On December 18, 1988, Kent Lauten, a 51-year-old man described as a transient, was fatally stabbed in a makeshift hobo camp on the outskirts of Tucson near a freight-line corridor. Residents lived in tents and lean-tos and relied on odd jobs, panhandling, and shared resources; Lauten’s body was buried in a shallow grave near the camp and found about two days later. The unstable, mobile nature of the encampment and a shortage of steady witnesses left the investigation with few leads and the case went cold.

Years later serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells claimed he killed a transient man named Kent Lauten in Tucson in December 1988, saying the slaying arose from a dispute over drugs and that he stabbed and buried the victim—details that match the original case. Sells was never brought to trial in Arizona for Lauten’s killing, and no other suspects have been publicly identified. If anyone knew Kent Lauten, lived near the freight line, or has information about that camp in 1988, please share what is known.