Krystal's Courage | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] o [Music] [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 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 sisters being kind of bossy and the age different was big and we just didn't get
along very well we stayed at the Harris family's house and they had a big family the
oldest son Sean then uh Justin Lori and Katie and they 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
[Music] nowhere 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 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 2 hours just
just fuming I was just so mad I wanted to be in that room I woke up to the sun 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 this on 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 was blood on the
wall and just 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 I knew somebody was her I saw the
blood I could see everybody crying everybody was frantic I just wanted to know what was going
on on December 31st 1999 I had a phone call at close to 6:00 in the morning as I Was preparing to
move from can us to Texas it was a VY emergency room asking me for my permission to lifel Crystal
she had been attacked and I said absolutely LIF lighter where and they said San Antonio I didn't know anything other
than Crystal had had her throat cut if I looked her in her eyes I would know if she was going to make
[Music] it after first received the phone call regarding this attack and homicide at
5:30 a.m. on December [Music] 31st 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
uh the crime scene was extremely bloody um the murder victim was identified as 13-year-old Ken 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 her a young girl who fought very bravely for her life and we knew a 10-year-old girl
had survived Crystal sirls uh at that point in time we didn't know to the extent of her injuries uh and that was
our only hope as far as any surviving [Music] witness when I got in her room I saw
this little girl with all of these tubes and the one of the machines was was breathing for
[Music] her she looked like this baby in this humongous bed and I looked her in her eyes and I
said are you okay Angel mommy's here I knew that a guy had slit her wi pipe completely and nicked her vocal
cords and then she kept asking me is Katie okay is Katie okay and I couldn't tell her I couldn't tell
her anything it hurt all but I think just that Katie she helped me through everything her soul came up and like
stayed with me as soon as I woke up from surgery I was ready to [Music] talk and my mom was like you know
Crystal we have to wait till the police get there the detectives and things like
that when we initially walked into the room we told Crystal who we were and uh at that point in time I assured Crystal
that we are going to arrest the person or persons who did this to her and I at that point in time I was hoping I could
back that up I felt like it was her story and when she was ready and comfortable she would tell me what she
wanted to tell me about it [Music] we went to bed kind of late but I remember I woke up to like a
[Music] scream I was on the top bunk of the bed and I just popped my you know popped my
head up a little bit and I was looking around um I never set up fully or anything but the light was on so I could
see I could see at the end of the bed um this scary guy he had scruffy hair long dark curly
hair and a big scary long bushy beard that you know just took over his whole face and then his eyes were just dark
and and [Music] mean but then I I saw that Katie had blood on her and that he had a knife in
his hand he had a knife across her throat and his hand on her mouth and he just cut her
throat she fell to the ground he still didn't notice I was in the room and he was getting ready to
leave he opened the door almost had the light off looked one last time and and he saw me looking at
him I was trying to scoot to the right side of the bed cuz he was on the left he just reached over and cut my throat
like this and then I just remember laying there and the light turning off and I heard the door
shut I was laying there thinking has he been to the other rooms does he know that the whole family is here you know
is everybody hurt are they all dead and so I got on my hands and knees and I was
crawling across the floor in the bedroom and I came across Katie on the floor she
was kind of making um a gasping noise or maybe she was choking um but then I was trying to
comfort her I I laid next to her rubbing her back and and that's when I realized
I couldn't talk cuz all I wanted to say was everything's going to be okay everything's going to be okay but I
couldn't and then I mean as soon as she stopped making those noises I had this feeling you know get
out of here get up come on go don't lay here go it was dark outside I was in my pajamas
no shoes nothing and I just decided I saw a light in the distance I was like that's my goal that's where I need to be
um I just got on the road and walked really slow to that light really all I could think about was
just get to this house just get to this house just get to this house and I just banged on their door and I I hear a
gentleman he's like who's there who's there you know I can't and I can't talk so I'm just banging as hard as I can on
the door and then he opens the door I have a little girl just rang my [Music] doorbell I'm lucky to not be in that
room and I'm lucky to have an amazing sister that could handle being in that room I wouldn't have made it like
