Sun Prairie Part I | 11

Summary

Kill List: Sun Prairie Part I | Episode 11 Summary

Podcast Title: Kill List
Host/Author: Wondery | Novel
Episode: Sun Prairie Part I | 11
Release Date: November 26, 2024

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Introduction

In the chilling opener of "Kill List," the podcast delves into the tumultuous and tragic story of Travis and Kelly Harper. Their seemingly perfect college romance spirals into a nightmare marked by false allegations, legal battles, and ultimately, a target on Travis's life. This episode sets the stage for a gripping exploration of obsession, control, and the dark consequences of personal vendettas.

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Travis and Kelly's Relationship and Marriage

The story begins with Travis Harper, an air traffic controller and former Marine, recounting how he met his wife, Kelly. Their relationship appeared idyllic, characterized by mutual ambition and shared dreams.

• First Date Challenge:
  "She just wanted a date for Valentine's Day." ([00:32] Travis Harper)
  Their initial date was fraught with mismatched expectations, but it ultimately led to a heartfelt connection.

• Shared Ambitions:
  "In every aspect of her life, she was ambitious." ([01:45] Travis Harper)
  Both Travis and Kelly were driven individuals, aligning their life plans in what seemed like a harmonious partnership.

• College and Military Aspirations:
  Both were part of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program at the University of Arizona, with Travis aspiring to become a Marine fighter pilot and Kelly aiming for a career in health management.

• Marriage:
  After a swift six-month courtship, Travis and Kelly married in a modest ceremony. Travis’s military dress uniform symbolized their dedication and shared future.

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Challenges in Marriage

Despite their strong start, Travis and Kelly's marriage faced significant strains as their life paths began to diverge.

• Career Choices and Relocation:
  "I realized that this woman is not going to participate in the military lifestyle at all in any way, shape or form." ([09:18] Travis Harper)
  Travis's withdrawal from the pilot program led to an unexpected military stationing in Yuma, Arizona, creating a physical and emotional distance between the couple.

• Living Arrangements:
  Travis was stationed far from Kelly, limiting their interaction to weekends and spurring feelings of isolation and frustration.

• Desire for Stability vs. Military Life:
  Kelly’s ambition for a settled life clashed with Travis’s military obligations, laying the groundwork for future conflicts.

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Divorce and Allegations of Abuse

The marriage began to unravel violently, culminating in a contentious and acrimonious divorce marked by false accusations of child abuse.

• Financial Strain and Deception:
  Travis discovered Kelly’s suspicious activities, including alleged scams and financial manipulation, which intensified his desire to divorce.

• Divorce Papers and Foreclosure:
  "Inside the cookbook was all the mortgage statements. She stopped paying the mortgage." ([14:02] Travis Harper)
  Kelly orchestrated a simultaneous foreclosure and divorce to leave Travis financially crippled and deterred from contesting the divorce.

• Custody Battles:
  Kelly accused Travis of abusing their three young daughters, leading to numerous police investigations and court interventions. Despite repeated allegations, Travis maintained his innocence and sought to prove his dedication as a father.

• Impact on Travis:
  The relentless accusations alienated Travis from his community, subjected him to public scrutiny, and severely limited his access to his children.

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The War Between Kelly and Travis

Over four years, Travis endured a relentless battle against Kelly’s accusations, which eroded his reputation and strained familial relationships.

• Manipulation and Isolation:
  Kelly strategically manipulated authorities and community members to undermine Travis’s credibility, alleging emotional and physical abuse without substantial evidence.

• Legal Challenges:
  "I had to prove that I'm not abusive. I had to prove that I'm a good dad." ([21:57] Travis Harper)
  Travis faced ongoing legal battles to maintain custody and access to his children, often finding himself up against a system tainted by Kelly’s false claims.

• Support System:
  In 2017, Travis found support in his new girlfriend, Liz, who helped him strategize to defend against Kelly’s manipulations by implementing measures like installing surveillance cameras to document his interactions with his children.

• Turning the Tide:
  By 2020, Travis began to gain legal victories as investigations found no evidence to support Kelly’s abuse allegations. The court granted him equal custody and recognized the lack of factual basis for the abuse claims.

