September 8, 2024 • 69 mins
Nancy Lewton evacuated her Florida home ahead of Hurricane Ian but a different storm was on her horizon. Not being able to contact her son Travis for days sent her all the way to Toledo, OH to check on him. When days passed and family members hadn’t heard from her or her son they called the police. What the police would find was one of the more bizarre cases they had ever investigated.
Get instant access to all episodes, including premium unreleased episodes, commercial-free at swordandscale.com
Get instant access to all episodes, including premium unreleased episodes, commercial-free at swordandscale.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Listener discretion is advice. Did you child her? Did you
put something over a face or how did you stop
her reading? Did you use something? Did she say anything
to you when she at home? You didn't give her
an opportunity?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Welcome to Sword and Scale, season eleven, episode two hundred
and seventy two, a show that reveals that the worst
monsters are real. It hurts to see someone struggling, someone
(01:39):
that's in pain. There's an instinctual empathy for a person
in need, especially if it's family. The natural reaction is
to help. If someone's feeling down, you cheer them up.
If someone needs a little money, you loan it to them.
Someone's hungry, you feed them. You know all the things
(02:02):
that this country was founded on. Give me you're tired,
you're poor, your huddled masses, et cetera. Sympathy like this
usually makes those that are helped, and the world in general,
a better place. Being helped normally gives those down on
their luck renewed hope about life. Even those offering help
(02:24):
get the pleasure of seeing the happiness return to their
downtrodden faces. They get to feel like they did something,
and they did. But here's the thing you need to
hear and probably don't want to. Sometimes it's better just
to mind your own fucking business, Karen, And yes, I'm
(02:45):
specifically talking to the white women in the audience, which
is all of you. I know you want to help,
but sometimes it's better to worry about your own problems
instead of trying to solve the world's problems. Sometimes it's
better to just mind your own business because sometimes helping
can actually hurt, It can stunt a person's emotional growth.
(03:11):
Let me ask you something. If someone's always helped you
do something and you count on it, why do it yourself?
Why bother? In this week's case, we're gonna examine a
mother who loved her son so much that she always
wanted to be there for him when he was in need,
(03:32):
which happened to be most of the time. She wanted
to help her son, even to her own detriment. Sometimes
a person in need, no matter how hard you try,
can't be helped, and if you're not careful, they'll drag
(03:52):
you down with them. On September twenty eighth, twenty twenty
(04:28):
two Hurricane Ian made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
The state of Florida is under assault tonight, and the
damage is likely to be catastrophic. Hurricane Ian blasted ashore
today near Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast and began
a slow trek toward the Atlantic. It packed sustained winds
of one hundred and fifty miles an hour and knocked
out power to more than a million homes and businesses.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
With historic rainfall and flooding predicted, Venice resident Nancy Luton
took the queue to evacuate ahead of the storm. She
didn't want to hang out and find out for herself
if her double wide mobile home less than half a
mile from the beach could withstand it.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Smart Early this morning, Hurricane Ian quickly escalated into a
near Category five storm across Florida's Gulf Coast. Residents braced
for a brutal impact, boarding up businesses and stocking up
on supplies and gas. Forecasters warned that storm surges could
reach up to eighteen feet across more than two hundred
(05:35):
miles of the Gulf coast. The storm is expected to
track across the state, dumping as much as eighteen inches
of rain on areas like Orlando in central Florida and
Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
She hopped into her red Ford escape aptly named I
Might add and set off to outrun the hurricanes, wind
and rain. She drove nine hours straight to her niece
Amy's house in Dallas, Georgia.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
She came here to escape the hurricane. Their other residents
was damaged in the hurricane. They came here to Georgia
to stay with me.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But little did Nancy know that another storm was brewing
at her home in Toledo, Ohio.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
She had some concerns about her son, some things going
on there.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Nancy was originally from Ohio, and even though she retired
to Sunny Florida after her husband passed away, she kept
the family home in Toledo. Now, she was worried about
her son, who stayed behind in Georgia escaping the wrath
of Ian. She was already halfway there, so she decided
(06:50):
to drive to Toledo to check on him, and.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Then continued on to Ohio, Okay. His family on His
name is Travis Luton, same last.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Name Travis S. Newton was Nancy's thirty one year old son.
He lived alone in their family home. Nancy had been
trying to get in contact with him since before she evacuated,
but hadn't gotten a reply.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
I think he has some issues that you know, she
was concerned they need require maybe some intervention, some kind
of intervention.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Of some sort with getting help.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
And I'm not.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Pretty to all of that. I just I'm sure my mother,
her sister who is also here from the hurricane, could
if it came to that, could could offer more information.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Nancy often tried to intervene in Travis's life. To say
he had issues was a bit of an understatement. Despite
being in a private school, he got into plenty of trouble,
and by the time he was eighteen, got his first
real charge. He hit a park car, and when officers arrived,
Travis leaned against the trunk for stability, exclaiming I was
(08:17):
driving drunk. Probably not a good strategical move. Strategical, I
don't know, I'm tired, guys anyway. His blood alcohol concentration
was zero point one, nine, twice the legal limit. Less
than a year later, he was caught shoplifting headphones from Walmart.
(08:38):
When Lost Prevention confronted him, he put up his fists
and tried to punch them. Then he brandished a pair
of pruning shears, likely the ones he used to open
up the headphones. Those cases are a real pain in
the ass with the plastic, you know. Then he threatened
to stab the Walmart employees. He then fled, jumped into
(09:02):
his car, and sped away, but not before sideswiping a
park car. It's kind of like his mo I guess,
hitting stationary vehicles. About ten years later, against his mother's
Willie took her car. He screamed at her that he
would kill himself if she called the cops, so you know,
(09:23):
of course she did call the cops and he was arrested,
and now.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Apparently her son had stolen a package off of a
neighbor's port.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Travis was a porch pirate, the most despicable species there is.
You've seen him on the old youtubees and the tiktoks
and the what nuts, running up and steal in your
packages right before Christmas. A real grinch, you know. Living
next door to the Lwton family home was a college
(09:57):
student named Erica Sheehan. She and she and I don't know,
I'll get letters no matter how I say any word,
So send them in people see if I give a
shit anyway. Erica she Han, days before Hurricanian made landfall
in Florida, was expecting a package a pair of new shoes.
(10:20):
Her notifications said had been delivered, but she couldn't find it.
She looked around and it wasn't there, so she checked
the doorbell camera. There, in high resolution clarity was Travis
swiping the package from her porch. She tried knocking on
the door to asked Travis about it, but he didn't answer.
(10:42):
In the days following, he seemed to be avoiding her altogether.
Erica told her mother, Sue, and she emailed Nancy.
Speaker 8 (10:51):
They were going.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
To press charges if the package was not returned. Of course,
Nancy was embarrassed, who wouldn't be. She assured them that
she was trying to get Travis some help and that
in no way did she condone his behavior. She confessed
Travis had been distant since his father died. You know
(11:15):
all the excuses mothers make for their kids so they
can continue to stunt their development and boost their own ego.
Years earlier, Travis had been mugged on the way home
from high school. After that he was never really the same.
The death of his father in twenty fourteen only made
him more reclusive.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
She said.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Of course, we've all experienced death close to us, some
closer than others. Not all of us are doing terrible things.
Nancy sent Travis several upset emails about the incident. She
had to email them because he didn't have a job
and subsequently didn't have cellular service. He relied on the
(12:00):
home WiFi for all communication. In her emails, she encouraged
him to return the package or they were going to
call the cops, but she never got a response. But
what do you do with a pair of ladies sneakers?
Speaker 5 (12:15):
Anyway, I don't believe she was getting any kind of
correspondence from him either, so she must fear to go there,
So I do know that much.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
When Nancy couldn't get a response from Travis, the neighbor
went ahead and involved the police. They came out to
the house to talk to Travis about the theft.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
And they had they already have had the police department,
your Toledo police department go buy her home and try
to do like a well check on him. Apparently he
did not answer.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Nancy was worried about the lack of response from Travis,
and she feared the worst. She loaded up her red
Ford Escape and pulled another marathon nine hour drive straight
to Toledo. She emailed Travis one last time before she left,
letting him know that she'd be home sometime after midnight.
Travis was troubled. He just couldn't seem to get out
(13:17):
of his own way. Nancy had been taking care of
this overgrown child most of her life, and now she
feared that he may have actually followed through with all
those childish threats of suicide. She left her sister and
niece behind in Georgia and hurried home. But this call
(13:38):
from Amy wasn't about Travis, it was it was about Nancy.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
We have not heard from for forty one hours now,
and she was traveling from where I live in Dallas,
Georgia to her part time residence in Toledo. And I'm
calling to see if there's any way somebody could go
(14:05):
to her home.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
Sure is whatever made it about forty one hours ago?
Speaker 5 (14:11):
That is correct, Thursday at four pm. We have called, texted,
we're getting no reply.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Nancy left Dallas, Georgia on Thursday, September twenty ninth, at
four pm, as the Category four hurricane carved a path
of destruction across Florida, Nancy carved her path through the night.
The trip only took about nine hours. But now it
was nine am, Saturday, October first, forty one hours later
(14:45):
and no one had heard from Nancy or Travis.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
My concern is that when the police department did the
well check before prior to my aunt coming home, she
did not come to the He would not answer the door,
and they, you know, of course they did not you know,
do any kind of forcible entry. I don't know that
(15:10):
he would come to the door. He knows, probably through
her texting him that, even though he didn't reply to
her that it's a big situation and if the police
were going to pursue you know, some you know, criminal
charges in some way, the neighbor was so I just
(15:32):
I want you to make I just want them to
know that that he probably if he's in there, would
probably not come to the door. And if my aunt's
car is in the driveway and no one comes to
the door, then I just wanted to you know, that's
a situation also because she would absolutely come to the
door if her car is there.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Unsure of what was going on in Toledo, Amy tried
to give the dispatcher any scenario that should cause alarm.
She knew her aunt and her cousin. She knew that
if Nancy's car was in the driveway, she was there.
So if she didn't come to the door, something was wrong. Travis,
(16:15):
on the other hand, wasn't likely to come to the door,
even if he wasn't aware of the pending legal actions
for being a porch pirate.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
Okay, he's never done anything, as far as you know,
to harm her at all, and he could.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Not that we're aware of, but to himself that I could,
that could be potentially a possibility.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Nancy left Florida to escape the storm. She left Georgia
for fear that something was wrong with her son. No
one had heard from him despite repeated attempts to contact him.
She couldn't think of any reason why he wouldn't respond
other than bad ones. Maybe some thing happened to him
while he was home alone, maybe he did something to himself,
(17:07):
or perhaps whatever tragedy befelt, Travis was lying in wait
when Nancy returned home. Nancy Luton fled Florida to escape
(17:47):
the catastrophic destruction of Hurricanean, but a different catastrophe was
brewing on her horizon. In our hometown of Toledo. Her
son Travis was getting into truck. The neighbor had video
evidence of him stealing a package from her front porch.
