TX TX - Tommy Lynn Sells

[jaejae]

These murders are absolutely horrific and I wonder if they have DNA:

Dardeen family homicides - Wikipedia

The Chilling, Unsolved Dardeen Family Murders

Who Actually Killed the Dardeen Family? : UnresolvedMysteries

Here is a list of multiple murder cases with the Dardeen Family Murders included:

https://listverse.com/2019/05/08/10-worst-unsolved-mass-murders-in-us-history/

 

[jaejae]

Here is a recent page about this killer:

Profile of the Coast to Coast Killer, Tommy Lynn Sells

 

[Kittybunny]

I just watched a show on Discovery ID, The Object of Murder, Second Episode that talked about a potential link to this unsolved murder that I haven't seen anyone mention here:

JoAnn Tate's murder and wrongful conviction of Rodney Lincoln

I do think Diane Fanning may have proposed a connection, it's never been investigated but the MO seems similar.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Has his unidentified victims ever been ID'd?

I am having a hard time finding a news source. But apparently Sells admitted to murders, one in 1988 in Salt Lake City, Utah, a unknown woman and her 3 year old son. Disposed of their bodies in Snake river in Idaho. Has any bones beem found nearby?

And also the 1989 murder of a unidentified prostitute in Truckee, California. A body was found in the place he mentioned. Has anyone found her Doe Network or NamUs profile?

Profile of the Coast to Coast Killer, Tommy Lynn Sells

 

[blackbeary]

I'm hoping that the Dardeen family massacre is still being investigated around Ina,Illinois. Ina Jane Doe's case has been funded by grant money, and I can't help but wonder if there is any DNA available in the Dardeen's case?

 

[SolVic]

Sells is, without question, one of the most disturbing serial killers I’ve ever heard of.

He murdered, like, 23 people in some of the most sick and twisted ways imaginable. The Dardeen family homicide was so nightmarish to read about that I actually get uncomfortable describing it.

 

[FrankieFalzon]

Sells, like Lucas, made up almost all of his "confessions". For the Dardeen case, he used information supplied by a certain wannabe "author".

 

[sandy_80]

I'm hoping that the Dardeen family massacre is still being investigated around Ina,Illinois. Ina Jane Doe's case has been funded by grant money, and I can't help but wonder if there is any DNA available in the Dardeen's case?

no ..no physical evidence was found of any kind ...with the amount of savagery committed here with a double scary sexual mutilation .. how is it that no hand was cut or dna left ? its so baffling

 

[sandy_80]

I really need a perspective on his link to the dardeen case...
he does have very similar savage crime but that isnt a good enough reason
he clearly fantasise about being the most monstrous killer ..that this being one of the most sadistic might give him gratification
we dont know.. what he got right ...but some details unpublished he was guessing at
however there are a couple of points
he got one detail right according to some detectives .thats alleged to be only known by someone who went inside the dardeen home.. which is a set of watermelon ceramic

another point is telling two far fetched stories about why and how he commited the crime..he started by the absurd sexual fantasy one.. when it was rejected
he shifted to the drug hit job
now we have first to believe that keith was involved in drugs and that this monster was going around erasing families for money ..also this doesn't explain how he got access to the house without breaking in
i swear idk.. its like 50/50 possibility
I am really furious this monster enjoyed telling theses acts of evil and wasnt even tried for the other crimes ...cause they were killing him anyway some 15 years later with some injection ..thats no justice in my eyes

 

[Kell1]

Sells, prior to his execution had been analyzed by many professionals in the prison system over a period of years, along with being interviewed by investigators from the FBI and from several different states, and many felt that he made a number of false claims.

 

[FrankieFalzon]

Sells retracted almost all his "confessions" before the execution, openly admitting to making things up, using rumors, newspapers, case files and jail gossip as sources. In prison, he was fed information by a certain "writer" who wanted to promote herself. He was Texas's second Henry Lee Lucas.

 

[VikingBookLady]

What if Sells and Ramirez weren't even involved in the Dardeen murders?

Belleville Serial Killer?

