She Forgave Her Mother’s Killer, Gave Him a Job, Then He Took Her Life Too.
In a story that reads like something from a movie, a woman’s extraordinary act of forgiveness ended in the most heartbreaking way imaginable.
Martha McKay had every reason to spend her life filled with hatred. In 1996, a 16-year-old named Travis Lewis broke into the Snowden House, a historic estate on Horseshoe Lake in Arkansas, and shot two people dead. One of them was Sally Snowden McKay, 72. The other was her nephew, blues musician Lee Baker, 52. Lewis set the house on fire and disappeared.
The victim was Martha’s mother.
Instead of letting anger consume her, Martha chose a different path. She was a devout Buddhist who believed deeply in redemption. For 23 years, she wrote to Lewis in prison. She visited him. She even advocated for his parole, despite her own family begging her to stop.
When Lewis was released in 2018, Martha did something almost no one could understand. She gave him a job and a home at the Snowden House—the very same estate where he had killed her mother. Martha had lovingly restored the property into a bed and breakfast.
For a while, her act of faith seemed to work. Lewis appeared to be turning his life around. The man who had taken her mother was now living on the property, working alongside the daughter of the woman he had murdered.
But forgiveness does not always change a person. Martha discovered that Lewis had stolen $10,000 from her. She let him go.
Days later, police responded to an alarm at the Snowden House. They found Martha, 63, stabbed to death at the top of her marble staircase.
As officers searched the property, a man leapt from an upstairs window. It was Travis Lewis. He ran for his car, got it stuck in the yard, and fled into the lake. He never came back up.
The same man who had taken her mother had now taken Martha as well.
This case has sparked deep conversations about forgiveness, boundaries, and the dangers of placing too much trust in someone who has shown what they are capable of.
Many have pointed out that while Martha’s capacity to forgive was admirable, she may have ignored warning signs that should have made her more careful. Her family had warned her repeatedly. Her mother’s killer had already proven he could take a life. Giving him a home and a job at the scene of his crime was a gamble that cost her everything.
Some have asked whether her Buddhist beliefs, which emphasize compassion and the possibility of change, may have clouded her judgment. Others argue that her story is a reminder that forgiveness does not always mean giving someone unlimited access to your life.
A Tragic End
The bodies of mother and daughter are now linked by the same man, in the same place. The Snowden House, once a place of history and restoration, now carries the weight of two murders separated by more than two decades.
Martha McKay’s story is one of extraordinary compassion, but it is also a cautionary tale. Her desire to see good in someone who had done terrible things ultimately cost her the life she had spent years rebuilding.
What do you think? Was Martha too trusting, or was her act of forgiveness something to be admired despite the outcome? on the same ground, more than twenty years apart.
She Forgave Her Mother’s Killer, Gave Him a Job, Then He Took Her Life Too.
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