Kenia Monge, Travis Forbes: ‘Dateline’ NBC Probes Case Of Killer Who Stored Teen’s Body In Bakery Freezer In Denver, Colorado
Kenia Monge, the missing Colorado woman whose body was stored in a freezer, will be the prime focus of tonight’s Dateline NBC. The episode entitled “Deadly Connection” first aired in 2012, and includes the story of Lydia Tillman, a woman who was beaten, set on fire, and left for dead by the attacker in both cases, Travis Forbes. Dateline NBC will conduct interviews with members of Kenia Monge’s family, such as her sister, her parents, and her friends. Travis Forbes ended up confessing to the crimes and was sentenced to life in a Colorado prison, where he remains today, according to the Denver Post.
Dateline NBC will show viewers that Travis Forbes was a man with good looks. By all accounts he was a charming, well spoken, decent guy — or, so it seemed. But, authorities say all of that was just a facade, and that deep down, Travis Forbes was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed monster with dark secrets. Secrets that included bizarre sexual fetishes and a hatred for women that led to a desire to kill.
They say Kenia Monge was just in the wrong place at the right time when she happened upon Travis Forbes. She had planned a night out with her girlfriends that April day in 2011. And in fact, she did end up going with a different group of friends to another nightclub, where she partied and enjoyed herself. According to those new girlfriends, she was last seen dancing with a guy at the bar, and then later she disappeared without taking her purse or her cell phone, according to Dateline NBC’s coverage of the case.
Surveillance video captured her a couple of times that night, and the last few captures showed a very shaky Kenia Monge. She appeared worse than a person who had too much to drink. She looked like she had been drugged. When Kenia Monge didn’t come home that night, and didn’t answer any of her phone calls or text messages, everyone who loved her knew that it was serious.
Her boyfriend had no idea what had happened to her. And her girlfriends say that they didn’t see her anymore that night, so they grabbed her belongings as the club was closing. What happened wouldn’t be known until Travis Forbes finally started talking. Originally, he told Kenia Monge’s father that he saw her that night, and it appeared that she was drunk and needed some help getting home. Taking her in his van, he stated that they stopped at the gas station for cigarettes, and then Kenia took off with another man at the gas station.
In his real confession, he finally admitted the truth, which was that he raped her, killed her, and then dumped her body in a cooler, which was then stored at the bakery where he worked, until he buried her in a shallow grave. CBS News sums up how her night ended, according to Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey’s statement.
“Monge got separated from her friends and left the nightclub, wandering the streets of downtown Denver. Investigators had surveillance footage of her walking into the lobby of a hotel, near where she met Forbes and another man. The two tried to help get her a car home and she eventually got into Forbes’ van. The other man was dropped off at home, and Forbes told investigators he sexually assaulted Monge when she passed out from drinking. An altercation happened when she regained consciousness in the van and Forbes strangled her.”
After his confession, Travis Forbes led detectives to the place where he finally buried Kenia, an area off of Interstate 76 and Weld County Road 53 in Keenesburg. Finally, five months after her disappearance, Kenia Monge’s family came to know the truth about what happened to her. Travis Forbes later apologized for brutal actions.
“For the people that knew me, I have to say, remember me please. Remember me as I was, not the monster I became. I’m sorry.”
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To hear Kenia Monge’s family in their own words and how it ties-in with the story of survivor Lydia Tillman, tune in tonight to Dateline NBC at 9/8 central. Please review our Dateline NBC stories on the case of Denita Smith and Pegye Bechler.
[Image via True Crime/ Facebook]
