20/20 - Evil at the Door

Episode Date: May 30, 2026

When a young woman goes missing and another is found brutally beaten nearby, detectives question if the events are connected. They discover one victim holds the answers to both crimes in her hand. Lea...rn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:44 An attractive young woman has just finished watching a fireworks display in a Fort Collins Park. And she starts walking home to her apartment. What she doesn't realize, though, is that she's being followed. This man breaks into her apartment. Before the night is over, the apartment is on fire. Massive flames coming out of the second story. This is a huge fire. Neighbors are calling 911.
Starting point is 00:01:15 911. What's the address of the emergency? There's a fire going on. Looks like the top floor. People barely have time to process the fire when a person comes flying out of the window. And she's alive. When paramedics get here, she is running towards them naked, trying to get them to help save her life. The media had no idea that she had been beaten and left for dead.
Starting point is 00:01:42 She was attacked so brutally that she couldn't see her life. that she couldn't speak. She couldn't say what had happened. She goes into a coma. It's horrible. But just 30 miles away in Denver, another woman's gone missing. Now everyone is wondering,
Starting point is 00:01:57 could these two crimes be connected? This can't just be a coincidence. Families plea for help. Their teenage daughter is missing, and their hope is fading for 19-year-old Kenya Monheim. There's no book on what you do when this kind of stuff comes up for a family of a missing. There ain't no book.
Starting point is 00:02:14 This is the unthinkable. You don't know what evil looks like till it comes knocking on your door. My name is Tony Lee. Locksmith's work. It's a very exact business. You can't be a hundredths of an inch off. If you're a hundredths of an inch off, this lock won't work. I have to keep my mind on the task at hand.
Starting point is 00:02:51 It gets me away from the thoughts, because the thoughts really never ever go away. It keeps you thinking and it keeps you not thinking, you know, at the same time. For Tony, working in his locksmith shop and focusing is a way of not thinking about the moment that changed his and his daughter's lives forever. One night in downtown Denver. Lower downtown, nicknamed Loto, was the place to be. All the bars are down there. All the kids run, go down there. It's filled with people going out, having fun with their friends.
Starting point is 00:03:41 So it's March 31st. It's springtime. It's a beautiful night. People are out and about. As far as the crime, very average of what you would see, maybe a bar fight, maybe somebody lost their ID, maybe somebody's phone got taken. Nothing like a violent or major crime. But now police have something very different on their hands, the disappearance of a 19-year-old woman who was last scene leaving one of those clubs. Her name was Kenya Monhe. This is me in Kenya. This was a night in with our friends.
Starting point is 00:04:30 We met in high school. We met one day and we never let go of each other. We were attached at the hip. I want half my face on my head. She was. always just happy and laughing and cracking jokes. People were naturally just drawn to her beauty and kindness. Kenya was from Honduras, and she came after her mom had already come here.
Starting point is 00:05:05 Kenya's mom was now married to a gentleman named Tony Lee. And from that day forward, there was never any question about you know our our our relationship tell daddy we used to go on our little road trips you know and we sing along she liked boys to men end of the road to the end to the end of the road till I can't let go we did a lot together Kimberly and Tony Jr her half siblings they love her they adore her they look up to her. Well, she had graduated from Cherry Creek High School and was going to MSU, Denver. She had her whole life in front of her.
Starting point is 00:05:58 She was just that typical young 19-year-old girl having fun. She was always listening to the latest songs. Her ring tone was a Batchata song, Tu Veneno by Aventura. And so anytime I hear that song, I just think of her. Me and another one of our friends were planning to meet with Kenya that night, and we made plans to just meet up downtown somewhere. I didn't know who she was with. She's out with two other girls.
Starting point is 00:06:46 This was not her normal group of friends. This was a new group of friends that maybe didn't know her as well. Eventually we were able to talk to Kenya's friends that she went out with that night, and they told us everything. So this is the bar that used to be called 24K where Kenya and our friends came that night. I want to say it was about 10 or 11 o'clock. We texted Kenya and she never responded. So we figured she's having fun. We'll run into her later. They met some guys when they walked in. They sat down. One of the booths had bottle service started drinking.
Starting point is 00:07:42 We even have a picture of them all together on that booth. There's Kenya at the table talking to these young men, they pour them drinks, they're drinking. Kenya was 4.11, 100 pounds. Drinking any amount of liquor affected her. Kenya gets up, goes to the bathroom. When she comes back, she's with some guy. Friends don't know who he is. They go back out. out to the dance floor, they started dancing. Kenya was dancing with someone and was just enjoying this person's company.
Starting point is 00:08:17 They're definitely flirting, having a good time. Meanwhile, she's left all of her belongings with her friends, her purse, her keys, and most importantly, her phone. Police are told that security at the bar warned Kenya and the man that they're getting out of hand and to try and cool things down. But soon after, the two of them
Starting point is 00:08:41 are actually kicked out of the club. And Kenya's friends don't see it happen. They don't know where she went. She just kind of disappears. They're looking for her, her friends that she came with. They're looking for her. They can't find her. They didn't know that they were asked to leave.
Starting point is 00:08:56 They don't know what happened to her. For whatever reason, they continue to hang out at the bar. And so she was really in the most vulnerable spot she could be in. Have no way to communicate, have no identification, no money, and you're dressed to be out at the bars. You know, it's just a bad combination. The girls that were out with Kenya, they can't find her. They were hoping she was home, but she hadn't come home.
Starting point is 00:09:30 In the morning, her other best friend called me and asked, have you seen Kenya? She's not answering her phone. I haven't heard from her. Have you talked to her? I'm worried. This isn't like her. And so, we don't.
Starting point is 00:09:47 know pretty quickly this isn't just somebody that you know ran away or isn't hasn't got home yet or ended up somewhere else and that this is not good especially when surveillance video of Kenya walking into this building with a man is uncovered and then a mysterious text comes in that immediately raises alarm bells the text message leads to everything else that follows Kenya becomes a missing person the officers an incredible job of going, just scouring that whole area for surveillance at any bar, restaurant, anything they could find. We don't know who she left with or where she went until we find surveillance here at this,
Starting point is 00:10:44 at the lofts at 15th in California. They're basically apartments. Detectives go there and they download surveillance and they see Kenya walking into the lobby with this person that she left the club with. Eventually, we learned who the stranger at the bar was, Chad Davis. It was his apartment building they walked into at around 1 a.m. He gives us an interview. He talks to us. She had heels on, and she was, like, you know, struggling to walk in him. So she took him off and was walking, and I was carrying her heels,
Starting point is 00:11:25 kind of had her like this, you know, walking her. From 24K bar to the lofts is a good 10, 15 minute walk. It's a ways. They come in, they talk here in the lobby, they go into the elevator. How long are you guys up there in the apartment? Not long, like 10 minutes. And then she realized that she left her purse or something, I guess, at the bar. I needed to go get it.
