In the spring and summer of 2011, the state of Colorado was gripped by two seemingly unrelated cases that would eventually weave together into a dark, terrifying tapestry of opportunistic evil. This is the story of Kenia Monge, a vibrant nineteen-year-old whose life was stolen in the blink of an eye, and Lydia Tillman, a survivor whose sheer, unimaginable willpower brought a serial predator to his knees.
April 1, 2011, started as a typical Friday night in Denver. Kenia Monge, a petite, outgoing teenager with a contagious laugh, was out with friends at a downtown nightclub. But as the night wore on, Kenia was separated from her group. She left her purse, her phone, and her keys behind. By morning, she had vanished into thin air.
When loved ones realized Kenia was missing, a frantic search began. Kenia’s friends brought her belongings from the club to her parents home and they immediately called police to file a missing person’s report. Unfortunately, the police initially believed that she was likely just sleeping off her night out somewhere and didn’t take the report seriously.
Then came the text message on Kenia’s phone. The sender identified himself as Travis Forbes and asked whether Kenia had made it home safely. Desperate for answers, Kenia’s stepfather contacted Forbes directly. He explained that he had given the intoxicated teenager a ride after she left the nightclub. According to Forbes, she had asked him to stop at a gas station for cigarettes before wandering off with another man. At first glance, he appeared cooperative, even helpful.
However, as investigators dug deeper, Forbes’ story began to unravel. Surveillance footage and witness statements placed Forbes with Kenia on the night she vanished. Detectives also discovered that the gas station where he claimed she bought cigarettes was closed at the time they were supposedly there. The deeper they looked, the worse it got. Investigators found that Forbes’ van reeked of bleach and had recently had its carpeting replaced.
Detectives were convinced Forbes was lying, but suspicion and proof are two very different things. Without a body or enough physical evidence to charge him with murder, there was little they could do. Travis Forbes walked free, a predator hiding behind a cooperative smile. For months, Kenia’s family lived in an agonizing limbo. Her stepfather relentlessly pushed the investigation, refusing to let the public forget his daughter’s face.
While Kenia’s family searched for answers, Travis Forbes remained free. Investigators suspected he had gotten away with murder, but they couldn’t prove it. Three months later, over the Fourth of July weekend, Forbes would strike again. This time, he would head north and set his sights on a Fort Collins woman named Lydia Tillman.
Lydia was a 30-year-old, independent, and vivacious wine enthusiast. She had just moved into a new apartment in Fort Collins, Colorado. She had no connection to Kenia Monge and no prior relationship with Travis Forbes. She was simply a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time and crossed paths with a monster who had already escaped justice.
In the early hours of July 5, Forbes broke into Lydia’s second-story apartment. What followed was a nightmare of unspeakable brutality. Forbes sexually assaulted her, beat her mercilessly, and in a horrific attempt to destroy the DNA evidence, poured bleach over her body. To ensure nothing remained, he set the apartment on fire, leaving Lydia for dead.
Unfortunately for Travis Forbes, he drastically underestimated her incredible will to survive.
As the flames engulfed her home, Lydia, battered, soaked in toxic chemicals, and fighting for her last breath, managed to hurl herself out of a second-story window. She shattered her jaw upon impact but dragged herself away from the burning building before collapsing. First responders rushed her to the hospital, where she slipped into a coma.
The attack had been so severe that she suffered a devastating stroke, stripping her of the ability to speak. Despite everything she’d been through, Lydia Tillman was alive. And though she couldn’t physically use her voice, her survival was the loudest siren the investigators could have ever asked for.
When police processed the scene of Lydia’s attack, they found crucial DNA evidence that the fire and bleach had miraculously failed to destroy. That DNA was a direct match to the prime suspect in the Kenia Monge disappearance: Travis Forbes.
Arrested and facing an airtight case for the attempted murder of Lydia Tillman, Forbes’s facade finally crumbled. The arrogant predator realized he was cornered. In a calculated move to avoid the death penalty, Forbes made a deal with the prosecution. He pled guilty to the brutal assault on Lydia and, in exchange for a life sentence, confessed to the murder of Kenia Monge.
