MORBID CRIMES THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
The gruesome murder of Travis Alexander stabbed nearly 30 times by his girlfriend
Arias claims she acted in self-defense by repeatedly stabbing Travis, slitting his throat, and shooting him in the head
On the morning of June 4,2008, Travis Alexander was butchered to death by his girlfriend Jodi Arias who stabbed him nearly 30 times, slit his throat, and shot him in the head after they had sex.
Travis has met Arias in 2006 and immediately, they had "potent chemistry" as she loved how funny he was. They began dating almost immediately and though they lived miles apart from each other, they hung out regularly.
Jodi Arias though was obsessive and possessive. Travis' friends noted how she clung onto him in public outings, listened in on his conversations, and stalked his text messages.
But despite being warned by his friends he'll be found "chopped up in her freezer", Travis Alexander dismissed their concerns. Just a year after his relationship with Jodi Arias, Travis Alexander was found dead in a gory crime scene on June 9, 2008, five days after his murder.
This is the brutal murder of Travis Alexander, stabbed 27 times by his girlfriend Jodi Arias, his throat slit ear to ear, his head almost decapitated, a gunshot to the head, and left bleeding to death on his bathroom floor.
🛑 Travis Alexander had a traumatic childhood and lost his father in a fatal accident on his 20th birthday
🛑 He had confided in his friends he had found a wife and planned to marry Jodi Arias
🛑 A hidden camera inside his washing machine captured his brutal murder as it happened
Travis Alexander, 30, was born into a poverty-stricken home on July 28, 1977 in California. He had a traumatic childhood with seven siblings as his parents were addicted to drugs and often physically abused them in violent rampages.
His brother Dennis Alexander later became addicted to drugs himself and was convicted of theft and misdemeanor battery.
At age 11, Travis Alexander relocated to live with his grandmother and his seven siblings joined him after their father's death. He failed to attend college as it "was not for him" and on his 20th birthday in July 1997, Travis lost his father in a fatal accident.
Travis Alexander aspired to become a motivational speaker and worked various jobs in telemarketing and retails before he became an adult. As an adult, he became a devout Mormon, traveled around, and settled in Mesa, Arizona.
He went on missions with fellow Mormon girls, dated a few, and wrote in his journal that he considered himself blessed and devoted time for charity.
Travis Alexander was deeply emotional and spiritual and when he prayed for a successful job, it appeared his prayers were answered in form of Chris Hughes, a fellow Mormon who helped him join Prepaid Legal Services.
As a salesman at Prepaid Legal Services (now known as Legal Shield), Travis Alexander met Jodi Arias for the first time in September 2006 at the company's convention in Las Vegas.
A chance meeting it was but ultimately became the precursor to his death that would grip America for five tumultuous years in what was considered as one of the biggest spectacles in American history.
Jodi Arias, 26, was a stunning, blonde, and seemingly carefree aspiring photographer. She was really excited about meeting Travis and they began dating in 2007.
Travis lived in Mesa, Arizona while Arias lived in California. She loved how funny he was and how much fun they had together. Travis on his part was smitten by her beauty and in an email he shared with a friend, Travis said:
"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."
Their relationship quickly bloomed and both would take turns in visiting each other but they split up five months later as Travis reportedly felt guilty over his sexual relationship due to his beliefs as a Mormon.
They later got back together and Arias moved over from California to Mesa, Arizona so they could be closer to each other - Arias even got baptized as a Mormon.
She loved art, success, and believed that teaching her kids the joys of success would he rewarding.
There is no denial that Jodi Arias was stunning and her beauty breathtaking. But her incessant hovering, stalking, and frighteningly-cold obsessions over Travis were considered "disturbing" by his friends.
Travis once divulged to his friends that during their split, Arias had slashed his car tires, hacked into his Facebook page, and harassed the women he hung out with. A couple times, she snuck into his apartment.
According to Travis' friends, she had "stalker-like" attributes and would listen in on his conversations, read his text messages and emails, and even forwarded some of these conversations with other women to herself.
Several of his friends noted how Arias would follow Travis to the bathroom and wait outside the door.
