A former Sheppard Air Force Base airman from Denton has been ordered to spend the rest of his life in federal prison after authorities say he groomed and abducted a Colorado Springs teenager, then hid her in his dorm room on base.
Travis Robert Larson, 24, was sentenced yesterday in federal court after pleading guilty to enticement and sexual abuse of a minor. Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor handed down the life term in a case that centered on a 14-year-old Colorado Springs girl who was ultimately found on the Wichita Falls base after being taken to Texas, prosecutors say.
Judge hands down life sentence
Larson was indicted in August 2025 and pleaded guilty in November 2025 to one count of enticement of a minor and one count of sexual abuse of a minor, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. The office reports that Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor imposed the life sentence yesterday, and that the filing lays out the court timeline and charges in detail.
How investigators say it unfolded
The investigation kicked off in early May 2025 after a Colorado Springs father reported his daughter missing and discovered messages showing Larson had been communicating with her. Surveillance footage and vehicle-tracking data allegedly placed Larson first in Colorado Springs and later at a Buc-ee’s in Amarillo. Those movements, investigators say, triggered a multi-agency search that eventually led authorities to Sheppard Air Force Base, per CBS Texas.
Evidence, grooming and recovery
Court documents state the victim began communicating with Larson online when she was about 10 or 11, and that she sent sexually explicit images at his request. Prosecutors say Larson hid the girl in the trunk of his car to get her onto the base and sexually abused her multiple times in his dorm. U.S. Air Force Security Forces ultimately recovered her near Larson’s room on May 5, 2025, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Multi-agency probe and prosecution
The Colorado Springs Police Department, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI’s Dallas Field Office – Wichita Falls Resident Agency all took part in the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allyson Monte and Stephen Rancourt handled the federal prosecution, which was brought under Project Safe Childhood, a Justice Department initiative that targets online child exploitation, per KAUZ.
Local booking and earlier state charge
Local coverage at the time reported that Larson was booked into the Wichita County Jail on June 11, 2025, on a state charge of trafficking of a child to engage in sexual conduct and was held on a bond as the broader case developed. KFDX (via Yahoo) covered the initial arrest, and Texoma’s Homepage continued tracking the case as it shifted into federal court and moved toward sentencing.
The life sentence capped what authorities describe as a coordinated policing and prosecution effort that unraveled a years-long online grooming campaign and brought the victim back to safety. Media and court inquiries have been directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas as the primary public record on the case, while local outlets have continued to document the community’s response, per Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth.
