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A Case So Gruesome Police Needed Therapy · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This case takes place in the USA and spans over
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a number of years. Meet Murray Troy Travis. Murray was
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: born on the 25th of October 1965 in the city
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of St. Louis, Missouri, one of the major cities along
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the Mississippi River. He was raised in a poor area
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and lived on the breadline. There isn't much information to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: mention about his formative years, although his former teacher remembered
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: him only because of how unusual he was. After graduating
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in 1985, he spent two years in the Army Reserve
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: working as a medical and dental assistant. He later held
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: various jobs, including working for trucking companies and volunteering at
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: a nursing home. On the surface, nothing was alarming about
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: his life, which is bizarre when we consider the deplorable
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and diabolical acts he later committed. It was in 1987
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: where his life began to unravel. He became addicted to
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: crack cocaine, which was a habit that quickly spiraled out
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of control. By 1988, at the age of 23, his
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: addiction had totally consumed him. He was spending as much
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: as $ 300 a day on drugs, which led him to
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: commit a series of robberies to pay for more drugs.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: In the span of eight days, he robbed five shoe
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: stores across the county. When the police eventually arrested him,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: he was neither aggressive nor hostile. Officers later described him
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: as quite respectful. When he appeared in court, he claimed
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that his drug use had clouded his memory of the robberies.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: He pleaded for leniency, telling the judge that he had
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: completed rehabilitation and was no longer using drugs after spending
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: some time in jail before the trial. However, just months
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: before his 24th birthday, a judge sentenced him to 15
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: years in prison. Around two months into the sentence, Maury
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: sent a handwritten letter to the judge, pleading for reconsideration.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: He described prison as unbearable, saying that he cried himself
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to sleep most nights and his mental health was deteriorating.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Suffice to say, the judge did not respond. After serving
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: just over five years, Maury was released on parole. He
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was 29 years old and the year was 1994. Those
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: who interacted with him afterwards described him as polite and
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: an unassuming man. A neighbor recalled how he would hum
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: and sing when entering the shared basement of their building,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: making sure she knew he was there so he wouldn't
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: startle her. Another neighbor, who often drank beer with him,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: said he never noticed anything strange about him, which is
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: rather strange, as he would soon become known as the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: streetwalker strangler. During the summers of 2000 and 2001, he
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: was working as a waiter at a hotel restaurant. One day,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a co-worker named Dave mentioned that a friend's stolen car
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: had been found burned in East St. Louis. Maury didn't
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: seem surprised. He casually remarked that East St. Louis was
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: a good place to dump things because the police didn't
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: patrol the area often. Dave thought to himself, he thought
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: that this was a strange comment to make. Why would
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Maury be an expert on knowing whether police didn't patrol?
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: This made the colleague rather suspicious of him. Maury also
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: had a girlfriend, a woman named Julie. At the time,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Julie was working as an intern for KDL News, and
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: she remembers Maury saying something rather disturbing. Maury turned to
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Julie and asked her if the station had ever done
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: a story on their escorts who were being murdered at
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the time. From 2000 to 2001, several escorts were found dead,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: dumped in East St. Louis and other areas. However, this
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't public knowledge yet. The police had decided to not
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: yet tell the media. Whilst Maury was talking to his girlfriend,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: he referred to this person as a serial killer. Julie
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: found the information strange but intriguing. It pricked her journalistic senses,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and she pitched the idea to her boss at the station. However,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the boss had no idea about these murders yet. Less
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: than three months later, the police publicly announced that a
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: serial killer had likely been preying on escorts in that area.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: These were African-American women who were addicted to drugs and
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: often living on the streets. In St. Louis, the common
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: area known for its crack houses was called The Stroll.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: People who hang around The Stroll can be seen walking
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the streets for days on end. They have matted hair
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and wear the same clothing for weeks at a time.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: These women have no permanent or safe residences. They were
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: exposed and at the mercy of their next customers. They
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: worked so they could buy more illegal substances, and Maury
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Travis knew this area. He knew it for the access
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to drugs and the access to vulnerable victims. The serial
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: killer who had been preying on these women was in
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: fact Maury Travis. Still to this day, there is no
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: timeline of events, but it is suspected that Maury went