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The Kill List Discovery

Amidst the personal turmoil, Carl Miller, a tech journalist, uncovers a sinister development that escalates Travis’s plight to life-threatening levels.

• Dark Web Kill Orders:
  "We broke into a scam murder for hire website...a tally of these targets now stands in the hundreds." (Narrated by Carl Miller)
  Carl discovers a dark web "kill list" where malicious actors offer murder-for-hire services for real individuals, including Travis Harper.

• Targeted Attack on Travis:
  A specific kill order targeting Travis surfaces, complete with personal details and photographic evidence, indicating a deliberate and calculated attempt on his life.

• Immediate Threat:
  "The target needs to be taken out immediately." ([33:24] Transcript Excerpt)
  The meticulous nature of the kill order suggests the perpetrator has intimate knowledge of Travis’s life, heightening the urgency to protect him.

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Conclusion

Sun Prairie Part I | Episode 11 of "Kill List" masterfully intertwines Travis Harper’s personal tragedy with the broader, ominous threat of the dark web’s kill-for-hire ecosystem. As Travis battles to reclaim his life and protect his children from false accusations, he now faces a new, deadly adversary. This episode sets the stage for an intense narrative exploring the intersection of personal vendettas and digital malevolence, leaving listeners eager to uncover the fate of Travis Harper.

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Notable Quotes

• Travis on Divorce Proceedings:
  "I could give up the ghost and quit, right? And if I give up the ghost and quit, I'm subjecting my children to be with her full time." ([26:55] Travis Harper)

• Court’s Ruling:
  "There is no factual basis in this record to conclude that Mr. Harper is physically abusing these children." ([30:59] Travis Harper)

• Travis on Legal Battles:
  "I'm stuck now in this living hell where even being the greatest guy in the world that I can be, I'm guilty." ([23:00] Travis Harper)

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Production Credits

• Host: Carmilla
• Reporter: Dylan Brogan
• Producers: Tom Wright, Caroline Thornham, Jake Otaevich
• Additional Production: Anna Sinfield, Amalia Saltland
• Research: Megan Oyinka, Lina Chang, Chris Montero
• Sound Design and Mixing: Daniel Kempson
• Music: Sprocket Moss and Martin Linnebel
• Executive Producers: Sean Glynn, Max O'Brien, Craig Strachan

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Transcript

[Carmilla]

Wandery subscribers can binge all episodes of Chaolist early and ad free. Join Wandri in the Wandary app or on Apple podcasts. Hey, it's Cole. A quick warning before we start that this episode contains allegations of child abuse.

[Travis Harper]

Wonder.

[Carmilla]

It all started with with a lie. A small, cute white lie.

[Travis Harper]

It was a storybook moment type thing. We see each other all the time, but hardly ever talked. She said she was having some car problems and needed help working on her car. So I swung by her house and her car wasn't broken. It was working just fine. She just wanted a date for Valentine's Day.

[Carmilla]

Travis Harper is an air traffic controller, former Marine, father of three, and he's describing how he met his wife. Wife, Kelly.

[Travis Harper]

She's a blonde, about 5 foot 4, blue eyes, kind of redheaded skin. Frank Colson's kind of pale complexion. I took her out on a date for Valentine's Day and it was a debacle. She said it was just a low key kind of a dinner with her and her roommate and, you know, boyfriend. She just didn't want to be a third wheel. And it was a black tie event, you know, and I'm wearing a T shirt and everyone else has got a suit and tie on. A steakhouse where everything's a la carte and it's like $50ameal with a bunch of stuff that I couldn't afford or like. And so it was. Blew my budget out and I was really upset about it. And then she kissed me on the cheek and I was kind of whatever.

[Carmilla]

Oh, it was. Yeah, it wasn't too bad after all.

[Travis Harper]

Yeah, it wasn't bad after all.

[Carmilla]

The way Travis describes it, he and Kelly were typical college sweethearts.

[Travis Harper]

The dating was all bliss. It was all wonderful. She had all these wonderful plans that she wanted to do with her life, and I had all these wonderful plans that I wanted to do with my life, and they all kind of lined up together and it was just great. And, you know, she was a go getter and I liked her attitude.

