a veteran denver police detective named nash gurule started looking, too. to say detective gurule is imposing is perhaps an understatement. looks more like a character from the sopranos but hates when children go missing. i wanted to find her. i wanted to give her family closure. i wanted to give the city of denver closure. i was determined to bring her home. i was determined to bring her home. reporter: also assigned to the case was deputy d.a. kerry lombardi. we had to do something. time was of the essence because they were still hoping she was alive. reporter: they focused first on the good samaritan, the guy who had given kenia a ride. he was 41, they discovered, had a rap sheet of theft and drugs, but now he had a business in denver delivering gluten-free bars. travis seemed friendly.
i think you re going to back out. and i think you re spineless. and i think it s all about you, it s a game. i said i think you re going to pull out. he says, no, i won t. i said, travis, you do what you say you re going to do, i ll be the first one to shake your hand. reporter: gurule knew that fort collins authorities would buy in. so all he needed now were the crossed ts and dotted is. the legal formalities. i left the jail, went out to my car, and thought to myself, did i just hear this right or am i dreaming? i even played the recording back to myself. and i thought, wow. people just don t do that sort of thing. right. he s confessing to a murder without a body and without seeing the case. i ve talked to my commanders, and they said never in the
your search warrant for his dna and head to texas. so i hop a plane that night. reporter: a few hours later, gurule was face to face with travis forbes again. you know what, they sent me to texas because they think you re running to mexico. i m not going to mexico. he would call me nash, i would call him trap. it was similar to you and i just talking. i wasn t confrontational with him. if he asked me a question, i gave him an honest answer. you didn t come all this way. actually, i did. reporter: gurule questioned him for more than three hours, but travis stuck to his original story. reporter: so did she have sex
she was very adamant that he didn t do anything wrong. why did that happen? i would talk to her sometimes daily and she was his biggest supporter. she wouldn t believe that he was a dangerous guy. absolutely not. not the travis forbes she knows. there is no way that he did anything to kenia. but here was the problem. without the stolen car charge there was no way to keep travis in jail. they had to let him go. deputy d.a. kerry lombardi was nervous. i mean, i was really worried about what he would do. it was very stressful because i really wanted to be able to find her and we really wanted to get some evidence that we could hold him on. at least, vowed detective gurule, they would not lose him. not again. we put surveillance on him for a couple days, and he went up to that area in keensburg. keensburg, that little farm
i was devastated. i was devastated. i hung up the phone. my wife looked at me. and she says, you okay? and i looked at her, and i m crying. i said, there s nothing more i could do. i got him there. i led him there. i led him to the trough. reporter: gurule and his wife went on their trip anyway, and for three long days he was left twisting in the wind once again by travis forbes. kenia s family knew nothing of this, still holding out hope that she was somehow alive. every time i was driving down the street and i seen a skinny little black-haired girl, i can t tell you how many accidents i ve almost had trying to get around the corner to see who this little skinny black-haired girl is. there was still reports coming in of sightings of her. and you ve got to turn in all these sightings because you don t know. reporter: but then something