Starting point is 00:11:55 But instead of going back to the bar, what follows is a chaotic series of events. of events. Over the next hour or so, Kenya and Chad appear on a number of recordings, sometimes with each other, other times apart. Here, Kenya turns back from following Chad. Moments later, Chad reappears running back after her. And yet another time, Chad seems to have run downstairs to wait for Kenya at the elevator. We probably do that a couple times. They've gone up and up and down the stairs and I think she was behind me and she wouldn't be. And I mean, like I said, she was really drunk. It was really difficult to deal with, you know.
Starting point is 00:12:37 Chad at that point, escorted Kenya back downstairs. She's standing right here. He's in the elevator. And I don't know what they're saying. He says that he asked her to go back to his apartment. She says no. She starts to walk out of the building. Two guys walk in.
Starting point is 00:12:55 And he's still saying something to her. But we don't know exactly. because there's no audio to it. So she bumps into these two guys and they start talking to her. She tells them something, they confront Chad and then there's a scuffle that happens. He leaves up the elevator.
Starting point is 00:13:14 Then we see her on video. Kenya was alone in that lobby and she walked out those doors alone. Everything that Chad explained to us, we verified through the video. Grant background on him for any flags for anything that stood out. There was nothing.
Starting point is 00:13:35 And it was a closed door in every avenue that we took with Chad. I don't know how to her. I just feel bad now that I didn't either go with her or just have to stay in my place. It's about 2.15 a.m. Kenya walks across the street to the Hyatt Hotel, only about a minute away. Kenya is seen on video walking in the lobby, going in the direction of the women's restroom. she didn't appear to be stumbling, but walking. And the main thing was she was by herself.
Starting point is 00:14:08 Then she proceeds to walk alone on the street. But walk on the street to where? It's a huge mystery until a development that changes the entire case. Her phone is everything in this story. The next day, Kenya's friends bring her phone to her family. That was my first time knowing about it. And I said, and none of you know what happened to her. You know, she said, no.
Starting point is 00:14:48 You know, that's terrifying. Your child is missing. Maria was absolutely heartbroken. She just was in so much agony for her daughter. Tony, he was very determined to try to figure out what happened to her. Then I started going through her phone. And I'm seeing all these names, you know, and I'm calling the friends that I had. I know and I'm saying, you know, look, this is where I'm at, this is what's going on.
Starting point is 00:15:17 And none of them has heard anything from her. Her parents became pretty worried because that was odd for Kenya to do that. Just vanish and not call, not show up, not say, hey, here, this is where I'm at. Tony has the phone, has Kenya's phone. When a text comes in. All of a sudden I get this message. And the message said, hey, this. This is Travis gun, creepy white van.
Starting point is 00:15:49 Did you get to your car okay? It's just chilling. Of course it's a creepy white van. It's just, ugh. That's my biggest nightmare. Whatever you relate creepy white van to, it's never a good thing. None of her family, none of her friends knew who this Travis was.
Starting point is 00:16:14 I started calling him. I've left a message after message after message, because to me, this is the last person who saw Kenya. Finally, someone calls him back. And Travis has a story about what happened. He saw this girl there on the sidewalk, but she looked drunk, you know, and she looked like she was talking to this homeless guy,
Starting point is 00:16:41 and I decided to try to help her. He picked her up, and he was going to take her home. was going to take her home. While they're on the way home, she wants to stop at a gas station and get some cigarettes. So they pull into this gas station. There's a man there. Travis says that Kenya left with this man, and that's the last time he saw her. And I said, where's this? Where's this conical station? Exactly. Where did they go? And he said, listen, why don't you meet me there? And I said, I'm on my way. And when he went to leave, he went and grabbed his gun.
Starting point is 00:17:33 Travis actually tells Tony that he will show him where he last saw King. So they agreed to meet up at this conical gas station. I let Maria my wife know that I am going down to meet this guy. And when he went to leave, he went and grabbed his gun. I don't know what he planned to do, but Maria was concerned. And when he left the house, Maria contacted the police. I pulled in, I parked over here. I saw the two police cars that were out front.
Starting point is 00:18:11 The cops are there just to make sure, you know, mediate, make sure nothing gets violent. The officer came and kind of met me. He made mention of the firearm that, He was told I had and I told him it was in my vehicle. I left it in my vehicle. By the time Tony gets there, Travis and his white man are already there at the Conoco, and he is talking to police. Travis was sort of an average normal looking person.
Starting point is 00:18:42 Travis did not look like somebody that you would be afraid of. Travis was in his early 30s. Just a free spirit appeared to be grounded. Travis had his own business and he was making these gluten-free granola bars. Clean cut, tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, you know. And I thought to myself, well, you know, if Kenya's going to be with someone, you know, this is what I hope that they would look like. And the story Travis tells is similar to the one he told him on the phone. He portrays himself as a good Samaritan.
Starting point is 00:19:21 He found Kenya downtown. talking to or being harassed by some homeless person or transient person and so he offered her a ride. Travis volunteers to take her home. Travis says that they get into the van. She says she wants a cigarette. He pulls into this gas station and the gas station is closed. And she saw this gentleman walking by and was smoking a cigarette. Kenya immediately jumped out and started talking to this individual. And he gave her a cigarette. Travis tells police that this man's name is Dan.
Starting point is 00:20:05 He describes him as an Asian man, about 5 foot 8, 160 pounds, with a lip piercing. He may have been a construction worker. Well, when he was explaining it to the officers, you know, I'm overhearing it. You know, he said that Dan and her sitting down on the curb right there by the little bush. And they were talking in Spanish, smoking, you know, and they walked up to her and he said, hey, you know, I need to take you home, you know. And she said she was fine. She was going to just walk this way with Dan.
Starting point is 00:20:38 And he said, well, okay. And let her go, you know, that she's grown. And he said he took off. That's the last time he saw. Travis's story is not adding up for Tony. It gets even more suspicious when he joins the police. police to examine the van. Travis was very eager, look in my van.
Starting point is 00:21:03 You can look in the van. Here it is. I'll open it up for you. This is one of those white vans that you see on every TV show that there is that's involved with bad stuff. He just came straight to the back compartment over here, opened the doors, it was a double door, and when it swung open, the smell of bleach just washed out of there, you know,
Starting point is 00:21:27 just the smell was heavy. The walls have been washed, and you can You can see that it was washed so much with this bleach. You could see where it was running down. There was a new carpet in there. Why was there this newer carpet? In fact, so new, it smelled like new carpet in there. One of the things in law enforcement is that you don't want to jump to conclusions.
Starting point is 00:21:48 You just don't. Yeah, it's weird that Vance smells like bleach. It's weird that he has new carpet. But how do we know she just didn't leave with this guy? We don't know. Police say they have to consider the possibility that this mysterious Dan could be responsible for Kenya's disappearance. But as Tony is about to leave the gas station, he says that something chilling happens. We went to shake, and it was then that I noticed that his hand was shaking as if there was an earthquake going off inside of his body.