[Carmilla]

At that time. In 2003, Travis was in what's known as the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program at the University of Arizona. For kids like Travis who don't have much money, this program really is a golden ticket. It's a competitive scholarship program where the military pays for your college tuition. And when you graduate, you join the military. Travis was on his way to becoming a Marine, and one day, he hopes, a fighter pilot. Kelly was on the same program, but for a different reason. By taking part, she was Hoping she'd get a scholarship to pay for her degree. Her dream was to work in health management.

[Travis Harper]

In every aspect of her life, she was ambitious. She wanted to graduate college in three years and she did. She wanted to buy a house before she was 21, and she did. And she wanted to get a career in hospital administration, stuff like that, and she did.

[Carmilla]

After only six months of dating, Travis and Kelly moved in together. And a year and a half later they got married.

[Travis Harper]

It was a big party, it was like a week long party because all of my friends were in the military and we were all shipping off. After we graduated. We got married in my grandma's church, the Lutheran church. And then we did the reception in my grandma's, like, little community house thing. I'd say there's probably 75 people there. You know, hired a DJ, freaking got that. The roach coach, you know, the guy that drives the truck and stops at construction yards and stuff for lunches. Yeah, he catered it.

[Carmilla]

Travis couldn't afford a suit to be married in, so he wore his military dress uniform, as did his groomsmen. All of them were soldiers like Travis.

[Travis Harper]

So we even had a sword ceremony where, you know, after you get married at the altar, you gotta walk through and the marines do the sword ceremony. We gotta walk underneath the swords, you know, and they stop us halfway through and demand a kiss for the Marine Corps. And you gotta kiss her and then they slap her on the butt with a sword and call it a day.

[Carmilla]

Fifteen years on from that storybook romance and things have gone bad. Really, really bad. Because one of these two college sweethearts is going to try and have the other one murdered. Description? He is a white, five foot five male. He is violent. The target needs to be taken out immediately. My name is Carl Miller. Since 2020, I've been part of a team working in secret to stop people getting murdered. We broke into a scam murder for hire website. On the dark web, we could see every order being placed, real money being paid to have real people murdered. A tally of these targets now stands in the hundreds. We call it the kill list. If your name is on this list, it means someone wants you dead. And is determined to make the murder happen. So far, we've managed to help law enforcement arrest or Convict More than 30 people all around the world. Each one of these cases is a window into a world lined with jealousy, fear and revenge. This series is about the lives transformed by the kill list. For many of the people we contact, the kill order lies at the end of a long and bitterly contested story. In this episode, we deal with a question that has come up over and over again in this investigation. What do you do when the person closest to you becomes hell bent on destroying you? Audible's best of 2024 picks are here. Discover the year's top audiobooks, podcasts and originals in all your favorite genres, from memoirs and sci fi to mysteries and thrillers. Audible's curated list in every category is the best way to hear 2024's best in audio entertainment, like a stunning new full cast production of George Orwell's 1984 heartfelt memoirs like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's lovely one. The year's best fiction, like the Women by Kristin Hannah and Percival Everett's brilliantly subversive James. Another worthwhile listen is Amy Tinterra's thrilling and twisting whodunit. Listen for the Lie. This laugh out loud, funny tale follows Lucy, a woman who needs to clear her own name after a true crime podcast decides to probe into the worst night of her life, one she conveniently can't remember. Audible there's more to imagine when you listen. Go to audible.com wondrypod and discover all the years best waiting for you.

[Kelly Harper]

Where'd you get those shoes?

[Travis Harper]

Easy.

[Kelly Harper]

They're from dsw. Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour, the boots that turn grocery aisles into runways, and all the styles that show off the many sides of you, from daydreamer to multitasker, and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes. Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or dsw.com.

[Carmilla]

From Wandery and Novel I'm Carmilla and this is Kill List. Travis and Kelly's marriage face challenges. They both had big plans for what they wanted to do in life, and those plans weren't compatible. Travis wanted to be a fighter pilot. That would mean one to two years of training, followed by an eight year contract with the military being shipped all over the world at a moment's notice. Whereas Kelly wanted a nice house and a settled life, she had career ambitions of her own. Working in the health industry as an administrator, being an officer's wife, devotedly traipsing across the world after Travis didn't really fit into that. For Travis, that wasn't a problem. After all, Kelly's drive and ambition were a big part of the reason he fell in love with her. And pretty soon after they tied the knot Travis could see which way the wind was blowing.