Crystal did we had a forensic artist that was stationed in Midland Texas at the time
she was contacted and brought to University Hospital I couldn't get the picture out of my head and it amazes me
how good that they sketched it compared to how we really looked at the time because it was so perfect uh we entered
Crystal's room uh woke her up and I explained to Crystal I told Crystal we have a photo lineup and if you see the
man that uh was in that residence that that did this to y'all please put your finger on him you could see her eyes
moving from one individual photograph to the next and then you could see that she
came back and and focused in on one photograph and I was standing beside her when she did this and Crystal took her
right index finger and put it on the photograph of Tommy lils [Music] [Music] Tommy Lind sales at that point in time
became our number one suspect [Music] once we received the a positive identification from Crystal we uh turned
around and headed back toward Del R which is a 2 and 1 half hour drive from San Antonio the valy County Sheriff's
Office had handled Tommy Lind sales before on on some accusations that were made U there in Del Rio against him
when we got to Tommy Lynn residence uh it was approximately 5:30 in the morning uh we knocked on the door it was opened
we went right on in and we're met near the front doorway by Tommy ly sells his comment
was I'm glad I finally got caught I was tired of doing this and then we told him
he was under arrest for murder the murder weapon was an 11-in butcher knife it had been sharpened
throughout the years so many times that it was such a thin blade and it was recovered Beyond his residence where he
told us he had discarded the [Music] knife I remember the phone ringing in the room
and me answering it and them telling me that they had caught Tommy Lin cells and I remember turning to Crystal and
telling her and she was like yeah but at that point it wasn't about him it was about
Crystal we would take uh walks in the morning and afternoon and Crystal was walking along with her IV and stopped to
get a drink of water and the the water fountain of course they're kind of shiny and that's the first time that she
saw her neck was in the water fountain and so then she you know like she I knew she wanted to get to a mirror
she cried for a little bit but she knew that it would get better I think it it brought back some
of what she was going through she was like Crystal it it happened there's nothing
we can do now but look you're here you know and he's caught and then and think if this would have never happened he
would still be out there who would he be hurting right now I'm just lucky people
you know say I'm brave and and everything no I'm just lucky once Tommy ly sales was taken to
the valy county sheriff's office he was very willing to cooperate with us confessions were obtained from him as
well as his agreement to do a walk through of the crime scene you're doing this walk through with your own free
will oh yeah okay I thought this to be very odd uh hear this guy is under arrest for for murder and attempted
murder and his willing to cooperate with us to basically nail the nail in his coffin I walked over here L and behold
the window was left open that night which allowed access a lot easier then I came over here and there's
a little girl sleeping here [Music] [Music] and I stood here for a minute and then
then I looked in here and there's a two girls sleeping in here he explained which where the girls were lying uh he
explained he walked over to the bottom bunk where Katie was lying I I cut her bra and and I cut the out of
her uh whatever she was wearing I stabbed her here and then she like jumped back and then then
I and I walked over here and I went like this we felt like the motive in this murder and an attack on crystal uh was
sexual assault we did find out that Sals was Associated and and friends with the
Harris family and uh we feel like he specifically targeted Katie uh it it's frightening
that sales had also made a comment that he actually thought about killing the six people that that were in the
trailer one of the things that the um Rangers offered for me to kind of get a better idea of what Crystal had gone
through to to hopefully help her more in the recovery is to get to go through the
crime scene and see with my own eyes what actually had happened when I saw the crime
scene I literally felt like my legs were going to fall out from underneath me the
blood there was so much blood everywhere and it was all crystals except for that
one area where Katie was where she laid and died [Music] the little handprints of my
daughters I just can't even describe the helpless feeling that I felt but I needed
to go through that so I knew her every step so that I could better be there for her in the long run
[Music] you following Tommy's arrest and and on the way to jail he he was pretty quiet
and what kind of took us back more than anything was his comment I guess you want to know about the other
murders I asked the Rangers if I could sit on on that interrogation not knowing what their answer would be
but I'm a smart enough journalist to know that um in all the years I've worked in the news business I never sat
in on interrogation and I guess it's a reporter's Instinct uh to ask for things that they normally can't have in all my
years of Investigations I I've never allowed journalists in the same room with suspects but we knew at that this
point in time that that we could use assistance from getting his story out Nationwide uh in hopes of finding other
