Terbukti data MSN tersebut atas nama Maury Troy Travis, dari Ferguson. Pada 7 Juni 2002, polisi menangkap Travis dan mulai menggeledah rumahnya di Ferguson, Missouri. Maury mengatakan kepada penyelidik bahwa dia tahu mengapa mereka datang untuk menjemputnya tetapi tidak akan membuat pengakuan langsung di bawah interogasi awal. Maury Troy Travis Photos Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of. Video thumbnail for Randy Travis DUI Dashcam Footage: pin. Maury Travis Red Ink Letters.
Mugshot of Travis | |
| Born | October 25, 1965 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Died | June 10, 2002 (aged 36) |
| Cause of death | Suicide by hanging |
| Details | |
| Victims | 12–17+ |
Span of crimes | 2000–2002 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Missouri |
| June 7, 2002 | |
Maury Troy Travis (October 25, 1965 – June 10, 2002) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer who committed suicide in custody in St. Louis County, Missouri, after being arrested for murder. Travis was named in a federal criminal complaint for the murders of two women. At the time of the murders, he was a hotel waiter and on parole for a 1989 robbery. While Travis claimed in a letter to have murdered seventeen women, some authorities were doubtful;[1][2][3] others thought he may have murdered up to twenty women.[4]
Known victims[edit]
At least one videotape showing Travis murdering and/or torturing some of his victims was found in the search of his home in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. He is believed to have killed two women: Alysia Greenwade, whose body was discovered 1 April 2001 in Illinois (after having been last seen in Missouri), and Betty James, whose body was discovered about two months later in Missouri (after having been last seen in Illinois).[2] Although Travis appears to have acknowledged at least seventeen murders, the police believe his victim count could be as high as twenty.
Investigation[edit]
From May to October 2001, four other women were tortured and strangled: Teresa Wilson, Verona Thompson, Yvonne Crues and Brenda Beasley. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a profile piece on Wilson, to which Travis responded by sending an anonymous letter and a computer-generated map. The letter had a return address of I THRALLDOM, a bondage website, but no other identification.[2] However, the map was recognized to have come from Expedia.com, and further investigation traced it back to Travis, leading to his arrest.[2][5]
In his letter to the newspaper, Travis wrote, 'I'll tell you where many others are.' And then: 'To prove I'm real, here's directions to number seventeen.'[3] Travis was arrested on a federal criminal complaint and, while in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, was housed at a St. Louis County jail facility in Clayton.[6] Investigators discovered a torture chamber at Travis' residence, torture instruments, a stun gun, newspaper clippings of some of his crimes, and videotapes of Travis killing or abusing victims.[4]
Death[edit]
Before he could be put on trial for the crimes, Travis hanged himself on June 10, 2002, in his jail cell. Travis had been placed on suicide watch (i.e. checked upon at 15-minute intervals); however two consecutive checks were missed by the guards, allowing Travis his opportunity.[citation needed]
In the media[edit]
Forensic Files covered the story of Travis' crime spree in the episode 'X Marks the Spot'. Cold Case Files covered the story in the episode 'A Map to Murder'. Evil, I also covered the story in an episode 'Hell's Basement'.
After watching the Cold Case Files documentary on the A&E network, the current tenant of Travis' house found out about its history. It was revealed that her landlord, who would not return the money or break the lease when confronted, was Travis' mother.[7] Upon being approached by the local housing authority, the landlord subsequently agreed to rescind the lease.[8]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Internet Used to Find Man Charged in 2 of 10 Killings'. The New York Times. 11 June 2002. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ abcdSuhr, Jim (11 June 2002). 'Man charged with deaths of prostitutes'. Southeast Missourian. Associated Press. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ abSimon, Stephanie (17 June 2002). 'Virtual Trail Led to Serial Killer Suspect'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ ab'Serial killer's home movies'. ABC Primetime. ABC News. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^Ramsland, Katherine. 'Murder Cop: A Profile of Vernon J. Geberth'. truTV Crime Library. Archived from the original on 9 May 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^Suhr, Jim (12 June 2002). 'Inmate's Suicide Won't Stall Probe'. Southeast Missourian. Associated Press. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^Nagus, Chris (9 July 2014). 'Catrina McGhaw: St. Louis woman finds out on TV she's renting serial killer Maury Travis' home'. KMOV. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^'Woman found serial killer lived home watching TV'. ABC Primetime. ABC News. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
The Maury Travis case is fascinating, not least because it contains a letter and a map sent to the press, but also shows that advances in technology are making it more and more difficult for a serial killer to remain active.
