So this kid, he's in big trouble. Now his name's Travis and he's only 15, he lives in Arkansas, and he's kind of a turd. He's always stealing things and getting suspended from school. Here's a yearbook photo of him if you care what he looks like in real life. But one day in 1996, he decides to go for a really big score.
He's gonna rob one of the houses in the neighborhood. And he's gonna do it with this other kid, this friend of his, Andre. And so Travis and Andre they bike over to this house, but they decide nah instead of robbing a house Let's rob two houses like you rob that one and I'll rob that mansion over there and boom It's decided and so Travis breaks into this house And he's combing through things to steal and then suddenly out of nowhere A Toyota Camry pulls up outside and Andre's driving it where the hell did he suddenly get a car?
And so Travis goes to figure out what's going on and Andre's panicking and he tells him, I went to rob that mansion and I thought people weren't home, but they actually were home. So I pulled out my pew pew and blam, blam. I executed both of them.
He then stole their Toyota Camry and drove it to pick up Travis. And now he's like, will you go back to the mansion with me to help me dispose of the bodies? And Travis, he hears all this and he's like, all right.
And so the two of them, they head over to this mansion to dispose of these two bodies. And the two. bodies are still there and they try to move them but unfortunately for them these corpses are way too heavy for these teenage boys to move.
So what do they do? They light the whole place on fire to burn up all the evidence. Then they get into the stolen Toyota Camry and they flee the scene and they drive about a mile away and suddenly kaboom they crash the Toyota Camry and they flip it on its side. Then they climb out of it and they run away on foot. Meanwhile, a local resident is driving down the road and he sees the wrecked Toyota Camry flipped on its side and he's like, what the f**k?
And so he eventually goes to the mansion to check on the owner of the car and he sees that the place is on fire. And this leads to the police and fire department showing up and that is when they find the two bodies inside. And so police investigate all this and they put out a reward for $10,000 for anyone who can give them information that would lead to an arrest. And about a month later, they finally get some information that Travis was involved.
And so they go to his house and they question him. But Travis, he isn't talking. He isn't admitting to anything. And so they end up forcing him to take a polygraph test. And he passes.
Mostly because polygraphs are pseudoscience, I keep telling you guys. But anyway, so they make him take another one and he passes again. And they make him take a third one and he passes again. But police are sure that Travis was involved in this crime. So somehow they get him to take a fourth polygraph test.
This time, he fails. And finally, police are able to use this as leverage to get him to confess. Now, Travis only ends up confessing to breaking into the houses and stealing stuff. But he says he didn't shoot anyone.
He says it was Andre who was the one who shot and unalived the two people in the mansion. Not him. However, because he just did confess to breaking into houses and stealing stuff, bam, they arrest him for that.
And here's an actual image of him being arrested. So Travis's fingerprints, they end up being a match to fingerprints found in the wrecked Toyota Camry, while they don't find any fingerprints of Andre, or any evidence that Andre did anything. And therefore, police pin the whole crime on little teenage Travis, including...
The murders. And so Travis has no choice. He has to take a plea deal. So he pleads guilty and he gets sentenced to 28 years in prison.
But here's where the story gets really crazy. One of those two people shot in that mansion that day, her name is Sally. And Sally has an adult daughter. This woman, Martha. And after Sally is murdered, Martha inherits the mansion from her.
So she moves into it, she renovates it, and she turns it into a bed and breakfast. Now, despite all the horrible things that Martha has just gone through, you know, with her mother passing and all, by all accounts, Martha is the nicest woman ever. She's also a Buddhist, and so she likes to practice forgiveness.
And so, she starts writing to Travis while he's in prison. And they're writing letters back and forth, and over time, they strike up sort of a close friendship. Now, despite pleading guilty, Travis has always maintained that he didn't murder those people. It was Andre.
But people don't really believe him. They're like, yeah, sure, buddy. Yeah, sure, you're innocent.
But strangely enough, Martha does believe him. I mean, yeah, she knows that he did break into the houses and that he did steal stuff, but that it actually. Wasn't him who unalived her mom that day. It was the other kid.
And because of this, she wants to help Travis out in whatever way she can. She feels bad for him. So she asks the police to reopen the case and investigate the whole thing again. She gives Travis's mother work and hires her as a housekeeper. And she essentially becomes an advocate for Travis.
And then 20 years go by. And it's now 2018. And Travis, he's around 37 years old. Here's his adult mugshot, by the way. And it's at this time that finally Travis serves his sentence and he gets out of prison.
Partly because Martha had helped him out and given statements to the parole board on his behalf. So she ends up offering him a job at the mansion as a groundskeeper. And this is a really good deal for him and so he takes the job.
And crazy enough, it seems like this friendship has really worked out for him and that he's starting to finally turn his life around. Until... About a year goes by and Travis is still working there at the mansion. And one day, it all goes bad.
On that day, Martha ends up selling one of the chandeliers in the house to someone for $10,000. And that person pays her cash and she stashes the cash in one of the rooms in the mansion until she has time to run to the bank. And old Travis, he just happens to be working that day. And he also happens to learn that this transaction went down. Now, And so he waits.
He waits until no one's around and he sneaks into the room where the $10,000 is stashed and he swipes it. The next day, Martha notices her money's gone. And unfortunately, there's only one person around at the time who could have taken it. The groundskeeper, Travis.
And this just absolutely destroys Martha. Like, how could he steal from her after everything she's done for him all these years? And so sadly, she unfortunately has to go to him and she fires him.
And of course, Travis is pissed. Like, how can she fire him? This isn't fair.
And he isn't going to let this slide. And about a month later, he decides to go and get his revenge. And early one morning, it's dark out.
And Travis, he sneaks back over to Martha's house. And he creeps in through the back door because he's going to rob her and take more of her shit. But... Martha, she's actually home, and she hears someone in the house messing around.
So pow, she hits her alarm, and this alerts the police back at the station. And then, at some point, boom, Travis sees Martha, and there's a confrontation. And that is when he pulls out a knife, and pow, he stabs her, and pow, he stabs her again, and again, and again, until she's unalived.
Then Travis wraps her in a pile of blankets and clothes and he pours a flammable liquid all over her. It seems like he's going to try and burn the evidence again. But just then, police show up because Martha had hit the alarm.
And so officers, they go into the house and they hear Travis upstairs hiding in the bathroom. So they go up and they're like, come out with your hands up. And Travis is like, f*** you. And he jumps out the bathroom window and falls down to the ground.
And he runs over to the car he arrived in and he hops in it and he flees, driving across Martha's massive lawn. And of course, police are right behind him, chasing him. But then, boom, his car gets stuck. And so he gets out and he runs back across the massive lawn and he jumps into the nearby lake. I guess he's going to try and swim his way out of this.
But unfortunately for him, it doesn't seem that he can swim and Travis ends up drowning in that lake. Wow. That is wild.