Tommy Lynn Sells was caught and his execution date has just been scheduled (for this April). Sells didn't kill the Routier boys.
Sells bypassed a young male teen, the mom, and a younger (10 yr old) sister, all sleeping, in that last crime. Sells specifically went in to the trailer to sexually assault the 13 yr old girl he did kill--she was his target. He cut off her clothes with his knife (he brought his own weapon, btw, unlike the Routier case). He later slit her throat twice (before any other stab wounds). Then the 2nd young gal whose neck he also slit (ie. his 2nd victim that night) nearly died--she was sharing a bunk bed and the reason she was attacked was because she was in the same room and thus was a witness. Her injuries, unlike Darlie's, really were life threatening. Her windpipe was severed.
The surviving victim was able to describe her attacker to the point where a sketch could be drawn up and circulated. That helped catch him.
Point is: Sells did have a motive and it was sexual assault.
What motive did the "intruder" into the Routier home have? Sexual assault? Robbery? He didn't do either of those things.
I never said Sells killed the Routier boys. I said he attacked two victims in the same attack and the victims had differing wounds. Darlie's wounds were also life threatening. She didn't exactly have a paper cut on her neck. The surviving witness in that case was also awake prior to the attack and witnessed everything done to her friend prior to her being attacked. Had the girl been asleep and only woke up during the attack on herself there is no guarantee she could have identified the guy.
The intruders motive may have been a sexual assault and/or robbery that went wrong. Crimes not panning out exactly as the perpetrator intended has been known to happen.
Point is: You have no idea there wasn't an intended crime that fell apart once he got in there.