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Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Monday, December
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twenty ninth, twenty twenty five, continuing our twelve Crimes of
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Christmas series today and tomorrow. The obsessive ex girlfriend who
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committed one of the most brutal murders in Arizona history
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and then lied about it three different times. June ninth,
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two thousand and eight, Mesa, Arizona, Travis Alexander's friends were
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worried they hadn't heard from him in five days. They
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were supposed to be coordinating a trip to Cancun, Travis
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was taking a new woman. Everything was planned, but Travis
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wasn't answering his phone, so they went to his house.
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Found the door unlocked, found his dog still inside, found blood,
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followed it to the master bathroom. Travis Alexander was crumpled
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on the shower floor, thirty years old, decomposing. He'd been
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dead for five days. The autopsy would reveal the horror
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twenty seven stab wounds, defensive wounds on his hands. He'd
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tried to fight back. His throat was slit so deep
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his head was nearly severed, and a single gunshot wound
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to the forehead. This wasn't just murder, This was overkill,
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This was rage. This was someone who wanted Travis Alexander
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to suffer. His friends knew immediately who to tell police about.
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Jody Arius, his ex girlfriend, the one who wouldn't leave
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him alone, the one he'd called a sociopath, the one
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he'd warned them about. Don't be surprised if you find
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me dead one day. Travis Alexander said those exact words
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to his friends months before Jody Arius proved him right.
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I'm read Carter. This is Celebrity Trials Today, Part one.
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The relationship, the obsession, the murder, and the lies Jody
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Arius told before the truth caught up with her. Someone
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has to say, say his name. Travis Alexander. Travis Victor
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Alexander was born July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy seven in Riverside, California.
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His childhood was a nightmare. His parents were drug addicts.
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He and his siblings were neglected, abused. They learned to
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fend for themselves because nobody else would. But Travis escaped,
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got out of that environment, found structure in the Mormon Church,
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the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. His
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faith became his foundation. He was baptized, became devout, lived
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by the principles he'd learned. By his late twenties, Travis
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was thriving. He worked as a salesman for Prepaid Legal Services,
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a company that sold legal insurance plans. He was good
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at it, Charismatic, motivational, the kind of guy who could
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work a room make everyone feel special. He traveled for conferences,
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gave speeches, inspired others. He lived in a nice house
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in Mesa, Arizona, had friends who loved him, was building
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a career, dating, looking for a wife. Travis Alexander had
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survived a terrible childhood and created a good life. September
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two thousand and six, Las Vegas Prepaid Legal Services convention.
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Travis was thirty years old, working the crowd, being Travis.
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That's when he met Jody Arias. She was twenty six
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from Selinas, California, Blonde, beautiful, aspiring photographer. She was there
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with a boyfriend at the time, a man named Darryl
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Brewer she'd been living with for four years. But Jody's
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attention locked onto Travis. The attraction was immediate electric His
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friends noticed it right away. Travis was smitten. Two within weeks,
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Jody had broken up with Daryl. Within months, she was
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being baptized into the Mormon Church, Travis's faith. By February
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two thousand and seven, they were officially dating. Travis's friends
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were thrilled. At first, he seemed happy he'd found someone.
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In an email to a friend, Travis wrote about Jody,
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I went from intrigued by her to interested in her,
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to caring about her deeply, to realizing how lucky I
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would be to have her as part of my life forever.
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She is amazing. Whoever scores Jody, whether it be me
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or someone else, is going to win the wife Lotto.
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The wife Lotto. That's how Travis described Jody Arius in
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early two thousand and seven. But something was wrong from
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the beginning, and Travis's friends saw it before he did.
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Here's what Travis Alexander's friends noticed about Jody Erias. She
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was always there, always hovering. If Travis was having a conversation,
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Jody was listening. If he went to the bathroom, she
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waited outside the door. If he was texting, she was
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reading over his shoulder. She monitored everything. Sky Hughes, one
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of Travis's closest friends, tried to warn him early on.
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She saw the red flags, the possessiveness, the way Jody
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inserted herself into every aspect of Travis's life. But Travis
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was in love, or thought he was, he didn't listen.
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By summer two thousand and seven, the relationship was falling apart.
