Inmate's suicide won't stall probe

ST. LOUIS -- A suspected serial killer who hanged himself while jailed on suicide watch may have taken to his grave secrets about the slayings of women beyond just the two prostitutes he allegedly abducted, tortured and strangled, an investigator said Tuesday.

But St. Louis police Capt. Harry Hegger said investigators still hope to link Maury Troy Travis, found dead in his St. Louis County Jail cell Monday night, to several bodies found on both sides of the Mississippi River since early last year. Travis was arrested Friday.

"Whether he's alive or dead, we have to bring some resolution to these cases," Hegger said. "We're pretty sure he's responsible for a large number of bodies."

Hegger said the federal criminal complaint against Travis, 36, of Ferguson, was "just a preliminary," initial prelude to counts in other slayings involving 10 black women -- mostly prostitutes -- whose bodies were found in the St. Louis area since April 2001.

On suicide watch

Travis managed to hang himself with bedding in a maximum-security cell, despite the fact a guard was assigned to check on him every 15 minutes, said Roy Mueller Jr., chief of St. Louis County's Department of Justice Services.

But Mueller said Tuesday the guard did not make such rounds during a 45-minute window in which Travis apparently hanged himself. No disciplinary action has been taken against the guard pending the outcome of an investigation, Mueller said.

"We're really not sure what he was involved in at that time," Mueller said of the guard.

An inmate was also assigned to monitor Travis, who hanged himself outside that inmate's view, Mueller said.

"It is my belief, in this particular situation, that this individual was intent on taking his life," Mueller said. "When someone is intent, there is often very little that can stop it."

Tom Byrne, the interim police chief in Clayton, where the jail is located, said officials are confident Travis' death was a suicide. Travis' left a note behind and an autopsy found no signs of trauma, other than to his wrists and neck, Byrne said. Travis had apparently bound his own wrists before he hanged himself.

"We're not going to speculate on how he did it," Byrne said. "He had knowledge of bondage, apparently very extensive knowledge of it."

Byrne declined to comment on the suicide note's contents, expect to say it did not mention any murders.

Travis was being held at the county jail for the U.S. Marshal Service, which assumed custody of Travis on Saturday. Ron Henderson, the U.S. marshal for Eastern Missouri, declined to answer most questions on Tuesday, deferring to jail administrators and Clayton police.

Investigators aren't certain Travis was responsible for all 10 deaths, Capt. Diana Sievers of the Illinois State Police said. The victims were black prostitutes, many of them found with head injuries and ligature marks on their necks.

Their wrists often were bound with handcuffs or some kind of binding, authorities said.

"Not all of the cases have been linked to him," Sievers said.

A task force of officers from the Illinois State Police and police departments in St. Louis, East St. Louis, Ill., and St. Charles will continue to meet every couple of weeks to compare notes, Sievers said.

Internet sleuthing

Travis surfaced as a suspect after Internet sleuthing by investigators traced to him a letter and map sent last month to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which led authorities to a woman's corpse in a remote area of St. Charles County, a federal complaint unsealed Monday said.

In it, authorities alleged that Travis kidnapped and killed prostitutes Alysia Greenwade and Betty James.

Hegger called the letter "a critical piece" of the investigation.

The letter's reference to 17 possible victims remains questioned, said Steve Clark, an Illinois assistant federal prosecutor. He declined to elaborate.

Greenwade's body was found April 1, 2001, in Washington Park, Ill. Two months later, James' corpse was found in St. Louis a week after she was last seen in Venice, Ill.

Tire impressions found next to Greenwade's body and on James' leg appear consistent with tires on Travis' 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier and 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse, authorities said.

Searchers of Travis' home also found a locked file cabinet containing ligatures and belts spattered with what appeared to be blood, the federal complaint says.

Hegger said he hopes DNA from that blood evidence -- and "boxes and boxes" of things seized from Travis' house -- links Travis to other slayings.