Introduction On April 22, 1978 Elizabeth West, fourteen-years-old, disappeared after leaving Belleville Township Highschool. Her body was found May 4th, 1978 in a wooded area near Millstadt, IL. Elizabeth was strangled and hit in the head (Tuft, 1999). On July 7th, 1978, nurse aide Ruth Ann Jany...

www.themidwestcrimefiles.com

Dale Anderson--was he ever looked at? Impersonated a cop. Strangled/stabbed/bludgeoned a pregnant woman and her toddler son. Belleville and Ina are only about 70 miles apart. I sent an email to the Jefferson County Sheriff.

I am interested to know what everyone else thinks. I wonder if Anderson pretended to be a cop to get access to the Dardeen home. Then used gun, knife, and baseball bat.

 

[bearfossils]

Do the homicides of the Dardeen family have their own thread on Websleuths? If there was ever a crime that deserved to be definitively solved, it’s that one. The violence was beyond extreme. The only “proof” I’ve been able to ascertain of that Sells is responsible for the murders is that he supposedly knew information which wasn’t released to the public: IIRC, he was able to identify a set of watermelon ceramics which were inside the home.

 

[FrankieFalzon]

Do the homicides of the Dardeen family have their own thread on Websleuths? If there was ever a crime that deserved to be definitively solved, it’s that one. The violence was beyond extreme. The only “proof” I’ve been able to ascertain of that Sells is responsible for the murders is that he supposedly knew information which wasn’t released to the public: IIRC, he was able to identify a set of watermelon ceramics which were inside the home.

He guessed, and admitted it before execution:

The Serial Confessor (Updated)

Serial killers and false confessions.

www.crimeintime.com

He explained some of his correct guesses ("[The investigators] said: What did you see in the house? (...) I'm like: Well... there was some watermelon ceramic stuff, right? (...) How many houses [have] got some watermelon ceramics!"), as well as some of the means of gaining information that he sold to the investigators. He nostalgically described the trips to the scenes of "his" crimes as "an adventure", and fondly spoke of receiving free cigarettes any time he wanted, of being "treated like a king" and of getting constant breaks in the monotonous life on death row.

He based most of his fake "admissions" on information leaked during interrogations, prison gossip, and a woman who fed him details of the cases.

 

[Dennis Bridwell]

He guessed, and admitted it before execution:

The Serial Confessor (Updated)

Serial killers and false confessions.

www.crimeintime.com

He based most of his fake "admissions" on information leaked during interrogations, prison gossip, and a woman who fed him details of the cases.

I was still on a police department in Texas when the Joel Kirkpatrick Murder took place in Lawrence County Illinois, just south of Lawrenceville in 1997 but I moved back to my hometown in Lawrence County after my retirement in 2000 and was elected Sheriff in 2002. By the time I was elected, Julie Rea had already been convicted and was in prison at Dwight Correctional Center. I was called to testify at her second trial as to the reputations of two deputies that had been involved in the initial investigation, Dennis York and Rob Brown, as their personnel files had been stolen from my office shortly before I was called to testify. (Yes, this was quite suspicious) York was a young and aggressive deputy and many people had filed complaints on him for various and sundry reasons, this is what I had to testify to. Rob Brown had been found to have given information to people involved in the narcotics industry that had placed other law enforcement personnel in jeopardy and was no longer employed with my department. I testified to the fact that Brown was not an honest or trustworthy individual. These were truths that I testified to. My testimony probably did help the defense, but I was compelled to speak the truth. That said, I had access to the case files and saw the evidence of the case, I read the statements of Tommy Lynn Sells, and I had spoken with the Illinois State Police Crime Scene Tech Ric Caudell (who passed away shortly after I took office) about the case and in my personal opinion, Tommy Lynn Sells' story was a total fabrication, it was ridiculous and literally impossible for it to have taken place as he described it. The convenience store where Sells claims Julie Rea insulted him was a good three miles from her residence, he was on foot so unless he was the Bionic Man, he could not have followed her. Her residence was in a secluded area, hidden by many trees and not visible from the highway. Her residence was in the middle of a small subdivision so he would not have a way to have determined which house was hers at 2am. The crime scene had all of the earmarks of a staged scene. Nothing supported Julie Rea's version of what took place. Looking back, the only problem that I could see with how the scene was processed was that Julie Rea's parent's vehicle was not processed as part of the crime scene as I strongly suspect that they helped their daughter repair the scene. As I said, this is my personal opinion of this case.