Starting point is 00:22:25 When I let go, I knew that I was shaking the hand of the last person to see Kenya alive. Mr. Sugar, we've run out of places to hide our money. We can do really bad things together. Crime is on the rise in Philly. Say hi to your wife for me. Hulu's hilarious comedy. We're in the middle of a crisis here. Deli Boys is back with it all new season.
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Starting point is 00:23:06 Terms apply. It's my first day of work and I need to make a big impression. From executive producer Mindy Kaling. This is our sexual harassment training. Hands off your co-workers. Now sign this saying that I trained you or you're fired. Yes, ma'am. Work relationships are too messy.
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Starting point is 00:23:50 It's hard. It's hard to accept that my best friend is gone, you know? Maria was just devastated and Maria never gave up hope. All my family is praying for you and I'm away here for you and you know you welcome home. Yeah, yeah. Hope is, in my opinion, an emotion that carries you through stuff. Even though their hope was 100%, mine was 0.01%. And that 0.01% of hope is still hope.
Starting point is 00:24:33 There's no book on what you do when this kind of stuff comes up for a family of the missing. There ain't no book. I would say I was determined. I wanted her home. This family needs closure. After Travis gave the information at the Conoco Station, it was crucial to interview. Travis, this is Detective Gruley.
Starting point is 00:25:00 For follow-up questions that we as the investigators had. Tell me what happened Thursday night and the Friday morning. Investigations like this, we want everybody talk to. Get them in video, we lock them down to a statement. That's when, you know, we met. He came in and said,
Starting point is 00:25:22 He spoke to the police voluntarily. He was very cordial and cooperative. The last thing I need in my life is to be suspect of missing persons, you know? Being at ex-con, and I'm on probation right now for a domestic violence case. We find that Travis is somebody who's been arrested a few times, did some time. So it was nothing that jumped out and said, hey, this guy murdered is killing people. We don't know. It's nothing like that.
Starting point is 00:25:51 You know, you go through your mind, all the things that you should have done, all the things you could have done. He's laid back. He's easygoing. He's charming. Remember, before meeting Travis, Kenya is seen on surveillance video first at the apartment building of the man that she'd met at the bar. Then she's crossing the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel across the street. Police say soon after that, Travis sees her outside. On the night that Travis met and ran into... to Kenya. He wasn't alone. He was with a friend. When they drive up, they see Kenya talking to this guy.
Starting point is 00:26:33 Kenya is crying, she's upset. They get out. They talk to her. It looked weird. I mean, it looked sketchy. So we intervened. Homeless guy walked off. Okay. Then what happens? You know, wanted, you know, to get her home. Take her somewhere. Travis is coming across like a good Samaritan. He is concerned about Kenya. He gave the same version of events, really, that he'd given at the Conoco,
Starting point is 00:27:05 that he picked her up, those protecting her, taking care of her. Travis drops off his friend and drives away alone with Kenya. Thank you. Okay. She asks me for a cigarette. I tell I don't smoke. I don't have any cigarettes. I saw a Conoco on the other side, so I turned around.
Starting point is 00:27:31 This is the big moment in his story. They pull up to the gas station and this mysterious man, Dan, is there. There was a guy, a man that was walking by. He was smoking a cigarette. She asked him for a cigarette and asked him to sit and smoke with her. She immediately like attached yourself to this guy. She put her arm through his arm like while they were while they were sitting there smoking.
Starting point is 00:28:03 And they walked off and that's it. That was the last, that was it. And I went home. I went to my girlfriend's house. What's her name? Carrie Humphrey. So we contact Carrie Humphrey and bring her in for an interview. Thursday night into Friday morning, Travis came
Starting point is 00:28:23 home some time between, I think you told me, you rolled over the clock said 333 a.m. And he left some time before 8. Mm-hmm. Okay. You sure about that? Mm-hmm. Kerry corroborates what Travis said. He came home at 3 a.m.
Starting point is 00:28:38 He left for work at 8 a.m. Before I woke up, I never saw him again. That day. She certainly did give him an alibi. Travis is telling us that he's just a good Samaritan trying to help out somebody. No one's trying to say, you did anything wrong by letting him. her walk off with this guy. Not at all. But I mean, we're just trying to eliminate everybody who's ever came in contact with it. That's all.
Starting point is 00:29:05 We don't have anything that says that he's lying. We have no evidence that says he's lying. So now we need to find this Dan. And nobody came forward. We sent it out on the media. We sent out crime stoppers and we never found out who this Dan was. So this case has to be investigated. And that investigation soon leads to a woman who worked closely with Travis. My name is Monica Poole, and I own Blue Hummingbird Gluten Free Bakery. It used to be called Debbie's. Travis came to me with a concept about granola bars.
Starting point is 00:29:42 He made them in my space. So that same day that Kenya disappears, something unusual happens at the bakery. Monica comes in and she suspects that Travis might have taken money from her office. We had a security system installed in the bakery when we opened it. There were six cameras, one in the office, two in the kitchen, two in the front lobby, and one in the back-back storage room. She sees that the money's gone, she looks at the video, and she sees Travis had disconnected the video.
Starting point is 00:30:15 When I came into the bakery, I did my normal, counting back the door, and it was short. I called the police and I said, look, I have someone renting from me, stealing money out of my cash register, and he said, can you prove it was him? And I said, no, he turned off the camera. In talking to Monica, we learned that her video had been cut off coincidentally around when Kenya went missing. On Friday evening, he has the bakery to himself. You can see him going into the office and he unplugged my video surveillance so that all the cameras go out. The only thought I had about that was, I don't know why he's wearing yellow plastic gloves,
Starting point is 00:31:12 because he never cleans up after himself. So that was the extent of what I knew was on the tape. What time is the first time on Saturday that you see Travis? I called him several times. He finally called me back, and he said, I needed the money. It was an emergency. I'd bring you back $100. And then he came back with the money.
Starting point is 00:31:31 He said, I've been on top of it all, the place you're looking for me, because this girl that I met, now she's missing. and they want to question me, but I didn't do anything. And then I noticed the cut on his arm. And he said, yeah, that was from the glass from my man, window being broken. He seemed very tired, disheveled, and somewhat overwrought. It's like something had happened. And I thought he was in that frame of mind because I had threatened to call the police and have him arrested.
Starting point is 00:32:02 Since Monica left the bakery around 5 o'clock on Friday, she had only been interested in. watching the latter part of the tape. But when police go to the bakery and they review all of the security cam footage from earlier on Friday, they discover something shocking. When we back up even further on Friday afternoon, we see Travis enter through the back door of the bakery. On a cart is a white cooler with black duct tape sealed up around it. And Travis goes to the walking cooler, puts the cart at the cooler, and walks out.
