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Woman Forgives Mother's Killer, Gives Him a Job, Then He Murders Her Too | Snowden House
About this Episode
In 1996, 16-year-old Travis Lewis shot Sally Snowden McKay and her nephew Lee Baker to death during a burglary at their Arkansas estate, then set the house on fire. Sally's daughter Martha - a devout Buddhist - chose forgiveness. She visited Travis in prison for 23 years, advocated for his parole, and when he was released in 2018, gave him a job and home at the historic Snowden House bed-and-breakfast on the same property where he'd murdered her mother.
In March 2020, Martha fired Travis for stealing $10,000. Days later, he broke into Snowden House and stabbed and bludgeoned 63-year-old Martha to death at the top of the marble staircase. When police arrived, Travis jumped from an upstairs window, his getaway car got stuck in the yard, and he drowned fleeing into Horseshoe Lake. The same man murdered mother and daughter 23 years apart on the same family estate - betraying the ultimate act of forgiveness.
UK: Samaritans 116 123, Victim Support 0808 168 9111, Cruse Bereavement 0808 808 1677. US: 988 Lifeline, Crime Victims Support 1-855-484-2846. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14, 1800 RESPECT, Victims Services 1800 633 063. International: hotpeachpages.net
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Hosts & Guests
Transcript
Before we get into tonight's episode,
I just want to let you know about an exciting addition
coming to your feed.
Crime at Bedtime's sister show,
Mystery's at Bedtime will now be accessible right here
in the same place.
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For lovers of true crime,
Crime at Bedtime continues at the same time twice a week as normal
with an additional episode of Mystery's at Bedtime
dropping every Wednesday.
More Bedtime content, same great format.
Just more of it.
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On the 25th of March 2020,
the world was in the early days of COVID-19.
Most of the United States was in lockdown.
Businesses were closed.
People were isolating at home.
The Snowden House, in horseshoe lake,
Arkansas was in a grand colonial mansion
with white columns and marble floors.
Martha McKay was alone.
At some point that afternoon,
an electronic alarm was triggered.
Someone had broken into the house.
Deputies from the local county sheriff's office
responded immediately.
They arrived to find a back door open.
They went inside and began clearing
the house room by room.
Upstairs they located a possible suspect.
The man jumped from an upstairs window,
a second story dropped to the ground below.
He ran to a vehicle parked in the yard
and attempted to drive away
but the vehicle became stuck in the mud.
The man abandoned the car
and ran on foot towards horseshoe lake,
where he jumped into the water.
He was observed going under the water
and never came back up.
Sheriff Mike Allen said in a statement.
Deputies called for assistance.
The Arkansas's game and fish commission
and the Clinton County search and rescue arrived
with sonar equipment
and began searching the lake.
They would later locate and recover a body.
Meanwhile inside the Snowden house
at the top of the marble staircase,
deputies would find Martha McKay.
She was 63 years of age.
She'd been stabbed in a bludgeon to death.
Near her body was a bag filled with her belongings
and a utility knife.
When detectives identified the drowned man,
they were stunned.
His name was Travis Lewis,
and he was 39 years of age.
The reason they were stunned?
23 years earlier in September of 1996,
the same man had committed a double murder
on this very same property,
where he'd shot and killed two people
and set the house on fire to cover the evidence.
One of his victims had been a 75-year-old woman
named Sally Snowden McKay.
Martha McKay's mother.
The same man had now murdered both mother and daughter
on the same estate, 23 years apart.
For the most shocking detail of all,
Martha McKay had known exactly who Travis Lewis was.
She'd known what he'd done to her mother,
and she'd let him in to her life.
The same man had now committed a double murder
on the same estate.
The same man had now murdered both mother and daughter
on the same estate.
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My name is Jack Lawrence.
Welcome to Crime of Bedtime.
Before we head back to the story of the Snowden House murders,
it's time to take a minute.
Time to relax and focus on our breathing.
As always, we'll utilize the Force X8 method,
breathing in slow and deep through the nose for four seconds,
holding the breath for six before breathing out slow and controlled.
For eight, here we go.
Breathing in for four,
hold,
and slowly and controlled back out.
