quickly, the lee family called a news conference and delivered a message to travis forbes. tony lee : if anybody is going to relay any messages to him, tell him, or if you guys talk to him, tell him we got just one question, where is kenia? thats it. keith morrison : but travis wasnt talking anymore, so lee offered a radical idea. tony lee: i called assistant da lombardi, and i said, make a deal. keith morrison: you wanted a deal? tony lee: yeah, i dont care what it is. i dont i said, i dont care you can take it down to manslaughter. i didnt care. just make a deal. its just we just want kenia. kerri lombardi: we really couldnt at that i mean, we were getting there. we were still investigating. what i really wanted was for tell us where she was so we could give closure to this family. keith morrison : but travis was now facing an attempted murder charge for the assault on lydia, and as his case started
shell. critical care hospital, lydia tillman was still alive, if barely. still in a medically induced coma, still suffering god knew what damage from her massive stroke, but all the while, her family sat by her side and talked to her. esther hartsky: we d say, lydia, youre doing great. youre healing. you just rest and heal. thats all you have to do. wed play classical music for her. wed talk over her so she knew we were there. we just wanted that ever presence for her. keith morrison: do you think she was aware of any of that? esther hartsky: i think deep inside she knew that her family was fighting for her. keith morrison : as if worrying about lydias fragile condition wasnt enough, her family also feared the attack wasnt over.
the doctors into state, and attempted to keep her alive, stabilizer, treat her horrendous injuries. her eyesockets. her wrist was broken, shattered. she had broken ribs. probably more than we even know. what s the emotion that comes from that? i did not want to lose my sister. i wanted her in my life. what did we need to do to help her to get her back to us? lydia was single, attractive. very popular. now, here she was raped and beaten. nearly burned to death in her own home. when someone is beaten as severely, sounded very personal. withoutun for sure it was someo in her inner circle that was close. somebody she knew. the next two days, the detective combed fort collins to check with anybody who knew n lydia. we talked ex-boyfriend s and
a well-traveled wine company representative. the lone occupant of the burned department and barely alive. she had been beaten and jumped out the second story window to escape the fire. the crew got there and found her in the backyard and she rane straight to the ambulance and got in the back. looking awful. looking awful and she was beaten severely and did not have clothes on. lydia but it was now that happened. when she got to the hospitale she suffered a massive stroke because of her injuries that she suffered the stroke. she was severely beaten. she was stumped. they were indicative of a high- speed car crash. she was airlifted to wan he intensive care hospital in denver. her sister got the news and rushed to the hospital. she was unrecognizable. when i first saw her, i could not believe it was her. i would look at her and nothing looked like her. she has a tattoo on her calf. i knew it was her. lydia s condition was critical. quite possible terminal.
working its way toward trial, he sat silently, mute in his cell. especially, when detective shaklee paid him a visit. detective jaclyn shaklee: he was looking at me like a caged animal. his eyes were huge. he it was really creepy. o obviously i wanted to talk to him. i wanted to get an interview with him and see if he would if he would tell me something, and he immediately said, im not talking to you. get get out of here. keith morrison : but across town, someone was communicating. after spending five weeks in icu, lydia tillman was transferred to a local rehab hospital, and a long, slow recovery began. boy #1 (home video): hi, lydia. esther hartsky: i showed her a video of my kids saying hello to her because they missed their aunt lydia. boy #2 (home video): i want you to get better soon. esther hartsky: and she got to the part where my four-year-old started to talk and she laughed and he said, hi, lydia. boy #3 (home video): hi, lydia. esther hartsky: its the first time i got to