Travis has the dubious honour of being “the first serial killer to be caught by Google”, although, as you will already be aware, Dennis Rader (BTK) also met his downfall due to traced computer documents.
The difference is that Travis was caught using co-operation between the police and internet service providers (ISP’s), whereas Rader simply didn’t realise that his Word document could be linked to his log-in details.
Unfortunately, Travis was never able to shed any light on his decision to communicate with the press, or his embracing of internet technology, as he was found hanged in his cell at St Louis County Jail in 2002 before standing trial.
Born on the 25th October 1965 in Missouri, Maury Troy Travis was to become a rarity in the world of serial killers. Firstly, he was to join the small number of killers who use the media as a tool to communicate, secondly, because he used technology to revisit his crime scenes, and thirdly, because he was one of a small number of black serial killers.
Little is known of his early life, but we do know that when he was arrested on the initial murder charge, he was working as a waiter and was also on parole for a previous robbery.
The wheels of this case were set in motion when a St Louis Post-Dispatcher reporter received a letter praising him for his story on a murdered prostitute which featured in the newspaper some time earlier.
Accompanying the letter was a map of West Alton, an area of St Louis, Missouri, which bore a large “X” at an area in which the writer claimed that a body could be found.
The letter was immediately handed over to the police, who quickly found the skeleton of a woman at the spot marked on the map by the killer.
All attention was then turned to the map itself, with the FBI becoming involved in the investigation.
It was quickly discovered that the map was downloaded from Expedia, and the investigating team swooped into action, contacting Expedia with a subpoena which compelled them to give out the information of any customer who had downloaded the map of West Alton between May 18th (the day the original newspaper story was printed), and May 21st (the date of the postmark on the letter).
Expedia directed the FBI to Google, who handle the information for its map site.
A positive result was found within a fortnight.
On June 3rd, Microsoft told the investigators that only one computer had accessed this map during the specified time period, but were unable to give a name or address.
Maury Travis Victims
The only information which could lead to the killers identity was the code 65.227.106.78. Travis’ I.P address.
Unfortunately, the FBI was still a long way from catching the killer, as it is not easy to track an I.P address. They were forced to enlist the help of WorldCom, a telecommunications business whose role was to assign a temporary I.P address to any customer dialling-up an internet session (don’t forget, this was before the days of broadband and fibre-optic technology!).
This was still far from simple, as a different I.P address was assigned every time someone logged on to the internet, with each I.P address having been used for thousands of people to connect to the web.
It was a question of who used that I.P address at that specific time, and due to all hands at WorldCom being put to deck, the result was found the next day.
The user was identified as MSN/maurytravis.
The customer was later officially identified as Maury Troy Travis of Ferguson, Missouri.
By June 7th, the case had been sufficiently strengthened by DNA evidence and tyre tread markings for an arrest to be made.
36 year old waiter Travis was arrested for two counts of kidnapping, which linked to him to several murders around the state. Video tapes of him committing sexual assaults on several women were later found at his address.
Travis hanged himself on June 17th, having never commented on his crimes.
The two murders Travis almost certainly committed are those of Alycia Greenwade and Betty Smith, both from the Missouri area.
However, the FBI believe that Travis could be responsible for up to 10 unsolved murders.
Below is a timeline from the website of the St Louis Post-Dispatcher which makes this complicated case much easier to dissect.
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Maury Troy Travis Video Footage
Also provided by the Post-Dispatcher is an explanation of I.P addresses, and their functions.
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Maury Troy Travis Videos
Below is a map similar to that sent by Travis to the Post-Dispatcher, along with a crime scene photograph from the spot marked “X.”
The Maury Travis Tapes
Below is short documentary regarding the Maury Travis case.