And again, slowly breathing in deep,
slowing the lungs for four,
holding,
and slowly and controlled back out again.
One more time, breathing in deep, slow,
through the nose,
filling the lungs for four seconds,
holding for six,
and slowly and controlled back out again.
Now, as you'd be normally,
let's head back to the story of the Snowden House murders.
The Snowden family were Arkansas's royalty.
In 1919, colonial Bob and Grace Snowden
purchased a grand colonial star mansion
on the shores of Horseshoe Lake,
in Crittenden County, Arkansas.
The estate was spectacular,
a thousand acres of Lakefront property.
The house itself was a white-columned mansion
with marble floors and sweeping staircase
and rooms filled with air looms
from some of the first homes in Memphis, Tennessee,
just 34 miles to the northeast.
The Snowden's were influential and wealthy.
In 2005, they would donate $160,000
to establish a scholarship fund
at the University of Arkansas's Honors College.
They owned the Peabody Hotel,
a historic landmark in Memphis.
For generations, the Snowden family
spent summers at Horseshoe Lake.
It was a place of laughter,
reunions, parties, and celebrations.
Martha McKay, one of ten grand children
of Bob and Grace Snowden,
grew up spending summers at the Snowden House.
It was just wonderful.
She recalled in a 2012 interview with Memphis magazine.
I felt like I was royalty in this big house.
Everything was fresh from the garden, fresh eggs and all.
We even had a peach orchard.
Martha's mother, Sally Snowden McKay,
eventually moved into a house
on the Snowden's estate full-time.
She managed the family's property and business interests.
A nephew, Joseph Lee Baker,
a talented Memphis blues and rock guitarist,
often visited.
He helped Sally with the estate.
The Snowden estate employed several staff members,
groundskeepers, housekeepers, maintenance workers.
Among them were the Lewis family.
Travis Lewis's father worked as a groundskeeper,
whose mother Gladys worked as a housekeeper.
Travis Lewis grew up on the Snowden estate.
He was friends with Lee Baker's two sons.
In 1994, Snowden House gained a touch of Hollywood glamour.
The grand mansion was chosen as a filming location
for the movie The Client,
the adaptation of a John Grisham best-selling legal thriller.
The Snowden's were delighted to lend their home to the production.
Everything was perfect.
On the 10th of September 1996,
emergency services in Horseshoe Lake receive a 911 call.
As a fire at a house on the Snowden estate,
flames are visible from the road.
Alert neighbors had noticed smoke and flames
coming from Sally Snowden McKay's home,
and they dialed 911 immediately.
Fire crews would arrive quickly.
They entered the house and made a grim discovery.
Two bodies that would later be identified as
Sally Snowden McKay aged 75,
who'd been shot to death,
and Joseph Lee Baker aged 52,
also shot to death.
The house, it seems,
had been set on fire and attempt to destroy evidence
and cover up the crime.
Fortunately, the quick response from the neighbors
meant the fire hadn't spread very far,
and much of the evidence was preserved.
Police began investigating immediately.
It appeared to have been a burglary gone wrong.
Someone had also broken into Lee Baker's home on the same day.
The investigation would quickly focus on 16-year-old Travis Lewis,
the young boy who lived on the estate,
the one who was friends with Lee's sons.
He had access to the property.
So they brought him in for questioning.
Initially, he would deny involvement.
He even passes a polygraph test.
However, he then failed a second one,
and investigators confronted him with incriminating evidence.
His DNA and fingerprints had been found at the scene,
and Travis confesses.
He tells police that he'd been burgling Sally's home.
He hadn't expected anyone to be there,
and Lee had walked in and startled him.
He panicked and shot them both.
He then set fire to the house, hoping to destroy the evidence.
He also claimed that someone else had been involved in the crime,
though he wouldn't say who it was.
At 16 years of age,
Travis Lewis had committed double homicide.
Although just 16, he would be charged as an adult,
meaning he was eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors began building their case.
The evidence was overwhelming.
Travis's DNA, his fingerprints, and his confession.
His defense team negotiated a plea deal.
