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Chris Jenkins
May 6, 2024
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21-year-old college student Chris Jenkins mysteriously vanished on Halloween Night 2002 after spending the night out with friends. Four months
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The story of Jodi Ann Arias and the murder of Travis Victor Alexander is known as one of the most highly followed criminal trials in the history of the United States. Millions tuned in daily to watch live courtroom footage of the trial, the testimonies, and the stories.
Jodi Ann Arias was born on July 9, 1980 in Salinas, California and dropped out of high school after the 11th grade.
Photo Source: Eyes for Lies (website)
She met Travis Alexander in September 2006 at a Pre-Paid Legal Services company conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Even though, Travis was a devout Mormon, and Jodi wasn’t, the two developed a nearly instant intense, long-distance relationship.
Photo Source: NY Daily News
After 2 months of meeting, in November 2006, Jodi was baptized into the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints where Travis was a member. Travis and Jodi carried on an on-and-off again long-distance relationship for the next year and a half.
Photo Source: CBS News
Friends of Travis describe Jodi as crazy and possessive. They describe their relationship as toxic from the very beginning. His friends were right to be concerned about Jodi and her behavior.
By April 2008, Travis told Jodi that he no longer wanted to take her on an upcoming work trip to Mexico, infuriating Jodi. Travis had plans to bring another girl along on the work trip.
Photo Source: Wikipedia
On May 28, 2008, while Jodi was living with her grandparents, the house was burglarized and several items were stolen including a .25 caliber automatic colt pistol, $30 in cash, a small stereo, and a DVD player.
A few days after the burglary at Jodi’s grandparent’s house, Jodi rents a car to head out on a road trip to visit her friend and coworker, Ryan Burns in West Jordan, Utah. But before she heads to Utah, she stops in Mesa, Arizona to visit Travis on June 4th. After spending the day with Travis, Ryan Burns recalls Jodi had changed her hair color and had cuts on her hands.
Photo Source: Huff Post
By June 7th, friends of Travis become concerned because they haven’t seen or heard from him in several days. Travis’s friends head over to his house on East Queensborough Avenue in Mesa, AZ, where his roommate provided a key to his bedroom.
Inside the master bedroom, the friends discover a blood bath and the lifeless body of Travis Alexander hunched over in the shower.
Photo Source: Oxygen
Travis’s autopsy revealed he had been stabbed between 27 and 29 times, his throat had been slit from ear to ear, and he had a single gunshot wound to his head. Crime scene technicians recovered a .25 caliber shell cashing on the bathroom floor, near Travis’s body.
Right after the murder, Travis’s friend begged police to look into Jodi Arias. On June 17th, Jodi voluntarily provided her fingerprints, and saliva for DNA testing. During the interview, Jodi told police the last time she saw Travis was in April, two months prior to his murder.
While police waited for the DNA test results, crime scene technicians recovered a digital camera in Travis’s washing machine. The camera contained many X-rated images of Jodi and Travis together on June 4th. Images that proved Jodi lied about the last time she saw Travis.
The DNA test results came back and revealed the hair and palm print found inside Travis’s bathroom belonged to Jodi. In fact, all the blood from the bathroom was a mixture of Jodi and Travis’s blood.
Photo Source: Crime Online (website)
Exactly 1 month after Travis Alexander was found murdered, Jodi Arias was arrested for murder on July 9, 2008. The same day she celebrated her 29th birthday.
Jodi was arrested at her grandparent’s home in California and extradited back to Arizona to face murder charges. She was assigned a public defender and pled not guilty on September 11th.
Photo Source: AP News
Jodi provided a number of different stories about Travis’s death. At first, she claimed she was never in Mesa, Arizona. Then her story changed to that two intruders broke into Travis’s house. Lastly, she changed her story and said she killed Travis out of self-defense for dropping his digital camera.
The Maricopa County Prosecutor’s Office announced that they would be seeking the death penalty against Jodi.
Jodi’s murder trial began in December 2012. During the trial, Jodi stuck to her claim that she killed Travis out of self-defense. But the prosecution argued that the fact Jodi brought the gun with her to Arizona showed premeditation of the murder.
Photo Source: ABC News
The murder trial became a media sensation. Millions tuned in daily to watch live courtroom footage of the trial. Jodi and Travis’s relationship and sex life became the focus on the trial.
Jodi’s claim of self-defense didn’t sway the jury, and she was found guilty of first-degree murder after only 15 hours of deliberating. After 2 sentencing mistrials, Jodi was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of Travis Alexander.
She is currently serving her life sentence in an Arizona state prison.
Episode Sources:
Murder of Travis Alexander Wikipedia
Huff Post: Timeline of Jodi Arias website
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