According to Sky Lovingier Hughes, one of Travis' best friends who spoke to ABC News, she had a frighteningly "cold" feeling finding Arias outside the bathroom door.
"I started seeing things that were just disturbing. I said:
'Travis, I'm afraid we're gonna find you chopped up in her freezer.'
Sky's husband Chris also claims he was present once when Travis caught her eavesdropping on him from behind a closed door with an "evil" look on her face.
"There was a rage in her eyes. ... Sky and I are very frightened at this point. She might burn down our house, you know, with all of us in it," Hughes said.
But despite all her disturbing obtrusions, Travis Alexander loved his girlfriend Jodi Arias, they exchanged erotic messages and photos and occasionally had anal sex even after their split.
"Sometimes Travis would be angry," Shanna Hogan, writer of Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story, told ABC News, "And other times he would jump into bed right with her and they would have sex."
The New York Times bestselling crime author Shannon Hogan herself died years later in front of her son from a pool accident.
Their relationship was very toxic and in May 2008, a month before his gruesome murder, Travis called Arias a "sociopath", then he told his friends:
"Don't be surprised if you find me dead one day."
In June 2008, Travis Alexander asked Arias to join him on a work trip to Cancún, Mexico - shortly before the scheduled trip, he changed his mind and decided to take a female friend in her place.
They were due to leave for Cancun on June 10.
A month earlier on May 28, there had been a burglary at the house of Arias' grandparents: a .25-caliber automatic Colt pistol had been stolen amongst other items.
On June 2, Arias tried meeting with Travis but failed - they eventually spoke on the phone. That same day, she rented a car at Budget Rent in Redding, California; she later dyed her hair from blonde to brown, attended business meetings, and drove to Utah on June 5.
In Utah, she visited her former boyfriend Ryan Burns at his apartment and Ryan noted several cuts on her hands. Jodi Arias returned the rented car two days later on June 7 and the receiving clerk noticed red stains on the seats and missing floor mats.
Travis Alexander was supposed to be at conference call on June 4 but surprisingly, missed the call. His friend whom he was supposed to travel with became worried having not heard from him after a few days and contacted his friends, Melissa Lowery and Dallin Forres on June 9.
The two friends went over to Travis' locked apartment and on entering, found thick pools of blood everywhere. As they entered his bedroom, there were large pools of blood in the hallway, and terrifyingly, Travis' crumpled, bloodied, and lifeless corpse was lying on his bathroom floor!
They immediately dialed 911!
Travis' body was crumpled, mangled, and mutilated with 27 stab wounds on the back. His throat had been slit from ear to another, severing the jugular vein, carotid artery, and trachea in one deep gash that he was almost decapitated.
Several cuts on his hands suggested defensive wounds that he had tried to defend himself but ultimately fell to the piercing daggers of the knife he had been repeatedly stabbed with.
Warning: The following image has very graphic content viewers could find distressing. Viewers discretion advised
He also had a gunshot wound and bloody towels hung all over the bathroom. Investigators found long brown hairs on the floor, a bloody handprint on the walls of his bedroom, and a hidden camera in the washing machine.
His death was ruled as a homicide.
Within hours of Travis Alexander's mutilated corpse being found, Jodi Arias contacted the police. She denied being at his house and even told investigators she had not seen him for two months.
During his memorial service in Arizona, she agreed to be fingerprinted by the police and a month later on July 9, 2008, Jodi Arias was indicted on the killing of Travis Alexander. Six days later, she was arrested on charges of the first-degree murder of salesman Travis Alexander.
Investigators had linked the bloody handprint on the wall to her DNA and had been able to extract time-stamped images from the hidden waterlogged camera in the washing machine - the images painted very gruesome and horrific scenes.
Travis Alexander and his girlfriend Jodi Arias had had sex in the evening and one image showed Travis in the shower at 5:29 p.m. having his bath. Other shots showed photos taken of Travis bleeding heavily from his severed throat and another showed Arias actually dragging his body across the ground.