[Travis Harper]

I realized that this woman is not going to participate in the military lifestyle at all in any way, shape or form. She's going to do her thing. And I was like, you know, what's more important, the military or my wife? And I was, well, my wife's more important. So I dropped my dream and I just put my name in the bucket.

[Carmilla]

Travis withdrew from the pilots program, which meant he lost any control over what he'd get to do. He put his name in the bucket for any job the Air Force decided they needed. But if Travis thought that would make things easier, he was in for a surprise.

[Travis Harper]

They told me I was going to live in Okinawa, Japan. She flat out said that she's not going to move to Japan under any circumstance, no way at all. So she came up with a disease and she faked a disease and had doctor stuff and everything like that, submitted it and they said, well, if your wife has got this disease that we can't treat in Japan, she has to stay in the States for treatment, then you're not going to Japan.

[Carmilla]

What kind of disease was this, Travis? Do you remember?

[Travis Harper]

Yeah, it's called polycystic kidney disorder.

[Carmilla]

She did not in fact have this disorder.

[Travis Harper]

No, she did not in fact have that disorder.

[Carmilla]

Because Travis's wife was apparently sick, he got stationed much closer to home in Yuma, Arizona, about a three hour drive from where Kelly lived in Phoenix.

[Travis Harper]

I never left two hours away from where I grew up. I joined the Marine Corps to get the hell out of there. You know, I wanted to see something green. And so I wasn't too happy about it. And then now that I got stationed in Yuma, she was dead set that she doesn't have to leave Phoenix at all now. And so the entire time that I was in the Marine Corps, I never lived with her. So I only saw her on the weekends.

[Carmilla]

And for four years, that's how things were. Travis even did a tour of Iraq, whilst Kelly stayed at home in Phoenix. After Travis left the military in 2010, they had three daughters together. He made his wife a promise. We can move wherever you want in the whole United States. She picked the small city of some prairie, Wisconsin. Travis got a job working at the local airport. And he says that he hoped that this might be the moment when he and Kelly would finally settle down into the married life he always imagined for them. But things began to unravel pretty quickly. They had big fights. In particular, Travis claims he suspected that Kelly had become involved in fraud.

[Travis Harper]

I came home from work. She had her computer up, and she was sending emails to Nigerian princes and stuff, saying that her and her children are living on the street and they need to send money. And I confronted her about that. I said, that's it. No more of this crap. You want to live on the street, I'll throw you on the street because I'm tired of this crap. I'm very successful. You're very successful. We don't live in a street. We live in a freaking mini mansion. People would kill for this freaking life that you're living right now. Do it again. You're out.

[Carmilla]

To be clear, we don't know Kelly was actually talking with any Nigerian princes or anyone claiming to be one. But what Travis is saying is that at this time, he was increasingly suspicious Kelly could be involved in defrauding people. Although he didn't understand exactly what was going on, Kelly was also running into other problems. Travis says that in June 2015, she was fired from her job as an administrator for a healthcare company. He says Kelly told him that she'd fallen out with the management. What was clear, even to Travis, was that Kelly was becoming more and more erratic. It's at this point that he started thinking about divorce. He secretly met with a lawyer to get some advice and started telling his friends that he thought his marriage might be over. And then a letter landed on his doormat from the bank threatening to repossess his house because of missed mortgage payments. Travis says it was Kelly's job to send the check.

[Travis Harper]

I asked her about. It says, hey, it says that our house is getting foreclosed on. We haven't paid a mortgage in, like, over three months. What's going on? She's like, oh, no, we paid. Well, let me see the mortgage statements. I don't know where they are. We paid. It says that we haven't paid. We haven't paid. So unless you show me because all this crap that we've done in the past, I'm going to assume that you're lying to me right now. How dare you? I'm your wife. How dare you not trust me?

[Carmilla]

Kelly and Travis rowled for a little longer. And then Travis says she pulled out a cookbook from behind the kitchen.

