DALLAS, Texas - A 24-year-old active-duty Airman stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base was sentenced to life in federal prison on Friday, Febraury 27, 2026, after pleading guilty to enticement of a minor and sexual abuse of a minor, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.
Travis Robert Larson, of Denton, Texas, was indicted in August 2025 and entered guilty pleas in November 2025 to both counts. Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor imposed the life sentence during a hearing in the Northern District of Texas.
According to court documents, on May 4, 2025, a father in Colorado Springs, Colorado, reported his 14-year-old daughter missing and provided police with messages showing Larson had been communicating with the child and planned to drive from Texas to pick her up and bring her back to Texas.
Surveillance footage captured Larson picking up the girl (“Minor Victim 1”) and tracked his vehicle traveling from Texas to Colorado Springs and back during the late evening of May 3 into May 4, 2025.
Larson, an active member of the U.S. Air Force stationed at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas, had the child recovered by USAF Security Forces near his dorm room on the evening of May 5, 2025.
The child disclosed that Larson began communicating with her online when she was 10 or 11 years old, requesting and receiving sexually explicit images from her over several years. Their online contact eventually progressed to in-person meetings. Larson traveled to Colorado Springs twice in 2025 to meet her for sex, including in late April when he picked her up, drove to a nearby park, and sexually abused her.
On May 3, 2025, Larson again drove from Texas to Colorado, promising the child alcohol and expressing intent to have sex with her, even resorting to violence if necessary. Around 3:30 a.m. on May 4, he picked her up from her residence, drove to a park, and had sex with her. Instead of returning her home, Larson drove the child against her will back to Texas, hiding her in the trunk to sneak her onto Sheppard AFB and conceal her in his dormitory room, where he sexually abused her multiple times before law enforcement recovered her.
A search of Larson’s phone revealed notes containing the child’s name, date of birth, and social media accounts, confirming he knew she was 14 years old.
The case was investigated by the Colorado Springs Police Department, Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Texas Department of Public Safety, and the FBI’s Dallas Field Office – Wichita Falls Resident Agency. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allyson Monte and Stephen Rancourt prosecuted the case.