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Travis wanted to date other women. He was a devout Mormon,
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looking for a wife, someone to marry in the temple,
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have children with, and something about Jody wasn't right. He
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could feel it, even if he couldn't articulate it. They
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broke up, but Jody didn't accept it. She moved from
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California to Mesa, Arizona, rented an apartment close to Travis's house,
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close enough to watch him, close enough to show up unannounced.
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The stalking began. Travis told his friends what was happening.
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Jody slashed his tires, not once, multiple times. She hacked
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into his Facebook account, read his messages, forwarded conversations he
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was having with other women to herself. She harassed the
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women he tried to date. She snuck into his house
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through the doggy door, let herself in while he was sleeping.
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Travis would wake up and find her standing over his bed.
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Let me repeat that Jody Arius would break into Travis
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Alexander's house and stand over him while he slept. That's
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not love, that's not jealousy, that's predator behavior. Travis called
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her a sociopath in text messages, wrote to her, you
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don't know what horror you have caused me. Called her
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evil in another message. The relationship had become toxic, dangerous,
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and Travis knew it. But here's the problem. Travis didn't
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fully cut her off. Even after the breakup. Even after
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the stalking, they kept having sex. Jody would show up,
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they'd sleep together, and then Travis would tell his friends
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he was done with her. He wasn't done, and neither she.
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His friends begged him to end it completely, to get
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a restraining order to protect himself. Sky Hughes told him
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directly that Jody was dangerous, that something was seriously wrong
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with her. Travis acknowledged it, told his friends something chilling.
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Don't be surprised if you find me dead one day.
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He knew. On some level, Travis Alexander knew exactly what
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Jody Arius was capable of. He just didn't believe she'd
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actually do it. By spring two thousand and eight, Travis
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was trying to move on. He'd started seeing other women,
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was planning a trip to Cancoon in June. Originally he
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was going to take Jody, but he changed his mind
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invited a different woman named Mimi Hall instead. When Jody
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found out she'd been replaced, something snapped. April two thousand
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and eight, a burglary at Jody's grandparents' house in Ereka, California,
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where she was living. Among the items stolen a point
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twenty five caliber he had gun, the same caliber that
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would later be found at Travis Alexander's murder scene. Prosecutors
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would later argue Jody Stage that burglary stole her own
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grandfather's gun, the murder weapon. May two thousand and eight,
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Jody borrowed two five gallon gas cans from her ex
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boyfriend Darryl Brewer, told him she was taking a road trip,
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wouldn't explain why she needed them. Then she bought a
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third gas can, fifteen gallons total, enough to drive through
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Arizona without stopping for gas, without leaving a paper trail,
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without anyone knowing she was there. June second, two thousand
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and eight, Jody rented a car, asked for a white
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car specifically changed her mind at the last minute, took
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a red car instead, removed the front license plate so
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she couldn't be identified, dyed her hair brown. She was
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planning something, something she didn't want anyone to trace back
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to her. June fourth, two thousand and eight, Jody Arias
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drove over one thousand miles to Travis alllec Xander's house
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in Mesa, Arizona. What happened inside that house would shock
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the nation. June fourth, two thousand and eight, approximately four am,
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Jody arius arrived at Travis Alexander's house in Mesa, Arizona.
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She'd been driving all night, over one thousand miles from California.
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She didn't knock, she knew the code to his garage,
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let herself in. Travis was surprised to see her, but
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not surprised enough to send her away. What happened over
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the next several hours is known from Jody's own testimony
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and the evidence recovered at the scene. They had sex again,
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despite everything, despite the stalking, the harassment, the warnings from friends,
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Travis and Jody slept together that afternoon. Around one forty pm,
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Jody took photographs of Travis. Nude photos then photos of
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him in the show. Travis posed for the camera, water
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running over him, his last moments captured in time stamps
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that would become evidence. Five twenty two pm. The last
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photo of Travis Alexander alive, standing in the shower looking
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at the camera. Five thirty pm, A photo accidentally taken
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the camera dropped, blurry image of the bathroom ceiling. Five
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thirty two pm, a photo of Travis Alexander on the
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bathroom floor, bleeding, wounded, still alive, being dragged. In less
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than two minutes, Jody Arius had begun butchering the man
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who just posed for her camera. The medical examiner would
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later document the carnage twenty seven stab wounds to his back,
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his chest, his head, defensive wounds on his hands. He'd
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grabbed at the knife tried to stop her. A stab
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wound to the heart that would have been fatal on
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its own. His throat was slit ear to ear so
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deep the knife cut through his trachea, his carotid artery
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down to the spine, nearly decapitated him. And a single
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gunshot wound to the forehead. The point two five caliber
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bullet recovered at the scene matched the gun stolen from
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Jody's grandparents. Travis Alexander was thirty years old. He died
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in his own bathroom, attacked by someone he'd invited into
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his home, someone he'd been intimate with hours earlier. But
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Jody Arius wasn't done. She dragged his body back to
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the shower, positioned him, attempted to clean up the blood.