On 7th April 1998, Travis Lewis pleaded guilty to two counts of murder.
He was avoiding execution,
and accepted a sentence of 28 and a half years in prison,
making him eligible for parole after serving 70% of his sentence.
The Snowden family didn't want Travis to face the death penalty either.
Martha McKay, Sally's daughter, had even intervened.
She didn't want Travis executed.
Even so young, 16, perhaps he could be rehabilitated.
She asked prosecutors to spare his life,
so the plea deal was accepted.
Travis Lewis was sent to prison.
A Martha McKay tried to move on with her life.
After her mother's murder, Martha McKay moved back to Arkansas
from San Francisco.
Martha was devastated like we all were, her sister said.
But Martha didn't want the Snowden state to be defined by tragedy.
In 2004, she bought Snowden house from the family.
She would spend years lovingly restoring the property back to its original colonial beauty.
The marble floors, the grand staircase, the air looms and antiques.
She reopened it as an upscale bed and breakfast and wedding venue.
Martha quickly became known as the Lady of the Lake.
She threw parties, hosted reunions and weddings.
She brought laughter back to Snowden house.
There was something about her that people really loved.
She left an impression on people.
She had that gift, a sister would say.
Martha was described as big-hearted, gregarious, generous,
and always up for adventure.
She was also a practicing Buddhist.
She believed deeply in forgiveness and redemption.
While Travis Lewis was in prison, Martha began writing to him.
She wanted to try and understand what had happened to her mother.
She wanted to know if someone else had been involved as Travis had claimed.
According to Crentan and County Sheriff Mike Allen,
Martha felt empathy and sadness for Lewis,
given how young he was at the time of the crime.
She also accepted Travis' allegation that another person was involved in the crime.
I think it was her mission to find out what happened to her mother
and to find out if someone else had been involved, Sheriff Allen said.
Martha would even visit Travis in prison.
A family warned her against it.
We told her just to stay away.
It's bad juju type thing, as sister said.
But Martha wouldn't listen.
She believed Travis deserved a second chance.
When he finally came up for parole, the family would be contacted.
None of us were okay with it except for her.
Assisted recalls.
In 2016, Travis' first parole hearing was denied.
Two years later, 2018, after serving 23 years in prison,
Travis would be paroled.
A Martha McCay would make him an extraordinary offer.
She wanted to give him a job.
A job at Snowden House.
The very property where he'd murdered her mother and cousin.
She gave him a place to stay.
And a second chance.
After his release from prison in 2018, Travis Lewis moved to Snowden House.
His mother still worked there as a housekeeper.
She remained loyal to the Snowden family for decades.
Martha gave Travis a job helping to maintain the property
and assist with the bed and breakfast.
And for a while, the arrangements seemed to work.
Travis appeared grateful, remorseful and reformed.
Martha believed she was doing the right thing.
She was giving this young man now in his late 30s
a chance to rebuild his life.
But then things began to change.
Travis' mother confided in Martha that she was concerned about her son.
She said the Travis was returning to his old ways.
Martha began to notice as well.
Money started going missing.
In particular, Martha had sold a chandelier for $10,000.
Some sources say $14,000.
And had casually stashed the cash in her house.
But the money disappeared.
Travis was the only person in the house at the time.
Martha kept a diary after her death.
Her sister Katie discovered entries in which Martha expressed her suspicions
that Travis was a thief.
And she confronted him.
And eventually firing him from his job.
She banned him from Snowden House.
And Travis was out.
On the 25th of March, 2020,
the world was in the grip of COVID-19.
America was in lockdown.
Streets were empty.
Businesses shutted.
Families isolated in their homes,
watching the news with growing dread as death tolls appeared to climb.
At Snowden House in Horseshoe Lake,
our concerns, Martha McKay was alone.
The grand colonial mansion with its white columns, marble floors,
and sweeping staircases had never felt so quiet.
The bed and breakfast had no guests.
The weddings had been cancelled.
The laughter and celebration that Martha had worked so hard to bring back
was silenced.
One afternoon, Travis Lewis would make a decision.
He knew the house intimately.
Every room, every door, every window.
He'd worked there for nearly two years.
