Man's shock as he 'found out mum was a murderer after Googling her name'

A man has spoken of his shock when he looked up his mum on Google, only to find out she was a murderer.

Travis Holman, 36, had a difficult relationship with his mum Lynda, 60. Travis claims Lynda abandoned him when he was 11, leaving him and his sister Daisy Holman, then 13, to fend for themselves as Lynda moved in with her boyfriend Mark McCollum. Daisy and Travis’ dad died from a heart condition in 1991.

Brought up by their aunt and uncle, the kids would see their mum twice a year and speak to her on the phone. Travis was worried about his mum and was curious to see what results he would find so he searched her name online, only to discover she had been arrested for shooting her boyfriend in the chest with a shotgun.

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Travis says his relationship with his mum is 'as healthy as it can be'
(Image: Travis Holman / SWNS)

Lynda was sentenced to 28 years behind bars after she was found guilty of second-degree murder. Travis, a freelance television production assistant, from Sacramento, California, US, said his relationship with his mum is "as healthy as it can be.”

He said: "I Googled the names of a few family members I haven't seen for a while. I knew my mum had priors, she was convicted of manslaughter in the 90s.

"I typed her name into Google and the first article that popped up was Lynda Holman's arrest - I thought it was her previous conviction. But when I looked at the date it said February 16, 2010, and my mind imploded.

'My mind imploded,' Travis said
(Image: Courtesy Travis Holman / SWNS)





Travis was 11 when his mum left home
(Image: Travis Holman / SWNS)

"I went to her arraignment and that was the last time I ever saw her. This time I could see her from the other end of the courtroom. I will never forget the look on her face - it was a combination of complete happiness to see me but at the same time it was shame."

Travis said they had a complicated childhood as his mum was a "wild child" but she did care for him and his sister. "I remember she did a lot of partying. For instance, she had a muscle car and I remember us doing doughnuts in it,” he said.

"She was an affectionate mother. All the time it was 'I love you' and 'you're special' - my sister and I felt that. We felt loved but she had a difficult upbringing just like my sister and I ended up having."

In 1998, Lynda went out for a night out and met Mark in a bar and brought him back to the family home in Kendall, Washington, USA, Travis said. Mark and Lynda dated for months before she abandoned Travis and Daisy and moved to Deming, Washington, to live with her boyfriend, he says, in 1998.

Travis and Daisy with their mum Lynda and Travis’ dad.
(Image: Courtesy Travis Holman / SWNS)

Travis said: "She came home after being away for a week or so and packed her duffle bag and never came back. We spent four months fending for ourselves alone.

"Although we were afraid and terrified we were more afraid to reach out to someone else. When she left we went months without contact and then eventually our auntie and uncle came to collect us."

Travis and Daisy would continue to have a relationship with their mum at this point and would see her twice a year. Travis said when he found out what his mum had done he knew for a fact that she was going to be going "away for a long time."

The incident that lead to Lynda being put behind bars occured on February 16, 2010. Police arrived to a call about a shooting at the home she and Mark lived in.

Lynda said, according to legal documents, that Mark talked about killing ghosts. Lynda claims she then put the butt of the gun on the floor, and put the barrel up to her chin.

She told police that Mark told her to put the gun back and it fired as she was doing so. Mark died at the scene. Travis said: "According to my mum there was a ghost show on the TV, she went over to the wall where there was a gun. She grabbed it off the wall and said 'I am going to shoot the ghost and shot Mark in the chest."

He added: "Sitting in the jail, talking through bulletproof glass on the phone wasn't weird. I saw her in her jumpsuit. It broke my heart because I knew she had done something that was so terrible they were not going to let her out."

Travis said he “collapsed” when he learned his mum had been given a long sentence. "Even though my mum struggled with alcoholism and likely PTSD from her childhood in foster homes and the trauma of that like I said she was a very affectionate loving mother."

Now, when the two chat, Travis said there is a “common theme.” He said: “We will catch up on what either one of us are doing and what we have been up to. She will update me on her breast cancer battle, this is her second bout of breast cancer since being in prison.

"She has had a double mastectomy and she is going through chemotherapy. Apart from that, we joke around a lot. For someone who has been locked away for over a decade, she has a terrific sense of humour. From speaking to her I can tell that she is remorseful for what happened."

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