On 18 November 1987, police implemented a welfare check at the Dardeen’s mobile family home after the father, Keith Dardeen, failed to report to work. They found the bodies of his wife, Elaine, and son, Peter, at the scene. Keith’s body was discovered in a nearby field the next day.
At the scene, police also recovered the body of Elaine’s unborn baby. She was found next to her deceased mother and brother, Peter. Investigators determined that Elaine must have gone into labour and delivered her baby after sustaining severe trauma.
All three were bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat before being tucked into bed. When Keith was not found at the scene, the police initially considered him the prime suspect.
The next day, his body was discovered in a nearby field. He had been shot and sexually mutilated. Investigators also determined that he had been killed hours earlier than his family.
Jefferson County residents, where the family resided, were already on edge because of several local murders that had happened during the preceding two years. After receiving the news of the newest massacre, some residents decided to arm themselves.
Law enforcement and investigators considered all possible angles, from drug trafficking violence to satanic rituals. It was also determined that robbery or rape was probably not a motivating factor for the killers.
Kevin Harris, who was Keith’s best man at his wedding, stated the couple were some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. “It’s hard to imagine how somebody can do something like this.”
Who were the Dardeens
Both of the Dardeens went by their middle names, Keith and Elaine. Before 1986, Keith had been a resident of Mount Carmel in Wabash County, Illinois. This was 30 minutes away from the small town of Ina. His wife, Elaine, was from Albion, which was just as close. She found a job at an office supply store in Mount Vernon.
The reason Keith and his wife wanted to move close to Ina, ironically, was the perceived safety and hominess of the small town community.
In 1986, Keith purchased a trailer after completing his training to become a treatment plant operator at the Rend Lake Water Conservancy in Southern Illinois.
The large trailer sat on a patch of land he had rented from a couple who owned a farm. They had no close neighbours, and the land was surrounded by family fields. Both were also active in the local Baptist church. Keith sang as a lead vocalist, while Elaine played the piano.
However, as time passed, Keith noted the area was becoming too violent. Fifteen murders had occurred in the county in the previous two years, which was exceedingly high for such a rural area with a small population.
This was so severe that he regretted having moved to the area. Keith’s mother, Joeann Dardeen, said he was prepared to move back to Mount Carmel even if it meant losing his current job.
Elaine was also pregnant with their second child, which was extra motivation for the two to move out of the area. Later that year, they put the mobile home up for sale in preparation for the move.
There was an occasion where a woman had visited their trailer after her car broke down. She requested to use their house phone to call for assistance. Keith was so paranoid that he only let her use the phone through the front door.
On the weekend of November 14, 1987, the family visited Elaine’s side of the family in Mount Carmel. They spent some time together before the Dardeens came back to the trailer. Elaine also called her family to tell them they were all back home safely. That would be the last time anyone heard from them.
The Murder of the Dardeen Family
On November 18, Don Dardeen received a call from Keith’s supervisor at the Rend Lake facility, who said he had not shown up for work. This was quite uncharacteristic of him, as Keith was known to be very reliable. For him not to call ahead to say he was not coming in meant something was wrong.
Keith’s supervisor drove over to the family’s trailer and knocked on the door, but no one came to answer. Don also called the home, and there was no answer. It was at this time that he called the Jefferson County sheriff’s office.
They agreed to meet at the trailer home with the house key. Don noticed that Keith’s 1981 Plymouth was missing, so they hoped that they had driven off to an emergency. They still took the necessary precautions, and the deputies let themselves in.
Initially, everything seemed normal and in place until they came to the horrific sight in the bedroom. They found the bodies of Elaine, Peter, and the newborn tucked in bed. The room itself was covered in excessive blood spatter.
Zeroing in on the victims, Elaine was bound and gagged with duct tape. The murder weapon, a bloody baseball bat, was left on the floor. Keith had gifted Peter the same baseball bat for his second birthday. Hence, he was immediately considered a suspect.
Despite the reassurances of his father that Keith had nothing to do with the killings, a contingent of armed police went to his mother’s house in Mount Carmel as part of the manhunt.
The search soon ended when Keith’s Plymouth was found parked outside a police station in Benton. This was 11 miles from the crime scene. The interior of the vehicle was drenched in blood.
A group of hunters found Keith’s body in a wheat field not far from the trailer almost immediately after. He had been shot three times, and his penis was severed. The shot placements were to the front of his forehead, the right side of his face, and the left cheek.
Investigations into the Dardeen Murders
The murders created an increased paranoia and hysteria among local residents. Many began stockpiling guns and ammunition. Police were also mystified by the gruesome nature of both scenes and the lack of a motive to reach that level of violence.
It was not a robbery because valuables, such as a portable camera and a VCR player, remained untouched. A small amount of marijuana was found at the Dardeen home, but it was too small to indicate dealing or trafficking. This was ruled a distraction intended to lead investigators down the wrong trajectory. No drugs or alcohol were found in Keith’s system as well.
