The Dardeen Family

September 19, 2025·50 min·4 clips

In 1987, a young family was brutally murdered in their home, with a pregnant mother bludgeoned after giving birth.

The Dardeen case starts in Ina. The host places the family in a Jefferson County village of about 2,500 people, nearly 300 miles south of Chicago. It does not feel far away once she starts talking. She warns that the murders are among the worst she has covered, then keeps circling the part that still matters: a young family was brutally murdered in 1987, a man later confessed, and nobody can say with clean certainty that he was responsible. Nearly 40 years have passed. That long gap gives the episode its shape, because the host has to sit with the horror, the doubt, and the family's need for answers all at once. The case went cold. Even after thousands of investigative hours, she says investigators still could not find the pieces they needed. Then 2000 arrives. A Texas confession brings in Tommy Lynn Sells, described by investigators as a 35-year-old drifter accused or suspected in multiple states. The relief, if there is any, comes with a warning: an accused person is not guilty unless proven in court. So the story shifts to Del Rio, Texas, on December 31st, 1999, where two girls were asleep when Sells entered. Crystal Searles's account, sourced to CBS in the excerpt, gives the confession weight without letting it become a shortcut. Jefferson County stays close. The host also connects the Dardeen murders to another unsolved case, now known as Susan Lund, which adds to the fear around that time. Still, certainty never lands. By the end, the hope is smaller and more human: identification, continued work, and the chance that someone finally talks.

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