Arias denied all allegations saying she drove to Utah on the day he was killed to see "a new guy she was dating." She later went on-air claiming he was killed by "two intruders" while they took photos in the bathroom.
The intruders, a man and woman, were determined to kill Travis and threatened that if she ever mentioned it, her whole family will be killed.
Prosecutors filed a motion asking for the death penalty and Arias later changed her story, arguing she acted in "self defense" as she submitted letters allegedly written by Travis Alexander to prove she was a previous victim of his "sexual and physical abuse."
Jodi Arias' trial was one of the most captivating stories in 2013 and drew large crowds and media attention all over the States. The trial, broadcast live worldwide, was compared to a "soap opera" and shook the American society to its core.
Jodi Arias' trial began on January 2, 2013 and Arias was shown graphic images of Travis Alexander's murder scene, his mutilated corpse, and evidence of the towels she used in wiping his blood.
Warning: The following image has very graphic content viewers could find distressing. Viewers discretion advised
Arias admitted to killing Travis but claimed was forced to do so as he became violent because she dropped his camera, there was a struggle, and she had to protect herself.
"If she did not have to defend herself, she would not be here," her lawyer told the court.
Her defense included claiming Travis was addicted to sex and pornography, including child porn as she once caught him masturbating to the photo of a child.
According to the defence, Travis Alexander subjected Arias to stark physical, verbal, and emotional abuse.
Her defense attorney Jennifer Wilmot said that Arias was Travis Alexander's "dirty little secret" and despite his best efforts to portray himself as a good man and Mormon, he was a sexual predator and deviant who preyed on her sexual feelings and pushed her to have a sexual relationship with him.
Prosecutors countered the claim and built their case on jealousy. They alleged that after Travis Alexander had withdrawn his invitation to Arias on joining him to Cancún, she went into a "jealous rage" and murdered him.
They also alleged that Jodi Arias intentionally traveled to her boyfriend Travis Alexander's apartment with a gun and knife with the premeditated intention of killing him.
During cross-examination, prosecutors questioned Arias on how the same gun stolen from her grandparents' house had someone ended up being used in shooting Travis though he had already died from his wounds.
"I don't have a gun ... I've never seen it ... I don't even know what a .25 looks like," Arias replied.
She was also quizzed by the prosecution on why she kept having sex with Travis Alexander although she was aware of his alleged child porn sexual deviations.
At a point, Jodi Arias was asked nearly 150 questions with key ones bordering on:
📌 why she claimed she never enjoyed anal sex with Travis although she had a documented history of trying anal sex,
📌 how she had such a good memory recalling her sexual escapades but "passed out" while trying to recall if she stabbed Travis 27 times, and
📌 why she claimed she bought a gun to commit suicide but never ended up doing so.
A sex tape was also played for the jury in court and a video evidence admitted of Jodi Arias repeatedly denying killing Travis Alexander:
"I would never want to hurt him. He never raped me ... if I was going to ever try to kill somebody, I would use gloves. I have plenty of them … I did not take his life."
On May 8, 2013, gasps and sighs pierced the courtroom silence as Jodi Arias was found guilty of the premeditated and first-degree murder of Travis Alexander.
The prosecution had successfully tied her fingerprints to the blood stamp found on his bedroom wall and Jodi Arias had failed to explain why she arrived a day late in Utah to see Ryan Burns despite being expected on June 4, 2008, the day of Travis' murder. She claimed her phone had died and she gotten lost on the way.
During her sentencing on May 8, Jodi Arias had become widely regarded as the most hated woman in American history and the jury did not believe her claim of self-defense.
The jury determined that Jodi Arias had murdered Travis Alexander in cold blood - in such a cruel and aggravating manner that qualified her for the death penalty. The jury however failed to unanimously agree on the death penalty 8 - 4 and she was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
In August 2014, Jodi Arias filed for a retrial, asking to represent herself and as is her right, the request was granted although she gave up her intent to represent herself in September.
A month later in October 2014, her retrial began but barely five months later, the same verdict was reached:
Jodi Arias was going to spend the rest of her life in jail for the gruesome murder of Travis Alexander.
Discover more intriguing tales here:
Further reading:
