48 Hours - Krystal's Courage

10-year-old Krystal Surles was attacked on December 30, 1999, with her friend Kaylene Harris at her Del Rio, Texas home. A knife-wielding intruder slashed both girls’ throats and Kaylene died. Krystal not only survived the attack but was able to help a police sketch artist draw an image that led to the arrest of her attacker, Tommy Lynn Sells. After his arrest Sells confessed to the crime and revealed that he had been traveling across the country killing men, women, and children for twenty years and had never in the past left a witness alive. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 9/4/2010. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+.

Duration: 42m
Broadcast on: 28 Dec 2023
Audio Format: other

[Music] December 1999, I was in first grade. My older sister, Crystal and I were staying with friends in Del Rio, Texas, waiting for my family in Kansas to move there with us. [Music] I was seven and my older sister, Crystal, was 10, and we were just moving down to Del Rio, Texas to start a new life with our family. I remember my sister as being kind of bossy, and the age different was big, and we just didn't get along very well. [Music] We stayed at the Harris family's house, and they had a big family. The oldest son Sean, Justin, Lori, and Katie. And they lived kind of out in the desert, like there wasn't a lot of people close to them. It was off in the middle of nowhere. [Music] I was sleeping directly across the hallway from the room, Crystal and Katie were sleeping in. I was going to sleep on the floor next to the bed, but they didn't want me in there, and I was made to leave. When I couldn't sleep in the room, I was so mad, and I remember I just laid in bed for like two hours, just fuming. I was just so mad. I wanted to be in that room. [Music] I woke up to the sign coming through the window, and I sat up, and I saw a lady standing in my room that I didn't know, and she just handed me a pair of shorts and a purple tank top and said, "Put the sign we got to go." Directly, maybe five steps away from my door was just a stream of blood. It looked like somebody was stumbling, was holding on to things, or his blood on the wall, and it was everywhere, and then there was more outside. I just remember seeing it all the way down the front steps, and just off into the street. When somebody was hurt, I saw the blood, I can see everybody crying, everybody was frantic, I just wanted to know what was going on. On December 31, 1999, I had a phone call at close to six o'clock in the morning as I was preparing to move from Kansas to Texas. It was a velverty emergency room asking me for my permission to lifelike crystal she had been attacked, and I said, "Absolutely, lifelike, or where?" And they said, "San Antonio." I didn't know anything other than Crystal had had a throat cut. If I looked her in her eyes, I would know if she was going to make it. I first received the phone call regarding this attack. Second homicide at 5.30am on December 31. When I walked into the crime scene, which was identified as the Harris residence, there was a bedroom, which I learned two small girls were sleeping in. On the floor was a deceased young girl, the crime scene was extremely bloody. The murder victim was identified as 13-year-old Kayleen Harris, who normally went by Katie. Katie Harris was a very popular, 13-year-old, beautiful young girl who had everything in the world going for, a young girl who fought very bravely for a life. We knew a 10-year-old girl had survived Crystal Surals. At that point in time, we didn't know to the extent of her injuries, and that was our

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