This neighbor tried to contact him several times. She knocked
(18:09):
on the door without answer. She left notes on both
the front and back doors asking Travis to please return
the package. She even had her father's stop eye she
knew he was in there, but never got a response. Finally,
the neighbor resorted to sending an email to Nancy to
see if she could intervene. This was a close community
(18:32):
and she didn't want to call police on her neighbor
over a stolen pair of shoes. Nancy emailed Travis several
times before evacuating Florida, but he didn't reply. She left
the safety of Amy's house in Georgia and drove nine
hours back to Toledo to check on her adult son.
(18:53):
Her sister and niece began to worry when they didn't
get confirmation that she made at home. After forty one
hours with no word from Nancy and still no word
from Travis. They did what they actually should have done
to begin with, call the Toledo police and ask them
to perform a welfare check.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
All right, well, listen, I got it in and I
appreciate it. Rebec you're already will we're saying they're un
scene there, so hold on, Oh you have a minute,
let's see you say I do, ma'am? Thank you? Really?
Speaker 5 (19:31):
May I put you on spear and phone?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
I'll call you that all right?
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (19:37):
I gave her all the IMA.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
She's chunking it.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Right now to please.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
Are actually already on the this location.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Oh good.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Officers must have been in the area because they were
on the scene in less than five minutes. Nancy's niece
relayed the information to her mother and Nancy's sisters.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
And because they're there, I'm gonna, as a matter of fact,
put you on a brief hold for let's see if
they have any updates yet.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Okay, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Probably want The police arrived quickly, but details were coming
back slowly. The dispatcher put Amy on hold to see
if she could reach them for more information. The dispatcher
didn't know that the officers who responded were stumbling onto
a bizarre scene.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
Yes, I think great, they're there. They haven't come over
there and said anything yet, So if you want, I
will just keep an eye on it and see what
I can find out and give you a call back.
I hate to keep you hanging on hold.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
No, that's fine. So you just don't know what's going
on or why they.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
Are Yeah, I mean here back. Yeah, they made it
to the house. They came, you know, said that they
were unseen there, but they haven't come over there and
said anything.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
So officers arrived at eighteen sixty five Wildwood Road. It
was the fourth house on the just as you entered
the neighborhood from Highway twenty four. The house was a
traditional two story home with light blue vinyl sighting and
a bold green front door. To the left of the
(21:14):
home was a driveway leading to a detached two car garage.
The lawn and landscaping were nice, albeit a bit neglected.
It was clear this home was well taken care of
for many years. Behind the property was heavily wooded, hiding
the steep descent to the Delaware Creek. No sooner did
(21:35):
an officer take all this in than a person showed up.
Laura Malick approached the officer and explained her mother and
Georgia called her about her aunt Nancy. She was Amy's
sister who still lived in Toledo. She explained how unusual
it was for her aunt not to let her family
know when she made it to town and if she
(21:59):
even did make it. Laura led the officer to the
garage and peeked through the window. Inside was Nancy's red
Ford escape. She had made it home. Just then, the
officer noticed they were being watched from the upstairs window.
They could see the figure fig figure of a chubby man.
(22:25):
He had short, messy hair and a five o'clock shadow.
He stood there staring at the two by the garage.
Laura told the officer that it was her cousin Travis,
and the officer tried to talk to him through the window.
Travis just stood there and shook his head no. The
(22:46):
officer continued to try to get a response from Travis
until he disappeared into the room behind him. Is that
how adults act? It's very strange. The officer, freaked out
by this weirdo, then called for backup. Nancy was missing,
or at least in communicado, and Travis was refusing to
(23:08):
come outside or even speak through a window pane. They
didn't even know what was going on, but they thought
they might need a negotiator to talk him out. He
could be heavily armed and detached from reality for all
they knew, and it seemed like he was like his
entire life. As weakening Hurricane Ian bore down on the Carolinas,
(23:34):
a swarm of police officers descended on Travis and Nancy
Luton's Toledo home. The responding officers secured the house, surrounding
it as others tried to get Travis to come open
the door. One officer at the back door noticed something
unusual on the back porch. There was a pile of
(23:55):
clothes in front of a chair. Next to the chair
was a pair of pruning shears. The clothes were in
a crumpled pile on top of a rolled up rug
and a clear plastic sheet. It looked as if someone
sat in the chair and removed all their clothing. Their
boots were muddy, and upon closer inspection, the officer noticed
(24:18):
the clothes were covered in plant matter. Dozens of little
seed burrs clung to the fabric. Then, next to the porch,
and the grass was a pair of socks and underwear.
Whoever disrobed here seemed to have rinsed off with the
garden hose and left all these items strewn about. But
(24:40):
where were they coming from? The officer eyed an open
gate in the back of the property. Beyond that gate
was a worn path down into a wooden ravine. From
this vantage point, the officer could see what looked like
a wheelbarrow and a hand truck for moving furniture at
the bottom. He radioed this info to the lead officer,
(25:04):
and he decided to ping Nancy's cell phone. You never
want to stumble upon moving equipment in the woods when
looking for an elderly person, probably a bad sign. The
ping placed her cell phone within three hundred feet of
the house. With this information, they forced their way inside
(25:25):
to see if they could find Nancy. On the growl,
several officers made their way inside. They kicked open the
back door and made entry. An officer equipped with a
riot shield led the way, clearing the downstairs. Then they
(25:46):
cautiously made their way up the stairs and into the
master bedroom, where they found Travis. He was just lying
in bed when they burst through the door. With guns
trained on him.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Right where we could see it. Get your hands there
were there? Where's everybody else? Here? Where's mom? Travis? Where's
your mom?
Speaker 1 (26:15):
He was as stoic as he had been at the window.
The officer's questions fell on deaf ears as they handcuffed
him behind his back. They searched the house for Nancy
a while, and they didn't find her. They found plenty
of signs, though, that she was there. Her car was
in the garage, still loaded with her luggage from the trip.
(26:37):
In the basement, they found her purse and her wallet.
There just wasn't Nancy herself. They arrested Travis on the
spot and took him down to the station for questioning
to try to get to the bottom of where the
hell his mother was.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Hey, Travis, I'm a detective. Quickly, this is Sergeer Kennedy. Okay.
They want to talk to you about what officers were
out of her. Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
He sat like a statue, his hands laid flat on
his thighs. By American standards, he was average height and weight,
but when compared to a frail elderly woman, he was
a beast. At five foot eight inches tall and two
hundred and ten pounds. He far outweighed his mother. They
(27:25):
were eager to see what he had to say, but
first they had to mirandize him, something he said he'd
never done before. He's been arrested before and convicted, but
those were open and shut cases where they didn't even
need to question him.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
So, do you know why ofsters came to your house today? Yes? Well,
why what's the story with that? They were looking for
my parents? Yes? Do you know where she's at?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
He talked like a teenager in trouble. He fidgeted with
his hands and avoided eye contact, but he seemed to
know exactly what was going on. He knew they were
looking for his mother.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Do you know I guess she would be your cousin Laura? Yes, okay? Where?
And so it's my understanding that your mom was down
and she was supposed to be in Florida, right, yes,
but because of the hurricane, she was in Georgia. Was
that here understanding?
Speaker 9 (28:34):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Okay? Did you go down there with her? He stayed
up here? Yes? Okay, because so when she's she was
back and forth right between, okay, and then so when
she's up here, you guys live together, right, Okay, when
was the last time you talked to your Momber thirtieth?
(28:55):
When September thirtieth? Okay, you know what time the day?
It was late? It was sleep, two o'clock.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
They probed him with questions they already knew the answers to.
They were looking for either information that led to Nancy
or evidence that he was hiding something, evidence he was lying.
He said he'd last talked with his mother on September
thirtieth at two o'clock. Two am on September thirtieth would
have been ten hours after Nancy left Georgia.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Was she still down in Georgia at that time or
did she say where she was? And no, she sends
me emails when she's he's contact me. She started home
from Georgia. She sent an email, yes, saying what home
she was on her way? Yeah. Yeah, she hasn't taxed
(29:54):
her callya.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
We all know the answer to that question. He had
a phone, it just wasn't connected to a network. Travis
completely relied on his mother To live. Without her, he
wouldn't have a house to live in or a car
to drive, the very same car. I might add that
he was arrested for stealing years previous. He backpedaled the
(30:20):
comment about speaking with his mother and instead said he
received an email from her saying she was on her
way home. While Travis was answering their questions, the cadence
of his speech made the conversation confusing for detectives.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Okay, so when was the last time he actually talked
to her and heard her voice? Which she was in
May this year? Okay?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
So yes, he said, the last time he heard his
mother's voice was months before she left for Florida. That
was a long time ago to go without hearing your
mother's voice. Then you said this.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
So do you know did she make it back to
Toledo and make it back to the house. Yes, she
did make it back to the house, yes, okay. And
what day was that Sincember thirtieth? Yesterday? Okay, ladies, it
was two am. What's that she got back two am
(31:30):
on the thirtieth? Yes, Okay, I guess I maybe my
son said, I thought you said she was leaving Georgia
on the thirtieth, okay, but you're saying she came back
on the yes, at two am? Yes, okay. And where
were you at the house at that time? Yes? It
was were you sleeping or did you you must have
(31:50):
heard her come in or something, or did you talk
to her at all? I heard it coming through the door? Okay,
we and were you? So did you talk to her all? Then?
When she no?
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I guess you could call it being cooperative, but he
wasn't being forthcoming. He kept his answers short, mostly yes
or no. But when he did give more details, you
could tell he's holding something back. Detectives don't think he's lying,
just not giving the whole truth. He said he heard
(32:22):
his mother come home at two am on the thirtieth.
He heard her walk through the kitchen door. He heard this,
but he didn't speak with her.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Okay, So that was on the thirtieth. And then when
you woke up the next morning, was she's still there?
Then you know where she went?
Speaker 7 (32:45):
No.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
By the time he woke up the next morning, she
was already gone. But when asked if he knew where
she went, he hesitated for a long time before answering. These
types of responses made detectives sure he wasn't being completely forthcoming.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Okay, what car she owns? Two cars right the escape?
And what kind of is the other car? Which one
did she drive to Georgia Escape Cape. Yes, you know,
because her because her car is still on the garage
(33:24):
right from what we saw. Yes, okay, so he don't
have any idea where she's at.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
No, the detectives pointed out that Nancy's car was still there,
hoping you would realized the point they were trying to make.
If she left, her car wouldn't be there. So since
it was there, he clearly didn't leave. Yet, Travis continued
denying knowing anything about where his mother was.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Did you guys have any kind of arguments or anything
when there were arguments about the money, you know, having
about money? Yes, what's what's what? The money.
Speaker 9 (34:08):
For food?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
And uh, this is my household, I guess. So you
were arguing that you didn't have enough money for food
or yes? Okay. And then when did this argument take
place after she got back?