Starting point is 00:32:37 The lid is taped down. And we asked Monica about that. And I said, no, he would never put a cooler in my freezer. He did not have access to freezer space at that time in our contract because Travis had switched to granola bars and they didn't need to be frozen. Nothing he was doing needed ice. There also was other video of Travis carrying in a carpet. And so that was really alarming and chilling, honestly,
Starting point is 00:33:07 to see that. And Travis is seen on camera with a bottle of bleach as well. I think for us it was more like out of a horror movie. Well, we saw it. All of our bells and whistles are going off. This is the next night after Kenya had been missing. So the news obtained a search warrant showing police search this bakery in Arapaho County. It's here where the man who says he helped Kenya rent space.
Starting point is 00:33:35 We swabbed several places that look like. blood. They were jelly. We took a computer, any and all video that we could, statements from the workers there. No cooler. Cooler was gone. But there were also reports coming into police from people who saw someone burning something in a barrel behind that very same bakery. And somebody was burning that right after the time that Kenya went missing. A man who works nearby that bakery says he saw a white cargo van parked nearby. A deputy had gone and actually spoke to Travis. And Travis said he was burning old tax returns.
Starting point is 00:34:17 There was no unusual odor, just the fire. They told him he had to put it out. Travis complied. We're now in the rear of Unit A. It's an upside down barrel. It appears to be burn residue at the bottom of the barrel. We found the material that was similar to Kenya's dress with a zipper on it. But it was so badly burned and melted down.
Starting point is 00:34:45 We tried to match it. We tested everything, like everything that you can imagine, we tested. With no conclusive results from the burned barrel, police turn their attention to Travis's white van. I do a search warrant on the van, and we tear the van apart. When we hit the van with luminal, bleach fluorescence and you can see on the inside where it was all sprayed. I mean, people use bleach for different things, obviously to clean. It's out of the ordinary, especially in a van, but is it the
Starting point is 00:35:23 smoking gun? No. At this point, Travis is looking very suspicious, but there is simply not enough to arrest Travis. But then Travis is spotted on yet another surveillance tape this time way outside Denver, raising more questions and even more new suspicions. Travis had no friends or family out there. Why is he up there? What is he doing? Search warrant on Travis's phone. When I started tracking him through cell towers, it showed him coming from Denver and basically his coordinate track all the way up here to
Starting point is 00:36:10 Kingsbury. The cell phone records and where Travis has been confirms he wasn't with his girlfriend and also that he had gone outside of Denver shortly after Kenya was missing to Keynesburg. So he was out in this general area for hours. We just didn't know what he was doing. Travis had no friends or family out there. At one point we learned that Travis stopped to get gas. Why is he up there? What is he doing? So a team of detectives come up here and they start searching the area. up in these fields all over here. We were searching a lot and found no evidence of anything, nothing.
Starting point is 00:37:08 Kenya's parents are just completely devastated at this point. Tony starts looking for her himself, going around Denver. I learned how to search a dumpster. You need a big stick to dig where you can't reach the bottom. I was very purposeful on what I was looking for. I went dumpster diving, as I called it. Let's look for Kenya's body. It's it, nothing else.
Starting point is 00:37:35 I was looking for Kenya. And tonight a family's plea for help. About two weeks after Kenya disappeared, her family goes public. They are begging people to come forward with information. They've sent out flyers to the media. They've checked local hospitals. They've talked to her friends.
Starting point is 00:37:52 I covered this case. I remember talking to the family. It was heartbreaking. Kenya's mother has this message for her missing child. I just want to tell you that mommy and grandma she's praying for you and all my family is praying for you and I'm away here for you and you know you welcome home. They really had hope. It's it's almost like this blind faith. I genuinely believed that Kenya was going to make her way back to us.
Starting point is 00:38:20 Travis himself is hardly hiding. He too goes public agreeing to an interview with a local newsstand. Travis Forbes says he only knew missing 19-year-old Kenya Monet for 20 minutes. Man, I'm sorry that I, that I was indifferent. I didn't think she would, she was going to disappear. I could have, I could have walked with them. I could have been more, I could have been like no, you know, no, you know, I'm going to take you home.
Starting point is 00:38:55 I could have intervened more, you know, and not just said, okay, and gone home. you know. Travis continues emphatically denying any wrongdoing. Did you kidnap her? No. Did you sexually assault her? I did not. Did you murder her? I did not. No. No. And when he answers he says no. And he nods his head up and down. It was kind of this strange moment where we were all like, huh, well that was pretty telling. Yeah, just just one more piece to the puzzle. And then other people would come forward after that to say that's exactly how he acted when he was lying. An ex-girlfriend of Travis's reaches out to my counterpart, Detective Lew Estrada, and they sit down for an interview. Turns out there had been a few former ex-girlfriends in Travis's life. So now we're finding
Starting point is 00:39:52 more and more out about Travis Forbes and who he is and what he likes and doesn't like. She basically explains to Detective Estrada that Travis actually likes women dressed in the same kind of outfit as Kenya was wearing that night. It was a black jacket, black skirt, and red high heels. She proceeded to tell us that Travis liked rough roleplay when we were intimate. Travis was into choking, but I knew every night that we would go out on the town. If I wore a black outfit, and read high heels, that later turned out to be rough intimacy. But most importantly, she told us that when the reporter asked Travis,
Starting point is 00:40:45 did he have anything to do with Enya's disappearance? Travis answered, no. She said, I caught Travis in so many lies. I would ask him, did you hook up with somebody? No, I didn't do that. Those same mannerisms, she's like, that's how I know he's lying. The investigation continued trying to figure out what he was. trying to figure out what happened, where Kenya was.
Starting point is 00:41:13 Because we couldn't charge Travis because we didn't have a body and we didn't have any DNA that we could show that, you know, she was with him after the Conoco. So what else can we find? Everyone's looking at Travis Ford. He knows he's a suspect. He's telling everyone he's a suspect. The pressure's on.
Starting point is 00:41:35 Poof. He's gone. We didn't know where he went. He just kind of vanishes. This is what. everyone's talking about. Everything's on the table. This is what champions
Starting point is 00:41:56 come to take. This is what everyone came to see. And the slam! No do-overs. No second chance. No more Mr. Nice Guy. This is winner-take-all. And it's all happening now
Starting point is 00:42:12 on the home of the NBA Finals. Don't miss it. June 3rd on ABC and the ESPN app. No. Oh, no. Welcome to Get Real. I got something to say. A weekly talk show for the reality TV obsessed.
Starting point is 00:42:26 Oh my gosh. It's got to be deliciously desperate. Why do these girls forgive him? She has a soft spot for troubled men. Boo, bloody. This is your show. Find Get Real wherever you get your podcast. Love runs deeper than we know.
Starting point is 00:42:42 And stream new episodes Thursdays on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Travis has disappeared. His phone is shut off now. Travis may be out of sight, but he is not out of mind. Just before leaving town, he had borrowed his friend Siva's car, and now she can't reach him. Siva had become a close friend of his while he'd been living in Denver.
Starting point is 00:43:28 I would call and check on her and ask her, hey, did you get your far runner back? He's reached out to you. She said no. The only reason why I haven't reported it stolen because the last thing I wanted is for there to be more stressed in his life about a car. I didn't want him to get in trouble.
