Serial killers and true crime

A profiler says that he has all of the potential to be one.

 DENVER – Travis Forbes, who led Denver Police to the precise location of the body of a 19-year-old girl he allegedly murdered and buried, fits the profile of a sociopath and a serial murderer, a former FBI profiler tells 9Wants to Know. His former boss also calls him a “compulsive liar.”

“The question for law enforcement is not, ‘Is he capable of murder?’ but, ‘How many people he might have killed,'” Clint Van Zandt, a 25-year former behavioral profiler and recognized expert for the FBI, said. “For sure, he’s a sociopath, a psychopath and an anti-social personality.”

Forbes was charged Thursday with killing Kenia Monge on April 1. Police say he picked her up after a bar and offering a ride home. Sources tell 9Wants to Know, Forbes says he then got into a fight with Monge and killed her. He’s being held in Larimer County Detention Center on charges of attempted murder in an attack on a Fort Collins woman where he allegedly sexually assaulted her and then set her apartment on fire.

There are similarities between the murder of Monge and attempted murder of the Fort Collins woman, according to sources. Those traits, along with others, leaves a strong possibility that he’s a serial killer, according to Van Zandt.

“He is the sun and everyone else are the stars and the planets and it doesn’t hurt him to cause pain or injury to anyone else,” Van Zandt said. “He’s only there to manipulate people; to use them to get what he wants from them and to move on.”

The bakery owner who rented Forbes space in the kitchen to bake and sell gluten-free sandwiches and granola bars for two years, says he was a convincing liar.

“He struck me as the kind of person who would lie even if it was better to tell the truth because he lied so much, he didn’t know how not to lie,” Monica Poole, owner of Deby’s Baker, said.

Poole says Forbes told her his mother had an advanced case of breast cancer and had to take care of her, that he owned his own home and was a dishonorably discharged Marine who had refused a second tour of duty in Afghanistan because he had killed a citizen. Poole learned later it was all untrue.

She confronted him about the lies a couple of months ago, she said.

“He said, ‘I need to have people think highly of me, have a high estimation of me,'” Poole said. “He said, ‘All my problems have stemmed from my wanting people to be proud of me.’ It seemed so sad, in a way.”

One thing is true, she says. He has a violent temper. Poole says he once sent her a four-screen text “ranting and raving and using obscenities” about one of his employees who didn’t bake some muffins properly.

Another time, after someone stole one of his white coolers that he’d left outside, Poole says he went into a rage, punched his van and screamed.

“He ranted and raved so loudly… that people from neighboring businesses came to watch him rant and rave and he went on for half an hour,” Poole said.

Poole says Forbes also continually stole money from her cash register until she threatened to call police. Even then, she says he stole more from her cash register the day Monge disappeared.

One receipt Forbes left in the bakery shows he bought $90 worth of lumber, including 1 X4 pieces of wood and wood planks.

 

It is hard to say though. Many of the traits that serial killers have are shared with successful business people.

Psychopaths/sociopaths are diagnosed by their purposeless and irrational antisocial behavior, lack of conscience, and emotional vacuity. They are thrill seekers, literally fearless. Punishment rarely works, because they are impulsive by nature and fearless of the consequences. Incapable of having meaningful relationships, they view others as fodder for manipulation and exploitation. According to one psychological surveying tool (DSM IIIR) between 3-5% of men are sociopaths; less than 1% of female population are sociopaths.

Psychopaths often make successful businessmen or world leaders. Not all psychopaths are motivated to kill. But when it is easy to devalue others, and you have had a lifetime of perceived injustices and rejection, murder might seem like a natural choice.

Crime Library 

He has been charges with attempted murder in the other case.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) – A man who says he was the last one to see a missing Aurora woman before she vanished is now accused of arson and assaulting a different woman.

Police in Fort Collins arrested Travis Forbes, 31, on Monday night on a slew of charges. They think he is responsible for both the July 5 fire at an apartment complex that was likely intentionally set and the assault on a 30-year-old female resident there.

Lydia Tillman, the resident, was seriously injured when she jumped out the second story to escape the flames. Police said she was also assaulted in her apartment beforehand.

Police say there were several ignition points in the building and evidence of an accelerant inside the unit.

Tillman was taken to a Denver hospital and for several days after the crime she was not in good enough shape to talk to investigators. It’s not clear if such a conversation has now taken place.

Forbes faces charges in the case that include attempted first degree murder, sexual assault and arson. He was already in jail in Fort Collins at the time of Monday’s arrest. He was taken into custody on a charge of false reporting of identity to authorities over the weekend.

The arrest affidavit has been sealed in the case so it’s not clear what further details officials might be able to release.

Full story and videos here.

 

If he is not technically a serial killer it does seem like he was on his way to be.