Tommy Lynn Sells was born in Oakland, California on June 28, 1964, as one of five children to an unwed mother. Sells’ presumed biological father, Joe Lovins, died when Sells was 11. Sells and his twin sister, Tammy Jean, contracted meningitis when they were 18 months old; Tammy died from the illness. Shortly thereafter, Sells was sent to live with his aunt, Bonnie Walpole, in Holcomb, Missouri. It is not understood why exactly Tommy’s mother would constantly neglect him and pass him over to aunts and grand mother – however – she did.
There is no mistaking that this would have lifelong effects on Tommy that would damage his life and most people that came into contact with him.
When he was five years old, he was returned to his mother after she discovered that Walpole (his aunt) wanted to adopt him. At the age of seven, Sells began regularly drinking alcohol obtained from a supply stash belonging to his maternal grandfather. Within a year, he was socialising with an adult man named Willis Clark, who Sells alleged began molesting him. Sells also claimed his mother encouraged the relationship, which traumatized and further impacted him greatly. Full Story in Lounge Bar Crime’s Patreon
Elizabeth Diane Downs (née Frederickson; born August 7, 1955) is an American criminal who murdered her daughter and attempted to murder her other two children near Springfield, Oregon in May 1983. Following the crimes, she made claims to police that a man had attempted to carjack her and had shot the children. She was convicted in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison plus fifty years. She briefly escaped in 1987, but was quickly recaptured. Downs has been repeatedly denied parole and psychiatrists have diagnosed her with narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders, with one labelling her as a “deviant sociopath.”
A compulsive liar – she would stick her story of what happened that night. But in actual fact the stories began to get more elaborate. You can see watching her in this interview she loves the limelight, the showmanship. It is as though the more attention she gets regarding this case – the more it feeds into her narcissism.
Even to this day Elizabeth Diane Downs will not admit the truth. Her own child telling her, they know what happened that night – does not seem to nudge her in the right direction. Whatever is going on in Diane Downs head regards that day – she is sticking with – apart from adding her own sprinkle of drama to it.
Thankfully the children were adopted into loving homes where they were brought up with normality in their lives.