Speaker 10 (34:23):
No, that's been kind of a continuous thing. What did
you use and goes back from Florida?
Speaker 2 (34:31):
If I have, you know, food or money to take
care of myself, I guess. Okay, so the problem you
have is that you're not having enough food and money
while she's in Florida? Okay, Yes, So when she came back,
at two am and the thirty did you guys argue
about pantent?
Speaker 1 (34:52):
He admitted he and his mom had an ongoing argument
about his let's just call it his allowance, but he
was consistent with his previous statements, saying they did not
argue when she returned early on the thirtieth. Remember, he
said he never spoke with her.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So you don't have any idea where she's at right now?
Have you? Do you ever go down into the ravine
there too? You don't go down there because there's some
there's some stuff down there. We were wondering did you
put some stuff down there? Because we were wondering why
there was like a wheelbarrow? Yes, what were you And
(35:33):
there's like a dolly I call it a dolly, one
of those things with that righte a wheelbarrow into dolly? Like,
what what were you doing with those? I'm not answer that.
You don't want to answer that well because I think
(35:55):
you probably know what we're getting at, right.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yes, this was the first time the detectives mentioned the
items in the ravine, denying knowing where his mother was.
It worked up to this point. Now he knew what
they were getting at. You could hear him sigh when
he realized there's no way to wiggle out of this from.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
What your aunt ant says that do you have some
do you have disabilities or anything you've been diagnosed with. No,
you never been diagnosed with any kind of mental illness
or anything like that.
Speaker 7 (36:31):
No.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Okay, Well, your your aunt and your uncle or your
aunt or I'm sorry, your cousin Laura and her husband
are kind of upset. They would like to know where
your mom's dad. I mean, what should we tell him?
Speaker 1 (36:49):
After a long pause, Travis muttered the following, you have
to tell them.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I thank you my mom.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
So he admitted the whole truth he had killed his mother.
Of course, they already knew something happened to Nancy, they
just didn't know exactly what.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
You see.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
After they arrested Travis, they took him in and they
searched the house. Like the outside, the inside of the
house showed signs of being well taken care of until recently.
Another section of the wall was removed from an upstairs bedroom.
The pieces from this project were stacked messily nearby. The
(37:34):
basement was empty, prepped for a new floor, but only
a few boards had ever been laid down. This is
where they found her purse and wallet in an empty basement.
That was the first clue that something bad happened to Nancy.
Just like the basement, her purse and wallet were also empty.
(37:58):
Calling her phone led officers to one of the kitchen cabinets.
Inside they found Nancy's vibrating cell phone, her driver's license,
her debit and credit cards, and her car keys. Further
searching discovered even more disturbing things and the garage in
a trash can was a rolled up area rug. When
(38:21):
officers unrolled the rug, they found a pink sweatshirt inside.
On the shirt was a single blood stain. The rug
itself had a much larger stain of what appeared to
be blood in the center of it. Next To the
driver's side door of Nancy's Ford escape was a single
(38:42):
sandal hy.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
We appreciate having ho us. Okay, I know there's some
things probably, but we just want to understand, okay, because
there's two sides to every story. We know that, So
now is the time for you to give us your
side of the story. Right, So when she got did
she really get home at two am? Then yes, okay?
(39:04):
And then what happened when she at home. We had
a fight that he had a fight, yes, like an
argument with words or a physical fighty okay, and he
got to pick up a little for me. Kids. Try
to make sure I can understand this. So he had
(39:25):
a physical fight. What was that over? Was it about
the money and the food? Yes? Okay.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
To say they got into a fight seems wrong. Is
it a fight when it's between a thirty one year
old man and a seventy one year old woman? Not
much of one. No, sounds more like an attack or
an assault. I doubt anything Nasy did could be considered fighting.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Just in your words, what happened? This is your story.
Speaker 10 (39:54):
I attacked my my mother she came home from Florida.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
That's more like it. Travis attacked his mother as soon
as she walked through the door.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
And where, again, did you first attack her? Was it
inside out in the kitchen?
Speaker 9 (40:10):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So had she started unload her car at that point
or was she getting stuck out of her car? She
walked in and turned, uh sure what the kitchen likes on?
And she only brought her person. She just sort of
lay on and you were there, yeah, yea, yes, okay,
what do you mean an attacked her, like with your
(40:32):
fists or did you have something else in your hand?
I don't know. I don't remember that weapon or not there.
Speaker 10 (40:44):
There might be weapons in my house, but not nothing
like that was use.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I guess sir.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
They didn't get into a fight. He blindsided her as
soon as she got home from a ten hour her
trip the mother that took care of him. He attacked
her the moment she got there. I guess he was
telling the truth about not talking to her.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Okay, when when you say you attacked her, like, what
exactly happened? Would you do? I attacked her when she
came home from she when she returned from floor from Georgia.
How did you attack her?
Speaker 9 (41:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
What happened? Uh? Stopped? It was her breathing. I guess
her breathing stopped? Yes, yes, how did you do that? Physically?
My my my body? I attacked her.
Speaker 10 (41:51):
What do you mean though? You just help me understand
what happened. I used my I wait hours to kill
my mother. That was my plan. Anyway, it did last four.
Speaker 9 (42:15):
Sometime.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
I guess if he wanted my confession on that, I
attacked her when she came home two am. She said
she would be home sometime after twelve, and I made
(42:37):
the decision to attack her and stop her stop her breathing.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
He described it almost clinically, like a sociopath. He stopped
her breathing, but what he actually did was wrap both
meaty hands around his mother's neck and squeeze as hard
as he could for as long as he could. When
his hands got tired or he couldn't bear to look
her in the eyes any longer, he pushed his elbow
(43:11):
into her throat and used his entire body weight to
finish the job.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Okay, now, so do you mean then you like, did
you choke her? Did you put something over her face?
Or how did you stop her? Reading? Was choking her
with your hands around your hear? How were you choking her? Exactly?
Did you use something? My elbow? I guess your elmow? Yes?
Speaker 10 (43:37):
Did she even get did she say anything to you
when she at home?
Speaker 2 (43:42):
She didn't give her an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
No, you didn't even allow her to speak before he attacked.
He didn't even allow her to beg for her life.
She just walked through the door, and her son, whom
she'd always rushed to help, stared into her eyes and
strangled the life out of her. Does that make you mad,
(44:05):
because it sure as fuck makes me mad. The once
little boy she brought into this world removed her from it.
As the police continued at the house, the neighbors were shocked,
but not caught off guard completely.
Speaker 8 (44:21):
We knew him since he was in high school, and.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
He had trouble.
Speaker 8 (44:27):
Back then, like a lot of kids, but maybe a
little bit more, and it just followed him as he
grew up.
Speaker 9 (44:35):
It's very unexpected. Yeah, the big drama on the Facebook
neighborhood page usually is Oh, I think somebody broke into
my car last night. You know, this is just not
something we're used to experiencing, but it's it's very real
in our community.
Speaker 8 (44:50):
Literally is shocking because it's a quiet neighborhood. It's a
very quiet neighborhood, and for something like this to happen,
it's quite a shock to everybody.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Her friend back in Florida, who had known her since
the third grade, chose to remember her as she was
rather than how she horrifically died. She knew Travis was
verbally abusive to his mother and that he struggled with
his mental health, but never does she think he would
have homicidal thoughts. They never think these things. No matter
(45:21):
how many times it happens, it.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Hasn't really come to reality because it's so outed, it's
so unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
She was like a sister to me and to my children.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
She set asideline a couple hours every day to send
out encouraging.
Speaker 9 (45:40):
Messages to feel that she didn't even know, because that.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Was her nature.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
Nancy Luton, known for her kindness to strangers and her
devotion to her son, died on the kitchen floor of
their family home. Her son failed to appreciate all that
she did for him through the three decades of his
miserable life. He murdered the woman who wrote prayers in
(46:06):
the margins of her Bible asking for divine assistance with
her son, the idiot. She wanted the best for him,
even though he was difficult. To put it mildly. Now,
all that was left for detectives to understand was why
(46:27):
and what happened in that ravine?
Speaker 2 (46:29):
What happened when you got her down there? I I'll
trut you couldn't move myself from any.
Speaker 10 (46:40):
Anything that would connect me to to this.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
What happens? How did you do? That's a fire?
Speaker 1 (47:23):
The welfare check for Nancy Lowton led to a bizarre
interaction with her son Travis. He stared at officers from
the upstairs bedroom window. He refused to talk or even
come to the door. Officers noticed odd things in the
ravine behind his house, a wheelbarrow and a handtruck. This
(47:44):
combined with his cousin Laura pointing out that Nancy's car
was in the garage and she should be home, raised
further suspicions Nancy always came to the door if she
was home. Officers suited up and breached the back. They
found Travis lying in bed watching TV and took him
(48:04):
into custody. He denied everything until he realized the officers
had seen what was in the ravine. Then he finally
told the truth. He attacked his mother as soon as
she walked through the door, and then strangled her when
he got tired. He used his elbow and his weight,
(48:27):
all two hundred and ten pounds. He confessed to killing
his mother, but what he did after is just as heinous.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Okay, so after she stopped freeing them, well, he said,
I was in the ravine and saw at the woods
line in my house.
Speaker 10 (48:47):
There she was unconscious, I guess I chuted tooth out
to make it look like, you know, there was any
altercation or fight, to kind of get rid of any
(49:10):
evidence or I.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Didn't get rid of Okay, So did you take your
mom's mom down to the ravine?
Speaker 9 (49:16):
Then?
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Yes? Yes, How did you get her down there? Oh? Through,
I might have to kind of carry carry it out there?
He carried her, yes, okay, Like he didn't have to
use anything else, just carried her like this or fireman's carrier. Like,
(49:41):
how did you get her down there? Because that's pretty steep.
The reason I asked, I mean we went down there
and that it's pretty steel.
Speaker 10 (49:48):
Yeah, I guess I did. With with trying to get
rid of evidence.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
I guess movie her as is his mother's body lay
lifeless on the rug in the kitchen, Travis came up
with a plan. He cleaned up to get rid of
any evidence of a struggle. He rolled up the rug
and stashed it in the garage. He took his mother's
purse and wallet, emptied them of any money, and hid
(50:18):
them in the basement. Then he grabbed a flashlight and
his mother's body and carried her to the ravine behind
the garage. At the back of the property was a
gate and a path into the ravine. It was a
steep hill going down to somewhat of a landing before
another trail went deeper. The woods were dense with lots
(50:41):
of bushy undergrowth. Travis cleared the path, cutting low branches
and snapping high weeds. The trail was long and winding,
heading ever lower and deeper into the woods. Eventually it
ended at an access point to this storm drained system.
A man hold jutted out of the ground a couple
(51:03):
of feet high. Travis removed the cover and placed the
small body of his mother and the pipe. Then he
just went back to his garage and grabbed the hand truck.