[Travis Harper]

Inside the cookbook, she pulled out divorce papers and just threw them on the table, already signed and everything. And I said, well, what about the mortgage? And then inside the cookbook was all the mortgage statements. She stopped paying the mortgage. Her goal was to have the house foreclosed on and the divorce paperwork submitted on the same day. So That I was homeless, broke, almost bankrupt because of the mortgage, with no credit, and then take the kids and skedaddle, and then I would be penniless to stop her.

[Carmilla]

Travis says he took the divorce papers and shredded them. He told Kelly they'd be filing for divorce jointly. Kelly moved out of the house, and Travis straightened things out with the bank about the mortgage. Then he started the long and painful process of separating from his wife. At first, Travis hoped he and Kelly could have a relatively amicable divorce, even if their relationship had entirely broken down. He didn't see why things needed to get any messier than they already were. He says his lawyer told him not to worry. They were filing for a joint divorce, and that would make sorting things out relatively straightforward. Travis says he even offered to let Kelly take what she wanted from the house they'd shared.

[Travis Harper]

There's nothing in this house that I care about except for my kids, so take whatever you want. Just whatever you leave is mine. So, yeah, she took everything in the house. Silverware, chairs, tables. But I remember she took all the toilet paper, and I went to the store and I got another big bag of toilet paper, and I come home from work the next day, and that's gone, too. Jeepers cripes.

[Carmilla]

By Christmas time, Travis had finally got the house set up and ready for the kids to stay Over Christmas time.

[Travis Harper]

I bought beds for the kids. I was really excited about that, you know, have them spend the night over for Christmas. And she threw an absolute fit. There was no way she was going to let the kids spend the night at Christmas. She was like, bring the kids over to my house or I'm going to call the police, and I'm going to tell the police that you're not a good guy and you're kidnapping my kids. And I didn't want that, so I gave her the kids for Christmas.

[Carmilla]

Travis put up with this for a couple of months, but by Easter, he'd had enough.

[Travis Harper]

I had the kids, and she was just banging on the front door, banging on all the windows, screaming bloody murder out in the front yard because I wouldn't drop them off at her house. When I told her that I was keeping them overnight, we ended up having to sleep in the basement because of all this stuff. Cops showed up, and I was like, oh, Jesus Christ.

[Carmilla]

What did it feel like, Travis, being in the basement, realizing that your former wife wasn't going to allow you to have a kind of a normal divorce?

[Travis Harper]

Suffocating. It's like she knows everything about me. She knows how to manipulate me better than anybody else has ever manipulated me. And she's smart. Everything you do is going to be used against you. Heck, I was terrified that anything could happen. You know, like if my kid got injured at my house, I was going to lose my children forever.

[Carmilla]

If you're gonna pinpoint the moment when things became irreversibly awful between Travis and Kelly, this is it. Easter 2016 marked the beginning of a war, one that would turn everyone Travis neighbours, the police, the courts, even his own children against him.

[Kelly Harper]

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[Travis Harper]

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[Carmilla]

The war between Kelly and Travis raged for four years over this period. The police got called countless times to Travis House. There were several investigations by Child Protection Services and motions and counter motions filed in court concerning custody of their three daughters. The whole thing was a complete mess, and it's incredibly complicated to pick through every claim and counterclaim that gets made over this period. But the most important thing you need to know is that Kelly alleged that Travis was abusing their children. And not only that, but their daughters aged six, eight and nine years old, backed these allegations up.

[Travis Harper]

When they were little little, they started singing a song. We sing songs all the time. So they showed me the song that they learned. It was All Daddy does is hit and kick us. All daddy does is punch and yell. That's the song that they learned. The kids have been manipulated a lot.

[Carmilla]

And what's more, Kelly said that there was physical evidence of the alleged abuse.

[Travis Harper]

The daughter had marks on her butt that she got from our house that looked like if someone hit her with a frying pan, There are a big circle freaking marks right on her butt. And they all said that I beat her with a frying pan. That's when I realized that I was going to lose. I was devastated. Oh, absolutely devastated.