And he knew Martha would be alone.
We don't know exactly when Travis broke into Snowden House.
We don't know if he used a key that he kept.
What we do know is that at some point that afternoon,
Travis Lewis was inside Martha McKay's home.
And he was looking for her.
Perhaps he'd come for the money,
Martha accused him of stealing.
Perhaps he'd come to confront her about being fired.
Perhaps he'd come with darker intentions from the start.
Martha was somewhere in the house, perhaps in her office,
or the kitchen, perhaps upstairs in the bedroom
overlooking the lake, when Travis climbs the grand marble staircase.
The same staircase he'd walked up and down a thousand times
whilst working for Martha.
The same staircase were guests that descended
in elegant gowns for weddings.
The same staircase that led to the beautiful third floor bedrooms
with their period furniture and lake views.
And at the top of the stairs,
Martha confronts Travis.
What words are exchanged we will never know?
Did Martha plead with him?
Did she try to reason with him,
slipping into therapist mode as she'd done with violent men before?
Did he demand money?
Did he rage about being fired?
Did he blame her for ruining his second chance?
Or did he simply attack her without warning?
What we know is this.
Travis Lewis stabbed Martha McKay,
not once, but multiple times,
and then bludgeoned her.
Martha would fight back.
She was 63 years old,
but she fought for her life
in that beautiful house she'd poured her heart into.
Was Travis attacked her?
Martha managed to do something extraordinary.
She managed to press an electronic alert button
connected to the alarm system in her home,
and a silent alarm was tripped,
sending an immediate notification to local law enforcement.
A last desperate act,
a final attempt to save herself,
or perhaps she knew was already too late.
Perhaps she pressed it,
knowing that even if she did die,
the police would come.
They would know, and they would catch him.
Travis didn't stop his attack.
He stabbed her again,
bludgeoning her again.
And when Martha McKay finally stopped fighting,
Travis Lewis wrapped her body in a blanket.
He left her at the top of the marble staircase.
The grand centerpiece of Snowden House
was now nothing but a crime scene once again.
Near her body,
he placed a bag filled with her belongings,
a utility knife laying nearby,
and then he heard it.
Sirens in the distance.
The alarm had worked,
the police were responding.
Deputies from Crittenden County Sheriff's Office arrived
at Snowden House within minutes
of receiving the electronic alert.
The grand white mansion sat silent on the shores
of the horseshoe lake,
the back door open.
The deputies entered cautiously
with their weapons drawn.
They began clearing the house room by room,
calling out searching for the intruder searching for Martha.
As they moved through the house,
they heard movement upstairs.
Suddenly a figure appeared at an upstairs window,
a man who jumped.
A second story dropped the ground below.
He landed hard but scrambled to his feet.
The deputies shouting commands.
The man then ran to a vehicle parked in the yard,
jumped in and started the engine.
The car lurched forward,
tires spinning in the grass and mud.
But the vehicle couldn't gain traction,
and it got stuck.
So we abandoned the car and fled on foot.
As he ran towards horseshoe lake,
the dark water stretching out before him,
bordered by trees and marsh.
Deputies were chasing, shouting for him to stop.
He didn't hesitate.
He ran straight into the lake and dove beneath the surface.
He was observed going under the water
and he never came back up,
sheriff Mike Allen later said.
The deputies stood at the water's edge,
scanning the surface, waiting for him to resurface.
Minutes passed.
Nothing.
He was gone.
While some deputies continued to watch the lake,
others reentered Snowden House,
climbing the marble staircase.
When they found her,
Martha McKay, aged 63,
wrapped in a blanket,
stabbed and bludgeoned to death.
The woman who'd devoted herself
to turning a house of tragedy into a house of joy,
the woman who'd forgiven the unforgivable,
the woman who'd believed in redemption.
Dead, at the top of the stairs,
in the home she loved.
Sheriff Allen called for assistance.
The Arkansas's game and fish commission arrived
with boats and sonar equipment,
critting county search and rescue,
and deployed dive teams.
They were search horseshoe lake,
methodically scanning the murky water with sonar,
dragging the bottom, searching the shoreline.