He loaded it with scraps of wood from all the
incomplete renovations and went back to the ravine where he
packed the scraps around her body and the pipe. Then
(51:25):
he went back to the garage for the wheelbarrow and
a gas can.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Well, what happened went firely. I tried to guess rid
of the evidence of.
Speaker 9 (51:40):
Her and.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Okay, you gotta be a little more more specific, So
what what happened to her? Mom's body?
Speaker 10 (51:46):
And I put her into a It was a sewer,
an open sewer, and then I lit the fire. Yes,
destroy the evidence.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
He dowsed the wood and his mother with gasoline and
litter on fire. Now, whether or not Travis knew this
was a good plan, it was. The drain pipe was
constructed in such a way that at the bottom were
two smaller pipes. These pipes usually carried rain water to
the creek, but when Travis lit the fire, they became
(52:32):
an inlet for fresh air. The size of the pipe
and the fact that it was made of metal and
concrete made it an ideal incinerator. The fire was so
hot that it burnt the tree limbs above it. Travis
had to go back to the garage and grab a
pump sprayer to dowse the surrounding foliage with water to
(52:54):
prevent catching the whole woods on fire.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
Swot tenants jewel that was at all way at like
two and the more it was and over an eighteen
hour period of time.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
Yes, it was weird to think that no one noticed
a blazing fire at the bottom of a ravine, but
it is a clue to how thick these woods really were.
Travis manned the fire for hours, feeding it wood and
stoking the flames. When officers finally pulled Nancy's remains from
the pipe, she wasn't even recognizable as human. What was
(53:33):
left of her only weighed thirty six pounds. Her arms
and legs were reduced to little more than bone and ash.
Her torso was charred and burned, revealing the city black
organs inside. The front upper part of her skull was
fragmented from the extreme heat, exposing brain matter. They couldn't
(53:57):
tell if she was alive when she was set on
fire due to the airwaves being charred, but the examination
of her lungs revealed a low carboxy hemoglobin saturation. If
I said that right, In other words, she was dead
before she was set aflame, thank god, at least for that.
(54:19):
Travis strangled his mother to death and then burned her
body in a makeshift incinerator to try to get rid
of the evidence. That part now made sense, but the
question remained. Why Why would Travis kill the only person
in his life who ever cared about him? I mean,
she was certainly the person taking care of him. He
(54:41):
couldn't take care of himself. And I'll say one more thing,
it's weird that a person that can't really take care
of himself and you know, get a job at Taco
Bell to pay their bills. Has all this ingenuity to
put together this entire plan and kill someone weird, right.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
So you you said that you had made a plan
to do this. You just decided that when she came home,
that was what we were going to do. Yes, how come? What? What? What? What? What?
I guess made you get to that point?
Speaker 9 (55:12):
Well?
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Drove there? It was how are you feeling? I guess
I was feeling. I guess. Uh. It was the decision from.
Speaker 10 (55:27):
I said, my household right now and what I'm going
through when I don't have support or help from I
guess others.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
So you were angry before when or before she even
got home.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
Travis had been harboring anger towards his mother for some time.
He complained that he couldn't take care of himself because
she never left him with enough money for his household.
Think about that for a second, think about it real good.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
It was over over money and I guess, ah, what
would I have at my house? Or what do you
mean by way in your house? She's got there? I spoke,
So it was it was kind of like how I
(56:20):
either take care of myself or feed myself and.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
I eat food if I can get it at Now
that he was finally saying it out loud, Travis didn't
seem to know why he decided to kill his mother.
It all sounded so dumb. His explanation was little more
than ramblings and incomplete thoughts. It seemed he was worried
(56:44):
about his mother finding out about his marijuana use, but
more about him not being provided the means to take
care of himself. You see, when you do everything for someone,
when you give them everything they need, take away any
in the past, and it's or sense of self by
just providing everything. What ends up happening, more often than
(57:08):
not is that that person getting everything starts to take
it for granted. I mean, it's there no matter what
they do. And once they've taken it for granted enough,
they then start to resent you for not giving them more.
It happens to entire societies in fact. I mean, just
(57:32):
take a look around, so I know there's more and.
Speaker 2 (57:35):
More reasons I do this. Right, Well, we're willing to
listen to you and why if there's other reasons, how's
your time to tell us?
Speaker 7 (57:45):
Right?
Speaker 2 (57:46):
Do you want to tell us or what else is
going on.
Speaker 7 (57:51):
That?
Speaker 2 (57:51):
Were you mad about her for something else?
Speaker 7 (57:53):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (57:56):
I think it was my problems with I've had problems
dealing with my life's and family's lives.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
He was trying to give a reason for what he did,
but it just wasn't very good. Who kills their mother
because he's mad about his allowance and not having enough money.
I wouldn't want to give him any money if I
were Nancy, and if I learned he was spending it
on pot, you know, get the fuck out of my house.
(58:29):
That's how you raise kids, at least ones that aren't
a complete piece of shit.
Speaker 2 (58:34):
I haven't been diagnosed with with anything, but I do, Guys,
I've had problems before, and I guess it kind of
all accumulated into me making that decision.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
All of the little bullshit excuses he had for being
mad at his mother culminated in him deciding to murder her.
He said he didn't have enough money for food, and
he blamed his mother for this. He said she was
upset about him smoking pot and he resented her for it.
He said he had trouble coping with life, and all
(59:19):
that combined led to his decision. These reasons are poor
ones individually, but put together, Travis found himself at a
breaking point and sounds like Travis had a low bar
for breaking. But this wasn't the spur of the moment
decision he planned.
Speaker 2 (59:39):
It was this planned for a while. So what do
you remember what day it was or where you decided
in your head this what you were going to do?
Like was it just as she came home or was
it days before that that you had made up your
mind when she was on a lie I think out
a week before she came home, before he had classes
(01:00:02):
killing her.
Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Yes, well before Hurricane Ian was anywhere close to landfall.
Travis had decided to kill his mother. He was mad
at her. He blamed her for everything. Rather than take
any responsibility for his life, he put everything on his mother, unjustly.
Nancy always ran to his side when he needed help,
(01:00:26):
just like she did this time. She funded his lifestyle
or lack thereof. But it wasn't enough for Travis. Never is.
I'm sure there's a Travis in your life. There's been
the Travis in mine, that's for sure. Every perceived slight
in his life was all because of Nancy. He had
(01:00:48):
no aspirations, no real future. I mean, what was his
plan if he got away with it, which he could
have really if he weren't so fucking lazy. He could
have burnt the purse and everything in it. He could
have stoked the fire longer completely to destroy his mother's body.
He could have ditched the car somewhere rather than leave
(01:01:10):
it in the garage. Then Nancy would have just been
missing under mysterious circumstances. But then, what was Travis just
going to go back to watching TV and smoking pot
in bed? What happened the next time he needed to
buy some more?
Speaker 9 (01:01:27):
What?
Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Then? Who was going to give him money for his household?
He had a plan to kill his mother, but it
sort of lacked all semblance of logic. Travis killed the
only person left who truly cared and loved him for
no good reason. Travis was indicted for tampering with evidence,
(01:01:51):
folonious assault, aggravated robbery, abuse of a corpse, murder, and
aggravated murder. He pleaded not get gilty by reason of insanity.
Apparently Travis had a difficult birth, including not breathing for
at least half a minute and subsequently spending time in
isolated intensive care. Afterwards, they surmised that this led to
(01:02:16):
the mental health issues he had since childhood. But then again,
he could have just been a piece of shit. You know,
you ever consider that science, You ever consider that some
people are just a piece of shit. But the judge,
you know, being a judge, granted the defense a complete evaluation,
(01:02:37):
and after that everything changed. Travis entered an Alfred plea,
which is a guilty plea without admitting to the crimes themselves.
I don't know what legal scholar came up with this,
but it's like admitting to a crime without admitting to
a crime. Way to go. Legal system sounds super good.
(01:02:59):
For it was an attempt to lessen his sentence because
he knew that if he went to trial, he would
go to prison for much longer.
Speaker 9 (01:03:10):
Travis has struggled for since he was a young man.
And I think the fact that, as Ray said, it's
a quiet neighborhood, it just highlights that mental health issues
are universal. We need more community resources, we need help.
It doesn't matter nobody is immune. A mother's love just
(01:03:30):
doesn't end no matter what your sen's mental illness is.
And I'm sorry it ended this way.
Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
Oh she did all she could to encourage him, and
she wasn't able to do it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
At the sentencing hearing, his family gave statements despite what
he had done, they begged for mercy on him. Laura
Malick asked the judge to give him a chance at
release if he underwent mental health treatment in prison. She said,
it's never too late and no one is ever too
(01:04:06):
far gone to receive God's gift of forgiveness if they
only ask have mercy on her son in spite of
his crimes, because that's who Nancy Lewton was. Without hope,
there is nothing. Just before handing down his sentence, the
judge spoke to Travis directly, saying, I don't know how
(01:04:28):
quickly she died. I don't know if she looked into
her son's eyes, or what it might have been like
to know that the person you loved more than life
is taking yours. I suspect her last thoughts were about you,
not in fear or anger, but in worry about who
would take care of you. Afterward, he then sentenced him
(01:04:52):
to life in prison. Big Daddy State can take care
of you now that Mommy's gone. Travis Sluton laid around
all day in his mother's house, watching TV, his mother's TV,
I might add, running off the electricity in the cable
that his mother paid for. He slept in a comfy
(01:05:12):
bed with clean sheets in the master bedroom, his mother's
master bedroom. Even the food he ate was thanks to
his mother. His life was uneasy mode, but he acted
like he had it tough.
Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Ugh, whoe is me?
Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Oh, look at all my ailments. Nancy provided everything for
this fucking loser, and all she asked in return was
for him to give it the old college. Try, you know, try,
just try to do something, something, anything with your life.
Turn off the computer, turn off the television, go outside,
(01:05:51):
Go find out who you are. Go find out how
to build a life for yourself. You'll fail, you'll fall,
you'll stumble, you'll get.
Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
Up, you'll do it again.
Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
That's what it takes to be on this spinning rock.
And if you don't want to be on it, be
my guest and get the fuck off. But don't burden
everyone around you with your bullshit. Don't burden your own
mother for the rest of your life because you're too
(01:06:25):
fucking lazy to get out and go get a job. Nancy,
God bless her, She loved her son. She didn't want
to see his life wasted. She tried everything she could
to try to help him. She tried everything she could
think of, but it was all for nothing. She poured
her love into Travis and helped him at every opportunity,
(01:06:49):
so much that she stunted him. Travis wasn't capable of
taking care of himself because he never had to. It
wasn't her fault. She only wanted her son, whom she loved,
to be happy and successful. But all her helping only
did was harm him and in the end, harm herself.
(01:07:14):
Sometimes all you can do is try, unless trying is
the problem and it's up to someone else to try instead.