[Carmilla]

Travis says that the marks came from his bathtub, which has a jacuzzi setting, which can cause a red suction mark if you sit on the nozzle. He says Kelly would have known about it from when she lived in the house and thinks Kelly directed his daughters to deliberately sit on the nozzles so that they would leave a mark. This is just one of a huge number of allegations Kelly made against Travis. She accused him of emotionally abusing their daughters, shouting at them, threatening them. She said he choked one of their daughters in a parking lot. It's pretty uncomfortable to only be hearing Travis's side of a story like this. We did ask Kelly for an interview, but she declined to take part. When you hear allegations of this kind, your instinct, naturally, is to treat them seriously and credibly. The authorities certainly did. Travis was subjected to multiple investigations by the police and child protection services. At one point, Travis was even arrested, though the charges were later dropped. And the courts began to restrict Travis visiting rights to his kids.

[Travis Harper]

I had to prove that I'm not abusive. I had to prove that I'm a good dad. They're gonna allow me to see the kids one night a week for a year. So I had to prove myself for three years to get one extra night with the kids every year. But I was never going to get equal placement with them at all. She did everything that she could to prove that I wasn't a good dad for that first year, the second year, and the third year. So it was a nightmare scenario.

[Carmilla]

Travis saw a pattern to the allegations. They came every time he was supposed to have the kids to stay or when he was supposed to have them for the holidays. And it wasn't just the police and the courts that Kelly was making these allegations to. The battle between Kelly and Travis stretched from the courts all the way to teachers at the school, parents in the playground, and doctors at the hospital.

[Travis Harper]

She'll be really friendly with whatever hospital clinic staff that can manipulate the system and then start wearing on the sob story about this, that, and the other, and then they'll change all the hospital administration information about my children, Take me completely out of my children's hospital records, Take me completely out of everything, Change the kids addresses and stuff like That I went to the school one time to see my daughter's music recital, and the school asked me to go into a room real quick. So I went in the room in which I was locked in. They called the Sun Prairie police department and they detained me in the room for about an hour. Missed my daughter's music recital. Turns out that Kelly told the school secretary or something like that that I wasn't allowed to be in the school. And if I show up at the school, they were supposed to call the cops and go on lockdown. The school believed it and did, and the cops and why they worked it out. Freaking just detained me for about an hour in the school. You know, I called up my lawyer and my lawyer's like, you know, you can tell that she still kind of believed Kelly on it. I'm stuck now in this living hell where even being the greatest guy in the world that I can be, I'm guilty. The police were going to come after me. The schools are coming after me, everyone's coming after me, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. And I was terrified of it.

[Carmilla]

Even just listening to Travis, it's easy to understand why the local community turn against him. It's commonly accepted that allegations of abuse should be taken really seriously and rightly so. I'm sure listening to this, you're at the very least a little wary too. So there's Travis, living in a town that is not his home, completely isolated from the rest of the community, barely able to see his children, and with everybody thinking that he's a violent abuser, he probably would have crumbled in all of this if he hadn't had someone back him up. Fortunately, he met his new girlfriend, Liz in 2017.

[Kelly Harper]

We met at a bar he dating.

[Travis Harper]

Website, so that we went to a bar and met up for a first.

[Kelly Harper]

Date and he just kind of never went away is what I say. At the time, I was going through a divorce, and my ex husband and I get along great. Right now we do family stuff, all of us together. But at the time, we were arguing quite a bit and we were comparing whose ex was crazier and he won. We'll just put it that way.

[Carmilla]

Travis told Liz upfront about the issues he was having with Kelly and local child protection services.

[Kelly Harper]

I mean, he would say CPS showed up at my house, and I'd be like, cps doesn't just show up at your house. Right. You know, there's gotta be something else going on. But he would send me the CPS reports And I would read them. And I have a lot of friends that are child psychologists. And I'd be like, but it says right in here, mom says what to say. Mom tells us what to say. And I was like, I don't believe them.

[Carmilla]

Liz met Kelly for the first time when she turned up uninvited to Liz's son's birthday party.

[Kelly Harper]

She asked me a bunch of questions and I told her, you know, right, we're making a good fourth effort. And one of it was where I work out. And I told her where I worked out. And the next thing I know, she had gone to that place and she told him I was under police investigation. You know, she went after my children. She tried getting a restraining order against my 5 year old. I just realized that this isn't normal behavior. It was hard. It was really hard. It was. I've never been in a position like this.

[Carmilla]

In Liz, Travis now had someone who understood what he was going through.