victims who possibly could could have survived I sat in an interrogation room for hours listening to Tommy lyells go
from state to state to state uh talking about the people he killed the men he killed the women he killed the children
he killed this is two females and it happened in ' 91 close to cab Creek that's when I realized we were dealing
with a serial killer a cold-blooded serial killer daddy told me a long time ago that man
tells no tell I remember that to this day we spent the next nine months with Sals on additional homicides that he
claimed to have committed in the months and months that we spent with Sals we have confirm that
he has committed 22 total murders you know you cover a story like this I have to tell you it if you have children
um you place your children in in in in their situation they were helpless they were sleeping uh they were totally
vulnerable and you've got this deranged killer climbing through the window with a knife that knife was the ugliest
looking knife I've ever seen in my life I don't think it gets any scarier than that people were happy to know that this
man was no longer going to be in society this man was no longer going to be able
to kill men women and children [Music] again going back to Kansas was a relief but at the same time I knew that I had
to eventually go back to Texas and testify in front of him um but you know I was ready I felt ready to do it I
wanted to [Music] the trial took place 9 months after the murder and and the headline here was
that 11-year-old Crystal Sirles was going to be the key witness the star witness for the
prosecution we knew that it was going to be explosive we knew that it was going to be emotional particularly for uh
Crystal CS because she had never Tommy ly cells since the night that he came to that house and slashed her
throat and she didn't know how she was going to react several days prior to the trial
Crystal was introduced to my two young daughters simply because I thought it might be a way for Crystal to put her
mind at ease and and take her away from what she was going to have to go through
and she stayed at us stayed with us at our residence uh and what made things even
harder was is that she would wake up during the middle of the night and and sit up in bed
screaming and uh knowing that she was having nightmares about it and I walk over here I cut
this uh Tommy's defense attorney he knew that he had a killer he was representing
a killer and um his only strategy was to try to keep Tommy lels off a death row I felt fine to know that I had to
eventually see him because I felt like he couldn't conquer me you know he had his chance and he obviously you know
didn't do what he wanted and and now look at him he was going to be in that trial room because of me and I liked
feeling that power I just had such a mindset that this is what I wanted to do um and this what I had to do I put my my
thoughts towards Katie like this is for Katie this she deserves this the day I had to testify I you know
I woke up I can do this I can do this I said mom don't cry please don't cry if I see you in the crowd balling
you're going to distract me you know no you're going to make me upset please don't and then when they called me down
I was like I'm ready I'm ready they you know said do you want to walk by him um you could either walk by him or just
walk through this door and get on um the stand and I said I want to walk by him I
am I'm not scared of him to see her walk into that courtroom with her chest out as she took the
witness stand uh she was there for business and uh she did it cuz his hand was over her
mouth whose hand was over her mouth his hand but when I got up there and then had to talk that's when my nerves came I
had to point him out and look at him and say that guy the man with the blue jacket and the
glasses yes that's whenever I realized that guy is right there now Crystal if you need for me to
stop at some point in time I'll stop I tried not to focus any attention on him though after I just had to point him out
he he was making me nervous he was shaking his leg and wouldn't even look up at me or
anything what was a defendant doing and what was Katie doing kti was okay he was it was just really overwhelming at
that point my emotions took over and and I couldn't answer any more questions when I seen Crystal break down on that
stand I wanted to run up there so bad and hug her and tell her it's going to be okay
but I'd made that promise to her the night before that I would not break down and it was the hardest thing I'd ever
done in my entire life so they had to do a recess for 15 minutes and pull me aside they just
pulled me to the back room my mom ran back there my you know attorney and everybody was just back there saying
Crystal you're almost done you can do it you can do it I wiped my tears and I went right back out there and I was I I
was on I was on it I did it I had to walk in front of the the jury and point out my scar and I had to
you know lay on this table that um and showed how I popped my head up is this how you were lying down
this out of this whole experience with sales that was probably the most difficult to sit ha
sit there and have to listen to U because you realize just exactly what she had to go through what she had
to do to try and survive can you tell us why you had your hands up close to your
neck because I saw what he did to Katie and I was scared he was going to do it to me I I think um Garcia the defense
attorney was taken with Crystal CS after Crystal testified he was smart enough not to try to cross-examine her in a
