Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised.

This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive.

We advise extreme caution for children under 13.

Detective Marsha Corley had only been a detective for the Crimes Against Persons Unit of the St Charles County Sheriff's Department for two weeks.

She was assigned to a squad tasked with searching a vacant lot in West Dalton, Missouri

on May 25, 2002.

On that summer morning, she and the other detectives were following a printed out map where X marked the spot.

But rather than hunting for buried treasure, the detectives were searching for a homicide victim.

Potentially the 17th woman that serial killer Maury Travis had imprisoned in his

basement, tortured, raped, and strangled to death.

The police search for the serial killer had all but stalled.

Then, Mori Travis sent the local newspaper a letter that would be his undoing. The anonymous note was

accompanied by a map to the body of his alleged 17th victim. The existence of this

body would show police whether they were dealing with a mere attention seeker or a bona fide serial killer.

Marsha Corley said,

Arriving at that location on the sunny May morning, I was prepared for a long hot day.

As I walked the grassy area between the wood line along the former railroad tracks and

St Charles Street, I observed what I thought was a rather large

mushroom lying in the grass. It was a bleached human skull. null.

Hi, I'm Greg Paulson, and this is Serial Killers.

Today we're going to take a deep dive into the life of Maury Travis the St Louis video strangler

I'm here with my co-host Vanessa Richardson.

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