True Crime Database

Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander

It is no secret that long distancerelationships are difficult, especially when you become attached tothat person so quickly. And when it ends and you're forced to losethat attachment, this can be even harder. However, Jodi Arias wassomeone who reacted to this terribly, resorting to extreme methods toenact her form of justice. The murder of Travis Alexander at thehands of his ex-girlfriend is an infamous case amongst social media,due to the behaviour exhibited by the perpetrator and the shockingviolence of the crime.

Jodi Arias was born on July 9th,1980 in Salinas, California, the second eldest out of 5 children, toWilliam Angelo and Sandy S. Arias. Jodi claims that from the age of7, she was the victim of child abuse and would be hit with a belt andwooden spoons. A babysitter recalled that, at the age of 5 and 6,Jodi Arias had hit her younger brother with a baseball bat andclaimed that she did not know what had happened. When she was ateenager, her parents found out about her growing marijuana plants inher bedroom and called the police on her. Jodi left home at 17 anddropped out of high school in 11th Grade. She worked as awaitress in multiple restaurants – one of these jobs involved hereventually dating the food and beverage manager Darryl Brewer. Theybought a house together and paid $2800 each in mortgage payments. Shelater went on to get a job at LegalShield while balancing herwaitressing job and became involved with the Mormon Church.

Travis Alexander was born in Riverside,California, to Gary and Pamela Alexander on July 28th1977. In a Blogspot post written in 2008, Travis claimed that hisparents were drug addicts and that his father was never around. Hismother allegedly would beat them for minor issues, such as waking herup. At age 11, he moved in with his grandparents, who introduced himto the Mormon Church. Alexander became a devout Mormon from there on.He went on to become a salesman and a motivational speaker forLegalShield.

At a LegalShield conference in LasVegas, Nevada, in 2006, Jodi and Travis met for the first time.According to Jodi, there was immediate attraction between the coupleand the relationship turned sexual after a week. For a year and ahalf, they would have an on and off relationship, where they wouldtravel between each others houses in Arizona and California to meet.Jodi would even go so far as to become baptised in Travis' church andeven moved to Mesa to become closer to him. However, friends ofTravis say that they had a very negative opinion of Jodi and foundthat her behaviour was quite worrying.

In June 2007, the couple ended theirrelationship for good, although they continued to have multiplesexual encounters with each other. Alexander did officially startdating other women, claiming that he wanted to officially settle downand find someone he could marry. However, strange behaviouralpatterns started occurring in his and his partners lives. On twooccasions, his tires had been slashed and he and his partner wouldrepeatedly be sent threatening anonymous emails. Travis allegedlytold friends that he suspected Jodi to be the culprit behind all ofthis, even climbing in through his dog flap when he was sleeping. In2008, Travis had enough after suspecting that Jodi was hacking intohis social media and bank accounts, ending their relationship forgood and cutting all ties with her.

Although Jodi was originally going tobe joining Travis on a work trip to Cancun, Mexico, he asked if hecould change his travel companion to another female friend. On May28th, there was a break-in reported at the residence ofJodi's grandparents house, where she was living – one of themissing objects was a .25-caliber automatic Colt pistol. Aftermultiple phone calls between the two and dyeing her hair brown, Jodirented a car and drove to Alexander's home in Mesa, Arizona on June2nd.Although surprised to see her, the two ended up havingsex, taking photos of themselves whilst in the act. Jodi ended upreturning home on June 4th and returned the rental car.This would be the last time any of Travis' friends would hear fromhim.

After not hearing from Travis for aweek, a group of friends turned up at his house, concerned when hemissed an important meeting and failed to show up for the work tripto Mexico. His roommate believed he was out of town, due to hisbedroom door being locked. However, once they looked inside, theyfound Travis dead on the floor of the shower. He had his throat slit,a gunshot to the brow and 27 stab wounds, with defensive marks on hishands. His death was officially ruled as a homicide.

While searching his apartment, policefound a digital camera in the washing machine, a .25-caliber roundwith a shell casing to match, and a bloody handprint in the wall ofthe shower. The .25-caliber shell matched with the gun and shellsthat had been stolen from Jodi's grandparents a few days before.Friends of Travis also reported to police that Jodi and Travis had avery tumultuous relationship, with Jodi even stalking him. Policewere able to recover the deleted photos on the digital camera, whichshowed photos of them in sexually explicit positions, taken atvarious times on June 4th. The final photograph showedTravis on the floor, bleeding profusely. The handprint on the wallwas tested for DNA, which was found to be a match to both Travis andJodi. Associates of Jodi also noted that when she returned the rentalcar, she had various scratches on her hands.

On July 9th 2008, Jodi wasindicted on charges of first-degree murder and was arrested on July15th. She was extradited to Arizona and pleaded not guiltyto the charges. In interviews with the police, she claimed that shehad not seen Travis since April of that year. However, afterrealising that the police knew that they had been together the daythat he was murdered, she changed her story and claimed that twointruders had broken into his house and murdered him. She was alsoseen acting strangely on the CCTV footage when the interviewers leftthe room for a period of time, such as singing to herself and doinghandstands. Two years after her arrest, Jodi finally admitted to themurder, claiming it was in self defence and alleging that she hadbeen the victim of domestic violence.

The trial on Jodi Arias commenced onDecember 10th 2012, four years after Travis' murder. Shewas deemed competent to stand trial and agreed to take the stand inher own defence. Her defence team used the claim that Jodi was avictim of domestic violence during the trial and that she only killedTravis in self defence. Jodi answered questions on the stand for 18days, making allegations that she was abused by her parents andpainting Travis to be a physical and emotional abuser. Phoneconversations between her and Travis were played, many of which hadbeen recorded without Travis' knowledge – some of these tapesincluded graphic sexual detail, as Jodi claimed she wanted to use thetapes to embarrass him in front of his church. Jodi Arias alsoclaimed that Travis found young boys girls sexually attractive andthat he was a pedophile. The relationship reached its climax when shehad supposedly dropped his camera and he became enraged. However,multiple others who were called to testify denounced many of theseclaims against Travis. Many did not believe her accusations, evencomparing her to Casey Anthony, who accused her father of sexuallyabusing her as a child.

On May 7th 2013, after manycontradictory statements in her statements and overwhelming evidenceagainst her being presented, Jodi Arias was found guilty of firstdegree murder, with every member of the jury in agreement over herguilt. During the sentencing phase, two different juries were indeadlock over whether Jodi should be given a life sentence or a deathpenalty. Eventually, the decision was handed over to the judge overthe case, and he sentenced her to a life sentence without thepossibility of parole. She is currently at the Arizona State PrisonComplex and is a high risk level 5 prisoner. She is under maximumsecurity and has been creating art to earn money.