The Loveland man accused of kidnapping his former girlfriend at gunpoint more than a week ago was arrested Monday afternoon in the foothills west of Fort Collins.
Travis Kness took ex-girlfriend Rosanna Martinez to Washington state and California before they returned to Colorado, his mother, Kathy Kness, told The Denver Post.
Kathy Kness said that at about 7 p.m. Sunday, she found Martinez huddled and crying in the garage of the Kness home in Loveland.
She had driven herself there in the same white Jeep Grand Cherokee that she was abducted in after her shift ended July 19 at the Dollar Tree store in Fort Collins.
Travis Kness left Martinez in the mountains, allowing her to take the Jeep and head for the Kness home, Kathy Kness said.
Deputies with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department made contact with Kness on Monday after a citizen reported seeing him in the Stove Prairie area near Rist Canyon, officials said in a news release.
Kness was taken to the Larimer County Detention Center for investigation of second-degree kidnapping, among other charges.
His arrest followed a nine-day search and 18 hours of fast-breaking developments after Martinez showed up at the Kness home.
“She was huddled on the top of the stairs, crying and saying, ‘Don’t hurt him; don’t hurt him. He needs help,’ ” said Kathy Kness. “I hugged her and hugged her.”
Kness said her son had been deeply depressed after Martinez, who had been separated from her husband, decided to return to her husband. She said that her son, who is bipolar and recently had been in a mental institution, loved Martinez and wanted to be with her.
“He wanted Rosanna and felt this was the only way. He never hurt her,” she said.
Martinez told her that during the trip, they stayed in motels, were never stopped by police and that in California, “she saw the ocean.”
Kathy Kness said her son, because of mental illness, has been in and out of trouble for years, a pattern that has been difficult for her and her family.
She said that when he takes his medications, he acts normally. But when he doesn’t, he behaves badly.
Kathy Kness said his mental illness, combined with his brushes with the law, left him homeless in Boulder last year.
She said that as a street person, he built a “cave” for himself out of cinder blocks, where he lived until he became ill. He then admitted himself to a hospital. She said the Kness family — he has two brothers and a sister — has done everything it can to get him the help he needs, and the Loveland community has been understanding and considerate.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