Local agencies assisted the Illinois State police in investigating the murders. 30 detectives were working full-time to generate leads, but it yielded no results. They eventually cleared everyone who had been taken in for questioning due to insufficient evidence.
Coroners placed the time of death of the father and the rest of the family within hours of each other. This made it more complicated because Keith’s body was found away from the trailer.
It means the killer or killers may have murdered him away from the house, driven his vehicle to the police station, and come back to finish off the family. The fact that they had time afterwards to tuck the family into bed means it could have happened at night.
Police also found zero evidence of extramarital affairs, which could have instigated a third party to act in this manner. They did find some papers with sports scores and considered that Keith may have had gambling debts. This was overruled when Joeann revealed that her son was so frugal and was raising money for Peter’s college fund by reselling soda cans.
The potential that it was a satanic ritual was also thrown out because perpetrators of this type of killing typically did more damage, left symbols at the scene, and harvested organs of the victims. None of which was done. It was clear that the killings were very personal.
Joeann considered that someone may have liked Elaine, but she refused his advances, and that person expressed their rage by killing her and the rest of the family. These hypotheses were not based on any concrete leads.
The trail went cold and throughout the 1990s, Joeann consistently tried to drum up public support to keep the case alive. She also frequently called one detective who was still assigned to the case.
The Oprah Winfrey Show denied her request to air the story because it was considered too dark for daytime television.
Law enforcement also considered serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz. He did surrender to the police in 1999, but during his tenure as a murderer, he was known to beat his victims to death. However, the police were never able to link him to the murders.
Tommy Lynn Sells
Before Tommy would become a part of this tragic story, at least to the public, he would be caught for the murder of one girl in Del Rio, Texas. On New Year’s Eve, Tommy attacked two girls in their beds and cut their throats. One of them survived and helped police identify Tommy Lynn Sells.
This led to a murder and attempted murder conviction. It eventually earned Tommy a spot on death row, and that is when he began confessing to previous murders.
Like Angel Resendiz, Tommy would travel across the states, hopping freight trains. He would survive through manual labour, but it also gave him access to many potential victims. Tommy claimed that he did not know how many he had killed over the years, and some details of their murders.
Now, he spends some time in Jefferson County, but whether he met and murdered the Dardeen family has never been completely proven. In the late 80s, Tommy lived near St. Louis, which is 90 miles northwest of Jefferson County.
Tommy claimed to have been a frequent hitchhiker. On one of these trips, he mentioned coming across Keith at a truck shop. He said that Keith invited him home for dinner, and he obliged. In this account, Keith propositioned Tommy to a threesome with Elaine.
Tommy said that this angered him, and he pulled a gun on Keith before forcing him out of the house to drive to an undisclosed location. He killed and mutilated Keith before coming back to the house to do the same to Elaine, as well as Peter.
In the interview, he stated, “I was just so pissed off that I took it to the maximum limit … Rage doesn’t have a stop button.” He implied that this is why he also killed the newborn infant.
Unfortunately, Tommy was known to lie often about the murders he committed and those he didn’t. In one instance, he changed the story completely, saying he got off a freight train that he hopped near Ina.
When he saw the ‘for sale’ sign on the trailer, he considered it an opportunity. In this account, he drank some beers and waited for the evening. Tommy knocked on the door and told a suspicious Keith that he wanted to buy the trailer.
He overpowered Keith, made him bind Elaine with duct tape, and forced him at gunpoint to drive his Plymouth to a nearby field. He claimed to have cut Keith’s penis, shot him, and come back to the trailer. There, he raped Elaine before beating them to death.
Police who interviewed Tommy stated he knew details about the crime that were not available to the public. However, in some instances, investigators considered that Tommy may have been guessing the details. When Tommy was asked about the positioning of Elaine’s body, he got it wrong in his first answer, then right in his second.
Police in Illinois wanted to take Tommy back to Ina so they could assess how well he knew the area and tie him more effectively to the crime. However, prisoners on death row in Texas are not allowed to be taken out of state. So, they did not file murder charges against him for the murders.
Initially, Joeann was sure that this was the man who had killed her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. She still wanted to talk to him and clear any doubt about it in her mind.
Tommy expressed hesitation, saying Joeann had a right to scream, kick, and yell at him, but no apology could ever give her closure. He reiterated that it would not stop the pain. The two did not get to talk, and Joeann changed her mind, saying she knew for certain that Tommy did not do it.
Tommy Lynn Sells was executed by lethal injection on April 3, 2014, at the Huntsville unit in Texas. The investigation into the Dardeen murders remains open, but the trail is cold pending further evidence.
Anyone with information about the Dardeen family murders is encouraged to contact the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at (618) 244-8004 or email them at sheriff@jeffil.us. Please submit any tips through Jefferson County dispatch at (618) 244-8805.
