*Please be aware that I will be sharing some very disturbing details in this post. I will be talking about murder, domestic violence and stalking. I will, as always, aim to be as sensitive as I can be with the details whilst not taking away from the facts of the case*
It's hard to believe that it's been 16 years since the shocking murder of Travis Alexander occurred at the hands of his ex-lover turned obsessed stalker, Jodi Arias. The trial may be over, Jodi might be behind bars and some time may have passed but still to this day, the case remains a huge talking point, some people are still fascinated about what really happened here. The crime itself, the gruesome way in which Travis was murdered left people in shock and disbelief that one, small built woman could be capable of carrying out such savagery on a grown man.
A lot of us watched the trial, most of us heard the cringe-worthy audios of Jodi and Travis where they discussed sex. We saw the messages, we heard the story, we saw the disturbing autopsy pictures as well as the x-rated photographs that had been taken just before Travis was murdered. We couldn't believe our eyes and ears to what we had seen and heard in this case.
I have written about Jodi Arias briefly in this blog and I always planned to come back to the case and write about it in a bit more detail, so here I am. I hope you will find this post informative and I hope you will share your thoughts with me either below in the comments or by email (jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com)
So let's start by talking a little bit about Jodi's background. Jodi Ann Arias was born on the 9th of July 1980 in California. She has two sisters and two brothers and according to those around her, Jodi had a pretty normal childhood, nothing alarming to report. Jodi's versions of events differ though and during her trial she tried to paint herself as a victim of child abuse as a youngster. Her parents and the rest of her family have continued to deny this to this day. Jodi claims that her mother would walk around with a wooden spoon and reportedly use it at times to administer punishment.
The family were extremely close and this was later demonstrated that despite everything that she had done, her family still support her and visit her.
Jodi was pretty, popular and was a very creative child and this continued right up until she had met Travis Alexander. She was a talented artist and photographer and it was her dream to do that full time. Despite the close relationship with her family and decent amount of friends, Jodi suffered from what people close to her would say as 'little moments where she would freak out with anxiety' and her parents would be contacted and they'd be able to calm her down. These anxious moments would grow worse when she finally moved out of her parents house. The same routine would happen where her mother would go and get her with an aim to trying to calm her down. So no matter how old Jodi was there was always somebody there to pick up the pieces and support her even later on too when the truth about what she had been doing to Travis before and after his death, was known.
Despite being a very pretty young woman with model like features and artistic talent, Jodi still had a very child-like insecurity and often acted way younger than her years. Never short of attention from the opposite sex, she had relationships and a serious one with a single father who she had actually moved in with for some time. At this time in her life it seemed that she had finally found some security and a solid relationship which helped her to grow up a little bit. The man was older than she was but he treated her with respect and she was an amazing step-mother figure to his son.
After some time though, this relationship would fizzle out but Jodi was able to demonstrate how much she had grown in this experience because she and this man were able to continue to have a close friendship, nothing sexual, just a friendship on a mature level and continued to have respect for each other. The break-up was done in a very amicable way.
I think one of the things that intrigues some people about Jodi Arias is that she seemed to have a lot of things going for her but she just couldn't see it, there seemed to be this lack of something in her life. She was indeed a narcissist but could also be very self critical and be shy with compliments from others.
It was a change of employment that saw her come into contact with Travis Alexander. She had not long been working for a Pre-Paid Legal Services (PPL) company when she had been invited along to a conference in September of 2006 and this was where she first laid eyes on Travis who was there as a motivational speaker giving a presentation. She was completely captivated by him and his air of confidence and charismatic personality. He seemed to be quite a handsome young guy with a friendly personality and seemed to be well liked around those who engaged and worked with him, he had many friends and was admired.
The background to Travis Alexander was that he had come up from some pretty difficult times. His start in life wasn't the best due to his parent's struggles with substance abuse and financial difficulties. Travis later spoke about how he grew up in a home with only mouldy food to eat and lack of proper care. He eventually went to live with his grandparents along with his seven siblings and it was this that he believed had saved his life. Travis was a little bit older than Jodi, having been born on the 28th of July 1977 in California. He was a very self-motivated individual who was also quite creative and talented, he had admirable leadership skills and was a great public speaker so with all of that and his boyband looks, it was no surprise that Jodi took a shine to him.
