Crystal didn't know if the man was still in the house and did not want to be attacked again. She slowly and quietly made her way outside, into the dark morning as if in a scene straight out of a horror movie. She saw a light in the distance and headed towards it. It was cold in that early morning and though she was still bleeding out, she trudged towards the road, towards that light. She knew if she could only get to that light she could find help. As she crept closer and realized it was a house, she knew it was the salvation she needed. She walked up to the door and banged on it. A voice inside asked who was there, but she couldn't answer. Finally, she banged again and he opened it. When the person opened the door they could not believe what they saw. Here standing at their front door was a girl who had her throat slashed. It was unbelievable. To make matters worse it was difficult for her to speak and tell them what happened. They immediately called 911 to get her help and brought her inside for her safety. They were unsure if whoever did this to her was still lurking in the shadows looking to attack once again. Hours later, Crystal awoke in the hospital. She was hooked up to tubes and machines, but she was alive. Her mother Pam stood over her, calming her and telling her, Mommy's here. The doctors told her that the blade had nicked her vocal cords and that was why she couldn't talk. Eventually, her voice came back. The first thing she said once she was able to speak was asking if Katie was okay. The news of her friend's death was a crushing blow. As sad as she was over a friend's murder, Crystal knew the only chance of catching the bearded man was if she could gather her strength and tell police what she knew. When she was well enough, she gave them a full description and they did a sketch. Then the police went to work with their resources and put together all the criminals that they knew of who may have done this. When police had assembled a photo lineup, she picked him out of the bunch. The photograph she pointed to was that of Tommy Lynn Sells. Tommy Lynn Sells was raised by his aunt in Holcomb, Missouri before eventually returning back to the care of his mom once she found out the aunt wanted to adopt him. He had a twin sister who had died when they were 18-month-old-form meningitis. Sells would later tell people that when he was 8 years told he began spending time with a person named Willis Clark. Willis he claims molested him with the consent of his own mother. He said the abuse affected him greatly and the reason why he committed evil acts. Tommy Lynn Sells was a very bad man with a long criminal history. From 1978 to 1999 he hitchhiked and train hopped across the United States leaving a trail of crimes behind him. Tommy drank heavily and abused drugs. In 1990 Sells was sentenced to 16 months in prison for stealing a truck in Wyoming. At that time he was diagnosed with a personality disorder and doctors felt that he was bipolar and very depressed. In May of 1992 a 19-year-old girl from Charleston, West Virginia was driving when she came across Sells who was panhandling under an overpass while holding a sign that Reed will work for food. This girl felt sorry for Tommy so she picked him up and took him to her home while asking him to wait outside while she got food for him. By the time she came back he was now standing inside her house. He trapped her in a bedroom and then raped her. Tommy was arrested for this vicious crime. He stabbed the woman 18 times and raped her which led to him being indicted on five counts of rape and felony assault in the fall of 1992. Tommy ended up taking a plea deal and was sentenced to just two to ten years in prison. The rape charges were dropped. In prison he married Nora Price and when released in 1997 he moved to Tennessee to live with his wife. After Crystal picked Tommy out of a line up the police now had their suspect and knew who they were looking for. The police tracked down Tommy Lynn Sells and got to his home in the early hours of the morning around the same time he had attacked the girls. He opened the doorway without any sort of resistance and told them, unabashedly, I'm glad I finally got caught, I was tired of doing this. They arrested him for murder and told him that this time he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Meanwhile, Crystal, Mark and their mother sat in her hospital room, keeping her company as she recovered from her near-death experience. The phone rang. It was the police calling to tell them that she had been right. The killer was indeed Tommy Lynn Sells and the police now had him in custody. It was a weight off their shoulders knowing this man who did this was not free to attack again, but Crystal felt somewhat unfulfilled. Crystal felt as though the news of Sells capture was bittersweet. Her friend was dead, she'd nearly died, and now the killer was brought to justice and would be punished. He couldn't hurt anyone anymore. Everyone kept telling her how brave she was, even as she testified against him. But all Crystal could think was that she wasn't brave, just lucky. She continued to feel guilt that she survived and her friend did not. Further investigation led police to believe that the attack on the girls was due to the killer having noticed Katie's burgeoning beauty. The window to her bedroom was open, he saw her as he passed, and he wanted her. He even cut her broth before having slashed her throat. On his way to jail, they learned it was not an isolated incident. I guess you want to know about the other murders, he said. He now had the police's attention. Tommy Sells was interrogated for hours and during the course of the discussion, admitted to having committed a total of 22 murders. The police were totally astonished by all of his admissions and had no idea they had a serial killer in their interview room. He was a cold-blooded serial killer of the worst kind. My daddy told me a long time ago, dead men tell no tales, explained the unabashed killer while smirking. Sells was subsequently put on trial and Crystal Searles testified against him. Sells began to tell many tales to authorities of his life of crime. One was the Dardine family murders in Illinois that he claims to have committed. The state's attorney's office declined to prosecute the case of the quadruple killing. The state's position was that they felt he had been making it up. There were facts of the killings made public and other facts that were not. Since Sells only spoke to the public facts the state felt that he was lying and did not in fact commit the crime. In 2004 while at this point in jail Sells decided to reach out to authorities and confess to another crime that he claimed to have committed. This crime happened in 1997 in which he claimed to break into the home of a little boy. He further went on to say that after breaking into the home he took a knife from a butcher block in the kitchen and stabbed the little boy to death and fought with a woman. Those details were corroborated by Julie Harper who was initially convicted of the murder of her own son. Sells' admission allowed her to go free. Sells who was convicted for killing Katie and many other crimes he admitted to was ultimately given the death sentence. In January of 2014 the judge set his execution date to April of that year. Sells death sentence was carried out by the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville. When asked if he would like to make any final statements Sells replied no. A minute after the lethal dose was administered Sells closed his eyes and took his last breath. Today Crystal has healed from her wounds both physical and psychological. For a young girl to go through a traumatic experience like that will have a very lasting effect on them mentally and physically. Crystal in an interview said I don't ever think about Tommy Lynn Sells. I don't ever give him the time of day. He's dead to me. And indeed he's dead to the world as well.