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: on a killing spree from the 19th of March 2000
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: to the day of his arrest two years later. What
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: we do know is his clear modus operandi. First, Maury
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: would cruise up the stroll, eyeing up the local women
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: of the night, most of which were African American, just
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: as Maury desired. Once he had his mind set on
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: one of the women, he would approach them, He came
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: across nice, polite, and like any other person seeking their services. Only,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: he was not like anyone else. What he intended to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: do was beyond imaginable. After some small talk during a
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: ride home to his house in Ferguson, he would welcome
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: them into his house. What's strange is that he filmed
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: these interactions. First, he would give them some illegal substances
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and then sleep with them in his bedrooms. Once he
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: had had his fill, he turned to satisfy a more
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: darker need. He now made them engage in ritual-like activities.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: He brought one victim into his living room, made her
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: change into a white dress, before placing sunglasses on her face.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Still to this day, nobody quite knows why he did
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: these strange things. And then, when the women are least
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: expecting it, he would pull out an extremely powerful taser
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and shock the victim just below the collarbone, rendering them
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: completely incapacitated. He then grabbed the women by the legs
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and dragged them through his house into the basement, which
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: was later named his torture chamber. The police recall watching
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the footage at a later date, hearing the bodies bang
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: along the staircase as he dragged them down into his lair.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Maury's demeanor then rapidly changed. He became hostile, combative, and
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: very degrading. There was a single thick wooden column in
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the center of the torture chamber, which he would use
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: to restrain the women against. He would strip them completely naked,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: and handcuff their hands and feet behind them around the column,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: leaving them on their knees. Maury then began interrogating them,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: asking them who's looking after their children. He made his
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: point very clear. These women were to him subhuman for
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: putting drugs and their jobs before their children. He even
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: filmed them asking if they wanted to say anything to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: their children. The women would then endure further humiliation and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: torture over the course of several days. He would beat
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: them black and blue. He would lacerate the women with
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: kitchen utensils, drawing blood which would spray across the basement.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: and he cared very little for cleaning up. After killing
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: a victim, Mori would extract something from them, an item
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: of clothing or a piece of jewelry, anything to keep
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: as a souvenir. Next, he would eject any films he
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: had made in his camcorder and place them in a
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: safe spacing in the cavity of his dungeon wall. He
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: would then discard the bodies in a wide range of locations.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: A 34-year-old woman by the name of Alyssa Greenwade was
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: one of his victims. She lived on the stroll and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: was found dead in Washington Park on the 1st of
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: April 2001, with strangulation marks around her neck. Teresa Wilson,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: age 36, was found dead by strangulation in a ditch
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: off Highway 67 on the 15th of May 2001. Betty James,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: aged 46, was found on the 23rd of May 2001,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: and was one of the women who starred in Maury's
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: graphic tapes. She was one of the only victims who
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: stated her real name when she was asked on camera.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: She was also found with tyre marks across her legs,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: indicating that Maury had run her over at some point. Then,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: on the 29th of June 2001, only 16 feet from
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: where Teresa was found was the body of Verona Thompson,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: who was aged 36. Then, on the 25th of August 2001,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a decomposing 50-year-old woman named Yvonne Cruz was found strangled
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: and tortured to death. Then there was 33-year-old Brenda Beasley,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: who was also strangled and dumped in some garbage only
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: a few months later. Brenda and Yvonne had DNA inside
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: their private parts from the same male. This was later
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: discovered to be Maury's. The list continued with a series
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: of discovered skeletal remains, which proved little information with regard
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to the manner of their death. Maury had no regard
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: for his victims. Teresa Wilson was a mother to a
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: daughter called Chastity. She would take her daughter to the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: spot where she would meet her clientele. They would both
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: sit on a bench next to a pig. When Teresa
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: had a client, she would leave her daughter on a
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: bench for up to an hour and then return. So
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: when Maury drove up to Teresa, he took her mother
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: knowing that he was going to end her life. Chastity
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: sat and waited for her mother for hours. ultimately for
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: her to never return. He saw these women as trash,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: so much so that he dumped many of his victims