(01:08:22):
That does it for another one. Thank you once again
for joining us if you haven't already considered joining plus,
it's just ten bucks a month and it really helped
us out. Swordscale dot com. Stay safe,
Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Listener discretion is advice. Did you child her? Did you
put something over a face or how did you stop
her reading? Did you use something? Did she say anything
to you when she at home? You didn't give her
an opportunity?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Welcome to Sword and Scale, season eleven, episode two hundred
and seventy two, a show that reveals that the worst
monsters are real. It hurts to see someone struggling, someone
(01:39):
that's in pain. There's an instinctual empathy for a person
in need, especially if it's family. The natural reaction is
to help. If someone's feeling down, you cheer them up.
If someone needs a little money, you loan it to them.
Someone's hungry, you feed them. You know all the things
(02:02):
that this country was founded on. Give me you're tired,
you're poor, your huddled masses, et cetera. Sympathy like this
usually makes those that are helped, and the world in general,
a better place. Being helped normally gives those down on
their luck renewed hope about life. Even those offering help
(02:24):
get the pleasure of seeing the happiness return to their
downtrodden faces. They get to feel like they did something,
and they did. But here's the thing you need to
hear and probably don't want to. Sometimes it's better just
to mind your own fucking business, Karen, And yes, I'm
(02:45):
specifically talking to the white women in the audience, which
is all of you. I know you want to help,
but sometimes it's better to worry about your own problems
instead of trying to solve the world's problems. Sometimes it's
better to just mind your own business because sometimes helping
can actually hurt, It can stunt a person's emotional growth.
(03:11):
Let me ask you something. If someone's always helped you
do something and you count on it, why do it yourself?
Why bother? In this week's case, we're gonna examine a
mother who loved her son so much that she always
wanted to be there for him when he was in need,
(03:32):
which happened to be most of the time. She wanted
to help her son, even to her own detriment. Sometimes
a person in need, no matter how hard you try,
can't be helped, and if you're not careful, they'll drag
(03:52):
you down with them. On September twenty eighth, twenty twenty
(04:28):
two Hurricane Ian made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
The state of Florida is under assault tonight, and the
damage is likely to be catastrophic. Hurricane Ian blasted ashore
today near Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast and began
a slow trek toward the Atlantic. It packed sustained winds
of one hundred and fifty miles an hour and knocked
out power to more than a million homes and businesses.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
With historic rainfall and flooding predicted, Venice resident Nancy Luton
took the queue to evacuate ahead of the storm. She
didn't want to hang out and find out for herself
if her double wide mobile home less than half a
mile from the beach could withstand it.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Smart Early this morning, Hurricane Ian quickly escalated into a
near Category five storm across Florida's Gulf Coast. Residents braced
for a brutal impact, boarding up businesses and stocking up
on supplies and gas. Forecasters warned that storm surges could
reach up to eighteen feet across more than two hundred
(05:35):
miles of the Gulf coast. The storm is expected to
track across the state, dumping as much as eighteen inches
of rain on areas like Orlando in central Florida and
Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
She hopped into her red Ford escape aptly named I
Might add and set off to outrun the hurricanes, wind
and rain. She drove nine hours straight to her niece
Amy's house in Dallas, Georgia.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
She came here to escape the hurricane. Their other residents
was damaged in the hurricane. They came here to Georgia
to stay with me.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But little did Nancy know that another storm was brewing
at her home in Toledo, Ohio.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
She had some concerns about her son, some things going
on there.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Nancy was originally from Ohio, and even though she retired
to Sunny Florida after her husband passed away, she kept
the family home in Toledo. Now, she was worried about
her son, who stayed behind in Georgia escaping the wrath
of Ian. She was already halfway there, so she decided
(06:50):
to drive to Toledo to check on him, and.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Then continued on to Ohio, Okay. His family on His
name is Travis Luton, same last.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Name Travis S. Newton was Nancy's thirty one year old son.
He lived alone in their family home. Nancy had been
trying to get in contact with him since before she evacuated,
but hadn't gotten a reply.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
I think he has some issues that you know, she
was concerned they need require maybe some intervention, some kind
of intervention.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Of some sort with getting help.
Speaker 7 (07:36):
And I'm not.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Pretty to all of that. I just I'm sure my mother,
her sister who is also here from the hurricane, could
if it came to that, could could offer more information.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Nancy often tried to intervene in Travis's life. To say
he had issues was a bit of an understatement. Despite
being in a private school, he got into plenty of trouble,
and by the time he was eighteen, got his first
real charge. He hit a park car, and when officers arrived,
Travis leaned against the trunk for stability, exclaiming I was
(08:17):
driving drunk. Probably not a good strategical move. Strategical, I
don't know, I'm tired, guys anyway. His blood alcohol concentration
was zero point one, nine, twice the legal limit. Less
than a year later, he was caught shoplifting headphones from Walmart.
(08:38):
When Lost Prevention confronted him, he put up his fists
and tried to punch them. Then he brandished a pair
of pruning shears, likely the ones he used to open
up the headphones. Those cases are a real pain in
the ass with the plastic, you know. Then he threatened
to stab the Walmart employees. He then fled, jumped into
(09:02):
his car, and sped away, but not before sideswiping a
park car. It's kind of like his mo I guess,
hitting stationary vehicles. About ten years later, against his mother's
Willie took her car. He screamed at her that he
would kill himself if she called the cops, so you know,
(09:23):
of course she did call the cops and he was arrested,
and now.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Apparently her son had stolen a package off of a
neighbor's port.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Travis was a porch pirate, the most despicable species there is.
You've seen him on the old youtubees and the tiktoks
and the what nuts, running up and steal in your
packages right before Christmas. A real grinch, you know. Living
next door to the Lwton family home was a college
(09:57):
student named Erica Sheehan. She and she and I don't know,
I'll get letters no matter how I say any word,
So send them in people see if I give a
shit anyway. Erica she Han, days before Hurricanian made landfall
in Florida, was expecting a package a pair of new shoes.
(10:20):
Her notifications said had been delivered, but she couldn't find it.
She looked around and it wasn't there, so she checked
the doorbell camera. There, in high resolution clarity was Travis
swiping the package from her porch. She tried knocking on
the door to asked Travis about it, but he didn't answer.
(10:42):
In the days following, he seemed to be avoiding her altogether.
Erica told her mother, Sue, and she emailed Nancy.
Speaker 8 (10:51):
They were going.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
To press charges if the package was not returned. Of course,
Nancy was embarrassed, who wouldn't be. She assured them that
she was trying to get Travis some help and that
in no way did she condone his behavior. She confessed
Travis had been distant since his father died. You know
(11:15):
all the excuses mothers make for their kids so they
can continue to stunt their development and boost their own ego.
Years earlier, Travis had been mugged on the way home
from high school. After that he was never really the same.
The death of his father in twenty fourteen only made
him more reclusive.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
She said.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Of course, we've all experienced death close to us, some
closer than others. Not all of us are doing terrible things.
Nancy sent Travis several upset emails about the incident. She
had to email them because he didn't have a job
and subsequently didn't have cellular service. He relied on the
(12:00):
home WiFi for all communication. In her emails, she encouraged
him to return the package or they were going to
call the cops, but she never got a response. But
what do you do with a pair of ladies sneakers?
Speaker 5 (12:15):
Anyway, I don't believe she was getting any kind of
correspondence from him either, so she must fear to go there,
So I do know that much.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
When Nancy couldn't get a response from Travis, the neighbor
went ahead and involved the police. They came out to
the house to talk to Travis about the theft.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
And they had they already have had the police department,
your Toledo police department go buy her home and try
to do like a well check on him. Apparently he
did not answer.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Nancy was worried about the lack of response from Travis,
and she feared the worst. She loaded up her red
Ford Escape and pulled another marathon nine hour drive straight
to Toledo. She emailed Travis one last time before she left,
letting him know that she'd be home sometime after midnight.
Travis was troubled. He just couldn't seem to get out
(13:17):
of his own way. Nancy had been taking care of
this overgrown child most of her life, and now she
feared that he may have actually followed through with all
those childish threats of suicide. She left her sister and
niece behind in Georgia and hurried home. But this call
(13:38):
from Amy wasn't about Travis, it was it was about Nancy.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
We have not heard from for forty one hours now,
and she was traveling from where I live in Dallas,
Georgia to her part time residence in Toledo. And I'm
calling to see if there's any way somebody could go
(14:05):
to her home.
Speaker 7 (14:06):
Sure is whatever made it about forty one hours ago?
Speaker 5 (14:11):
That is correct, Thursday at four pm. We have called, texted,
we're getting no reply.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Nancy left Dallas, Georgia on Thursday, September twenty ninth, at
four pm, as the Category four hurricane carved a path
of destruction across Florida, Nancy carved her path through the night.
The trip only took about nine hours. But now it
was nine am, Saturday, October first, forty one hours later
(14:45):
and no one had heard from Nancy or Travis.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
My concern is that when the police department did the
well check before prior to my aunt coming home, she
did not come to the He would not answer the door,
and they, you know, of course they did not you know,
do any kind of forcible entry. I don't know that
(15:10):
he would come to the door. He knows, probably through
her texting him that, even though he didn't reply to
her that it's a big situation and if the police
were going to pursue you know, some you know, criminal
charges in some way, the neighbor was so I just
(15:32):
I want you to make I just want them to
know that that he probably if he's in there, would
probably not come to the door. And if my aunt's
car is in the driveway and no one comes to
the door, then I just wanted to you know, that's
a situation also because she would absolutely come to the
door if her car is there.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Unsure of what was going on in Toledo, Amy tried
to give the dispatcher any scenario that should cause alarm.
She knew her aunt and her cousin. She knew that
if Nancy's car was in the driveway, she was there.
So if she didn't come to the door, something was wrong. Travis,
(16:15):
on the other hand, wasn't likely to come to the door,
even if he wasn't aware of the pending legal actions
for being a porch pirate.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
Okay, he's never done anything, as far as you know,
to harm her at all, and he could.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Not that we're aware of, but to himself that I could,
that could be potentially a possibility.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Nancy left Florida to escape the storm. She left Georgia
for fear that something was wrong with her son. No
one had heard from him despite repeated attempts to contact him.
She couldn't think of any reason why he wouldn't respond
other than bad ones. Maybe some thing happened to him
while he was home alone, maybe he did something to himself,
(17:07):
or perhaps whatever tragedy befelt, Travis was lying in wait
when Nancy returned home. Nancy Luton fled Florida to escape
(17:47):
the catastrophic destruction of Hurricanean, but a different catastrophe was
brewing on her horizon. In our hometown of Toledo. Her
son Travis was getting into truck. The neighbor had video
evidence of him stealing a package from her front porch.