Starting point is 00:43:46 I just think that she thought he was this nice guy and people were afraid to make him look bad. He's just always been very close to me. Like, I just, I consider him like a brother. You just tell that he was a little stressed, and that's not uncommon for him. He's very high-strung. Seva also tells police that right before disappearing,
Starting point is 00:44:05 Travis told her that he was being questioned about a missing girl. He said, I never knew that 20 minutes with a complete stranger would change my life like this. He started crying. Like, I could just tell that this really affected him on a deep level. Not only the stress of, oh, my God, you know, this poor girl is missing, but now, you know, I'm being under a microscope of, like, what happened. So when I speak to his friend Siba, she just didn't understand why we were looking into him. And to me, it's a witch hunt.
Starting point is 00:44:41 I understand that. I understand that. I expect that. In my opinion, 100%, he is not capable of murder. Absolutely not. I bet my life on it. He's an outstanding human being that wants to help people. But sometimes it winds up biting him in the ass.
Starting point is 00:44:57 I know he tried giving two guys a ride home two months prior to this, and they tried carjacking him. But Siva gets more frustrated about her missing car, and now Travis is not returning her calls. So she gives police her license plate number. I wish someone knew something about him. Because I was getting nervous about my car regardless. But no, he's pissed me off about not responding.
Starting point is 00:45:24 It's not like him. Miss Siva agrees to file a stolen motor vehicle. There is a warrant issued for Travis for the auto theft. The police put out and be on the lookout for this vehicle. And once it goes into the system, a few hours later, an officer's going through a parking lot of a motel running license plates for stolen cars, and Siva's car gets tagged. And that motel is hundreds of miles away from Denver all the way down south in Austin, Texas.
Starting point is 00:45:58 So it looks like he's trying to start a new life in Austin. He is using a different name. He rents an apartment on Craigslist. He's within hours of signing the lease when the police show up. All of a sudden he's surrounded. Travis tries to flee on a bike, but police catch up to him, knock him off that bike, and place him under arrest. He wasn't caught for murder, but he was caught for auto theft.
Starting point is 00:46:24 I think I had Travis a little on his heels when I showed up to Texas. Dude, you know what? I walked in this room and you looked at. at me so shocked it looks like somebody walked over your grave. Didn't think you were going to get here that fast. We still needed to finish talking to Travis. So when I first initially interviewed Travis, we asked him to come back the following day,
Starting point is 00:46:51 and he never did. Why would you not if you're the good Samaritan, as he said? I've talked to a lot of people, and actually, they think you're trying to, you're making yourself look more look more guilty than what it is. Well, I did a good job of that. Oh, yeah, you did. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:12 I mean, you're running like a guilty guy, dude. During this interview, he sticks to his story. Nothing changes about what he says happened to Kenya. Toward the end of the interview, when I'm asking him direct questions about Kenya, he says, Nash, I think I need an attorney. Dude, no that this looks good. I'm in Texas. Well, you came to Texas.
Starting point is 00:47:34 We didn't force you to come to Texas. No, I know. Nash, I think at this point, I, my lawyer should be present. I should not be saying another word. Our interview is done. No offense. No. You know the game.
Starting point is 00:47:56 But there was still one last thing that Detective Garulah needed before the interview was really done. You know what, Travis, I know we talked a lot. I appreciate that. I wish you would explain a lot of things to me. It's a mark for your DNA. You've got my DNA. Here's I have my DNA. There we go.
Starting point is 00:48:27 So, this fine gentleman here with forensics is going to take your DNA. And Detective Gurulay got his DNA sample, which I think was unnerving for him also. Because I think he always was wondering, what did we have, what did we find, and why are you getting my DNA? Because Travis stole the car in Colorado and fledgivated, and fled to Austin. They're able to press charges in Colorado, and that gives police the opportunity to extradite Travis back to Colorado.
Starting point is 00:48:56 He's in Jefferson County Jail. It's probably mid-June to late June. Siva, his friend, basically says that she wants to drop charges. She just wants her car back. She feels bad for Travis. The charges are dismissed, and Travis has released. I understood it because it was her friend, but it was frustrating for us because we have to worry about, you know, where is he
Starting point is 00:49:25 going now and who does he come in contact with next? Well, by this time, we've eliminated everybody else that Kenya's come in contact with. I don't want him on the streets. However, we don't have nothing to keep him in jail, but there's nothing I can do about it. Just work the case. It had been approximately 16 weeks, 17 weeks, since Kenya had been missing or his last scene. And Travis goes to Fort Collins. A couple of weeks later, there's another horrific attack on a woman.
Starting point is 00:50:01 Firefighters responded to an apartment fire here in Fort Collins. Police say a woman had been beaten. But the victim survived. And everyone is wondering, could it be connected to what happened to Kenya? The Monhe family had always hoped that Kenya would be found. alive. This is at prom night. The 19 year old disappeared after getting a ride home. And they just wanted her to come forward. I couldn't afford a prom dress, so Kenya let me borrow one of hers. I hate that Kenya's constantly painted as this party girl when
Starting point is 00:50:41 that was just one tiny window into her life. It wasn't any fault of her own. fault of her home is absolutely in the wrong place at the wrong time. And then no one was there to help her. Breaking new details now in the disappearance of Aurora teenager Kenya Monhe. Seven News has learned police are searching for evidence in several different locations. I feel like people in Colorado were really glued to their TVs. They wanted to know what happened to this girl.
Starting point is 00:51:18 Suddenly, it wasn't a safe place to go out. People were very concerned about this young woman. this young woman and what happened to her. I know Tony was doing his own investigation in searching places. I got in contact with a local printing company and they printed me 500 of the high gloss, the ones he's seen on the news.
Starting point is 00:51:42 We're going out handing fires. Her family is putting up missing posters everywhere they can, desperate to get those answers. I think those were some really long, frustrating months where it felt like her case was at a standstill. Months have passed, there have been no new leads in the Kenya Monhe case. The trail is going cold. The family is desperate for answers. And the only person who really seems to know anything is Travis Forbes.
Starting point is 00:52:14 Forbes admitted to giving her a ride home from this nightclub April 1st. He's the top of the suspect list and he's the only one we're focusing on right now because he's the last one. that's had contact with her. As fishy as his story is, there simply is not enough to arrest him. Remember Forbes is being held by Colorado police on that car theft charge, but he's released after his friend,
Starting point is 00:52:40 Siva decides not to press charges. He gets released from jail. We put surveillance on Travis when he gets released and he goes to Fort Collins. We have surveillance on him. He's out in the community with this cloud of suspicion hanging over him. And police are watching him, but then the surveillance stopped.
