On June 9, 2008, a 30-year-old salesman, named Travis Alexander was brutally slain in his bathroom. His body wasn’t discovered for five days. He was stabbed between 27 and 29 times, shot in the head, and then his throat slit nearly ear to ear. His 28-year-old ex-girlfriend, Jodi Arias was arrested for the murder the following month.
Who Was Travis Alexander?
Travis Victor Alexander was a salesman and motivational speaker for Prepaid Legal Services and a devout Mormon. Travis was born on July 28, 1977, in California to Gary David Alexander and Elizabeth Morgan Alexander.
Travis moved to his grandparent’s house, at the age of 11, and after his father’s death, his seven siblings were also taken by their paternal grandmother.
Who Is Jodi Arias?
Jodi Arias, 26 was a blonde, beautiful, and aspiring photographer, their friends said that their connection was instant when they met for the first time.
In September 2006, Jodi met Travis for the first time. He was speaking at a professional conference for the company he worked at, Pre-Paid legal services in Las Vegas. Jodi was looking for opportunities with Pre-Paid legal services at that time. They hit off really well, Alexander even invited Jodi to the company’s formal executive dinner as his guest.
“She was really excited about the relationship. She loved how funny he was, how much fun they have together. Travis loved to take adventured and do different things,”- Alexander’s friend Sky Hughes.
After meeting Travis, Jodi broke up with her long-time live-in boyfriend, and the couple maintained a long-distance relationship for a few months, as they lived in different states, Travis was in Mesa, Arizona, and Jodi was in Palm Desert, California.
According to ABC, a friend described Jodi as “She’s beautiful, she’s friendly, has long, blonde hair. Cute figure, She was very sweet… and during the dinner, they talked the whole time. She seemed to like him as much as he liked her”
In November of that year, Jodi converted to Mormonism, and Travis Baptized her. Their relationship was highly sexual and tempestuous.
But some of Alexander’s friends who knew Jodi and observed them together tend to have a negative opinion of her, stating that the relationship was usually tumultuous and Jodi’s behavior was worrying.
Jodi and Travis broke up after 5 months, but they continued to be physically intimate and stayed in regular contact. It seemed okay for a while but the trouble began when Travis started dating another woman.
Jodi slashed his tries, hacked his social media account, and much more out of jealousy. According to People, Travis once told his friend, “Don’t be surprised if you find me dead one day.”
By the end of May 2008, Travis told Jodi to get out of his life forever, after getting tired of her antics.
Murder Of Travis Alexander
On May 28, 2008, just days before Alexander’s murder, a gun was stolen from Jodi’s grandparent’s house in a burglary. Jodi was living there at the time. The same gun was later used to shoot Alexander.
Alexander had planned a work-related trip to Mexico which was scheduled for June 15, with Jodi, in early 2008. But in April Alexander asked to change his travel companion to another female friend.
On June 2, between 1:00 am and 3:00 am, Jodi called Alexander four-time but he didn’t pick up the call, as the longest of all the call was of seventeen seconds.
Jodi called Alexander again after 3 am, they talked for eighteen minutes for the first time and 41 minutes for the second time. The last call between them lasted two minutes and 48 seconds.
Jodi then rented a car for a long trip to Utah, from Budget Rent a Car in Redding, California. She visited her friends in Southern California for a PPL work conference and then met with Ryan Burns, a PPL coworker.
Alexander had an important conference call on the evening of June 4, which he missed. The following day when Jodi Arias met up with Ryan Burns in Salt Lake City, Utah, and attended a business meeting for the conference.
Burns later said that he noticed that Jodi’s blonde hair was now dark brown and she had cuts on her hands.
Jodi Arias left Salt Lake City and drove to California on June 6. She called Alexander several times and left several voicemail messages for him. She even accessed his cell’s voicemail system.
When Jodi returned the car, the rental clerk testified that the car was driven about 2,800 miles. The rental clerk also testified that the car was missing its floor mats and had red stains on its front and rear seats. However, the stains were not examined as the company cleaned the car before the police even examined it.
Finding Alexander
After being unable to reach Alexander, a group of friends went to his home, on June 9. Even his roommates had not seen him for several days, but they believed that he was out of town.
After they went inside they found him in a large pool of blood, his body was discovered in the shower. They called 911, the dispatcher asked if Alexander had been suicidal or if anyone was angry enough to hurt him.
Alexander’s friends mentioned his ex-girlfriend Jodi Arias as a possible suspect, stating that she was staking him, accessing his Facebook account, and slashing his car’s tires.
