Maury Troy Travis

Serial Killer

Maury Troy Travis: The St. Louis Videotape Killer

Overview

Maury Troy Travis was an American serial killer who abducted, tortured and murdered women in the St. Louis metropolitan area between approximately 2000 and 2002. Born on October 25, 1965, Travis lived in Ferguson, Missouri, and worked in the hospitality industry while maintaining a hidden basement chamber where investigators later determined that women had been restrained and violently abused. Travis primarily targeted vulnerable Black women, many of whom were involved in street-level sex work or struggling with drug addiction. He approached women in neighborhoods around St. Louis and East St. Louis, offering money or drugs before taking them to his residence. Once inside his home, victims could be bound to a wooden post or other restraints in the basement. Evidence recovered after his arrest indicated that Travis subjected some women to prolonged physical and psychological torment before strangling or otherwise killing them. Travis became known by several names, including the Videotape Killer, the Streetwalker Strangler and the Bi-State Strangler. The name Videotape Killer reflected one of the case's most disturbing features: Travis recorded portions of his attacks. Investigators recovered videotapes showing women being restrained, humiliated, beaten and threatened inside his basement. Some of the women visible on the recordings were never conclusively identified.

Criminal History and Escalation

Before the murders, Travis accumulated a criminal record that included armed robbery and drug offenses. He received a 15-year sentence for a 1989 robbery but was paroled in 1994. He was later convicted of drug possession and placed on probation. Despite this history, he was living in a residential Ferguson neighborhood when the series of killings attributed to him began. The first victim commonly included in the series was Mary Shields, whose remains were discovered in East St. Louis in July 2000. Over the next two years, additional bodies appeared in isolated fields, roadside areas, creek beds and abandoned locations on both sides of the Missouri-Illinois border. Because the victims were found in different jurisdictions, investigators initially faced difficulty recognizing the deaths as the work of one offender. ...

Confirmed Victims: (12)

Alysia Greenwade Age: (34), Date of Death: 2001-04-01

Maury Travis - Wikipedia