When they first met at the conference it was like an instant spark between the pair of them and it was very much both ways. Travis was equally as taken with Jodi as she was with him. Working for the same company and exchanging phone numbers, they planned to stay in touch but at this point, Jodi lived quite far away from Travis but she was determined to see him again. They ended up contacting each other and both of them would go back and fourth travelling to see each other. They would send endless texts and emails to each other as well as explicit pictures and engage in regular phone sex. The passion was clearly there between the two of them but Travis had another side of his life which he was trying to maintain and that was his respectable reputation as an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It seemed that Travis had all kinds of layers to him as people often do but some aspects of his life appeared to be fake.
For someone who preached about the rules of the Latter-day Saints and the clean-cut lifestyle they had to maintain, Travis was drinking, smoking and getting up to all sorts with Jodi and other women. He also reportedly did stand-up comedy from time to time under an 'alter-ego' he called ''Eddie Snell''. So it was pretty hard to figure him out because he seemed to be in a bit of a conflict because he preached the Mormon lifestyle and wanted a proper Mormon wife but at the same time he had this 'Jack The Lad' lifestyle behind closed doors.
As the relationship with Jodi grew more intense, so did Jodi's infatuation with Travis. He was clearly attracted to her and enjoyed having this beautiful blonde girl on his arm but at the same time to him it seemed to be a bit of fun, a naughty risk. Travis was also a raving narcissist but he could be quite cold with it whereas Jodi just wanted to be loved, he seemed to have an arrogance about him. If you've had a chance to listen to the tapes that were played at Jodi's trial you will hear how she is constantly fishing for compliments from him and desperately seeks his approval and praise. He on the other hand is enjoying the attention that he's getting from her and with Jodi's pushing for compliments, for example when she says that she didn't feel confident in front of the camera and that she didn't think she looked that great whilst also seeking his approval on an online profile picture she had just uploaded. It was almost as if he was struggling to say something nice, the best she could get out of him eventually was that she was photogenic and that she looked good. The conversation immediately turned to sex because she knew that was the only way she could get his attention and interest. She knew that for him it was purely a sexual thing and it's evident (especially later) when all of that pent up rage came tumbling out.
In their strange relationship (which started off very hot and heavy) it was very much the Travis show and he did have her at his beck and call and in my opinion, exploited the fact that she was infatuated with him and insecure. He would tell his friends that she was stalking him but he was sleeping with her and communicating with her voluntarily all the way up until the day of the murder. He never reported her to the police despite the fact that she had slashed his car tyres, had gotten into his house a number of times, hacked into his Facebook, warned other women to stay away from him and had access to his private voicemails.
He used Jodi as his personal sex slave and she went along with it in the hopes that somehow he would fall in love with her. At one point he asked her to do some work for him in the house as a cleaner, he insisted that she wear a maid's outfit, high heels and stockings whilst doing the cleaning. He paid her for this work and Jodi went along with it because she did anything that pleased him. Not long after they'd met and were getting closer, she joined his church and was baptised in the hope that this would impress him and that he'd see her as wife material. In the beginning he had apparently said to a friend that he saw Jodi as wife material when he first met her. As time went on though, he didn't treat her as a wife, he treated her as a dirty secret, sleeping with her whilst keeping up a respectable image in front of the church and work colleagues. Whilst all of this was going on he was seeing other women, the type of women you would take home to meet your Mother, wholesome, white blouses, no make-up, pies in the oven etc sort of women.
Jodi of course knew all of this and the anger inside was building up but she wasn't going to give up trying to make him see her as marriage material and to love her the way she wanted him to. I'm probably going to offend some people with my thoughts on this case but having researched this case and watched the trial, listened to the tapes, read the court documents etc quite a few times, it's clear to me that Travis enjoyed the attention of this beautiful blonde woman who would do anything for him sexually and I cringe saying that but he encouraged her and led her on, he knew how she felt about him and he exploited that for his own gain.
