EXCLUSIVE: Claw-fingered Satanist who murdered country great Jean Shepard's teenage granddaughter boasted he had killed before 

  • Travis Sanders murdered Icie Sloan-Hawkins at her late grandmother's home in a Nashville, TN, suburb before the star's widow managed to gun him down
  • Sanders, 20, boasted of being a Satanist, had filed his nails into claws, and once defaced a Bible by scrawling 666 on it 
  • Now Icie's cousin says Sanders once told her that he had killed before - and has now told police about boast she did not believe at time but does now
  • Rachael Hawkins, who was close to the dead girl, 18, says: 'I believe he was capable of anything.'
  • Childhood friend of murderer tells how he became obsessed with knives and had no direction in his life 

The claw-fingered Satanist killer who slashed country star Jean Shepard's granddaughter Icie Sloan Hawkins to death had killed before, he once boasted.

Evil Travis Sanders, 21, claimed he had killed someone during a fireside chat with Icie's cousin.

'I didn't think much of it at the time,' Rachael Hawkins told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. 'I thought it was just a 20-year-old kid boasting.

'But now, after what happened to Icie, I do believe it,' she added. 'I believe he was capable of anything.'

Sanders was shot dead by Icie's step-grandfather Benny Birchfield after he had attacked his girlfriend of eight months. 

Icie had told her mom that she didn't love Sanders
She planned on breaking up with Sanders (pictured with his dad), but the relationship carried on

Icie had told her mom that she didn't love Sanders (left, and right with his dad) and planned on breaking up with him, but the relationship carried on

Cousins: Rachael Hawkins (right) and Icie (left) shared a family bond but Rachael took an instant dislike to her cousin's new boyfriend Travis Sanders - and was sadly proven right

Cousins: Rachael Hawkins (right) and Icie (left) shared a family bond but Rachael took an instant dislike to her cousin's new boyfriend Travis Sanders - and was sadly proven right

Happy family: Rachael Hawkins shared pictures of the cousin she loved before the cruel murder at Sanders' hands, including with her father Hawkins Jnr's puppy
Happy family: Rachael Hawkins shared pictures of the cousin she loved before the cruel murder at Sanders' hands, including with her father Hawkshaw Jr's puppy

Happy family: Rachael Hawkins shared pictures of the cousin she loved before the cruel murder at Sanders' hands, including with her father Hawkshaw Jr's puppy

Sanders' Facebook page features cartoon images of a cloaked man with a knife - POH from the  Sword Art Online franchise
There are also photos of him smoking a bong

Icie learned over the summer that Sanders was a Satanist. Sanders' Facebook page features cartoon images of a cloaked man with a knife - POH from the Sword Art Online franchise - and of him smoking a bong

Birchfield, 79, had returned to his home in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee around 3 am on Saturday and heard a commotion in the basement where Icie was living.

When he went down the stairs he saw fatally-injured Icie lying on blood-soaked sheets on her bed. Sanders then attacked him with his 10-inch long Bowie knife, cutting him badly about the face and neck.

But Birchfield — Jean Shepard's third husband — managed to pull out his .38 caliber revolver and pump five bullets into his assailant, killing him instantly.

Hawkins was due to give a statement to police in Hendersonville on Thursday about what Sanders had told her.

And the new lead means police around the Nashville area could open the books on unsolved killings in the hopes that they can pin one of them on Sanders.

Hawkins said that like nearly all of her cousin's family and friends she took an instant dislike to Sanders when he started dating Icie.

And she said she had just about tuned him out as they sat around a firepit talking. 'I'd already decided I didn't like him at that point and I wasn't really listening to him, I was playing with my phone.

'But I remember he said he had killed someone.

'If this can help solve an unsolved murder then I am more than willing to help,' she said shortly before going to give her statement to cops.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to police for comment. 

Detectives in Hendersonville are baffled as to why Sanders turned on his girlfriend and the new lead could open a new insight into the mind of the killer.

Hawkins, 21, had lived with Icie for a while in the basement where her cousin was slashed. Both girls spent time looking after their famous grandmother, who was in the final stages of Parkinson's disease. Shepard died on September 25 aged 82.

Icie Sloan Hawkins (pictured), the granddaughter of singer Jean Shepard stood by her boyfriend 21-year-old Travis Sanders despite fearing he would kill her
In the early hours of Saturday morning, Sanders murdered Icie, 18, with a ten-inch Bowie knife

Icie Sloan Hawkins (pictured), the granddaughter of singer Jean Shepard stood by her boyfriend 21-year-old Travis Sanders despite fearing he would kill her. In the early hours of Saturday morning, Sanders murdered Icie, 18, with a ten-inch Bowie knife 

Icie and Sanders started dating in April. In the months before her death, Icie started carrying a knife in fear she would have to use it in self defense against Sanders

Icie and Sanders started dating in April. In the months before her death, Icie started carrying a knife in fear she would have to use it in self defense against Sanders

Icie started dating Sanders in April after she had split from her boyfriend, Sanders's former best friend Sasha Kazanofski.

In an exclusive interview, Kazanofski told DailyMail.com that he had always expected that the relationship would end badly.

'Of course I never thought anything like this would happen, but I knew it would end ugly,' he said.

Kazanofski said he and Sanders were close for years. 'He was cool, but I sort of grew out of him. I realized I couldn't spend my life playing video games and getting high.

'He just had no direction to his life and I wanted to do better. I'm now in college,' he said.

He said that Sanders was always fascinated with knives. 'We would go camping and he would always want to have the right knife for whatever task he had.

