11-10-2011, 09:01 PM
Solving the puzzle of the Kenia Monge case
DENVER - It was a puzzle - the five-month long quest to find 19-year-old Kenia Monge after she disappeared in downtown Denver.
VIEW TIMELINE OF TRAVIS FORBES' CASE
"This isn't TV," Nash Gurule, detective with the Denver Police's Missing and Exploited Persons Unit, said. "We don't come to work and get a case at the beginning of our shift and in an hour we have it solved - the guy is in prison."
A 20-year police vet, Gurule got assigned the case of the missing Aurora teen April 5, four days after the she vanished.
"I didn't believe him. I just had a weird feeling about him. I felt that he was lying," Gurule said about his first interview with 32-year-old Travis Forbes.
Forbes admitted to police he was the last person to see Monge alive. He said texted her phone asking is she got home OK and later set up a meeting with Tony Lee, Monge's stepfather, who asked Forbes about his daughter's whereabouts. At the time, patrol officers were on-hand to help.
....
"He was very calm," Gurule said about his interview with Forbes. "He was always looking you straight in the eye. He's very manipulative. He can talk his way out of pretty much anything."
After police let him go, Forbes vanished until May 4. Forbes was arrested on auto theft charges in Austin, Texas. Gurule flew down to interview Forbes again and this time he had some new questions.
"He had an excuse for everything, the burning of the barrel, the cooler, everything," Gurule said. "When I got close, that's when he says, 'I want my lawyer.' And that's when I knew we're real close. It's just a matter of getting our lab stuff back."
....
Denver Police say they followed him for a few days, but then stopped. Why is unclear. Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson told 9NEWS the department does not discuss its tactics.
On July 4, Forbes attacked Lydia Tillman in Fort Collins. He brutally beat her, sexually assaulted her and set her apartment on fire.
Fort Collins Police Services Det. Jaclyn Shaklee called Gurule.
"There was silence from him after I told him about the facts of my case that I was working, then he said, 'Oh my gosh, I think we have a connection here,'" she said.
"She's the one that calls and says, 'Hey, this is what we have going on, what's your case about?' I told her. That's how we connected the dots. Things worked out," Gurule said.
"The biggest connection that we found was the fact that fire was used to destroy evidence in their case and it was also an attempt to destroy evidence in our case, as well as the bleach connection," Shaklee said.
Both police departments compared DNA.
Shaklee told 9NEWS investigators started following Forbes on July 8. On July 9, she said he met a woman and was following her to a dark neighborhood. Police contacted him then and he gave them a false name and let him go.
Shortly after, he was seen talking to another woman, according to Shaklee. He was arrested on July 10 for giving false information to police. Shortly afterward, he was facing charges for the attempted murder of Tillman.
"It's really scary to have such a heinous crime and who'd done it for as long as it was," Shaklee said. "For 48 hours we had absolutely no idea who did this and that was very scary and it was very challenging emotionally because of the fear there was somebody out there running around in our community that could possibly do this again."
...
Gurule says he wished he could've had something to hold Forbes on sooner.
"You know, I feel bad. I feel bad the fact that we couldn't do something, we couldn't prevent that," he said.
On Aug. 26, Gurule went back to Fort Collins to ask Forbes once again about his case and Monge.
"We talked about everything - Texas, the media, his interviews, then he throws it out there, he says, 'I'll tell you everything, but I want a deal,'" he said.
...
Detectives believe there could be more victims out there and Monge was not the first one.
Police also believe if not stopped, Forbes would've killed again. They are still not sure why he killed in the first place.
"It's his thing," Gurule said. "He met other girls. When I was building my case and we were doing all this stuff, I talked to other girls he met. They went to dinner with him, he used different names, but it was the same guy."
LOTS MORE HERE http://www.9news.com/news/article/227423...Monge-case-
DENVER - It was a puzzle - the five-month long quest to find 19-year-old Kenia Monge after she disappeared in downtown Denver.
VIEW TIMELINE OF TRAVIS FORBES' CASE
"This isn't TV," Nash Gurule, detective with the Denver Police's Missing and Exploited Persons Unit, said. "We don't come to work and get a case at the beginning of our shift and in an hour we have it solved - the guy is in prison."
A 20-year police vet, Gurule got assigned the case of the missing Aurora teen April 5, four days after the she vanished.
"I didn't believe him. I just had a weird feeling about him. I felt that he was lying," Gurule said about his first interview with 32-year-old Travis Forbes.
Forbes admitted to police he was the last person to see Monge alive. He said texted her phone asking is she got home OK and later set up a meeting with Tony Lee, Monge's stepfather, who asked Forbes about his daughter's whereabouts. At the time, patrol officers were on-hand to help.
....
"He was very calm," Gurule said about his interview with Forbes. "He was always looking you straight in the eye. He's very manipulative. He can talk his way out of pretty much anything."
After police let him go, Forbes vanished until May 4. Forbes was arrested on auto theft charges in Austin, Texas. Gurule flew down to interview Forbes again and this time he had some new questions.
"He had an excuse for everything, the burning of the barrel, the cooler, everything," Gurule said. "When I got close, that's when he says, 'I want my lawyer.' And that's when I knew we're real close. It's just a matter of getting our lab stuff back."
....
Denver Police say they followed him for a few days, but then stopped. Why is unclear. Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson told 9NEWS the department does not discuss its tactics.
On July 4, Forbes attacked Lydia Tillman in Fort Collins. He brutally beat her, sexually assaulted her and set her apartment on fire.
Fort Collins Police Services Det. Jaclyn Shaklee called Gurule.
"There was silence from him after I told him about the facts of my case that I was working, then he said, 'Oh my gosh, I think we have a connection here,'" she said.
"She's the one that calls and says, 'Hey, this is what we have going on, what's your case about?' I told her. That's how we connected the dots. Things worked out," Gurule said.
"The biggest connection that we found was the fact that fire was used to destroy evidence in their case and it was also an attempt to destroy evidence in our case, as well as the bleach connection," Shaklee said.
Both police departments compared DNA.
Shaklee told 9NEWS investigators started following Forbes on July 8. On July 9, she said he met a woman and was following her to a dark neighborhood. Police contacted him then and he gave them a false name and let him go.
Shortly after, he was seen talking to another woman, according to Shaklee. He was arrested on July 10 for giving false information to police. Shortly afterward, he was facing charges for the attempted murder of Tillman.
"It's really scary to have such a heinous crime and who'd done it for as long as it was," Shaklee said. "For 48 hours we had absolutely no idea who did this and that was very scary and it was very challenging emotionally because of the fear there was somebody out there running around in our community that could possibly do this again."
...
Gurule says he wished he could've had something to hold Forbes on sooner.
"You know, I feel bad. I feel bad the fact that we couldn't do something, we couldn't prevent that," he said.
On Aug. 26, Gurule went back to Fort Collins to ask Forbes once again about his case and Monge.
"We talked about everything - Texas, the media, his interviews, then he throws it out there, he says, 'I'll tell you everything, but I want a deal,'" he said.
...
Detectives believe there could be more victims out there and Monge was not the first one.
Police also believe if not stopped, Forbes would've killed again. They are still not sure why he killed in the first place.
"It's his thing," Gurule said. "He met other girls. When I was building my case and we were doing all this stuff, I talked to other girls he met. They went to dinner with him, he used different names, but it was the same guy."
LOTS MORE HERE http://www.9news.com/news/article/227423...Monge-case-