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: in heavily vegetated areas of highways and mostly in East St. Louis.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Some of the bodies were found discarded in illegal dumping sites,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: buried beneath piles of garbage. Over this period, the police
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: were finding bodies nearly every six weeks. The police theorized
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: that the killing was at the hands of the same perpetrator,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: but unfortunately for the longest time, there were no leads.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Homicide investigators from Illinois and Missouri police and the FBI
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: joined forces and created a task force. But again, more
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: bodies appeared, having undergone a brutal degrading murder with the
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: same modus operandi. The task force thought that the murderer
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: was arrogant, as he would sometimes leave the bodies to
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: be easily discovered. At first, they thought the profile of
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: the killer would be a white male trucker, as many
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: of the bodies were left along roads just outside the city.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: But as more and more bodies turned up, they believed
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: it was a man who was familiar with the area.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Early into the investigation, Maury Travis was dubbed the Streetwalker Killer.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: It took several months before the news outlets started reporting
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: on these murders. A journalist named Bill Smith wrote a
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: heartfelt and bold front-page piece on the women who had
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: been killed. He saw that these vulnerable women who had
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: been murdered were being forgotten about, as very few people
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: came forward to identify the bodies. He saw it as
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a complete injustice, and believed that this would empower the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: killer to continue. But just five days later, Bill received
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: a peculiar letter in his work mailbox. Bill opened the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: letter and read the first line. It read, nice sub-story
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: about Teresa. But then Bill read on. It said, write
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a good story about Greenwood and I'll tell you where
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the other bodies are. To prove I'm real, here's directions
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to victim number 17. A map was provided with the
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: letter X marking the spot. The letter was handed over
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: to the task force. Just as it described, Alyssa was
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: found at the marked location on a map provided to Bill. However,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the police now had a lead. Maury had used an
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: online digital map to send to Bill. A team of
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: expert digital forensic analysts was assembled to track down the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: online map that Maury had used to direct Bill to
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Alyssa's body. The police knew there was only a five-day
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: window between the initial news report and the day that
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Bill received the letter. Their task was clear. Find the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: exact map online and determine who had accessed it within
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: that time frame. The map was from Expedia.com, which exclusively
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: used maps from Microsoft. The police reached out to Microsoft
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: for user data, but the company was reluctant to cooperate.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: But a subpoena was issued, and Microsoft handed over the data.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: The map in question covered a small specific section of St. Louis.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: The police hoped that the number of users who had
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: accessed it during the five-day window could be minimal. And
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: they were right. Only one computer had downloaded that very
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: section of the map. Tracing the IP address led them
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: to an MSN account registered under the username Maury Travis.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: This name brought them to a property where Maury had
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: been living, the house which sat atop his murder dungeon.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: On the 7th of June 2002, Sergeant Tom Sachs of
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the St. Louis Police Force headed to Maury's residence in
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Ferguson in the morning. After banging on the door, the
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: officer was met by a riled-up Maury Travis and his girlfriend.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Maury's first words to the police officer was, It's seven
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning. Tim Sachs replied and said, Yeah,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: you're right, and here's a search warrant. Maury then said,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Why do you need to search my house? And Tim
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: replied by saying, You know exactly why we're here. The
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: police believed that they had caught the streetwalker strangler, but
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: what they didn't expect was the sheer volume of evidence
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: waiting for them. The police searched the house and quickly
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: realized that they had uncovered something far worse than they
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: had anticipated. They found the computer they were looking for,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: but they also found women's wigs, pairs of high heels, jewelry,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: and a stun gun locked in the desk drawer. They
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: even found a book on how to conduct torture and
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: articles regarding his victims. Within the walls of the torture
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: chamber were a collection of homemade videotapes. One videotape was
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: labeled The Wedding Day. This had several edits and cuts
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: which showed Maury torturing, abusing, and forcing himself upon different women.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: A moment later, it cut to a part where he
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: is killing Cassandra Walker. You can see how she was
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: chained up to a wooden central pillar in the basement.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Her legs and hands are restrained, and she is pleading
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: with him to let her go. In that moment, he
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: picks up a belt and strangles her to death. Now,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: what exactly happened on these tapes was so disturbing that