Starting point is 00:53:02 They couldn't watch him 24-7. He's back on the street, and then we have to worry about where is he going now and who does he come in contact with next. And it's in Fort Collins that another horrifying case will soon unfold. Fort Collins, July 4th, it's nighttime. So this young woman had gone to see a fireworks display at a nearby park, and on her way home she doesn't realize she's being followed by someone this man breaks into her apartment here and he brutally beats her that man then uses bleach all over her all over her
Starting point is 00:53:48 apartment and then sets her apartment on fire at dawn to try to destroy the evidence neighbors actually see the flames and they call 911 911 what's the address of the the emergency? Yeah, there's a fire going on. Looks like the top floor. Amazingly, she survived and she is fighting for her life. She actually had to jump out of the back of this building, the second story window to keep from being burned alive.
Starting point is 00:54:19 When paramedics got here, they see a naked woman running towards them, trying to get them to help save her life. They eventually learn her name is Lydia Tillman. Lydia Tillman's single, where lives by herself, works for a liquor distributor in the Fort Collins area. She's listed in critical condition. You don't think nothing like that can happen. I mean, it's scary, yeah?
Starting point is 00:54:42 But I mean, this is the real world. This was a brutal attack. Lydia's jaw was broken in multiple places so she can't describe her attacker to police. And then the trauma is so serious that she suffers a massive stroke, and then she slips into a coma. It is clear to everyone in that hospital.
Starting point is 00:55:02 hospital room that Lydia fought for her life and in that fight she captured evidence DNA evidence from her attacker underneath her fingernails. Police actually take DNA swabs underneath her fingernails to try to figure out who the attacker is. At some point Fort Collins police reached out to Denver police to say this has happened and there's some similarities in that there was bleach all over over this apartment and that it was set on fire. I get a call from Jacqueline Shackley and she's a detective in Fort Collins
Starting point is 00:55:43 and she tells me what her case is. You have these two cases involving women, bleach. People are starting to ask, could these be connected? She tells me, well, we have DNA from our case and I said, I have DNA and we arranged to have the DNA given to her. Investigators say that they are now faced with a terrifying possibility. If Travis Forbes is the attacker and is still out there, could he strike again?
Starting point is 00:56:13 My advice is get eyes on him as soon as you can. You need to get eyes on him. And now to have developing. Lydia's case was all over the news in Denver, all over Colorado. Police say a woman had been beaten and sexually assaulted before she jumped from her second-story bedroom window. This was such an unusual story. Strangled, her jaw broken, Lydia Tillman fought off her attack her through sheer determination. I heard about Lydia's attack on the day of her attack. A woman was brutally beaten, allegedly doused in bleach, and her apartment sat on fire. And to me it was like, boy, that's weird.
Starting point is 00:56:54 I wonder if they're looking at Travis. After Lydia Tillman is attacked, the Denver police begin connecting the dots between these two cases, and they team up with the Fort Collins police to resume following Travis Forbes. Our surveillance team talks to Fort Collins police and tell him, hey, this guy's a person of interest in this case. We're looking at him. We try to keep tabs on him and what he's doing and where he's at, because we didn't want him to disappear.
Starting point is 00:57:29 Fort Collins is a college town. It's about an hour north of Denver. north of Denver, lots of college kids. It's a popular place to hang out. The nightlife is fun. Travis is on the prowl. I think he was emboldened. I think it was a new opportunity for him to just, you know, be a predator. One night, Travis is in a bar, and he is seen leaving the bar with another young woman. Police are able to intervene. The police stopped Travis and this young lady.
Starting point is 00:58:06 They put her in the patrol car. They kind of cornered her and said, you need to leave, like right now. And she did, thankfully. And then they asked him his name, and he gives them another fake name. Fort Collins police can't arrest Travis Forbes without probable cause in Lydia Tillman's case.
Starting point is 00:58:28 So they arrest Travis for giving police a false name. Forbes gave officers a fake name and said he didn't have a phone and couldn't remember his dressed and acted nervous. Within an hour, Forbes gave officers his real name and was arrested for false reporting. So they take him into custody and he's brought to jail and it's the detective from Denver ready to interview him again. I actually drove to Fort Collins and met with him. And we start talking and it's all on audio recording because there was no video in this room. Hey, good. Thanks. Detective Grouillet had a really good rapport with Trump.
Starting point is 00:59:07 and did most of the interviews with Travis. We want to keep that going. So you want to tell the line. Why are you here? And he goes, okay, read me my rights. So I advise him of his rights and we start talking about, you know, Kenya and Lydia's case and, you know, all these different things. I don't want the time comes. I'm going to the right thing.
Starting point is 00:59:33 I don't think you will. You hear them going back and forth. Travis is giving them a little, but not what they need. I can see why you don't have faith in me. I don't believe. It was like playing chess. I'd move one piece one way, he'd move his piece a different way. I don't think you will. I think you have too many video for that.
Starting point is 00:59:53 I have nothing gained by confessing to you. It was always a chess match. We were always maneuvering. I haven't said him guilty. I have to say you're not guilty. You like power. You like that control. You like, you know, all .
Starting point is 01:00:12 I explained to him. I said, Travis, I'm going to use every word you've ever told me that we've talked against you. I'm going to use everything. Let's show our hand, Travis. I have nothing to shut up. And he just kind of laughed. Absolutely he did.
Starting point is 01:00:31 Trying to, you know, give this persona. I guess he was a hardcore criminal. The detective is grilling Travis in the interrogation room. And play your little game, because all it is the game team. And Travis is just getting more and more defensive. It's not a game. Sure it is. To game you? No.
Starting point is 01:00:52 You. I'm playing your game. No, I'm playing your game. And just when it seems like detectives are getting nowhere, Forbes offers this revealing glimpse into how he may see himself. Something they need to do is like to find out of that. So you find out the definition of what sociopath is, because I'm pretty sure I fit it.
Starting point is 01:01:11 Really? Yes. Sociopath has no empathy. They can actually kill somebody and not feel anything about that. That's a sociopath. So do you think you fit into a sociopath? I had an ex-girlfriend tell me that I was a sociopath. I'm with him probably, I want to say, maybe three hours,
Starting point is 01:01:29 three and a half hours talking to him. Whenever here comes to light, it's going to be horrific and horrendous. Horridis. Oh, yeah. You're gonna make me famous, Travis? One of the BTK killer got caught up, and he confessed that detective, and made him famous.
Starting point is 01:01:45 Oh, my name is so bad. Finally, I just tell him, you know what, Travis? I said the next time I come, that I'm gonna arrest you for a first-degree murder, and we'll see what happens from that. Outside the interrogation room, time is running out. Investigators have the suspect's DNA profile, profile were covered from underneath Lydia Tillman's fingernails and they need to match
Starting point is 01:02:10 it to Travis Forbes in order to charge him in Lydia's case. Everybody was on pins and needles. I mean we were very concerned about him getting out. We were up against this timeline of we can't hold him forever. He could bond out any minute. Travis is about to walk out of custody again and be a free man when the DNA test results come back. The DNA comes back from Lydia. It matches Travis. The DNA match confirms everything that we had thought for months. I said, this is your one time that you have an opportunity to be in control of what happens to you because you're not in control anymore. Travis is backed into a corner. He knows the game is up and now he wants to make a deal. I think that he probably
Starting point is 01:03:03 knew pretty quickly that he was not going to talk his way out of this. I don't want to go to the chair, okay? The only way they'll kind of deal with me is pertain to the Denver. And I said, what do you want? He said, you don't sentence me to death row and you don't label me a sex offender. We would not seek the death penalty if he showed us where Kenya was and gave a full confession. I don't care what the deal is. I don't care if you will let him walk.
