Jodi Arias’ case is one of the most highly publicized America has ever seen. From the
day they met to the day Arias was locked up for murder, the story of Jodi Arias and Travis
Alexander is laced with twists and turns that'll shock you.
28-year-old Jodi Arias first met 30-year-old Travis Alexander in September of 2006 at a
Pre-Paid Legal services (or PPL) convention in Las Vegas. Arias had previously been working
as a freelance photographer when a friend told her to check out the multi-level marketing
company for some new opportunities.
Alexander was already established as a prominent salesman of PPL, and known to be a devout
Mormon. Nonetheless, the pair hit it off upon meeting and the relationship was off to the
races. They immediately began their ill-fated correspondence.
The same week she met Alexander, Arias swiftly broke up with her live-in boyfriend of four
years, and went to spend the weekend with her newfound love. It seems the attraction
was mutual as Alexander wrote to a friend,
"I went from intrigued by her to interested in her to caring about her deeply to realizing
how lucky I would be to have her as part of my life forever... She is amazing. It is not
hard to see that whoever scores Jodi, whether it be me or someone else, is gonna win the
wife lotto."
Unfortunately the fiery nature of their relationship would eventually result in Alexander's death.
Travis Alexander had been a practicing Mormon since he was a child, and though he often
broke the rules of the religion, it was no secret that he had a strong allegiance to
the Church of Latter-Day Saints.
In order to be the woman she thought he wanted, Jodi Arias also converted to Mormonism so
that they could have religious grounding in common. As one of the elders at his church,
Alexander was one of the people who conducted Arias' baptism in November of 2006.
Despite the newly made commitment, Alexander and Arias' sexual relationship didn't slow
down. In fact, the now-convicted murderer admitted she and her late victim had sex on
the very night of her baptism.
This wasn't the first time Arias had swapped religions for a lover. During one of her testimonies,
Arias admitted she had dabbled in several religions introduced to her by past boyfriends.
The ever-experimental photographer confessed that she had delved into Christianity, Hinduism,
Buddhism, and even witchcraft before meeting Travis and getting into Mormonism.
Torrid as the relationship was, at first, friends of Travis Alexander thought the whirlwind
romance with Jodi Arias was charming. However, soon after they began dating, Alexander's
friends noticed that Arias was a bit possessive and obsessive over him.
Arias' behavior was sending such screeching red flags that her beau's friends decided
to stage an intervention for him.
Sky Hughes, a close friend of Alexander's said to ABC News,
"We were just telling him all the things that we were worried about with her, and I said,
'She's scary, there's something wrong with her.”
In a now eerily prophetic statement, Hughes also revealed to her late pal,
"[I’m] afraid we're going to find you chopped up in her freezer."
As the intervention was going on, Hughes got a, quote, "cold feeling" that Arias was listening
in on the conversation. When Alexander went to open the door, sure enough, they found
the now-convicted murderer standing right outside looking severely displeased. Hughes
stated,
"The look on her face [...] was just evil.”
Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander's relationship ended almost as fast as it began. They officially
began dating in February 2007 and the star-crossed lovers were broken up by June. Both parties
agreed to start seeing other people but couldn't stay away from each other.
The pair maintained their correspondence, and in April 2008, Arias decided to move from
her home in Yreka, California to Mesa, Arizona — where Alexander resided.
Soon after, the salesman revealed to his friends that Arias was exhibiting some unsettling
behavior — to put it mildly. Among the curious actions in question was Arias' habit of showing
up to Alexander's house unannounced and letting herself in.
In the book, "Killer Girlfriend: The Jodi Arias Story," author Brian Skoloff stated
that the late salesman admitted to his friends Arias even went as far as breaking in through
the doggy door to gain access to his home.
When he began seeing other people, Arias also slashed his tires and, on several occasions,
went to the women's houses and rang their doorbells, only to run away. While her behavior
had everyone on alert, friends weren't aware of the fact that Arias and Alexander were
still in communication.
They would later find out the two maintained a sexual relationship, engaging in intimate
behavior via text messaging and phone conversations.
In April 2008, the two agreed that they needed some real distance, and Jodi Arias returned
to Yreka where she moved in with her grandparents. Still, the two maintained their hot and heavy
phone interactions, some of which Arias secretly recorded.
An entry on Alexander's "Being Better" blog may have been the final trigger. Alexander
spelled out all the qualities of the type of woman he would want to marry, and Arias
simply didn't fit the description.
On top of that, the chemistry between the two of them had gone from hot to extremely
volatile, with Arias threatening to release their explicit recording and Alexander allegedly
calling her a, quote, "evil sociopath."
Tired of the back and forth and the tumultuous nature of their relationship, Arias began
plotting the murder. On May 28, 2008, Arias' grandparent's home was burglarized and the
supposed perpetrator walked away with several objects including her grandfather's .25 caliber
gun.
During that same time period, Arias had also begun seeing Ryan Burns, another PPL salesman.
The two made plans to meet up in Salt Lake City at a company conference in June. Prior
to leaving, Arias picked up two gas cans from a former lover, stating California gas prices
were cheaper. It was later found out the cans were a ploy so she didn't fill up while in
Mesa.
On June 4, 2008, Jodi Arias drove from California to Mesa, where she met up with Travis Alexander
at his home. The pair spent the day having sex and taking explicit photos of each other.
Afterward, Alexander decided to get in the shower.
While he was showering, Arias continued taking candid photos of him. In what's believed to
be his last photo alive, Alexander has a perplexed look on his face that some speculate was the
realization that something bad was about to happen.
Arias stabbed Alexander at least 26 times, with the victim sustaining defensive wounds
along the way. She then proceeded to slit his throat and then shot him in the head,
sealing his fate.
