Who killed Kenia Monge? How a 'creepy white van' text led police to her murderer

On March 31, 2011, 19-year-old Kenia Monge left a Denver club -- but was never seen alive by her friends or family again.

Monge had just graduated from Cherry Creek High School and was matriculating to MSU Denver in the fall. Her disappearance sparked a desperate search that would end in tragedy.

A new "20/20" episode, "Evil at the Door," airing Friday, May 29, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, examines the case. 

You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week's episode by listening to "20/20: The After Show" weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by "20/20" co-anchor Deborah Roberts.

Trying to ascertain her whereabouts, Monge's stepfather Tony Lee obtained her phone, which she left at the club. He recalled finding an ominous clue on it.

"All of a sudden I get this message, and the message said, 'Hey, this is Travis, guy in creepy white van,'" Lee told "20/20."

Investigating, police located Travis Forbes, a gluten-free granola bar maker who claimed to have given Monge a ride home after she left the club -- but the 31-year-old said she eventually got out of his white van, and they parted ways.

As the hunt for Monge continued into the summer, a violent crime occurred in nearby Fort Collins when someone broke into Lydia Tillman's apartment on the evening of July 4, 2011.

Tillman, 30, lived by herself and worked for a liquor distributor in the area at the time.

This home invader brutally beat Tillman, police said, before dousing her apartment in bleach and lighting it on fire, forcing her to jump from her second story window to save her life.

Tillman had been strangled, had her jaw broken and sustained such intense injuries that she slipped into a coma, according to authorities.

However, DNA under her fingernails from the attack matched with one man -- Travis Forbes.

After he was arrested for the assault on Tillman that July, Forbes struck a deal with prosecutors in exchange for leading them to Monge's body.

Forbes told authorities that he had sexually assaulted Monge while she was passed out in his white van on the night of her vanishing, before he killed her.

"She started hitting me, and I started hitting her back," Forbes told police. "Then she started to scream, and I strangled her...I think I may have broke her neck. She was so tiny."

Forbes then bleached the entire van and burned both his and Monge's clothes to hide any evidence, he told police, before taking them to where he had buried her body in rural northeastern Colorado.

Authorities found Monge's body five feet underground in a fetal position, covered with plastic and rocks.

Forbes pleaded guilty to first degree murder in Monge's case, though a sexual assault charge was dropped under a plea deal, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in September 2011. Soon after, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the Tillman case.

In court, Tillman's father, Willy, read her impact statement, as her injuries prohibited her from speaking at the time.

"Travis Forbes, you caused me no harm. My spirit, my soul and my mind remain untouched. May you find peace in this life," the statement read.

That same year, Tillman sat down for an interview with "20/20."

"I hope to live my days inspired, anew," she said.

Davianna Velasco Valdivieso, one of Monge's friends from high school, told "20/20" that she still remembers and honors her.

"She was always happy and laughing and cracking jokes," she said. "People were naturally just drawn to her beauty and kindness."

"I carry Kenia with me," she added. "You can never die if the people you love carry you."