vigorous fashion you're a brave young woman thank you no more question for him to just say I don't have any
questions for you I was like really you know okay really you know you don't want
to ask anything he even his attorney just made me feel good about the whole situation like even though he had to be
there to defend him that he was still on my side as soon as I stepped off the stand
I felt so good and relieved very relieved just pressure off my shoulders I got through this
I'm fine you know and we're going to find out what's going to happen to him as soon the jurors went out to deliberate
um it was I don't know it was kind of an eerie feeling for a lot of people who were close to this trial because no one
thought it would be long but no one thought it would be as short as it was either when they came
back with the verdict it was an hour and 10 minutes [Music] they came back the jury walked into that
courtroom and announced to the court that they had found Tommy lenells guilty there was silence in the
courtroom and then there was relief uh when the verdict came in after the verdict came in uh the only question
was whether Tommy lyells would receive life in prison or whether Tommy lels would be put to death
we didn't know it at the time and even up to and even after the trial we didn't know that Crystal was keeping a lot
inside she was she had a secret and um and we wouldn't find out until much later what it
was there's not a doubt in my mind that has lost a lot if not most of her childhood she really has been a Survivor
her whole entire life with more than just Tommy linel I don't think that this tragedy
would have turned out the way it did unless she was brought up the way she was because it made her think it made her
strong and when the tragedy happened she knew what to do before it all really happened um Pam
and I we started using drugs before we knew it we were on a huge roll R coaster ride the drugs just
kind of took over we were getting in little bits of trouble here and there with the
law we were really fighting really bad I wanted a family I wanted a normal life I didn't want the drugs and
everything that comes with that lifestyle so I filed for divorce she just up and moved away she
got cleaned up in the meantime I had the girls some tough times there Crystal was
amazing from age 67 she was the mom she took care of everybody my dad would sleep for days at
at times um and I had to take care of my little sisters I me being in second grade they're younger than me they were
babies um changing my sister's diapers or feeding them um getting them to bed and getting myself up for school in the
morning [Music] I was kind of I I say it as a joke but it's true I was the stinky kid in class I mean I was
late to school every day I didn't really ever have time to take a shower I never
wore matching clothes I walked to school you never saw my parents or my sisters or anything I was just the random girl
at school way before the attack I just remember Crystal taking care of me she was there always she was the backbone in
our family for a really long time she was the strong one and she was little Crystal took on the mother the Father
the everything roll she did everything for our [Music] family she always did everything she
cleaned the house and cooked for us and she always cared about us more than she cared about
herself when she got clean my mom decided to take us girls with her and she came and picked us up from my dad
and at that point my dad was still choosing to do the things that he you know he was doing before I couldn't quit
using I couldn't quit dealing I I became mad at my dad like you're choosing this
over us this doesn't make any sense you know do you not love us I remember for a couple weeks just
listening to the other kids outside that they played with they were coming over asking for him I had to tell them they
were gone we were gone for quite some time and then in that time frame he got caught for what he was
[Music] doing when my dad went to prison she was mad at him for a really long time and
she stopped taking his calls and she was just angry because she felt why can't you be here Dad why can't you help me
and he couldn't and it made her mad whenever you know the attack happened um and I knew that my dad
couldn't come it it devastated me I wanted him to be there just like my mom was but I knew that he couldn't be
eventually as years went on people were curious like oh yeah you know where was your dad you know stepping back out of
the situation and then it's kind of like well he wasn't there [Music] I um was in Ada County Jail I'd been
there about 3 months I got a visit at 10:00 a.m. which uh it's not visiting time I remember
walking down the hall and at the end of the hall I could see my mom and my sister I sat down and my mom proceeds to
tell me that Crystal had been attacked I I just can't express the emotions they just started pouring
out it's probably a good thing I was locked up though so I'd have killed that son of a
Tommy Linds was convicted of capital murder and then the state went into phase two of of this capital murder
trial well we're shooting for the death penalty you know that's what we want for
him to get and then we're like is that really what we want you know we're not the type of people to ever wish wish
death upon anybody the judge gave the case to the jury the jury went out and deliberated
and uh within a few hours they came back in and uh they decided to give Tommy Lin
cells the death penalty he has done his fair share where he deserves it but took me a long time