This neighbor tried to contact him several times. She knocked
(18:09):
on the door without answer. She left notes on both
the front and back doors asking Travis to please return
the package. She even had her father's stop eye she
knew he was in there, but never got a response. Finally,
the neighbor resorted to sending an email to Nancy to
see if she could intervene. This was a close community
(18:32):
and she didn't want to call police on her neighbor
over a stolen pair of shoes. Nancy emailed Travis several
times before evacuating Florida, but he didn't reply. She left
the safety of Amy's house in Georgia and drove nine
hours back to Toledo to check on her adult son.
(18:53):
Her sister and niece began to worry when they didn't
get confirmation that she made at home. After forty one
hours with no word from Nancy and still no word
from Travis. They did what they actually should have done
to begin with, call the Toledo police and ask them
to perform a welfare check.
Speaker 7 (19:13):
All right, well, listen, I got it in and I
appreciate it. Rebec you're already will we're saying they're un
scene there, so hold on, Oh you have a minute,
let's see you say I do, ma'am? Thank you? Really?
Speaker 5 (19:31):
May I put you on spear and phone?
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
I'll call you that all right?
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (19:37):
I gave her all the IMA.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
She's chunking it.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Right now to please.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
Are actually already on the this location.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Oh good.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Officers must have been in the area because they were
on the scene in less than five minutes. Nancy's niece
relayed the information to her mother and Nancy's sisters.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
And because they're there, I'm gonna, as a matter of fact,
put you on a brief hold for let's see if
they have any updates yet.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Okay, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Probably want The police arrived quickly, but details were coming
back slowly. The dispatcher put Amy on hold to see
if she could reach them for more information. The dispatcher
didn't know that the officers who responded were stumbling onto
a bizarre scene.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
Yes, I think great, they're there. They haven't come over
there and said anything yet, So if you want, I
will just keep an eye on it and see what
I can find out and give you a call back.
I hate to keep you hanging on hold.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
No, that's fine. So you just don't know what's going
on or why they.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
Are Yeah, I mean here back. Yeah, they made it
to the house. They came, you know, said that they
were unseen there, but they haven't come over there and
said anything.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
So officers arrived at eighteen sixty five Wildwood Road. It
was the fourth house on the just as you entered
the neighborhood from Highway twenty four. The house was a
traditional two story home with light blue vinyl sighting and
a bold green front door. To the left of the
(21:14):
home was a driveway leading to a detached two car garage.
The lawn and landscaping were nice, albeit a bit neglected.
It was clear this home was well taken care of
for many years. Behind the property was heavily wooded, hiding
the steep descent to the Delaware Creek. No sooner did
(21:35):
an officer take all this in than a person showed up.
Laura Malick approached the officer and explained her mother and
Georgia called her about her aunt Nancy. She was Amy's
sister who still lived in Toledo. She explained how unusual
it was for her aunt not to let her family
know when she made it to town and if she
(21:59):
even did make it. Laura led the officer to the
garage and peeked through the window. Inside was Nancy's red
Ford escape. She had made it home. Just then, the
officer noticed they were being watched from the upstairs window.
They could see the figure fig figure of a chubby man.
(22:25):
He had short, messy hair and a five o'clock shadow.
He stood there staring at the two by the garage.
Laura told the officer that it was her cousin Travis,
and the officer tried to talk to him through the window.
Travis just stood there and shook his head no. The
(22:46):
officer continued to try to get a response from Travis
until he disappeared into the room behind him. Is that
how adults act? It's very strange. The officer, freaked out
by this weirdo, then called for backup. Nancy was missing,
or at least in communicado, and Travis was refusing to
(23:08):
come outside or even speak through a window pane. They
didn't even know what was going on, but they thought
they might need a negotiator to talk him out. He
could be heavily armed and detached from reality for all
they knew, and it seemed like he was like his
entire life. As weakening Hurricane Ian bore down on the Carolinas,
(23:34):
a swarm of police officers descended on Travis and Nancy
Luton's Toledo home. The responding officers secured the house, surrounding
it as others tried to get Travis to come open
the door. One officer at the back door noticed something
unusual on the back porch. There was a pile of
(23:55):
clothes in front of a chair. Next to the chair
was a pair of pruning shears. The clothes were in
a crumpled pile on top of a rolled up rug
and a clear plastic sheet. It looked as if someone
sat in the chair and removed all their clothing. Their
boots were muddy, and upon closer inspection, the officer noticed
(24:18):
the clothes were covered in plant matter. Dozens of little
seed burrs clung to the fabric. Then, next to the porch,
and the grass was a pair of socks and underwear.
Whoever disrobed here seemed to have rinsed off with the
garden hose and left all these items strewn about. But
(24:40):
where were they coming from? The officer eyed an open
gate in the back of the property. Beyond that gate
was a worn path down into a wooden ravine. From
this vantage point, the officer could see what looked like
a wheelbarrow and a hand truck for moving furniture at
the bottom. He radioed this info to the lead officer,
(25:04):
and he decided to ping Nancy's cell phone. You never
want to stumble upon moving equipment in the woods when
looking for an elderly person, probably a bad sign. The
ping placed her cell phone within three hundred feet of
the house. With this information, they forced their way inside
(25:25):
to see if they could find Nancy. On the growl,
several officers made their way inside. They kicked open the
back door and made entry. An officer equipped with a
riot shield led the way, clearing the downstairs. Then they
(25:46):
cautiously made their way up the stairs and into the
master bedroom, where they found Travis. He was just lying
in bed when they burst through the door. With guns
trained on him.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Right where we could see it. Get your hands there
were there? Where's everybody else? Here? Where's mom? Travis? Where's
your mom?
Speaker 1 (26:15):
He was as stoic as he had been at the window.
The officer's questions fell on deaf ears as they handcuffed
him behind his back. They searched the house for Nancy
a while, and they didn't find her. They found plenty
of signs, though, that she was there. Her car was
in the garage, still loaded with her luggage from the trip.
(26:37):
In the basement, they found her purse and her wallet.
There just wasn't Nancy herself. They arrested Travis on the
spot and took him down to the station for questioning
to try to get to the bottom of where the
hell his mother was.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Hey, Travis, I'm a detective. Quickly, this is Sergeer Kennedy. Okay.
They want to talk to you about what officers were
out of her. Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
He sat like a statue, his hands laid flat on
his thighs. By American standards, he was average height and weight,
but when compared to a frail elderly woman, he was
a beast. At five foot eight inches tall and two
hundred and ten pounds. He far outweighed his mother. They
(27:25):
were eager to see what he had to say, but
first they had to mirandize him, something he said he'd
never done before. He's been arrested before and convicted, but
those were open and shut cases where they didn't even
need to question him.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
So, do you know why ofsters came to your house today? Yes? Well,
why what's the story with that? They were looking for
my parents? Yes? Do you know where she's at?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
He talked like a teenager in trouble. He fidgeted with
his hands and avoided eye contact, but he seemed to
know exactly what was going on. He knew they were
looking for his mother.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Do you know I guess she would be your cousin Laura? Yes, okay? Where?
And so it's my understanding that your mom was down
and she was supposed to be in Florida, right, yes,
but because of the hurricane, she was in Georgia. Was
that here understanding?
Speaker 9 (28:34):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Okay? Did you go down there with her? He stayed
up here? Yes? Okay, because so when she's she was
back and forth right between, okay, and then so when
she's up here, you guys live together, right, Okay, when
was the last time you talked to your Momber thirtieth?
(28:55):
When September thirtieth? Okay, you know what time the day?
It was late? It was sleep, two o'clock.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
They probed him with questions they already knew the answers to.
They were looking for either information that led to Nancy
or evidence that he was hiding something, evidence he was lying.
He said he'd last talked with his mother on September
thirtieth at two o'clock. Two am on September thirtieth would
have been ten hours after Nancy left Georgia.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Was she still down in Georgia at that time or
did she say where she was? And no, she sends
me emails when she's he's contact me. She started home
from Georgia. She sent an email, yes, saying what home
she was on her way? Yeah. Yeah, she hasn't taxed
(29:54):
her callya.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
We all know the answer to that question. He had
a phone, it just wasn't connected to a network. Travis
completely relied on his mother To live. Without her, he
wouldn't have a house to live in or a car
to drive, the very same car. I might add that
he was arrested for stealing years previous. He backpedaled the
(30:20):
comment about speaking with his mother and instead said he
received an email from her saying she was on her
way home. While Travis was answering their questions, the cadence
of his speech made the conversation confusing for detectives.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Okay, so when was the last time he actually talked
to her and heard her voice? Which she was in
May this year? Okay?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
So yes, he said, the last time he heard his
mother's voice was months before she left for Florida. That
was a long time ago to go without hearing your
mother's voice. Then you said this.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
So do you know did she make it back to
Toledo and make it back to the house. Yes, she
did make it back to the house, yes, okay. And
what day was that Sincember thirtieth? Yesterday? Okay, ladies, it
was two am. What's that she got back two am
(31:30):
on the thirtieth? Yes, Okay, I guess I maybe my
son said, I thought you said she was leaving Georgia
on the thirtieth, okay, but you're saying she came back
on the yes, at two am? Yes, okay. And where
were you at the house at that time? Yes? It
was were you sleeping or did you you must have
(31:50):
heard her come in or something, or did you talk
to her at all? I heard it coming through the door? Okay,
we and were you? So did you talk to her all? Then?
When she no?
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I guess you could call it being cooperative, but he
wasn't being forthcoming. He kept his answers short, mostly yes
or no. But when he did give more details, you
could tell he's holding something back. Detectives don't think he's lying,
just not giving the whole truth. He said he heard
(32:22):
his mother come home at two am on the thirtieth.
He heard her walk through the kitchen door. He heard this,
but he didn't speak with her.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Okay, So that was on the thirtieth. And then when
you woke up the next morning, was she's still there?
Then you know where she went?
Speaker 7 (32:45):
No.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
By the time he woke up the next morning, she
was already gone. But when asked if he knew where
she went, he hesitated for a long time before answering. These
types of responses made detectives sure he wasn't being completely forthcoming.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Okay, what car she owns? Two cars right the escape?
And what kind of is the other car? Which one
did she drive to Georgia Escape Cape. Yes, you know,
because her because her car is still on the garage
(33:24):
right from what we saw. Yes, okay, so he don't
have any idea where she's at.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
No, the detectives pointed out that Nancy's car was still there,
hoping you would realized the point they were trying to make.
If she left, her car wouldn't be there. So since
it was there, he clearly didn't leave. Yet, Travis continued
denying knowing anything about where his mother was.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Did you guys have any kind of arguments or anything
when there were arguments about the money, you know, having
about money? Yes, what's what's what? The money.
Speaker 9 (34:08):
For food?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
And uh, this is my household, I guess. So you
were arguing that you didn't have enough money for food
or yes? Okay. And then when did this argument take
place after she got back?
Speaker 10 (34:23):
No, that's been kind of a continuous thing. What did
you use and goes back from Florida?
