A woman’s profound act of Christian forgiveness became the very instrument of her own destruction when the killer she helped free from prison repaid her mercy by murdering her in the same house where he had killed her mother decades earlier.
When Forgiveness Turns Fatal
Martha McKay believed in redemption. After Travis Lewis served over two decades in prison for murdering her mother, Sally Snowden McKay, and her uncle Lee Baker during a 1996 robbery, Martha chose an extraordinary path. She forgave the teenage killer, visited him in prison, advocated for his parole, and ultimately employed him at the historic Snowden House in Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas.
Her Christian faith guided her decision to help Lewis reintegrate into society. Martha saw potential for rehabilitation where others might have seen only danger. She transformed from a victim’s daughter into a benefactor, offering Lewis not just forgiveness but a genuine opportunity for a fresh start in the very community he had terrorized.
The Original Crime That Started It All
On September 10, 1996, fifteen-year-old Travis Lewis broke into cabins near Horseshoe Lake, targeting the wealthy Snowden family property. Lewis had previously stolen video games from Lee Baker, Sally’s brother, establishing a pattern of theft against the family. When confronted during the robbery, Lewis escalated to murder, shooting both Sally, 75, and Lee, 51, with a .25 caliber pistol.
Lewis stole Sally’s red Toyota Camry and crashed it while fleeing. His confession to an accomplice and witness testimony placing him at the scene led to his conviction on two counts of capital murder. Despite being tried as an adult, Lewis received a sentence that would eventually allow for parole—a decision that would prove catastrophically consequential decades later.
A Deadly Return to the Scene
On May 22, 2019, deputies responded to an emergency at the Snowden House. They discovered that Lewis had allegedly murdered Martha, the very woman who had championed his release and provided him employment.
The 39-year-old parolee fled by jumping from a window, crashed his car in the yard, and ran toward Horseshoe Lake, where he drowned while attempting to escape.
The symmetry was chilling—the exact location, the same perpetrator, claiming another member of the Snowden family. Martha’s act of extraordinary grace had been repaid with the ultimate betrayal. Her belief in Lewis’s capacity for change proved tragically misplaced, costing her life in the same house where her mother had died over two decades earlier.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Recidivism
This case exposes uncomfortable realities about criminal rehabilitation and the limits of forgiveness as public policy. While Martha’s compassion was admirable, it overlooked fundamental truths about violent criminals and recidivism rates. Lewis had demonstrated a willingness to kill when cornered, a pattern established in his teenage years that prison apparently failed to address.
The tragedy raises serious questions about parole decisions influenced by victim advocacy. Martha’s forgiveness, while personally meaningful, may have clouded objective assessments of Lewis’s continued danger to society. Her good intentions created the very circumstances that led to her death, highlighting the tension between mercy and public safety in criminal justice decisions.