I'm not letting Jodi off the hook because she was clearly unstable and how she acted was appalling but he was getting mixed signals, he wasn't telling her to leave him alone, he continued to sleep with her and message her, he never called the police. She had it in her mind that there was something more between them and that's why she felt the anger, rage and rejection when she found out that he was pursuing other women whilst using her for sex.
This was always going to end badly and the final straw came on Wednesday 4th of June 2008. Jodi who was supposed to be his stalker (and she did stalk him, as previously mentioned, slashing his tyres, hacking his messages etc) was yet again in bed with Travis. They'd had sex and started taking explicit photographs and I remember seeing these photographs everywhere. Travis took various pictures of Jodi in various positions and she looked uncomfortable, she also took some pictures of him. Once they were done fooling around with the camera etc, at some point Travis went to take a shower. Jodi decided to do some of her usual sneaking around Travis's personal belongings and discovered that he had been planning a trip with a woman he'd been regularly messaging.
I think it was clear at that point that this was never going to go the way she wanted, she knew he was just using her to get his rocks off and he didn't love her. One wonders if she was sat there thinking about all of the degrading things she had done in a pathetic attempt to get him to love her as well all the travelling she did, moving closer to be near him, becoming a Mormon, doing everything he wanted and it was just never going to happen with them. It's unclear how events unfolded step by step but what we do know is that Jodi Arias flew into a terrifying rage and attacked Travis. It was very gruesome and brutal and the things that she did could only have been committed during a full rage meltdown, the strength that her attack took was all of that rage and anger pouring out.
When it was all said and done, Travis had been subjected to 27 stab wounds, his throat was slashed so much that he was almost decapitated, there was defensive wounds on his hands from where he had tried to protect himself and a gunshot to the head. It was horrendous, overkill in the extreme. Anyone would be forgiven for thinking that this horrific scene had been caused by a gang of people or at least two strong men but no, it was all Jodi Arias, all that inner rage gave her that frightening strength.
As I believe this murder was not planned, Jodi left evidence all over the place. There was a hand print on the wall, hers and Travis's DNA was everywhere and strands of her hair were also found. She attempted to damage the camera where they had taken photographs but that didn't work out for her either, investigators were able to retrieve all of the pictures taken that day before she murdered Travis.
After the murder she fled the scene and tried to cover her tracks by dying her hair, trying to act normal and making calls to Travis's phone as well as leaving messages. Even though he was deceased she still checked his personal voicemails too.
The horrible scene and situation in which Travis was left in was horrendous, as much as he had aspects of his life where he was dishonest and took advantage of certain people, on the whole he was a good guy and did not deserve this horrifying attack. To be basically slaughtered in your own house when you are naked having a shower, the vulnerability, indignity and lack of respect just leaves one speechless. Both of them could have walked away, I'm not blaming him for what happened to him but he could have told her many times to leave him alone, contacted the police, done something instead of continuing to basically use her for sex.
And Jodi should have had more self respect and realised her own worth and moved on with her life away from him. She was an attractive woman, other relationships would have come around at some point but she was utterly obsessed with him.
The gruesome crime scene was discovered by his friends who had gone over to check on him after they had been concerned at him not responding to calls and messages. It's heartbreaking to listen to the 911 call and those poor people having to go in there and see that horrible sight. They found blood everywhere and Travis crumpled up naked in the shower. A terrible and undignified way to be treated and just left there. It was cold and it was heartless. When the 911 operator asked the group a few questions about Travis they told them about Jodi and all that had been going on with the slashed tyres and the stalking.
Jodi was arrested and questioned. As she sat in the interrogation room with her freshly dyed brown hair, she had been recorded on camera on the moments that officers were out of the room. Her behaviour was very bizarre to say the least, she was singing, acting like a toddler, started talking to herself as well as doing handstands up against the wall. She later claimed that these actions were to shake of the stress she was under.