Speaker 2 (34:31):
If I have, you know, food or money to take
care of myself, I guess. Okay, so the problem you
have is that you're not having enough food and money
while she's in Florida? Okay, Yes, So when she came back,
at two am and the thirty did you guys argue
about pantent?
Speaker 1 (34:52):
He admitted he and his mom had an ongoing argument
about his let's just call it his allowance, but he
was consistent with his previous statements, saying they did not
argue when she returned early on the thirtieth. Remember, he
said he never spoke with her.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So you don't have any idea where she's at right now?
Have you? Do you ever go down into the ravine
there too? You don't go down there because there's some
there's some stuff down there. We were wondering did you
put some stuff down there? Because we were wondering why
there was like a wheelbarrow? Yes, what were you And
(35:33):
there's like a dolly I call it a dolly, one
of those things with that righte a wheelbarrow into dolly? Like,
what what were you doing with those? I'm not answer that.
You don't want to answer that well because I think
(35:55):
you probably know what we're getting at, right.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yes, this was the first time the detectives mentioned the
items in the ravine, denying knowing where his mother was.
It worked up to this point. Now he knew what
they were getting at. You could hear him sigh when
he realized there's no way to wiggle out of this from.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
What your aunt ant says that do you have some
do you have disabilities or anything you've been diagnosed with. No,
you never been diagnosed with any kind of mental illness
or anything like that.
Speaker 7 (36:31):
No.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Okay, Well, your your aunt and your uncle or your
aunt or I'm sorry, your cousin Laura and her husband
are kind of upset. They would like to know where
your mom's dad. I mean, what should we tell him?
Speaker 1 (36:49):
After a long pause, Travis muttered the following, you have
to tell them.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
I thank you my mom.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
So he admitted the whole truth he had killed his mother.
Of course, they already knew something happened to Nancy, they
just didn't know exactly what.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
You see.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
After they arrested Travis, they took him in and they
searched the house. Like the outside, the inside of the
house showed signs of being well taken care of until recently.
Another section of the wall was removed from an upstairs bedroom.
The pieces from this project were stacked messily nearby. The
(37:34):
basement was empty, prepped for a new floor, but only
a few boards had ever been laid down. This is
where they found her purse and wallet in an empty basement.
That was the first clue that something bad happened to Nancy.
Just like the basement, her purse and wallet were also empty.
(37:58):
Calling her phone led officers to one of the kitchen cabinets.
Inside they found Nancy's vibrating cell phone, her driver's license,
her debit and credit cards, and her car keys. Further
searching discovered even more disturbing things and the garage in
a trash can was a rolled up area rug. When
(38:21):
officers unrolled the rug, they found a pink sweatshirt inside.
On the shirt was a single blood stain. The rug
itself had a much larger stain of what appeared to
be blood in the center of it. Next To the
driver's side door of Nancy's Ford escape was a single
(38:42):
sandal hy.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
We appreciate having ho us. Okay, I know there's some
things probably, but we just want to understand, okay, because
there's two sides to every story. We know that, So
now is the time for you to give us your
side of the story. Right, So when she got did
she really get home at two am? Then yes, okay?
(39:04):
And then what happened when she at home. We had
a fight that he had a fight, yes, like an
argument with words or a physical fighty okay, and he
got to pick up a little for me. Kids. Try
to make sure I can understand this. So he had
(39:25):
a physical fight. What was that over? Was it about
the money and the food? Yes? Okay.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
To say they got into a fight seems wrong. Is
it a fight when it's between a thirty one year
old man and a seventy one year old woman? Not
much of one. No, sounds more like an attack or
an assault. I doubt anything Nasy did could be considered fighting.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Just in your words, what happened? This is your story.
Speaker 10 (39:54):
I attacked my my mother she came home from Florida.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
That's more like it. Travis attacked his mother as soon
as she walked through the door.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
And where, again, did you first attack her? Was it
inside out in the kitchen?
Speaker 9 (40:10):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So had she started unload her car at that point
or was she getting stuck out of her car? She
walked in and turned, uh sure what the kitchen likes on?
And she only brought her person. She just sort of
lay on and you were there, yeah, yea, yes, okay,
what do you mean an attacked her, like with your
(40:32):
fists or did you have something else in your hand?
I don't know. I don't remember that weapon or not there.
Speaker 10 (40:44):
There might be weapons in my house, but not nothing
like that was use.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I guess sir.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
They didn't get into a fight. He blindsided her as
soon as she got home from a ten hour her
trip the mother that took care of him. He attacked
her the moment she got there. I guess he was
telling the truth about not talking to her.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Okay, when when you say you attacked her, like, what
exactly happened? Would you do? I attacked her when she
came home from she when she returned from floor from Georgia.
How did you attack her?
Speaker 9 (41:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
What happened? Uh? Stopped? It was her breathing. I guess
her breathing stopped? Yes, yes, how did you do that? Physically?
My my my body? I attacked her.
Speaker 10 (41:51):
What do you mean though? You just help me understand
what happened. I used my I wait hours to kill
my mother. That was my plan. Anyway, it did last four.
Speaker 9 (42:15):
Sometime.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
I guess if he wanted my confession on that, I
attacked her when she came home two am. She said
she would be home sometime after twelve, and I made
(42:37):
the decision to attack her and stop her stop her breathing.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
He described it almost clinically, like a sociopath. He stopped
her breathing, but what he actually did was wrap both
meaty hands around his mother's neck and squeeze as hard
as he could for as long as he could. When
his hands got tired or he couldn't bear to look
her in the eyes any longer, he pushed his elbow
(43:11):
into her throat and used his entire body weight to
finish the job.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Okay, now, so do you mean then you like, did
you choke her? Did you put something over her face?
Or how did you stop her? Reading? Was choking her
with your hands around your hear? How were you choking her? Exactly?
Did you use something? My elbow? I guess your elmow? Yes?
Speaker 10 (43:37):
Did she even get did she say anything to you
when she at home?
Speaker 2 (43:42):
She didn't give her an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
No, you didn't even allow her to speak before he attacked.
He didn't even allow her to beg for her life.
She just walked through the door, and her son, whom
she'd always rushed to help, stared into her eyes and
strangled the life out of her. Does that make you mad,
(44:05):
because it sure as fuck makes me mad. The once
little boy she brought into this world removed her from it.
As the police continued at the house, the neighbors were shocked,
but not caught off guard completely.
Speaker 8 (44:21):
We knew him since he was in high school, and.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
He had trouble.
Speaker 8 (44:27):
Back then, like a lot of kids, but maybe a
little bit more, and it just followed him as he
grew up.
Speaker 9 (44:35):
It's very unexpected. Yeah, the big drama on the Facebook
neighborhood page usually is Oh, I think somebody broke into
my car last night. You know, this is just not
something we're used to experiencing, but it's it's very real
in our community.
Speaker 8 (44:50):
Literally is shocking because it's a quiet neighborhood. It's a
very quiet neighborhood, and for something like this to happen,
it's quite a shock to everybody.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Her friend back in Florida, who had known her since
the third grade, chose to remember her as she was
rather than how she horrifically died. She knew Travis was
verbally abusive to his mother and that he struggled with
his mental health, but never does she think he would
have homicidal thoughts. They never think these things. No matter
(45:21):
how many times it happens, it.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Hasn't really come to reality because it's so outed, it's
so unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
She was like a sister to me and to my children.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
She set asideline a couple hours every day to send
out encouraging.
Speaker 9 (45:40):
Messages to feel that she didn't even know, because that.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Was her nature.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
Nancy Luton, known for her kindness to strangers and her
devotion to her son, died on the kitchen floor of
their family home. Her son failed to appreciate all that
she did for him through the three decades of his
miserable life. He murdered the woman who wrote prayers in
(46:06):
the margins of her Bible asking for divine assistance with
her son, the idiot. She wanted the best for him,
even though he was difficult. To put it mildly. Now,
all that was left for detectives to understand was why
(46:27):
and what happened in that ravine?
Speaker 2 (46:29):
What happened when you got her down there? I I'll
trut you couldn't move myself from any.
Speaker 10 (46:40):
Anything that would connect me to to this.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
What happens? How did you do? That's a fire?
Speaker 1 (47:23):
The welfare check for Nancy Lowton led to a bizarre
interaction with her son Travis. He stared at officers from
the upstairs bedroom window. He refused to talk or even
come to the door. Officers noticed odd things in the
ravine behind his house, a wheelbarrow and a handtruck. This
(47:44):
combined with his cousin Laura pointing out that Nancy's car
was in the garage and she should be home, raised
further suspicions Nancy always came to the door if she
was home. Officers suited up and breached the back. They
found Travis lying in bed watching TV and took him
(48:04):
into custody. He denied everything until he realized the officers
had seen what was in the ravine. Then he finally
told the truth. He attacked his mother as soon as
she walked through the door, and then strangled her when
he got tired. He used his elbow and his weight,
(48:27):
all two hundred and ten pounds. He confessed to killing
his mother, but what he did after is just as heinous.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Okay, so after she stopped freeing them, well, he said,
I was in the ravine and saw at the woods
line in my house.
Speaker 10 (48:47):
There she was unconscious, I guess I chuted tooth out
to make it look like, you know, there was any
altercation or fight, to kind of get rid of any
(49:10):
evidence or I.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Didn't get rid of Okay, So did you take your
mom's mom down to the ravine?
Speaker 9 (49:16):
Then?
Speaker 2 (49:17):
Yes? Yes, How did you get her down there? Oh? Through,
I might have to kind of carry carry it out there?
He carried her, yes, okay, Like he didn't have to
use anything else, just carried her like this or fireman's carrier. Like,
(49:41):
how did you get her down there? Because that's pretty steep.
The reason I asked, I mean we went down there
and that it's pretty steel.
Speaker 10 (49:48):
Yeah, I guess I did. With with trying to get
rid of evidence.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
I guess movie her as is his mother's body lay
lifeless on the rug in the kitchen, Travis came up
with a plan. He cleaned up to get rid of
any evidence of a struggle. He rolled up the rug
and stashed it in the garage. He took his mother's
purse and wallet, emptied them of any money, and hid
(50:18):
them in the basement. Then he grabbed a flashlight and
his mother's body and carried her to the ravine behind
the garage. At the back of the property was a
gate and a path into the ravine. It was a
steep hill going down to somewhat of a landing before
another trail went deeper. The woods were dense with lots
(50:41):
of bushy undergrowth. Travis cleared the path, cutting low branches
and snapping high weeds. The trail was long and winding,
heading ever lower and deeper into the woods. Eventually it
ended at an access point to this storm drained system.
A man hold jutted out of the ground a couple
(51:03):
of feet high. Travis removed the cover and placed the
small body of his mother and the pipe. Then he
just went back to his garage and grabbed the hand truck.
He loaded it with scraps of wood from all the
incomplete renovations and went back to the ravine where he
packed the scraps around her body and the pipe. Then
(51:25):
he went back to the garage for the wheelbarrow and
a gas can.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Well, what happened went firely. I tried to guess rid
of the evidence of.
