Full Disclosure?

[Sylvia B.]

St. Louis woman learns about home's dark secret while watching television

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -

A St. Louis woman received quite the shock after she learned about her home's dark past. The real kicker? She learned about it while watching television.

Catrina McGhaw signed a lease to the home without worry until a family member told her to check out a cold case documentary about serial killers on the A&E Network.

The documentary featured her house, the same house serial killer Maury Travis used as a torture chamber.

McGhaw couldn't handle what she saw, so she called her landlord begging to get out of the lease. The landlord, though, was not sympathetic and turned out to be the killer's mother.

So, you may be asking if it's legal to withhold such information? A real estate expert says murders, suicides and violent crimes don't require disclosure and that only material defects need to be noted.

Luckily for McGhaw, after appealing to St. Louis public housing officials, she can break the lease and move out by the end of July.

• Copyright Schurz Communications 2014