to realize that I've never been the type of person to feel good about something so bad you know it was weird it was very
awkward certainly the jury wasn't aware of the gruesome details and and all the other homicides that sales has committed
and it's almost as if you feel like when he received that death penalty he's getting the that death penalty for all
the other homicides he's committed I thought he he received exactly what he what he deserved I mean
Sals is is an animal inside a human body it was time for us to get back to everything as normal as possible we had
lost that but that's what we were fighting to get back [Music] I believed in Crystal from the beginning
I knew she went through her phases I knew she was sad but I knew I knew her and I knew she would come through it
there was no doubt in my mind there was no doubt in my parents' mind Crystal was
going to come through this because that's who Crystal was my mom and my two younger sisters and me all slept in the
same bed um probably for like 2 years and uh I slept not very [Music] good they would be sleeping and it would
be like 5:00 in the morning and I'm still awake just with my eyes open I'm not necessarily scared but I'm thinking
if somebody comes in this window I'm going to go out this window if somebody comes in this door I'm going to go out
this way I just had like a game plan and another weird thing was that I whenever that my family was sleeping I
would fill them just make sure that they were alive just [Music] breathing when the incident happened
with Crystal it was like a slap in the face that was the door that opened up that just said it just woke me up
said do you love your kids or not he was in jail for 3 years I honestly started forgiving him whenever
he got out he was on on the right path and I was very proud of him um he came you know to my graduation Crystal
[Music] [Applause] [Music] Floyd our relationship today is is a kind of a struggle she's now I feel like
she's still a kid and since I was locked up for a while you know I haven't been there as
to be a dad so now I think I'm overdoing it I I I need to back off a little bit but we're we're doing better every
day we do better he's making up for it he is slowly but surely everything's coming
together and I'm just lucky that I have this second opportunity or we both do to
um you know become father and daughter again she's proud of herself but she just finds it hard to be happy about
what she's done when Katie's dead I mean no matter if she puts this man away no matter if he's put to death no matter
what anything Katie's still dead and Crystal has done everything she can but she can't change
that of course I think about Katie I think about you know if she was here would we would we still be friends what
would she be doing maybe what would we be doing [Music] um but in the same sense I try not to
think about it too much it would make things too hard I think about this case basically
10 years after the fact simply because I drive by this crime scene almost daily uh have to pass by going to my Ranch uh
and there's not one time probably that I don't look over there and and look at that window that sails climb
[Music] through it's such a beautiful thing to see her with her sisters even today she
still is like a mother to them I take it back I take it back after the attack we became way closer it makes
you realize what you have and how fast you can lose it and I will never ever say bye to my sister mad I will never
say good night to her mad and I'll never ever be mad at her [Music] again so laughing I don't ever think
about Tommy L cells I don't ever ever give him the time a day he's he's dead to me just
it makes me really thankful that's what he did he didn't ever bring me down at all and these are happy tears just I'm
just glad to be [Music] here once you cover a story like this it becomes a part of you the people people
become a part of you virtually everybody Z you're a hero yeah yeah what do you think about
that I don't know I don't think I'm a hero exactly I think I'm just really really
lucky I've never met a youngster that brave before in my life I know a lot of adults who wouldn't be able to deal with
that hi I'm doing great it's so good to see you again good to see you too I could
consider him part of my family family part of that tightnit group I guess you could say so uh what about you
got a boyfriend yeah they said to me that I helped them through this um no they helped me get through it because they
were so strong together [Music]

A 10-year-old girl's story of survival and how she brought a serial killer to justice. "48 Hours"' Harold Dow reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Crystal Sirles survives a brutal attack, testifies against her attacker, and reflects on her traumatic experience and recovery.

Key points

A New Life Begins. In December 1999, a family moves to Del Rio, Texas, but chaos soon ensues.
The Attack. A horrific attack leaves two young girls fighting for their lives.
The Crime Scene. The aftermath of a brutal crime reveals a shocking scene.
Identifying the Suspect. Crystal identifies her attacker, leading to a shocking revelation.
Testifying in Court. Crystal bravely testifies against her attacker, facing her fears head-on.
Tommy Linells Found Guilty. The jury announces their verdict, leading to a moment of relief in the courtroom.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just wanted to know what was going on.

Reflecting on the chaos after the attack.

3:16WatchDec 3, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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