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There was evidence of washing wiping. She put the camera
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in the washing machine, tried to destroy the photos, tried
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to eliminate the evidence. Then she got in her car
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and drove to Utah. Ryan Burns, another man Jody was seeing.
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She was supposed to visit him on June fourth, but
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showed up late on June fifth, told him her phone
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had died, she'd gotten lost. They made out. She acted normal, happy,
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like nothing had happened. Travis Alexander's body lay in his
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shower for five more days, decomposing in the Arizona heat.
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His dog was still in the house, hungry, confused, waiting
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for his owner to come back. June ninth, two thousand eight,
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Travis's friends finally went to check on him. Found what
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Jody Arrius had left behind, blood everywhere in the bathroom,
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the hallway, pulled on the floor, smeared on the walls,
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and Travis crumpled in the shower, five days dead, the
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smell of decomposition filling the house. They called nine one one,
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then they called the police, and when detectives asked who
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might have done this, Travis's friends said one name, Jody Arius.
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Commercial break. We'll be right back with Jody Arrius's three
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different stories and the evidence that proved every one of
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them was a lie, the lies eight minutes, Lie number one.
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I wasn't there. When detectives first contacted Jody Arius, she
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denied everything, said she hadn't seen Travis in months, said
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she was nowhere near Mesa, Arizona on June fourth, said
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she had no idea what happened. I would never hurt Travis,
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she told investigators, I loved him, But the evidence told
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a different story. That camera in the washing machine, it survived.
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Detectives recovered the memory card, retrieved deleted photos, time stamped
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images showing Jody Arius naked in Travis's bedroom, Travis naked
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in his shower, and then the blurry photos of him
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being attacked, a bloody palm print on the wall. DNA
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tested mixed profile Travis Alexander and Jody arius her hair
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at the crime scene, her fingerprints, she'd been there. The
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evidence was overwhelming, so Jody changed her story line number two,
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two masked intruders killed him. Now Jody admitted she was there,
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but she wasn't the killer. Claimed. Two masked intruders broke
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in while she and Travis were together, a man and
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a woman. They attacked Travis, killed him, threatened to kill
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Jody too if she talked. She gave elaborate details, described
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the intruders, explained why she'd been too afraid to call police,
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said she'd been living in fear ever since. Detectives didn't
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believe a word of it. There was no evidence of intruders,
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no forced entry, no witnesses, no motive for anyone else
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to kill Travis, and the physical evidence still pointed directly
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at Jody, her palm print in his blood, her hair
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at the scene, photos on the camera that could only
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have been taken by her. The home invasion story was
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a lie and everyone knew it. So Jody changed her
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story again, Lie number three. I killed him in self defense.
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This was the story Jody would tell at trial, the
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story her lawyers would build their defense around. According to
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Jody's third version, Travis was abusive, trolling, violent. He'd been
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physically and emotionally abusing her throughout their relationship. On June fourth,
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while she was taking photos of him in the shower,
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she accidentally dropped the camera. Travis flew into a rage,
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attacked her, threatened to kill her, so she defended herself.
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Had no choice it was him or her. Twenty seven
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stab wounds, a slit throat, a gunshot to the head
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self defense. Here's the problem with that story. Everything about
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Jody's trip to Arizona showed premeditation. She stole a gun
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from her grandparents weeks before, borrowed gas cans to avoid
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stopping for gas in Arizona, rented a car, changed her
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hair color, removed the license plates, drove over one thousand
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miles in the middle of the night. That's not a
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woman fleeing an abuser. That's a woman planning a murder.
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Prosecutor Juan Martinez would later ask the jury, if Travis
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was so dangerous, why did she drive one thousand miles
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to see him. Why did she let herself into his house?
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Why did she have sex with him? Why did she
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take photos of him in the shower. The self defense