[Kelly Harper]

I said to him, we gotta stop this, because it was affecting the girls, it was affecting my kids, it was affecting our relationship. And I was like, either we gotta change it or we gotta part ways, because this is a lot.

[Travis Harper]

I could give up the ghost and quit, right? And if I give up the ghost and quit, I'm subjecting my children to be with her full time. And she's going to subject them to an entire life of this. You know, she's going after me right now, but it won't take very long for her to go after them. So I can't give up. I gotta fight it. And I was talking to Liz. She's. She's really smart. And Liz is like, well, in order to fight it, we have to get our ducks in a row. We have to start holding people accountable. We have to start showing receipts. I put up cameras in my house to show that I don't abuse my kids. We talked to police sergeant's boss and we let them know, like, there's cameras in our house. Now. We're going to be able to show you any moment that you come into my house, you can look at my cameras and go back in time. You can look at them freely whenever you want.

[Carmilla]

Putting cameras in your house is an odd thing to do, but an unbroken record of video footage was the most powerful way Travis could think of to actually disprove the allegations Kelly was making. If an allegation got made to the police or the courts, Travis could show exactly what he was doing at the time the alleged incident was supposed to have occurred.

[Travis Harper]

I'm a good dad, and I'm going to be a good dad, and I'm not going to let her manipulate my emotions ever again. I'm going to be polite, I'm gonna be respectful, and I'm going to just be the best person I can be. And that's it. That's it. I'm done. I'm done with all of this stuff.

[Carmilla]

Travis says he submitted himself to every test that the authorities demanded of him. Home visits from child protection officers and visits to the court to be watched by their guardian ad litem, the official appointed by the court to represent the children's interests. By 2020, four years after the first allegations were made, the tide had slowly begun to turn in Travis favor. Investigations by the police couldn't find any good evidence to back up the idea that Travis was an abuser. In fact, the report from the family court seemed to show the opposite.

[Travis Harper]

All three girls were observed to engage Travis in conversation, jokes, and their play. He responded to each child participating in imaginative play. The children all made physical contact with Travis. They were sassy and funny, and all three teased Travis at times. None of the children showed signs of fear, caution, anxiety, distance, or anger toward Travis during the observation appointment.

[Carmilla]

Each year, his custody rights increased until he was able to see his children three nights a week. Every step of the way, Kelly fought for sole custody of the kids. But as control began to slip away, Kelly began to target not just Travis, but also the court officials. In what was possibly a crucial mistake, she allegedly accused the guardian ad litem of having an inappropriate relationship with Travis. In February of 2020, Travis won a major victory. The court ruled that he and Kelly should have 50, 50 custody. Not only that, but Travis was given impasse rights, meaning that if he and Kelly couldn't agree on something, then he had the deciding vote. Kelly wouldn't be allowed to change things like where the children lived or their schooling without his permission. And most crucially of all, the judge directly addressed the question at the heart of so much of everything that has happened to Travis over those years. There is no factual basis in this record to conclude that Mr. Harper is physically abusing these children.

[Travis Harper]

Is he stern?

[Carmilla]

Is he harsh at times?

[Travis Harper]

Yeah, I wish he would be less.

[Carmilla]

Assertive, less confrontational with his kids, with his ex wife, but I don't take children away from their fathers because their personality is difficult. The judge also had a warning for Kelly. If this situation of constantly hauling Mr. Harper into the authorities for false accusations of child abuse continues, I will not hesitate to end all custodial rights of Ms. Harper.

[Travis Harper]

So the legal case is getting more desperate. She can't do it with the judiciary, with the judges and stuff like that anymore. They're not playing her game, so it's not going her way. That way the police department's not playing her game at all anymore. She can't even take the kids to a doctor at all without my permission. Dane County Human Services I think is what it's called. But cps, Child Protective Services, they're completely done with her. They're all done with her.

