Water park passes used to lure boys and parents into trucker’s sex scheme, feds say
A long-haul truck driver from Texas was sentenced this week to life in prison after he was accused of using water park passes and the promise of free cross-country trips to lure boys and their parents in a sex-abuse scheme.
A boy was sexually assaulted from the age of 9 through 14 as a result of his bribery, authorities say.
In November 2019, the then-14-year-old boy reported that he was forced into “a long-running series of sexual activity” with trucker Travis Wayne Vavra, according to court records. He said he was abused from about September 2015 through September 2019.
The boy also said Vavra took him to several states — including California, Missouri and Maryland — in a tractor trailer, and that he was sexually assaulted almost every night that they were alone together, according to court records.
Vavra sometimes assaulted the boy while he was sleeping, the boy reported.
The defense attorney representing Vavra, of El Paso, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on April 12.
As part of an FBI investigation into the boy’s report, authorities talked to someone who said she saw a flyer advertising free season passes to a local water park at an Anthony, Texas, gas station in 2015, according to court records. This person was not identified by authorities but is referred to as Person #1.
Person #1 said they called the phone number listed on the flyer and met with Vavra to get the free tickets in July of that year, records show. The person took the child victim and the victim’s younger sister to the meetup.
Officials say Vavra gave them the water park passes and said he “was a truck driver that was able to take children on vacations to explore the United States,” Person #1 reported. He also said he “had taken other children to visit amusement parks in the past, all at no cost to the children or their families.”
Vavra and the unidentified person communicated via cellphone for years starting in 2015, according to court records.
When Vavra was interviewed by the FBI in December 2019, he admitted that he knew the child victim and Person #1, but he denied all sexual activity with the boy, the records say.
“Vavra did, however admit that he took victim on numerous overnight interstate trips since meeting (him) in 2015,” officials reported.
Prior to Vavra’s arrest on Dec. 6, 2019, that same day, he “posted another flyer for parents and boys advertising these free cross-country trips,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. Authorities say he was found with “child sexual abuse material on his phone” when he was arrested.
The trucker has remained in custody since that day, officials say, and he was found guilty of “one count of transportation of minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and one count of possession of a visual depiction involving the sexual exploitation of a minor” on June 29, 2021.
“From suspicious flyers posted in store windows to reports of sexual abuse, the investigation involving Vavra showed how concerned citizens came together to stop a predator from destroying the innocence of additional young boys and assist in providing closure to the victims of his previous sexual assaults,” FBI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey R. Downey said in the April 11 news release. “We cannot protect our community alone. The FBI is thankful to those citizens who came forward to voice their suspicions.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Water park passes used to lure boys and parents into trucker’s sex scheme, feds say."