Hours passed.
And eventually,
they found a body.
The dive team brought it to the surface.
It was a man, approximately 39 years of age,
who drowned.
When he was identified,
the investigators were stunned.
Travis Lewis.
The same Travis Lewis,
who 23 years earlier,
had murdered two people on this very same property.
The same Travis Lewis,
who had shot Sally Snowden McKay to death
and set a house on fire.
Sally Snowden McKay,
Martha McKay's mother.
The man who had killed Martha's mother in 1996
had now killed Martha herself
in 2020.
In the same house.
An autopsy would later reveal the Travis
at a mixture of illicit drunks in the system
at the time of his death.
However, it wasn't the drunks that killed him.
The cold, dark waters of horseshoe lake did.
As deputies stood in Snowden house,
looking at Martha McKay's body in a blanket
at the top of the marble staircase,
one question consumed them.
How had this happened?
How at Martha McKay,
the daughter of Travis Lewis's first victim
ended up alone in his house with her mother's killer?
The news sent shockwaves through the community.
Martha McKay, the big-hearted generous woman,
who had forgiven her mother's killer
and given him a second chance
had been murdered by that same man.
23 years after killing Sally Snowden McKay,
Travis Lewis had returned to the Snowden estate
and murdered her daughter.
Katie Hutton, Martha's sister, was devastated.
She was a loving, kind, generous person.
She believed in second chances.
She believed people could be rehabilitated.
But Travis Lewis had betrayed that trust
in the most horrific way imaginable.
The case sparked widespread debate
about forgiveness redemption in the parole system.
Should Travis Lewis ever have been released from prison?
Should Martha McKay have been warned
about the risks of employing convicted double murderer?
Were there failures in the parole system
that allowed this to happen?
Sheriff Allen noted that there had been reports
that Martha had been in touch with Travis during his time
in prison and after his release.
Of course, something Martha's family would confirm.
Martha had believed Travis was remorseful,
but he could change that he deserved a second chance.
And she paid for that with her life.
The question was what drove Travis Lewis to kill not twice,
but three times.
In 1996 at 16, Travis claimed the murders of Sally,
Snowden McKay and Lee Baker,
were the result of a burglary gone wrong.
He said they'd startled him.
He panicked.
He shot them, but was it really that simple?
Travis had grown up on the Snowden estate.
He knew the layout of the properties.
He knew the family's routines.
He chose to burgle Sally's house.
And when confronted, he made a choice.
To kill rather than flee.
Then he set the house on fire to destroy the evidence.
These weren't the actions of a frightened teenager
that were calculated.
Travis also claimed someone else was involved,
but he never identified that person.
Some believe this was a lie designed to deflect blame.
In 2020 when Travis murdered Martha McKay,
the circumstances are different.
This wasn't a burglary interrupted.
This was premeditated.
Martha had fired him for stealing.
She banned him from the house.
He broke in.
He climbed the stairs and attacked her.
When police arrived, he fled jumping from the window
attempting to drive away and running into the lake
where he drowned.
The motive appears to have been anger, revenge, or maybe desperation.
Martha had given Travis everything a job
but home in a second chance.
And when she took it away, he killed her.
Today Snowden house still stands in the shores of Horseshoe Lake.
The grand white column mansion, the marble floors
and the sweeping staircase.
It's a beautiful building with a dark history.
In 1996, 16-year-old murdered two people.
And in 2020, that same young boy, now a man,
murdered another woman.
The woman who had forgiven him, visited him in prison
and given him a job at home after his release.
Three murders, 23 years apart,
on the same property by the same man.
It's a story of tragedy betrayal and the limits of forgiveness.
Martha McCabe believed in redemption.
She believed he could change and she was wrong.
And paid the ultimate price.
Crime at bedtime is a mashed pumpkin production.
Created, hosted and produced by Jack Lawrence.
Audio and sound designed by Jack Lawrence
of mashed pumpkin productions.
And Dom Evans.
And James Costa of ESI.
It's pretty much all he talks about.
In a good way.
What's in your wallet?
Terms apply.
See capro1.com slash bank.
Capro1NA member FDIC.
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