Starting point is 01:03:36 I just want to know where Kenya is. I want to bring Kenya home. There's always a little bit of hope in the back of your mind. I thought Kenya was coming back. I thought she was coming home. This is it. This is where you guys stop. So literally it's the edge.
Starting point is 01:03:53 I am right there. I'm at the edge. The Stanley Cup final on 8th. ABC is more than a quest for the Cup. It's 134 years of putting it all on the line, and the heaviest 35 pounds ever lifted. It's broken curses and broken hearts. But for those chasing it, it's everything.
Starting point is 01:04:25 The only question is, who will take it? You just have to watch the Stanley Cup final presented by Geico on ABC in the ESPN app. It was Wednesday morning, about 10 a.m., when Leslie Jenning Prier's colleagues became concerned. She hadn't come to work. In 2001, Leslie Prier was living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. When on a spring morning, the unthinkable happened. There were signs of a struggle, but no forced entry. This woman was strangled and she was beaten.
Starting point is 01:04:56 She was found in the shower with the water running. For the next two decades, Leslie Prier's case remained unsolved. and the shocking truth about the real killer stayed hidden until very recently when new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. I'm Stephanie Ramos, and this is Blood and Water, a new series from ABC Audio in 2020. And he almost got away with it.
Starting point is 01:05:25 He almost got away with it. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Travis Forbes' back is against the wall. And right then he decides to cut a deal with detectives, and he says he will lead them to Kenya. I actually told him, I think you're a coward. I don't think you're going to back out of this. I don't think you're going to follow through. I was so at that point nervous.
Starting point is 01:06:05 Was he going to bail out at any time? Which I thought that's what he was going to do. September 7th, 2011, the time is now 936. We pick up Travis at the Larammer County Jail. I'm driving Louis Strata sitting behind her. Travis is sitting in the middle. Next to Travis is Jacqueline Shackley from Fort Collins PD. We pick him up and we head this way.
Starting point is 01:06:35 We go based off of his directions. We're heading out from the detention center here. We're going to have this video run as we drive to the location which Mr. Ford was direct to us. It seemed to be pretty calm. It wasn't like he was freaking out or anything. During that long drive, detectives say that Travis was relaxed and that he was talking so casually
Starting point is 01:07:04 about everything from running marathons to movies. About five years ago, I ran it and hung over. What was your time? I actually got disqualified. He was just... He was just being himself. He was just talking. He likes to talk.
Starting point is 01:07:24 It was kind of odd. You have no idea what he was about. That's the first scary thing to ever got. So we are in northeastern Colorado. Farms, fields, cattle, I mean, that's what this area is known for. He directs us onto I-76. We drive up and we go through Kingsburg. And then he starts directing us into the county roads.
Starting point is 01:08:00 Investigators were familiar with this area. Travis's phone had been pinging in that area for eight or nine hours the day after Kenya disappeared. So when they're driving there, it all is starting to make sense. So we knew he was up here. We just didn't know what he was doing up here. We then turned north on a county road 16 and went north. to or 53. But then we stopped. And Travis said, I think this is it. No, this isn't right. Keep going straight. He says, back out. This isn't it. I'm like, okay, he's going to play games.
Starting point is 01:08:45 We back out. He says, go a little bit more west. And he said, okay, turn right. We went right. And then we saw the railroad track. And he said, turn left and here. She's right there. This is it. This is where you guys stopped. You're here on the left? Yes. And he started to get really amped up. His body language changed.
Starting point is 01:09:19 He's sitting there. He's getting antsy. He said, okay, we stop. So you need to get out and show us. So Travis brings us here. We pull into this open area between the tracks and this grove of trees. We walk up to the trees.
Starting point is 01:09:49 the top of the ravine. We're all standing here. I'm standing next to Travis. I said, where's she at? Right there. He just said you're standing on top of her. After that, he lets out this like wail, like he's crying. He's leaning up against the car. He's crying, mostly screaming. Crime scene comes in. Everybody else starts descending onto the area. You rope it all off a crime scene tape, and they start doing their excavation. We just confirmed that Travis Forbes, the man suspected all along, led them to this location this morning. Within minutes, it seems like the media just swarmed on us. When the helicopter started showing up, we had to put canopies up to cover up what they were digging up, because no one needs to see that.
Starting point is 01:11:02 Detectives have now been digging in this area for about two hours. So when they start excavating and basically digging her up, she's about five feet. down. And when we find her, she is covered in plastic and she has rocks to hold down the plastic. When they find her body, it's so badly decomposed, they can't determine the cause of death. But what they can see is that she's wrapped in duct tape and plastic in the fetal position. Horrific. I mean, it's just, it's horrifying to think about what she must have been through. I said I wouldn't get emotional. I just can't imagine a family losing a daughter like that, just vanishing and then not knowing where she's at.
Starting point is 01:11:58 And then to find out that she was buried here. After we found her, we drove back to Fort Collins, the police department, and he said, hey, Nash, because I told you, I'd take you to her. I told you I would. And I said, okay, I said, but we're not done yet. There's still other things that need to be talked about. He said, I know. Upon getting back to Fort Collins, Detective Grule and myself, we sat down with Travis.
Starting point is 01:12:35 He said, okay, this is the second part of this agreement. Tell us what happened. Travis, let's start from the beginning. I will be true for it. Investigators have just confirmed they believe they have found the body of Kenya Monhead. The footage is everywhere on the news. There's a tent set up where Kenya was buried. Officers are canvassing the area for clues.
Starting point is 01:13:12 It was pretty horrific. I stepped away to call Tony Lee. As a mom, I thought there's just no way I'm going to let them hear this somewhere else. I got the news from D.A. Lombardia. They've found, you know, remains. I remember getting a call from Tony. And I remember hearing crying in the background. background. And he said they found her.
Starting point is 01:13:44 I go home, Maria's sleep. I wake up and I said to her, they found Kenya. And the first words that came out of her mouth was, is she okay? Where is she? And I said, she's dead. The family's worst fears have been confirmed. So now police need to know what happened to Kenya. And the only person who knows that is Travis Forbes.
Starting point is 01:14:23 The question is, is, will Travis Forbes live up to his part of the deal and give a full confession? And you've signed this agreement, correct? Yes. Let's start from the beginning. I believe it's California or 15th or whatever street it is. See Kenya. She was crying.
Starting point is 01:14:47 She was hysterical and crying and very upset. She's crying. She's upset. He gets out. Ask her what's happening. What's wrong? And she got in his van and he agreed to drive her to her home in Aurora. He says he really was going to be a good Samaritan.