[Carmilla]

By Christmas 2020, Kelly and Travis were pretty much right back where they'd started in 2016, arguing about who could see the children at Christmas. Now you're probably wondering how it is that we fit into this. Well, it was just at this moment, Christmas 2020, that me and my team come across a kill order worth $5,000 on the dark web targeting Travis. Why get all your holiday decorations delivered through Instacart? Because maybe you only bought two wreaths but have 12 windows. Or maybe your toddler got very eager with the Advent calendar. Or maybe the inflatable snowman didn't make it through the snowstorm. Or maybe the twinkle lights aren't twinkling. Whatever the reason, this season Instacart's here for hosts and their whole holiday haul. Get decorations from the Home Depot, CVS and more through Instacart and enjoy free delivery on your first three orders. Service fees and terms apply. Travis Harper, the target needs to be killed. He is a white 5 foot 5 male, dark brown, short hair, blue eyes, weighs 165 pounds. He is violent.

[Travis Harper]

Hi normal kill $5,000 accident, $9,000 for average person. No bodyguards.

[Carmilla]

The person placing the hit goes by the moniker of Malik8 and the first thing we noticed about the order is that they've uploaded two pictures to the site. The first shows Travis smiling for the camera with his daughter in his arms. The daughter's face has been blacked out. Travis has short crew cut hair and is wearing a green T shirt and jeans. We found the same photo from Travis social media. The second photo is one of Travis blue pickup truck parked on his front porch. It looks like it's been hastily taken on a camera phone. We couldn't find it anywhere on Travis social media. It looks like it could have been taken by Malachite themselves. And in the photo itself there's a dim outline of a car reflected in the metallic bodywork of Travis car like the person is slowly rolling past when they took the photo. Which means that the person who wants him dead could have been there, right outside his house. It shows they've got access to him and know where he lives. Malikay also claims to have already been trying to place hits on other similar sites. And they're haggling over the cost of the latest job. I have the 5,000 grand in Bitcoin, but I sent 4,000 to that site. So as of now, I'm out almost 9,000 for one job. So how do we move forward? I don't trust that you have someone in the area to do the job. Did you get my reply? As I sent proof of my bitcoin account on Coinbase. So what's the plan? The target needs to be taken out immediately.

[Travis Harper]

Hi. That is no proof of bitcoin. Pictures can be faked. Proof of bitcoin is if you put bitcoin in an escrow. Do you agree to put bitcoin in escrow?

[Carmilla]

You know, I've already been ripped off. I don't know how to fake a picture. But I believe you can fake and try to scam me. If you want proof. I also need proof.

[Travis Harper]

Hi. If you can't provide pro, go elsewhere. Don't fucking waste our time, okay?

[Carmilla]

Done and done. I don't appreciate you wasting my time by not showing anything and just trying to steal bitcoin like the last site. Malic8 sounds businesslike, exactly the sort of order that sends us scrambling because it clearly isn't trolling. The messages we can see show that this person has made multiple attempts to place the hit, even after they've been scammed. Malachite seems utterly determined to kill Travis. And now it's our job to try and get word to him before it's too late. When we get through to Travis, he only has one suspect in mind. And in the days that follow, he begins to grapple with what all of this could mean.

[Travis Harper]

I get more worried that Kelly's going to kill the children more than I've ever been worried about her trying to kill me. If she thinks that she's going to lose placement and custody of those kids, she'd kill them just the same as looking at you. You know, if she can't have them, no one can.

[Carmilla]

That's next time on Killlist. If you like Kill List, you can binge all episodes ad free right now by joining Wandri in the Wandri app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey from Wandery and Novel. This is Kill List. Kill List is hosted by Me Carmilla. The reporter for this episode is Dylan Brogan and it was produced and written by our series producer Tom Wright. Kill List is also produced by Caroline Thornham and Jake Otaevich with additional production by Anna Sinfield. Our assistant producer is Amalia Saltland and our researchers are Megan Oyinka and Lina Chang. Additional research from Chris Montero for Wandery. Our senior producer is Mandy Gorenstein. Fact checking by Fendor Fulton. Our managing producers are Cherie Houston, Sarah Tobin and Charlotte Wolfe for novel. Sarah Mathers is our managing producer and Callum Plews is our senior managing producer for Wandery. Original music by Sprocket Moss and Martin Linnebel Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander, Max O'Brien and Caroline Thornham Sound design and mixing by Daniel Kempson for Novel. Willard Foxton is creative director of development. Our executive producers are Sean Glynn, Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan for novel. Executive producers for Wandery are Marshall Louis and Erin O'Flaherty.