The After Show: Evil at the Door

95.533 - 120.073 Deborah Roberts

It's the heartbreaking story of Kenya Monhae, who went missing after a night out dancing with friends in downtown Denver back in April of 2011. She was only 19 years old, and she could have been the sister or the daughter of somebody you knew. I mean, a young girl whose life was really just all before her. She was active in her church, close to her family. And as I said, her life was unfolding.

120.113 - 135.558 Deborah Roberts

She had graduated high school and was about to go off to college. The only thing that made Kenya a target, it seems, was that she was a young, unsuspecting woman. Well, Anna Garcia, a frequent 2020 contributor whom you've seen on many of our episodes, brought us this story.

135.879 - 147.377 Deborah Roberts

She's here with me today to give us some exclusive details from Kenya's family and detectives whom you met in our reporting and more that we weren't able to share on Friday night. Anna, so good to see you.

147.778 - 149.04 Ana Garcia

So good to see you, Deborah.

149.02 - 167.223 Deborah Roberts

I see you on the air all the time. We don't get a chance to talk face to face like this. But before we do, I mean, folks here know you as a hard charging reporter. You've been a serious news reporter for a long time. You've been in true crime for a long time on podcasts. And certainly they may have seen you on our reporting.

392.554 - 404.026 Ana Garcia

So in this gap of time when police are trying to figure out what it is, is it really serious? Dad and mom are not wasting any time at all. And they're going straight to the last person they think may have seen her.

404.126 - 419.547 Deborah Roberts

Yeah. Yeah. And that Travis Forbes. So Travis Forbes starts to factor in. Initially, folks are thinking he wants to be helpful. He agrees to a police interview and blames himself essentially for not helping Kenyon bringing her home. Let's listen to part of our report from Friday night.

420.438 - 440.444 Unknown

We find that Travis is somebody who's been arrested a few times, did some time, so it was nothing that jumped out and said, hey, this guy murdered, is killing people. We don't, it's nothing like that. You know, you go through your mind, all the things that you should have done, all the things you could have done, He's laid back, he's easygoing, he's charming.

440.484 - 458.106 Ana Garcia

Remember, before meeting Travis, Kenya is seen on surveillance video first at the apartment building of the man that she'd met at the bar. Then she's crossing the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel across the street. Police say soon after that, Travis sees her outside.

461.09 - 494.036 Unknown

On the night that Travis met and ran into Kenya, he wasn't alone. He was with a friend. When they drive up, they see Kenya talking to this guy. Kenya is crying. She's upset. They get out. They talk to her. It looked weird. I mean, it looked sketchy. So we intervened. Homeless guy walked off. wanted, you know, to get her home, take her somewhere.

849.893 - 862.908 Deborah Roberts

Well, Anna, when watching this story, I was certainly thinking it, and I'm sure many of our viewers were thinking it, like for police, like just arrest this guy already because it seems pretty obvious, but this goes on and on in terms of the investigation.

863.008 - 875.222 Deborah Roberts

Travis is still out there sort of moving around and police have not, but I guess it's not always that easy when we think that they should have it, but we know that they've got to have more than just a suspicion to arrest somebody.

875.422 - 904.682 Ana Garcia

Correct. It would be months before he is arrested for Kenya's murder. And the reason is that even though they have evidence that looks very suspicious and all points toward Travis, there's a lot of evidence that's really missing here. His van, self-described creepy, was cleaned with bleach. I mean, it was spotless. He took the carpeting out of there. So... There were no remnants, if you will.

904.702 - 920.042 Ana Garcia

There was one hair, I believe, the police found in the van. But keep in mind, Deborah, he's already told everyone, the police and anyone who will listen, oh, yeah, I picked her up. She was in my van. So, of course, there's going to be some DNA of hers there. It's a great explanation. Yeah, I picked her up.

920.022 - 942.233 Deborah Roberts

Yeah, pretty clever there. But the cleaning of the van and yanking out the carpet, how many times have we seen that in our stories, right? Okay, so it's just a matter of time, of course, before police do move in. But in the meantime, the thing that really turns this case is a crime that involves another young woman. On July 5th, 2011, Lydia Tillman was viciously attacked, sexually assaulted.