When Murder Repeats Itself

Martha McKay, age 63, was murdered on March 25, 2020 in her historic Arkansas home. A home you may recognize. It was featured in the movie The Client by John Grisham. Snowden House is a beautiful large sprawling colonial style home in Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas.

Martha Carter McKay used the family owned home as a bed and breakfast, popular wedding venue and vacation spot. Martha’s grandparents, Bob and Grace Snowden, purchased the home back in 1919 and in 1994 Hollywood came calling. They were delighted to lend the house over for John Grisham’s bestselling legal thriller, The Client, which would be made into a movie.

Travis Lewis, age 39, the suspect in the murder of Martha McKay on March 25, 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, was still inside the home when police arrived on March 26, 2020. He ran, jumping out of a second story window to his vehicle that was parked on the grounds. The suspect’s vehicle got stuck in the mud which caused him to flee his vehicle and he ultimately jumped into a nearby lake. He stayed under the water and had drowned by the time police were able to find and retrieve his body.

Travis Lewis had stabbed Martha McKay to death. Her body was found inside the home.

You would think this woman being stabbed to death in the middle of this pandemic would be the saddest part of the story. Or, that it happening at a known Hollywood movie location is what may make this story more sensational. It is not.

In September of 1996, 24 years ago, a then 16 year old Travis Lewis, was in fact at this very house. While there he shot Sally Snowden, age 75 to death along with her nephew Joseph Lee Baker, age 52 who also died. Sally Snowden is the mother of Martha McKay.

That’s right, in 1996 Travis murdered Martha McKay’s mother and her nephew at the home, went to prison for 23 years, and when released in 2018 enabled him to return in March of this year to kill the daughter, Martha, now age 63, during a shelter-in-place order of this horrific pandemic.

The 16 year old Lewis was charged as an adult in the 1996 double murder and sentenced to 28 years. He was granted parole in 2018 after serving 23 years.

The parents of Travis Lewis once lived on the Snowden property.

Joseph Lee Baker, murdered in 1996, was a known guitarist in Memphis, just 40 miles northeast of the Snowden House in Arkansas. Baker had played for Alex Chilton and Big Star to name a few.

The Snowden family, who provided $160,000 in 2005 to establish the University of Arkansas Honors College scholarship fund, also owned The Peabody, a historic hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. In a 2015 interview with heir Martha McKay, dubbed Lady of the Lake, she remarked that she felt like royalty living at the big house with all the staff it takes to run a historic bed and breakfast.

Martha McKay, one of 10 grandchildren of the homes original owners, moved to Snowden House from San Francisco after her mother Sally Snowden was murdered in 1996 to take over the business restoring the home back to its original colonial beauty.

According to an NBC news report a Sheriff involved with the case reported that Martha had been in contact with Travis Lewis while he was in prison in an attempt to find out what happened when he murdered her mother and if there was in fact anyone else involved.

The case is still under investigation and Sheriff Allen encourages anyone with information to contact the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office at 870-702-2010.

Further reading:

Horseshoe Lake https://amzn.to/3aoSabj

The Client (the movie) https://amzn.to/2xP5oB1

Snowden House web site: www.snowdenhouse.com

Find-A-Grave with photo https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208475792/martha-mckay