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: each officer that reviewed the tapes was given psychological treatment after.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: They were described as beyond twisted and horrifically graphic. The
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: basement painted an even darker picture. The police uncovered a
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: makeshift prison cell. Blood covered the walls, ceiling, doors, and
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the carpet. Even the furniture was stained red. This was
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the setting for most of these videotapes that he had made.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Investigators searching Maury's home found a crude diagram detailing plans
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: for a basement extension. He intended to build two prison
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: cells where he would chain up his victims, and the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: plans were incredibly well thought out. They included air vents
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: for the basements, ensuring ventilation. He wanted to make sure
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: it was well concealed, so he drew crawl pods instead
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: of doors. Since there was no bathroom facilities, he made
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: a list of supplies which included adult diapers. It was
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: clear that he was preparing to keep women captive for
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: an extended period of time, inferring he must have gotten
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: bored of his current methods. It turned out that Maury's
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: girlfriend had no idea what was going on in the
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: house she lived in, or what Maury had planned. She
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: swore that she had never gone into the basement, and
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: that the basement was for Maury only. Maury was questioned
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: for four hours on his sofa before being taken in
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: for interrogation. Initially, he was arrested on kidnapping charges linked
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: to two victims, Betty James and Alyssa Greenwade. Investigators then
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: matched tire tracks on Betty's leg. They were linked to
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Maury's car. It was now a priority for the police
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: to identify and locate the other victims who were in
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: these tapes, and whose DNA covered the basement in the
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: form of bloodstains. But Maury, he wasn't cooperating. There was
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: no emotion, no guilt, no remorse. He was described by
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the police officers as nothing but a monster. He sat there, unfazed,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: asking the police officers how they had found him. His
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: arrogance was unsettling. He even remarked that the interviewer was
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: boring and that he wanted to have someone more challenging.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Maury seemed unable to believe that he had finally been caught,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: but then the police revealed that it was the letter
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: to Bill Smith that led to him being apprehended. And
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: with this, his demeanor shifted. He drummed his fingers on
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the table restlessly. His body shifted in the chair, sliding
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: back and forth, and he further refused to cooperate. Maury
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: was then placed in a super maximum jail cell and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: was placed on round-the-clock observations. This is a common practice
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: for criminals who may face the death penalty. Observations were
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: scheduled for every 15 minutes. But on the 10th of
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: June 2002, guards at the St. Louis County Jail found
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Maury dead in his cell. He had been able to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: create a makeshift noose, and two consecutive checks had been missed.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: In those 45 minutes, he had enough time to tear
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: a strip from his bedsheet, thread it through an air
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: vent above the toilet, and end it all. He even
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: managed to restrain his own hands behind his back, preventing
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: himself from instinctively fighting for survival. Inside his cell, they
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: found a note addressed to his mother. It read, Dear Mum,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry for the pain I have caused you and
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: the family. My death seems to be the only way out.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and a fast end to all of this publicity. You
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: were the best mother a man could have, but I've
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: been sick in the head for a long time, since
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: I was around fourteen. I don't know why, I was
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: just sick. I have never felt normal or happy at
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: any time in my life. This seems to be the
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: best solution for all involved, especially me, because I don't
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: want to spend the rest of my life locked up.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Or worse, let them kill me with a needle. Tell Grandma, Marina, James,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: and everybody that I love them dearly. But I love
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: you the most. Forever your son, Maury Travis. The investigators
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: who analyzed the note saw no admission of guilt for
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the murders. They also believed that a significant event pushed
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: him towards becoming a cold-blooded killer around the age of 14.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: But when detectives interviewed those who knew him, they found nothing.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: No signs of childhood trauma, or any trauma for that matter.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: No clear trigger that could explain his descent into murder. Unfortunately,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Maury never faced trial. He never stood before the families
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: of the woman he manipulated, humiliated, and destroyed. By the
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: time of his death, the police had linked him to
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: 12 victims, but in his own words, there were at
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: least 17. Detectives in the surrounding counties have suspected that
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: he might be the murderer in several other cases, increasing
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: the potential murder count to over 20. The strongest theory
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: suggests that he had a deep hatred for women who
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: sold their bodies, but no one can say for sure.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: The case of Maury Travis remains a puzzle unsolved. His
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: motives were never fully understood.