Investigation and Discovery of the Camera
While searching at Alexander’s home, police found a camera in the washing machine. Upon further investigation, it was found that the camera was recently purchased, but was damaged in the washing machine.
However, police managed to recover the deleted images showing Jodi and Alexander in sexual poses,. The images were taken around 1:40 pm on June 4. Interestingly the camera has photographs of Alexander before, during, and after the murder.
Alexander’s last alive photo was taken at 5:29 pm that day. Photos taken moments later show an individual, believed to be Alexander, bleeding on the bathroom floor. A bloody palm print was also discovered on the wall in the bathroom hallway, it had DNA from both Jodi and Alexander.
Jodi Arias was arrested on July 15, 2008, on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Multiple Stories By Jodi Arias
She originally told the police that she had not been in Mesa on the day of the murder and she last saw Alexander in March 2008.
Two years after her arrest, she finally admitted to killing Alexander but in self defense, claiming that she had been a victim of domestic violence.
And when she was questioned by Mesa Detective, Esteban Flores, she told him that she’d arrived at 2 am, and they’d slept and had sex. She claimed that later on, while she was taking photographs of him in the shower, they were attacked by two masked intruders — a man and a woman — who wanted to kill Alexander. She said that they told her to leave and threatened to kill her family if she ever mentioned the incident to anyone.
No one believed her story and she was charged with first-degree murder.
The Bizarre Trial Of Jodi Arias
Jodi Arias took the stand in her own defense on February 4, 2013, she testified for a total of eighteen days. On the first day of her testimony, she told about being violently abused by her parents, which began at the age of 7.
She testified that she rented a car in Redding for Budget because the website gave her two options, One was to the north and the other was to the south, her brother lived in Redding.
The second day of the testimony was a bizarre one, she claimed that her sex life with Alexander included oral and anal sex, she kept telling about their sex life and how it was difficult and painful for the first time, and while she considered they’re a form of sex to be real sex, Alexander did not as they were against Mormon rules.
She played a tape of their phone-sex, in which Alexander said that he wanted to zip tie to a tree and have anal sex with her while she was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, which Jodi seemed to respond to enthusiastically.
She also claimed that Alexander secretly found young boys and girls sexually attractive and she tried to help him with his urges. The forensic expert team testified that an examination of Alexander’s computer found no such evidence of pornographic material.
She kept on going for 18 days and testified that he was angry at her and he even called her ‘bitch’ and hit her but when the dysfunction of their relationship reached its climax, she killed him in self-defense.
In an interview, Jodi said: “No jury is going to convict me… because I am innocent. You can mark my words on that.”
But during her testimony she said that at the time of the interview she had plans to commit suicide, so she was extremely confident that no jury world convict her, as she didn’t expect any of them to be there.
For most of its part, the prosecution pushed the fact that Jodi killed Alexander in a vengeful rage after learning that he had moved on with another woman. In fact, he was about to go on vacation with his new girlfriend, which he initially planned with Jodi.
But none of Jodi’s story worked and in Mar 2013, a jury convicted Jodi of First Degree murder. But the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on whether to sentence her to death. Jodi Arias was finally sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Bizarre Interrogation video of Jodi Arias
After four hours of lying to police, she began to sings, she laughs before the interrogation, she talks to herself, does a handstand and shoves a paper down her pants.
Jodi Arias Attended Travis Alexander’s Memorial Service
Jodi attended Alexander’s memorial service even though she knew that everyone suspected her of the killing. Alexander’s friend kept an eye on her and noted her bizarre behavior. Alexander’s friend claimed that she did not seem sad or neither shed any treas.
Where Is Jodi Arias now?
Jodi is currently serving her sentence at the Arizona State Prison Complex. In 2016, a phone call between her and rapper Kareem “Lefty” Williams was leaked tot he media.
Lefty, a rapper produced a video about her in order to bring awareness about PTSD and domestic violence – According to Radar.
The phone call is 15 minutes long and she claimed she’s getting lots of “love” behind bars. “If this is what it is like to be hated, keep hating… I’ve so much love coming in my direction I can’t even respond to it now.”
Jodi Arias does sketch and illustrations behind the bars, some of them are for sale online.
In 2019 April, she filed an appeal arguing that she hadn’t had a fair trial for various reasons, including that the trial judge in her case failed to protect her “from the massive, pervasive and prejudicial publicity during the trial.” and on March 24, 2020, the Arizona Appeals Court upheld her murder conviction.
