Naman Shrestha
Kenia Monge was a 19-year-old woman with a bright future ahead of her when she went missing after a night out with her friends in Denver, Colorado, in 2011. Her disappearance left the entire community shell-shocked, while her loved ones and the authorities searched for any signs of her. Months of investigation eventually led to the horrific discovery of her remains, a few miles away from Denver. The homicide and the investigation that ensued are covered extensively in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Deadly Connection,’ which also features insightful and emotional interviews with Kenia’s loved ones.
Kenia Monge’s Remains Were Found Months After Her Sudden Disappearance
Born on January 26, 1992, in Honduras, Kenia Yulissa Monge was the beloved daughter of Maria Monge-Lee and stepdaughter to Tony Lee. Raised in Honduras, she had two younger siblings, including a sister named Kimberly. During her formative years, her family migrated from Honduras to Denver, Colorado, in the 2000s. After graduating from one of Colorado’s top high schools, Kenia moved out of her family home. She was planning to pursue a career in criminology or TV production, hoping to make a big name for herself in the industry. Unfortunately, her ambitions and dreams were cut short in the spring of 2011.
On the night of March 31, 2011, Kenia and her friends planned to meet at a local bar called Lavish. She got a ride downtown with two other girls she didn’t know very well. When the 19-year-old tried to enter the club with them, the bouncer stopped them as they were underage. Thus, they headed to another bar in the 1400 block of Market Street for the night. After leaving the club in the early hours of April 1, Kenia suddenly went missing. The police got involved and searched for her in the following weeks and months. About five months later, in early September 2011, her remains were found buried in an area of Weld County, near a clump of cottonwood trees around I-76 and Weld County Road 53. Although the cause of death couldn’t be determined, the medical examiner didn’t rule out asphyxia, strangulation, or suffocation.
Kenia Monge’s Killer Was a Local Baker Who Sold Granula Bars
On April 1, 2011, Kenia Monge’s friend, Janet, tried calling and texting her, but neither response was received. When she couldn’t be contacted by anyone, her stepfather, Tony, took matters into her own hands and went through Kenia’s cell phone, which she left at the bar alongside her ID and purse. That’s when he came across a strange text message from a man named Travis Forbes, who said he was driving Kenia home in the early hours of April 1 when she allegedly asked him to drop her off at a Conoco gas station for cigarettes. He claimed he left her there after she met another guy who said he would take her home. As Tony asked him to meet at the gas station where he last saw her, Maria called the police because she was afraid for Tony’s safety.
When the authorities questioned Travis about his interaction with Kenia, he told them the same story he had told Tony. Upon digging deeper into his past, the detectives learned that he had a prior criminal record, including charges of theft, assault and trespassing. At the time, he ran a small business out of a local bakery, baking and delivering gluten-free granola bars. The police got suspicious of his story and brought him in for questioning. He provided a solid alibi, claiming he was with his girlfriend at her place after dropping Kenia off at the gas station, and his girlfriend corroborated it. During the search of his van, they noticed a strong smell of bleach inside, but couldn’t find any evidence linking him to Kenia’s disappearance. His cell phone records placed him near a rural area called Keenesburg, where he spent about three and a half hours after Kenia went missing.
Travis also agreed to take a polygraph test, but left the area after giving a public interview to a Denver TV station, wherein he denied having anything to do with Kenia’s disappearance. Meanwhile, the detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the bakery where Travis worked and spotted him wearing gloves and putting something in the freezer a couple of days after the teenager vanished. A couple of weeks later, Travis was arrested in Austin, Texas, for stealing his ex-girlfriend’s car, who had filed a police report when he didn’t return the car to her. During the interrogation, he was again asked about Kenia. Although he asked for a lawyer, the police collected his DNA and transferred him to Colorado. However, the ex-girlfriend dropped the charges, and he was released from custody. The detectives continued to surveil his movements and keep a tab on him in the following weeks.
The Killer Also Pleaded Guilty to the Attempted Murder of Lydia Tillman
On July 5, 2011, a fire broke out in an apartment building in Fort Collins, Colorado. The authorities found a brutally injured 30-year-old woman named Lydia Tillman, who was rushed to the hospital, where she ended up enduring a critical stroke due to her injuries. At the time, Travis Forbes was also living in Fort Collins, which led the authorities to investigate him for the fire and the sexual assault of Lydia. While they sent Lydia’s attacker’s DNA from under her fingernail and Travis’ DNA for processing, the investigators surveilled him. One night, they spotted him walking across the nightclub district, following women. When he was stopped in his tracks by the police, he gave them a fake name, Travis Kennedy, for which he was arrested and taken into custody.
Not long after, his DNA matched the DNA found under Lydia’s fingernail, connecting him directly to the assault and arson. Eventually, he made a deal with the detectives, admitting he wanted to go to prison without being labeled as a sex offender. He said, “Because if I go to prison as a sex offender, I’m f**ked.” In exchange, he agreed to confess to his crimes. In September 2011, after taking them to Kenia’s burial site, he answered all their questions. In his confession about Kenia’s murder, Travis admitted, “I definitely took advantage of her being drunk.” He also confessed to having sex with her while she was unconscious. He claimed, “She kinda came to and she realized that we had had sex. And she started hitting me, and I started hitting her back…And then she started to scream. And I strangled her, I strangled her, I strangled her. I killed her.”
Travis then told the investigators that he drove around in his van with Kenia’s remains in the back before he hid the remains inside a cooler and stuffed them in the bakery’s freezer. In the meantime, he cleaned out his van with bleach and burned her clothes. The following morning, he buried her remains near a clump of cottonwood trees. After making the chilling confession, he also reportedly confessed to the attempted murder of Lydia Tillman. In the end, he pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Kenia Monge and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Lydia, for which he received an additional 48 years in prison.
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