'Just for cutting a piece of string.'

Kazanofski said he tried many times to break up with Icie, but each time she came back, once taking her mother's car and driving the 25 miles to his new home in Bethpage, Tennessee.

'I hadn't spoken to either of them for eight months,' he said. 'It's sad but I knew it would end badly. They both had their issues'

Rachael Hawkins also said that her cousin's killer was fascinated with knives. 'He was always talking about different blades and knives,' she said.

Icie told her mother that she knew Sanders had problems and that she wanted to help him. Another image from Sander's Facebook shows him lying on the ground while giving a middle finger to the camera

Icie told her mother that she knew Sanders had problems and that she wanted to help him. Another image from Sander's Facebook shows him lying on the ground while giving a middle finger to the camera

Jordan Hammer (right, with Icie), Icie's best friend since middle school, says Sanders did not have a job or car, never showered and cut his fingernails into claws

Jordan Hammer (right, with Icie), Icie's best friend since middle school, says Sanders did not have a job or car, never showered and cut his fingernails into claws

Hawkins said the fingernails on one of Sanders's hands were fashioned into sharp points. When she asked him why, he said it was in case he needed to claw someone's eye out.

He also had an upside-down cross tattooed on his chest, she added.

'Throughout High School he would talk about how he killed rodents and other small animals,' added Hawkins, the daughter of Harold Hawkins, the younger son of Shepard and her first husband, country singer Hawkshaw Hawkins, who was killed along with Patsy Cline in a 1963 plane crash.

Hawkins said she also worried that Sanders would get her cousin — the daughter of her father's older brother Donny Hawkins — pregnant.

'When I said that to him, he told me he wasn't worried because he would mooch off his grandmother who had plenty of money.

'I said to him: 'Wouldn't that make you feel less of a man? But he had no ambition to do anything or make anything of himself.'

On Thursday DailyMail.com exclusively reported how Jordan Hammer, Icie's best friend since middle school, had complained that Sanders had terrible body odor because he rarely showered.

Hawkins confirmed her account. 'It was really gross,' she said. 'He got in my car once and I told him he smelled really bad. He thought it was funny.'

Eventually Hawkins decided that she did not want anything to do with her cousin's boyfriend. 'I have kids now and I didn't want him around them,' she said.

Icie died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital on Saturday morning. Her mother Velvet Sloan told DailyMail.com exclusively that the fatal wound was to an artery in her upper left arm.

Sanders even took Icie's best friend Jordan Hammer's bible and scrawled the number 666 - the mark of the devil - as well as several other drawings over several pages

Sanders even took Icie's best friend Jordan Hammer's bible and scrawled the number 666 - the mark of the devil - as well as several other drawings over several pages

Icie's mother, Velvet Sloan (pictured with her daughter) said that Sanders was 'very smug' and that she was afraid of her daughter's boyfriend

Icie's mother, Velvet Sloan (pictured with her daughter) said that Sanders was 'very smug' and that she was afraid of her daughter's boyfriend

Icie (left with her grandmother in the '90s), 18, was found with multiple stab wounds at the home of Shepard's third husband, Benny Birchfield
Icie, pictured with Jan earlier this year, moved in with her grandmother in the months before her death

Icie (left with her grandmother Jean Shepard in the '90s and right earlier this year), 18, was found with multiple stab wounds at the home of Shepard's third husband, Benny Birchfield

Birchfield (above in 2011 with Jean Shepard) underwent surgery after he too was stabbed multiple times in the attack

Birchfield (above in 2011 with Jean Shepard) underwent surgery after he too was stabbed multiple times in the attack

Det Sgt Jim Vaughn(left) and Det Jeff Brewer (right) of Hendersonville, TN Police Department show the large Bowie knife used in the murder

Det Sgt Jim Vaughn(left) and Det Jeff Brewer (right) of Hendersonville, TN Police Department show the large Bowie knife used in the murder

He had also slit her throat. 'The funeral director wouldn't allow an open casket the wounds were so bad,' added Sloan. 'It was a prolonged attack.'

Funeral services for Icie were due on Friday. Her family agreed with her wish that she be cremated.

'We had discussed it,' her mother said because Icie had suffered from Type 1 diabetes that was diagnosed when she was just 8-years-old.

'Because of her diabetes she knew her time on earth could be short, that's why we had spoken about it. She had to give herself injections, she was a very critical diabetic.

'Dealing with Type 1 diabetes is not just a physical disease but it's an emotional one too and it had a huge emotional impact on her whole outlook on life, that she could just go at any time, and I think that made her gravitate to someone who was having trouble and she really wanted to help Travis.'

Sloan said she initially thought her daughter might have had a diabetic seizure when she saw a police officer and a member of the clergy at her door early on Saturday morning.

'I asked them if she had had a seizure and they said no. The officer said she was stabbed and I immediately said 'Was it Travis?' and he said yes.

Velvet Sloan and Jordan Hammer both told DailyMail.com that Icie had confessed she thought that Sanders would kill her, but, despite threatening to break off the relationship, she continued to date him.

'Icie had wanted to break up with him for a while. She tried about three weeks ago,' Hammer said.

'But he did the typical manipulative thing telling her they were perfect for each other and persuaded her not to.

'She even told him: 'I'm scared you are going to kill me,' but he said he would never hurt her,' added Hammer.

'She showed me the message she sent him. She knew what he was capable of.'

Her mother also warned her after Icie had told her that Sanders was into devil worship. 'I told her guys like that will end up killing you and she just looked at me and said: "I know, I know."'

 

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