Airman sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, sexually abusing Colorado Springs teen
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – A Sheppard Air Force Base Airman was sentenced to life in federal prison on Friday after prosecutors said he traveled from Texas to Colorado Springs to kidnap and sexually abuse a 14-year-old girl.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Texas, 24-year-old Travis Robert Larson pleaded guilty in November 2025 to one count of enticement of a minor and one count of sexual abuse of a minor. He was sentenced on Feb. 27 to life in prison.
His conviction comes months after Air Force security found the missing Colorado Springs teen outside Larson’s dorm room at Sheppard Air Force Base.
According to court documents, on May 4, 2025, a Colorado Springs father notified local police that his 14-year-old daughter was missing. The father told police he'd found messages on his daughter's phone indicating she'd been in communication with Larson, and that he'd discussed driving to Colorado to pick her up and bring her back to Texas.
Police located surveillance video showing Larson picking up the child, and were able to track his vehicle traveling from Texas to Colorado Springs and back during the late evening hours of May 3 to May 4.
According to court records, Larson was an active member of the United States Air Force at the time. On the evening of May 5, the U.S. Air Force Security Forces Squadron found the missing child near Larson’s dorm room at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas.
The child told law enforcement that she'd been communicating with Larson since she was just 10 or 11 years old, and said she would send Larson sexually explicit images of herself at his request. The child said that their online relationship had spanned several years until he discussed visiting her in person.
According to court documents, the child shared that Larson had traveled twice to Colorado Springs to meet her for sex, including picking her up from her home in late April 2025 and driving her to a nearby park, where he sexually abused her.
The next month, on May 3, Larson once again traveled from Texas to Colorado to have sex with the child. Text messages between the two show that Larson promised to bring the child alcohol and "described his desire to have sex with the child and to resort to violence, if necessary," a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Court documents show that at around 3:30 a.m. on May 4, Larson picked up the child from her Colorado Springs residence and drove to a nearby park, where he had sex with her. But instead of driving her back home afterwards, prosecutors say Larson drove the child back to Texas against her will.
Larson reportedly hid the child in the trunk of his vehicle in order to sneak her onto the Air Force base, where he sexually abused the child multiple times inside his dorm room.
Records state that a search of Larson’s phone revealed notes with the child’s name, date of birth, and social media accounts, indicating that he was aware she was only 14 years old.
In addition to the Colorado Springs Police Department, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office – Wichita Falls Resident Agency investigated the case.
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