Evidence found the bullet was from a .25 caliber gun — the same type of gun that had been
stolen from her grandfather's house. Neither the gun nor the knife were ever recovered.
As the murder was taking place, Arias thought she turned off the camera, but in actuality,
it continued capturing blurry photos showing pools of Alexander's blood. These were later
shown at the trial.
Arias attempted to delete all pictures by throwing the camera in Alexander's washing
machine, along with bloodied towels she used to wipe up some blood. She then ran the contents
through a wash cycle, and left the home soon after.
Though her behavior prior to the murder was extremely bizarre, her actions after the killing
were twice as perplexing. After leaving Travis Alexander's home, Jodi Arias finally called
Ryan Burns and told him she was on her way to Utah.
She was a day late, but excused her extreme tardiness by saying she accidentally drove
in the wrong direction and had stopped to rest at some point. While in Utah, Burns said
Arias was friendly and upbeat and showed no signs that anything was wrong.
In his court testimony, Burns said,
"She was fine, she was laughing about simple little things like any other person [...] I
never once felt like anything was wrong about the day [...] Socially, the first time I saw
her in a crowd, I thought she was much more comfortable one-on-one. [...] [But] one-on-one
she was very talkative.”
The odd thing was the fact that she was wearing long sleeves in hot weather and had some cuts
on her hands. Arias explained this by saying she sustained the injuries while waitressing.
Because of the Recession, Travis Alexander had two roommates renting rooms in his house,
so he could pay his extremely high mortgage. However, though one of them was home for the
entire time Alexander lay dead in his shower, it wasn't until friends of his sought him
out that his body was discovered.
On the day that he died, Alexander had an important conference call scheduled for 7
p.m. His friends found the absence curious. However, when he didn’t show up for a business
trip to Mexico, they decided to pay him a visit.
On June 9, 2008, five days after his killing, one of Alexander's roommates, along with his
friend, entered the horrific bedroom and found him dead in his shower. In a harrowing 911
call, a friend of Alexander's called out Arias as a primary suspect. She stated,
"He has an ex-girlfriend that's been bothering him. [...] [She's] been following him and
slashing tires, things like that."
Though it only took a few days for friends to suspect something was up, the roommates
didn't have an inkling the entire five days. They claimed they never smelled any decomposition
despite the fact that his body was in there for nearly a week.
Just over a month after the murder, cops showed up at Jodi Arias' home to arrest her for the
murder of Travis Alexander. She didn't put up a fight nor did she seem scared. However,
Arias seemed to be very much concerned about how she looked while being arrested.
Prior to being taken to the station, Arias never asked to alert her grandparents, and
her manner seemed composed. Instead, she surprised arresting officer Flores by asking to get
her purse so she could put some makeup on. He declined.
Once at the precinct, right before she was booked, Arias also asked to, quote, "freshen
up" before getting her mugshot taken. When told no, she was seen on surveillance fluffing
her hair to give it more body and reprimanding herself, stating,
"You should've at least put your makeup on, Jodi, gosh."
For everyone who knew about Travis Alexander's relationship with Jodi Arias, the young photographer
was the prime suspect in their minds. However, it took a while for Arias to finally come
around to admitting that she had any involvement in his demise.
On the night that she was arrested, Arias told officials that she didn't even know that
her former flame was murdered, and was hellbent on the fact that she had nothing to do with
it.
However, after spending the night in jail, Arias came back with an elaborate story about
how the pair got attacked while in Alexander's home. She claimed two intruders came into
the house while she was taking photos of Alexander as he was in the shower, and began attacking
both of them.
Arias claimed she survived because the intruders were specifically targeting Alexander. She
told Detective Flores that she didn't go to the authorities because she was scared.
“I was scared, and I couldn’t imagine calling 911 and telling them what I had just
done.”
But that wasn't the end of it. During the trial, Arias claimed to have killed Alexander
in self-defense. She told the court that they got into a fight where he physically attacked
her and she accidentally shot the gun. Arias insinuated that Alexander had previously been
physically abusive and that's why she panicked.
One of the more captivating aspects of the Jodi Arias case was her brazen attitude. It
seemed no matter who she was talking to, she spoke with conviction even though she was
lying most of the time. One of the instances that intrigued the nation was her interview
with Inside Edition.
At the time it was conducted, Arias was already in custody for the murder, awaiting trial
and maintaining the burglary narrative. People were shocked that she came off as innocent
and almost believable. She confidently told the interviewer,
"I know that I'm innocent. God knows that I'm innocent. Travis knows.”
She continued,
“Because I'm innocent, and you can mark my words on that one. No jury will convict
me."
With so much evidence already stacked against her, the statement made an already implausible
case that much more compelling, as the public was both shaken and intrigued by Arias' attitude.
As part of her self-defense claim during the trial in 2014, Arias admitted that she was
so brazen only because she thought she would commit suicide at some point. She told the
jury,
"I was very confident that no jury would convict me because I was sure I'd be dead. [...] Those
are probably the most bitter words I'll ever eat."
Between the explicit audio recording, provocative photos, Arias taking the stand, and the jury
getting to ask her questions, the trial of Jodi Arias became a media sensation. Perhaps
because of the femme fatale angle, the trial became a breeding ground for the press and
fodder for social media, especially since it took place when Twitter was at its height.
A seat on the sidewalk of the courthouse even cost $200 at one point. TV networks such as
HLN and ABC also created special slots to cover the case. Key players in the trial also
became pseudo-celebrities. At one point, the prosecution’s lawyer Juan Martinez had to
take secret exits because fans would swarm the main entrance begging for his autograph.
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