Maury Travis was a St. Louis serial killer suspected of torturing and murdering between 12 and 20 women, most of them drug-addicted sex workers, in a roughly 14-month span from March 2001 to May 2002. He operated out of a house in Ferguson, Missouri, where he built a basement torture chamber and filmed some of his crimes. Police traced him through a letter and map he sent to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He hanged himself in his jail cell in 2002, less than a month after his arrest, and was never tried for the killings.
How He Operated
Travis picked up women along a stretch of Broadway just north of downtown St. Louis, an area known for drug activity and prostitution.1ABC News. Exclusive: Serial Killer’s Home Movies He used crack cocaine as a lure. Some initial encounters were consensual before he brought victims to his Ferguson home and escalated to captivity, torture, and murder.
In the basement, investigators found a wooden post used to shackle victims, along with bondage equipment, a stun gun, and newspaper clippings about the killings.1ABC News. Exclusive: Serial Killer’s Home Movies Travis had also recorded videotapes of his crimes. One, labeled “Your Wedding Day,” showed him binding women with ropes, handcuffs, and duct tape, forcing them into rituals, and verbally tormenting them. One scene appeared to show him strangling a victim. St. Louis Police Chief Joe Mokwa ordered psychological counseling for the officers who viewed the footage.
Bodies were dumped along city streets and rural roads across the St. Louis area, including sites in Illinois. Police confirmed at least 12 victims. In his letter to the Post-Dispatch, Travis hinted at “at least 17.”2KSDK. Remains of Woman Found in 2002 Named After Forensic Genealogy Testing
The Victims
Named victims among the ten women found in the St. Louis area between April 2001 and May 2002 included Alysia Greenwade, whose body was discovered on April 1, 2001, and Betty James, found two months later. Others identified over the years were Teresa Wilson, Verona Thompson, Yvonne Crues, and Brenda Beasley.3Los Angeles Times. Serial Killer Case in St. Louis4The New York Times. Internet Used to Find Man Who Is Charged in 2 of 10 Killings
Three more women, found by road workers in early 2002 across Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois, remained Jane Does for more than two decades. Their identities were established in July 2025 through a partnership between the Illinois State Police and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, using forensic testing and genetic genealogy at the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.5Illinois State Police. ISP and SIUE Partnership Identifies Three Victims6St. Louis Public Radio. Illinois State Police, SIUE Students Identify Three Unnamed Serial Killer Victims They were:
- Kelly Johnson, found January 30, 2002, along Interstate 64 near Mascoutah, Illinois.
- Crystal Lay, found March 11, 2002, along Interstate 70 near Highland, Illinois.
- Carol Jean Hemphill, 40, found March 28, 2002, in a creek bed near Illinois Route 3 in Columbia, Illinois. She had been reported missing on July 27, 2001.2KSDK. Remains of Woman Found in 2002 Named After Forensic Genealogy Testing
Of the 17 killings Travis claimed, five remained unaccounted for in the last confirmed reports.
How Police Caught Him
Travis’s arrest grew out of the same letter in which he took credit for 17 killings. He enclosed a map showing the location of a burial site. Investigators determined the map had been generated using a web-based mapping program and traced the internet activity back to his computer.7ABC News. Woman Found Serial Killer Lived in Home While Watching TV The map led police to a body in suburban St. Charles County.
A federal complaint filed on June 7, 2002, in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Illinois, accused Travis of kidnapping, torturing, and killing Alysia Greenwade and Betty James.4The New York Times. Internet Used to Find Man Who Is Charged in 2 of 10 Killings It cited restraints and belts splattered with apparent blood recovered from his Ferguson home. Travis faced two counts of kidnapping, which carried the potential for the death penalty. He was never charged with the murders themselves.
His Death in Jail
Less than a month after his arrest, Travis, 36, hanged himself in his jail cell in 2002.7ABC News. Woman Found Serial Killer Lived in Home While Watching TV Because he died before trial, there was no conviction and no formal murder charges. Legally, the suspected serial killings remain unresolved, even though investigators continue to attribute victims to him.
What Happened to the Ferguson House
The Ferguson home stood for years after Travis’s death. His mother, Sandra Travis, became the landlord and rented it out. In 2014, a tenant named Catrina McGhaw signed a lease without knowing the property’s history and learned the truth only after seeing the house featured in a documentary.8Fox 59. Woman Sees Home on TV, Learns Deadly Secret The wooden beam used to shackle victims still stood in the basement, and McGhaw said the landlord had provided her with the same dining room table visible in crime scene photos. Missouri law at the time did not require landlords to disclose violent crimes that had occurred in a rental property. After the St. Louis Housing Authority intervened, the landlord let McGhaw out of the lease.7ABC News. Woman Found Serial Killer Lived in Home While Watching TV