The Snowden House Murders: A Legacy of Forgiveness and Fatal Betrayal | Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas
The historic Snowden House at Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas, is a grand three-story home that has stood for nearly a century as a symbol of old-money Southern history, family gatherings, and idyllic childhood summers. But beneath its beautiful facade lies a dark and tragic history. Twice in a single generation, this historic estate became the backdrop for unspeakable violence, culminating in a heartbreaking story of forgiveness, redemption, and the ultimate betrayal.
The Snowden Family and the 1996 Tragedy
The Snowden family established their deep roots in eastern Arkansas in 1919 when Robert Snowden Jr. purchased a fertile stretch of land near Horseshoe Lake and built what would become the family's beloved Horseshoe Lake property. Over the decades, the family prospered, and in 1949, they transformed their farmhouse into an impressive 6,000-square-foot home that became the heart of the family. Sally Snowden McKay, known to locals as Miss Sally, was a prominent member of the family who split her time between the Snowden property and nearby Memphis, Tennessee.
On the morning of September 10th, 1996, the quiet community was shattered when Sally's wrecked car was found abandoned a mile from her home. When neighbors went to check on her, they discovered the back door blocked by her nephew Lee Baker's pickup truck and the windows of the house burning hot. Inside the home, investigators found the badly burned bodies of seventy-five-year-old Sally and fifty-two-year-old Lee. Both had been murdered before the house was set on fire.
Travis Lewis and the Path to Parole
The arrest of fifteen-year-old Travis Lewis stunned the local community, where his family was well-liked and Travis was known as a polite, soft-spoken teenager. However, investigators discovered that Travis had a history of juvenile offenses and misdemeanor charges. Prosecutors revealed that Travis had broken into the home intending to burglarize it, panicked when he encountered Sally and Lee, shot them both, and set the house on fire to cover his tracks. In 1998, seventeen-year-old Travis pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to twenty-eight and a half years in prison, though he maintained that someone else was also involved.
For Sally's daughter, Martha McKay, the tragedy did not breed hatred. Martha, a practicing Buddhist, believed deeply in the power of forgiveness and redemption. She began writing to Travis in prison, eventually visiting him in person. Despite strong opposition from her family, who warned her to stay away, Martha became Travis's sole advocate, supporting his release whenever he became eligible for parole. When Travis was finally paroled in 2018 after serving twenty-three years, Martha welcomed him back to the Snowden property, giving him a job as a handyman and gardener to help him transition back into society.
The Ultimate Betrayal at Horseshoe Lake
For a time, the arrangement seemed to work. Travis worked alongside his mother, Gladys Lewis, who had been the longtime housekeeper at the Snowden House. But the peace did not last. After Martha sold an expensive chandelier for ten thousand dollars in cash, the money mysteriously vanished from where she had hidden it inside the house. Believing Travis had stolen the money, Martha made the difficult decision to fire him, ending the relationship she had spent years building.
On March 25th, 2020, an alarm was triggered at the Snowden House. Deputies arriving at the scene spotted a man jumping from a second-story window and sprinting toward the lake. The suspect jumped into the water and drowned before he could be apprehended. Inside the house, deputies made a horrific discovery. Sixty-three-year-old Martha lay at the top of the grand staircase, bludgeoned and stabbed to death. The man who drowned in the lake was Travis. Nearly twenty-four years after killing Sally, Travis had returned to the very same house to murder her daughter, the woman who had forgiven him and fought for his freedom.
