A Map Sent to a Newspaper Leads the FBI to Maury Travis in the St. Louis Killings of Women
Travis, a 36-year-old waiter, was charged with kidnapping two women who were later found dead. Investigators traced him through an internet map mailed to a reporter.
Published
A letter to a St. Louis newspaper offered to reveal where bodies lay, and investigators traced its map to Maury Troy Travis. On June 10, 2002, federal charges against him were unsealed.
Travis, 36, a waiter and paroled robber from the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, had been arrested three days earlier. The complaint, filed in federal court in East St. Louis, Illinois, alleged that he kidnapped and "caused the death" of Alysia Greenwade and Betty James. Greenwade's body was found on April 1, 2001, in Washington Park, Illinois, and James's two months later in St. Louis. Tire marks next to Greenwade's body and on James's leg appeared consistent with the tires on Travis's two cars, and searchers at his home found a locked file cabinet holding ligatures and belts with what appeared to be blood.
The trail began on May 24, 2002, five days after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a sympathetic profile of one of the victims, Teresa Wilson. Reporter Bill Smith received a letter mocking his "nice sob story" and offering to tell where many others were, along with a computer-printed map of West Alton marked with an X. Searchers found a woman's skeletal remains within 50 yards of the spot. Illinois State Police matched the map to one downloaded from Expedia.com, and subpoenas to Expedia and to Microsoft traced the download to a single user: MSN/maurytravis.
Authorities said they suspected Travis in the deaths of ten women found in the St. Louis area since April 2001, among them Teresa Wilson, Verona Thompson, Yvonne Crues and Brenda Beasley, though the complaint did not charge him in those four killings. He was never tried. Within days, Travis died by suicide in jail.
The Associated Press placed West Alton in St. Charles County, Missouri, while the Los Angeles Times described it as being in Illinois. The two reports also spelled Greenwade's first name differently, Alysia and Alysa.
Sources
- Man charged with deaths of prostitutes, Southeast Missourian (Associated Press, Jim Suhr)
- Virtual Trail Led to Serial Killer Suspect, Los Angeles Times