A grieving daughter who granted her mother and cousin’s murderer forgiveness and even gave him a job was killed by the same man .

Sally Snowden McKay, 75, and her cousin, Memphis blues guitarist Joseph “Lee” Baker, 52, weremurderedon their estate on a stunning Horseshoe Lake in Arkansas in 1996. Sally left behind a grieving daughter, who, in an act of empathy and grace, befriended the convicted murderer, Travis Lewis, 17, in prison. Despite his actions, Martha gave the young man the benefit of the doubt, as he had pleaded guilty, but never confessed. Lewis blamed another man, for the murder according People.However, Martha’s act of generosity would be a deadly one.

Having processed her grief, Martha reopened the home where her mother was killed. Renovating and restyling the mansion as a luxury bed and breakfast and wedding venue the murder scene became a beautiful venue called Snowden House. Martha supported Lewis’ early release from prison in 2018, and even quietly gave him a job working at Snowden House.

• Three-year-old girl kidnapped after mum and grandma 'bludgeoned to death' in own home


• 'I tried to quit Mounjaro and will have to pay £200 a month for life'

Lewis maintained that someone else was responsible, Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen said. Longtime friend Frank Byrd told Martha he didn’t think befriending Lewis was a good idea, but “she didn’t answer me,” he said. Lewis worked on the property for 18 months until her decision backfired for the first time when she thought Lewis might have been guilty of the theft of $10,000 stored in the house for the sale of a chandelier. Martha knew he had been at the house that day.

Then, tragically, Martha was found stabbed and bludgeoned to death at the top of the stairs of the house on March 25, 2020, at the age of 63. Police also found a cloth bag nearby Martha containing several valuables and a bloody kitchen knife. Crittenden County Chief Investigator Todd Grooms said: “It was determined that he intended to steal these items. However, it was not determined whether his intentions were to burglarize McKay’s home and she was killed in the process or if his intention was to murder McKay then opted to steal the items."

A manhunt found that her killer had jumped from a second story window when police arrived and ran down the sweeping lawn into the lake, where he drowned. Police located "a possible suspect who jumped from an upstairs window and ran to a vehicle that he drove across the yard and got stuck in the yard at the Snowden house, the suspect then jumped from the car and ran and jumped into the lake," according to a post from the sheriff office's Facebook page. "He was observed going under the water and never came back up."

The body that was pulled out was Lewis’. He had killed another woman in the same family 23 years later. A toxicology report found a cocktail of drugs in his system. “She lived life to the fullest,” McKay’s sister Katie Hutton, told People. "She loved her life.” Martha’s sister said “We are all just in disbelief.”