Starting point is 01:15:09 He had called her phone, trying to find her friends. She was being very flirty with me, and she was very drunk. At some point Kenya passed out in the van, and that's when he decided to rape her. And I definitely took advantage of her being drunk. I had sex with her while she had passed out. She wakes up and is pissed at him because he had sex with her without a couple. condom. She started hitting me and I started hitting her back. When you say by hitting, will you punch in her? Yes. And then she started to scream. And I straight with her.
Starting point is 01:15:55 I killed her. I think I'd made it broke her neck. She was so tiny. He says that he drives around. He does his deliveries of his granolabars. I needed an alibi. I needed to be somewhere. He was driving up north to do his deliveries, and in his mind, he said he could hear Kenya talking to him. Forbes tells detectives that Kenya's voice was still haunting him. So even after she was dead, he pulled over, bought duct tape, and wrapped it around her mouth as if he could somehow silence her. She kept talking to me. So I put tape behind her mouth. The whole time, I had a dead girl in the back of my van.
Starting point is 01:16:43 He just killed the He would be. Then Travis Forbes says that he hides Kenya's body and tries to erase every trace of what he's done to her. He goes back to the bakery, and that's the video we see of him putting the cooler on this little cart and wills it into the freezer. But bleach.
Starting point is 01:17:10 Bought a spray bottle. I sprayed the van, top to bottom, sprayed it all down. sprayed the coolers, sprayed her, sprayed myself. I cut Kenya's clothes off. I burned them. I burned all my clothes. I buried everything that she touched.
Starting point is 01:17:34 That's the story you told us. And explained later, I made a poor decision I never meant to kill her. So after Travis confesses to killing Kenya, he then confesses to sexually assaulting Lydia Tillman in her. in her apartment and leaving her to die in that fire. I don't know how I ended up in her apartment. I proceeded to rape her. I hit her violently and I set her bedroom on fire. I remember him being very calm and almost methodical
Starting point is 01:18:04 when he was explaining it. He didn't seem to show any emotion. He was describing these horrific things that he did. And it just seemed like he could have been ordering lunch. You don't know what evil looks like till it comes knocking on your door or your current confronted face to face with it. It comes in many different shapes, sizes, appearances, and he's definitely evil. It wasn't until her body was found and Travis was ultimately in jail that Kenya's
Starting point is 01:18:44 family realized just how much effort was put into solving this crime. I had publicly went out and said, I don't think the police are doing the damn thing. You know, they're not telling me nothing. It's hard to keep things from parents or a loved one when you're investigating these things. They want answers. You have to just be like, look, one day we'll sit down. It ain't going to be today, but one day we'll sit down. I went around that table. I said, I'm sorry. I asked them, how'd you get that confession? It said, it was only by the grace of God. And as fate would have it, Lydia Tillman awakens from her coma. Lydia is a very remarkable woman. Her will to live And her fight is amazing.
Starting point is 01:19:31 But will she be able to confront Travis Forbes? I can't even imagine how she must have been feeling, looking into the man who tried to kill her. And then she says something that nobody can believe. Tonight, closure for the family of Kenya Monhez. I opened my phone, and I saw that he was arrested. Travis Forbes admits to killing the teen and dumping her body. I ran out of school.
Starting point is 01:20:02 sobbing, crying, just it was devastating. Finally, I got the truth and I know I have an angel heaven. I prepared myself for this, for this day, didn't do any good. We got to take this girl home. We got to put it in rest. We've done for today. Yeah, we'll do on tomorrow. Now that Kenya is finally laid to rest, Tony Lee has another chance to confront his daughter's killer.
Starting point is 01:20:38 killer. Kenyamon, his family stayed close together as they walked into the courtroom. We went into the courtroom. I gave my impact statement. I was able to talk to Travis directly and look at it. He just kept his head down. It was crying. And that is how he looked.
Starting point is 01:20:59 The last time I seen him in person was just like that. Now, when I did shake his hand, it was that trembling that was inside of him. And it wasn't a visible trembling. It was an internal trembling, and that's what I knew. Travis pled guilty to murder and was sentenced all at the same time. He's going to get life without the possibility of parole, but Tony and Marie will never have grandchildren from Kenya. They'll never get to see her walk down the aisle, never get to see her fall in love. All that was taken away by Travis Forbes.
Starting point is 01:21:35 The Denver authorities agreed not to charge Travis Forbes for rape in the Kenya Monhe case in exchange for him taking them to her body. But he still faces sexual assault, arson, and attempted murder charges on the attack of Lydia Tillman. At some point after that, we went to Fort Collins and he was taken up there to plead guilty in that case. Lydia appears in court. It is clear that she has been badly beaten. she is severely burned. Lydia was there and the whole thing was pretty remarkable. That same year that Travis was convicted and sentenced, 2020 sat down with Lydia Tillman to document her story for the first time. And because Lydia struggled to speak at the time,
Starting point is 01:22:31 it was her father William who read her victim impact statement for court. Travis Forbes, you caused me no harm. My spirit, my soul, and my mind remain untouched. May you find peace in this life. Lydia Tillman. Hope do live my days, spart, new. New.
Starting point is 01:23:10 New. Over the years, Lydia has publicly shared parts of her recovery journey in interviews and speaking appearances, offering insight into the lasting impact of trauma and survival. Life is better than ever for me right now. It's really hard to put into words. I want to thank everybody who helped me and supported me because I couldn't have done it without everybody. After Travis Forbes sentencing, Kenya's parents had the opportunity to meet Lydia Tillman for the first time. We had this ring on, it's Kenya's.
Starting point is 01:24:15 Mary was crying, she just took it off and went over to Lydia and said, this is from Kenya and just put it on her finger. And they hugged. I'm glad that you're here for me to give you this from Kenya. I dug all this out. This spot where Kenya's body was discovered has become a place where her loved ones returned to reflect on all that they have endured and all that they have lost. On that plaque is all of our handprints coming back here to visit. I'm always drawn back.
Starting point is 01:25:02 That'll never stop. I carry Kenya with me. She is still alive through me. You can never die of the people you love carry you. Tony Lee has created a foundation in honor of his late stepdaughter. It provides support to families of victims of violent crime. David, as for Lydia Tillman, she is now on a wellness journey. She says to try and heal from her traumatic experience.
Starting point is 01:25:44 She's now working as a yoga instructor. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I'm David Muir from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Good night. Hey, fleece and Walter. My new comedy special, It Was an Accident, is now streaming on Hulu.
Starting point is 01:26:02 I'm pissed off so often lately. If I had known, we were headed toward the Handmaid's Tale, and I was going to be wearing that big red case, I wouldn't have cut out carbs. I mean, I know what mindfulness is because my kids told me, but I've seen the way I eat and I'm pretty sure I don't practice it.
Starting point is 01:26:16 I don't know why I can't find a fella. Don't miss, it was an accident. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for fundal subscribers. Terms apply.

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