Crime Ark. Woman Befriended Mom's Killer Out of 'Spiritual Obligation' — and then He Murdered Her Martha McKay was kind to Travis Lewis, who was convicted and released after he killed her mother and cousin in 1996 By KC Baker Published on May 8, 2020 08:59AM EDT Martha McKay. Photo: Jack Kenner Big-hearted, gregarious and always up for an adventure, Martha McKay surrounded herself with friends. “There was something about her that people really loved,” her sister Katie Hutton tells PEOPLE. “She left an impression on people. She had that gift.” McKay’s family and friends were devastated when she was killed on March 25, 2020, at Snowden House, the historic antebellum-style home on Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas, she bought from her family in 2004, restored and reopened as a luxury bed-and-breakfast. martha mckay. McKay, 63, was found stabbed and bludgeoned to death at the top of the stairs, near a bag filled with her belongings, as well as a utility knife. Authorities were shocked when they pulled the body of her killer out of the lake (he’d jumped in and drowned during a police chase): it was Travis Lewis, who’d been convicted at 17 for the horrific 1996 murders of her mother, Sally Snowden McKay, 75, and her cousin, Joseph “Lee” Baker, 52, a prominent Memphis blues guitarist. Travis Lewis. Crittenden County Sheriffs Department Lewis pleaded guilty to the murders but never confessed, maintaining that another man killed the two, say police. For more on the murder at Horseshoe Lake, pick up a copy of this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. Knowing how forgiving McKay was, family and friends were still shocked when she befriended him after he went to prison (Lewis was sentenced to 28 ½ years after pleading guilty). Inside the Bizarre Case of a Killer Striking Twice 23 Years Apart, Murdering a Mother and Daughter Family friend Frank Byrd, who’d driven McKay to the state penitentiary to see Lewis, told her he didn’t think it was a good idea, but “she didn’t answer me,” he says. Her family also warned her to be careful. “We had said, ‘Just stay away from him. It's a bad juju type of thing.’ But she wouldn't do it," says Hutton. A longtime Buddhist, McKay wrote Lewis letters in prison and supported his early, paroled release. “We were contacted every time he came up for parole,” says Hutton. “None of us would OK it except for her.” Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. McKay also felt bad that he was so young when the murders took place – and believed his claim that someone else was responsible, says Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen. Arkansas Mom and Daughter Are Murdered by Same Man 23 Years Apart, then Killer Drowns Himself When Lewis was finally released on parole in 2018, McKay quietly gave him a job doing work on the property, Hutton says. But before her death, she fired him. Police had heard about a theft at McKay's house before her murder, says Crittenden County Chief Investigator Todd Grooms. After she died, Hutton read in her diary that she'd sold a chandelier for $10,000 cash, which she stashed in the house. Travis happened to be there that day, says Hutton. “Then the money vanished. She fired him after the money disappeared,” she says. The family is still reeling from the fact that the same man killed her sister, mother, and cousin – 23 years apart. “We are all just in disbelief,” says Hutton.