The evidence the cops had on her was overwhelming obviously but she pleaded not guilty at first. Then she came up with a story that two people dressed as Ninjas had broken into Travis's house and murdered him whilst deciding if they would murder her but they decided to let her go. This story didn't wash with the cops and so she came up with another story, that Travis put her through domestic abuse.
At her trial she did her best to paint herself as the pathetic figure. The makeup was off, the hair was still brown and mousy and she was often seen wearing frumpy blouses and glasses. She was trying everything she could to look downtrodden, like she was the actual victim just defending herself.
In the courtroom everything was all laid out there for everyone to see and hear. All the videos, audios and pictures are online for the public to see, they even played the phone sex audio as Jodi sat there with her head down. I think everyone in the courtroom and at home watching, was cringing at that.
Jodi Arias was found guilty of the first degree murder of Travis Alexander and was sentenced to life without parole which in the UK also means a whole life order. She will never leave prison alive. As we speak she is said to have been a model prisoner and been quite popular with the staff and fellow inmates, she had campaigned recently for extra books for a library and had gotten her wish, the inmates were thankful to her for that. It's a wonder what Jodi has told the inmates about what happened with Travis but one can imagine that they would take more of a sympathetic view if they were to believe that she was indeed a victim of domestic violence who finally had enough one day and struck back.
Jodi Arias also has a huge fan base believe it or not, she has supporters who believe that Travis had abused her and they are focused on getting her out of prison and having her sentence reduced. Jodie receives a lot of fan mail and a lot of it is from men, she is said to have had some romantic relationships with pen pals. I know that there are some men who obviously find her attractive but the fact that she is a murderer seems to be a bit of a turn-on for them for some sickening reason, like it would be a risk for them.
This case will always been shocking to everyone who comes across it. The horrendous way in which Travis Alexander was murdered was not only the stuff of nightmares but was another horrifying example that men can also be victims of domestic violence and vicious physical attacks by women. Travis may have been a bit of a love rat and I don't mean to speak ill of the dead but we have to be honest here, you don't sleep with your stalker and continue to contact them whilst telling everyone else she's your stalker. He knew she was unhinged but because he enjoyed the sex and the attention he carried on with it, ignoring the consequences.
Nobody could have seen how far Jodi was going to take it, they knew she was capable of hacking and slashing cars but actual brutal murder? She would always appear to be quite fragile and soft spoken to friends and family, people who knew her for years, the person who committed this horrendous crime was not someone they knew, it was like they didn't recognise her. What happened with Jodi (and I'm making no excuses for her) was that she was unhealthily obsessed with Travis and would stop at nothing to have him even if it meant degrading herself in the process, a lot of women out there do this, they do everything for a certain man expecting that the man will fall in love with them and in the end they are taken advantage of. The sad truth is that some men and women will take advantage of an over enthusiastic lover and they will have it all their way until they get bored. Travis was a man who wanted his cake and to eat it to. I have no doubt that he had it in mind that he would marry a wholesome Mormon lady and continue to have Jodi on the side for the kinky sex, maybe Jodi could see this and was fed up being a dirty secret?
Further reading & sources:
- Travis Alexander: Article | ABC News
- Travis Alexander & Jodi Arias: Article | Paramount Press
- Jodi Arias: Article | NBC News
- Murder of Travis Alexander | Wikipedia
- Jodi Arias: Article | People Magazine
- Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars | Book by Juan Martinez
- Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret | Made for TV Drama based on the case
- Jodi Arias: Court Documents | Maricopa County Attorney Office
- Jodi Arias: Article | The Independent
- Jodi Arias: Interrogation Videos
Shout out as always to the amazing Newspapers.com for allowing me access to numerous newspaper articles for not only this case but for others. Be sure to check out the site, it's amazing, they have historical newspapers right up to present time from all over the world.
RIP Travis, those who knew you best will never forget the kindness and love you showed them and those who you inspired will never forget the things you said and the self-motivation and hope you gave them. You left your mark in this world and your life was so cruelly taken too soon.
I would love to know your thoughts on this case. Thank you for taking the time to read my post if you've made it this far and I hope you will join me in the next one. In the meantime I hope to see you for a chat on my Socials, Take care until next post x
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