by Elizabeth Hall
Tommy Lyn Sells is the closest I
ever came to a serial killer. I write this entry to the memory of Haley McHone
who was murdered by Sells, in Lexington Kentucky on May 13, 1999 in Lexington,
Kentucky. Haley and her family were regular customers of mine at the Dairy Mart
I worked at during that year. She was only 13 years old when she crossed paths
with Sells.
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| photo credit: murderintherain.com |
Before I go into his actual story,
I will tell you what I remember about that time. Haley had shopped at the Dairy
Mart the day before she went missing, in fact, she was there almost every day
to buy candy, drinks and snacks just like any other 13-year-old girl. Haley was
pretty normal, albeit just a little slow in maturity and intelligence. The next day her mother came in asking if we
had seen her, and sadly the answer was no.
Apparently, Haley crossed paths
with Tommy Lynn Sells sometime shortly after she left the store the previous
day. The police came in and asked the usual questions, but no one had seen her
or the guy she might have been with. Unfortunately, the store was located just
off campus of the University of Kentucky and close to the railroad tracks
running through Lexington. Another killer used these same tracks to murder a
college aged boy and girl two years prior to this case, Angel Resendiz, The
Railroad Killer.
It took 10 days to find Haley’s
body, which was badly decomposed. I remember the police came in the store
buying drinks for their team and when I asked “is there any news he shook his
head sadly and said it was bad. I instantly felt so sorry for her family and
could not believe that had happened so close to where I was. He could have even
come in and bought something and I would not have known it was him. When she
was found she had been strangled with her own T-shirt after he raped and
abducted her. Afterward he covered her body up with debris he found laying
around and probably hopped the next train he saw.
Tommy Lynn Sells
Born on
June 28, 1964, in Oakland, California, to an unmarried mother with four other
children, one of them his twin, did not give the greatest start to Tommy Lynn
Sell’s life. His twin sister and Sells
both contracted meningitis when they were but a few months old. He survived but
his sister did not. His mother sent him to live with an aunt, however after
being away from her for two years his mother took him back because the aunt
wanted to legally adopt him. He began substance abuse at the tender age of
seven when he began drinking alcohol.
His mother allowed him to be
molested by a male friend of hers when he was eight, and at ten he began his drug
use. Three years later Sells climbed naked, into his grandmother’s bed, and by
the time he reached the teenage years he was kicked out at just 13 to fend for
himself. Not an easy childhood for Sells. His mother and the other children
left town when this happened, and he responded with a violent assault on a
female before he caught the train and began his journey. In his early 20’s he began
his killings, in multiple states including California, Missouri, New York,
Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, and Kentucky. By the time he was arrested on January
2, 2000 in Del Rio Texas he is reported to have at least 7 confirmed victims
and up to 70 possible victims.
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