Speaker 9 (51:40):
Her and.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
Okay, you gotta be a little more more specific, So
what what happened to her? Mom's body?
Speaker 10 (51:46):
And I put her into a It was a sewer,
an open sewer, and then I lit the fire. Yes,
destroy the evidence.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
He dowsed the wood and his mother with gasoline and
litter on fire. Now, whether or not Travis knew this
was a good plan, it was. The drain pipe was
constructed in such a way that at the bottom were
two smaller pipes. These pipes usually carried rain water to
the creek, but when Travis lit the fire, they became
(52:32):
an inlet for fresh air. The size of the pipe
and the fact that it was made of metal and
concrete made it an ideal incinerator. The fire was so
hot that it burnt the tree limbs above it. Travis
had to go back to the garage and grab a
pump sprayer to dowse the surrounding foliage with water to
(52:54):
prevent catching the whole woods on fire.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
Swot tenants jewel that was at all way at like
two and the more it was and over an eighteen
hour period of time.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
Yes, it was weird to think that no one noticed
a blazing fire at the bottom of a ravine, but
it is a clue to how thick these woods really were.
Travis manned the fire for hours, feeding it wood and
stoking the flames. When officers finally pulled Nancy's remains from
the pipe, she wasn't even recognizable as human. What was
(53:33):
left of her only weighed thirty six pounds. Her arms
and legs were reduced to little more than bone and ash.
Her torso was charred and burned, revealing the city black
organs inside. The front upper part of her skull was
fragmented from the extreme heat, exposing brain matter. They couldn't
(53:57):
tell if she was alive when she was set on
fire due to the airwaves being charred, but the examination
of her lungs revealed a low carboxy hemoglobin saturation. If
I said that right, In other words, she was dead
before she was set aflame, thank god, at least for that.
(54:19):
Travis strangled his mother to death and then burned her
body in a makeshift incinerator to try to get rid
of the evidence. That part now made sense, but the
question remained. Why Why would Travis kill the only person
in his life who ever cared about him? I mean,
she was certainly the person taking care of him. He
(54:41):
couldn't take care of himself. And I'll say one more thing,
it's weird that a person that can't really take care
of himself and you know, get a job at Taco
Bell to pay their bills. Has all this ingenuity to
put together this entire plan and kill someone weird, right.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
So you you said that you had made a plan
to do this. You just decided that when she came home,
that was what we were going to do. Yes, how come? What? What? What? What? What?
I guess made you get to that point?
Speaker 9 (55:12):
Well?
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Drove there? It was how are you feeling? I guess
I was feeling. I guess. Uh. It was the decision from.
Speaker 10 (55:27):
I said, my household right now and what I'm going
through when I don't have support or help from I
guess others.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
So you were angry before when or before she even
got home.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
Travis had been harboring anger towards his mother for some time.
He complained that he couldn't take care of himself because
she never left him with enough money for his household.
Think about that for a second, think about it real good.
Speaker 2 (55:59):
It was over over money and I guess, ah, what
would I have at my house? Or what do you
mean by way in your house? She's got there? I spoke,
So it was it was kind of like how I
(56:20):
either take care of myself or feed myself and.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
I eat food if I can get it at Now
that he was finally saying it out loud, Travis didn't
seem to know why he decided to kill his mother.
It all sounded so dumb. His explanation was little more
than ramblings and incomplete thoughts. It seemed he was worried
(56:44):
about his mother finding out about his marijuana use, but
more about him not being provided the means to take
care of himself. You see, when you do everything for someone,
when you give them everything they need, take away any
in the past, and it's or sense of self by
just providing everything. What ends up happening, more often than
(57:08):
not is that that person getting everything starts to take
it for granted. I mean, it's there no matter what
they do. And once they've taken it for granted enough,
they then start to resent you for not giving them more.
It happens to entire societies in fact. I mean, just
(57:32):
take a look around, so I know there's more and.
Speaker 2 (57:35):
More reasons I do this. Right, Well, we're willing to
listen to you and why if there's other reasons, how's
your time to tell us?
Speaker 7 (57:45):
Right?
Speaker 2 (57:46):
Do you want to tell us or what else is
going on.
Speaker 7 (57:51):
That?
Speaker 2 (57:51):
Were you mad about her for something else?
Speaker 7 (57:53):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (57:56):
I think it was my problems with I've had problems
dealing with my life's and family's lives.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
He was trying to give a reason for what he did,
but it just wasn't very good. Who kills their mother
because he's mad about his allowance and not having enough money.
I wouldn't want to give him any money if I
were Nancy, and if I learned he was spending it
on pot, you know, get the fuck out of my house.
(58:29):
That's how you raise kids, at least ones that aren't
a complete piece of shit.
Speaker 2 (58:34):
I haven't been diagnosed with with anything, but I do, Guys,
I've had problems before, and I guess it kind of
all accumulated into me making that decision.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
All of the little bullshit excuses he had for being
mad at his mother culminated in him deciding to murder her.
He said he didn't have enough money for food, and
he blamed his mother for this. He said she was
upset about him smoking pot and he resented her for it.
He said he had trouble coping with life, and all
(59:19):
that combined led to his decision. These reasons are poor
ones individually, but put together, Travis found himself at a
breaking point and sounds like Travis had a low bar
for breaking. But this wasn't the spur of the moment
decision he planned.
Speaker 2 (59:39):
It was this planned for a while. So what do
you remember what day it was or where you decided
in your head this what you were going to do?
Like was it just as she came home or was
it days before that that you had made up your
mind when she was on a lie I think out
a week before she came home, before he had classes
(01:00:02):
killing her.
Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Yes, well before Hurricane Ian was anywhere close to landfall.
Travis had decided to kill his mother. He was mad
at her. He blamed her for everything. Rather than take
any responsibility for his life, he put everything on his mother, unjustly.
Nancy always ran to his side when he needed help,
(01:00:26):
just like she did this time. She funded his lifestyle
or lack thereof. But it wasn't enough for Travis. Never is.
I'm sure there's a Travis in your life. There's been
the Travis in mine, that's for sure. Every perceived slight
in his life was all because of Nancy. He had
(01:00:48):
no aspirations, no real future. I mean, what was his
plan if he got away with it, which he could
have really if he weren't so fucking lazy. He could
have burnt the purse and everything in it. He could
have stoked the fire longer completely to destroy his mother's body.
He could have ditched the car somewhere rather than leave
(01:01:10):
it in the garage. Then Nancy would have just been
missing under mysterious circumstances. But then, what was Travis just
going to go back to watching TV and smoking pot
in bed? What happened the next time he needed to
buy some more?
Speaker 9 (01:01:27):
What?
Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Then? Who was going to give him money for his household?
He had a plan to kill his mother, but it
sort of lacked all semblance of logic. Travis killed the
only person left who truly cared and loved him for
no good reason. Travis was indicted for tampering with evidence,
(01:01:51):
folonious assault, aggravated robbery, abuse of a corpse, murder, and
aggravated murder. He pleaded not get gilty by reason of insanity.
Apparently Travis had a difficult birth, including not breathing for
at least half a minute and subsequently spending time in
isolated intensive care. Afterwards, they surmised that this led to
(01:02:16):
the mental health issues he had since childhood. But then again,
he could have just been a piece of shit. You know,
you ever consider that science, You ever consider that some
people are just a piece of shit. But the judge,
you know, being a judge, granted the defense a complete evaluation,
(01:02:37):
and after that everything changed. Travis entered an Alfred plea,
which is a guilty plea without admitting to the crimes themselves.
I don't know what legal scholar came up with this,
but it's like admitting to a crime without admitting to
a crime. Way to go. Legal system sounds super good.
(01:02:59):
For it was an attempt to lessen his sentence because
he knew that if he went to trial, he would
go to prison for much longer.
Speaker 9 (01:03:10):
Travis has struggled for since he was a young man.
And I think the fact that, as Ray said, it's
a quiet neighborhood, it just highlights that mental health issues
are universal. We need more community resources, we need help.
It doesn't matter nobody is immune. A mother's love just
(01:03:30):
doesn't end no matter what your sen's mental illness is.
And I'm sorry it ended this way.
Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
Oh she did all she could to encourage him, and
she wasn't able to do it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
At the sentencing hearing, his family gave statements despite what
he had done, they begged for mercy on him. Laura
Malick asked the judge to give him a chance at
release if he underwent mental health treatment in prison. She said,
it's never too late and no one is ever too
(01:04:06):
far gone to receive God's gift of forgiveness if they
only ask have mercy on her son in spite of
his crimes, because that's who Nancy Lewton was. Without hope,
there is nothing. Just before handing down his sentence, the
judge spoke to Travis directly, saying, I don't know how
(01:04:28):
quickly she died. I don't know if she looked into
her son's eyes, or what it might have been like
to know that the person you loved more than life
is taking yours. I suspect her last thoughts were about you,
not in fear or anger, but in worry about who
would take care of you. Afterward, he then sentenced him
(01:04:52):
to life in prison. Big Daddy State can take care
of you now that Mommy's gone. Travis Sluton laid around
all day in his mother's house, watching TV, his mother's TV,
I might add, running off the electricity in the cable
that his mother paid for. He slept in a comfy
(01:05:12):
bed with clean sheets in the master bedroom, his mother's
master bedroom. Even the food he ate was thanks to
his mother. His life was uneasy mode, but he acted
like he had it tough.
Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Ugh, whoe is me?
Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Oh, look at all my ailments. Nancy provided everything for
this fucking loser, and all she asked in return was
for him to give it the old college. Try, you know, try,
just try to do something, something, anything with your life.
Turn off the computer, turn off the television, go outside,
(01:05:51):
Go find out who you are. Go find out how
to build a life for yourself. You'll fail, you'll fall,
you'll stumble, you'll get.
Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
Up, you'll do it again.
Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
That's what it takes to be on this spinning rock.
And if you don't want to be on it, be
my guest and get the fuck off. But don't burden
everyone around you with your bullshit. Don't burden your own
mother for the rest of your life because you're too
(01:06:25):
fucking lazy to get out and go get a job. Nancy,
God bless her, She loved her son. She didn't want
to see his life wasted. She tried everything she could
to try to help him. She tried everything she could
think of, but it was all for nothing. She poured
her love into Travis and helped him at every opportunity,
(01:06:49):
so much that she stunted him. Travis wasn't capable of
taking care of himself because he never had to. It
wasn't her fault. She only wanted her son, whom she loved,
to be happy and successful. But all her helping only
did was harm him and in the end, harm herself.
(01:07:14):
Sometimes all you can do is try, unless trying is
the problem and it's up to someone else to try instead.
(01:08:22):
That does it for another one. Thank you once again
for joining us if you haven't already considered joining plus,
it's just ten bucks a month and it really helped
us out. Swordscale dot com. Stay safe,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!