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Who is Jodi Arias?
Convicted murderer and former photographer Jodi Ann Arias was born in Salinas, California USA, on 9 July 1980, making Cancer her zodiac sign. She’s today only known for brutally murdering her former boyfriend Travis Victor Alexander, who was an American salesman; the case received widespread media attention in the USA, as Jodi had stabbed Travis with a knife 27 times, and also shot him in the head.
Education and early life
Jodi was raised alongside her two brothers and a sister in Salinas, by their father William Arias and mother Sandra Dee Allen; not many other details have been disclosed about Jodi’s parents, because they prefer to avoid the media.
She studied at Yreka Union High School, and Jodi’s mother’s stated that she had a rather normal and happy childhood; Jodi was into several activities during her teenage years, as she ran track, took creative writing classes and occasionally played soccer.
She began dating a non-celebrity American man at the age of 17, thus quitting school and leaving home so that she could live with him; it’s believed that Jodi didn’t take her GED tests, and thus didn’t attend college.
Jodi’s career
Jodi worked various jobs to financially support herself, including at LegalShield as a salesperson.
Not many other details about her career are known, but that she was a photographer at the time of her arrest.
Murder and arrest
Jodi met Travis Alexander at a conference in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2006 while he was working there as an insurance salesman and motivational speaker; Travis was a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ member, and lived in Arizona.
The two began dating and eventually had plans to marry, however, they broke up in June 2007 but still occasionally had sex.
Travis’ friends became worried about him on 9 June 2008, after not having heard from him for a couple of days; after arriving at his home in Mesa, Arizona they found his body lying in a pool of blood in the bathroom. His throat was widely and deeply slit, his body full of knife wounds and his head with a gunshot wound; the investigators determined the date of death to be 4 June 2008.
Jodi immediately became the main suspect, and was indicted on first-degree murder charges on the same day that Travis’ friends found his body; she was arrested but denied having had anything to do with Travis’ death, even though her DNA was found mixed with Travis’ blood at the crime scene. It didn’t take long for Jodi to change her story, claiming that she and Travis were together when they were attacked by two masked men, and that they let her live after having killed Travis; she also claimed that she was scared to call the police because she feared that the two masked people might return to kill her.
Trial
Jodi’s trial began in January 2013, and was a media sensation as it was broadcast in many US states. She took the witness stand in her defense in February, and testified for 18 days; she came up with a third story for her defense, claiming that she had killed Travis in self-defense, and that he was often physically and mentally abusive towards her. Jodi claimed that on the day of his death, she dropped his camera and he thus began beating her, and that she suffered memory loss because of emotional trauma following his death.
She was found guilty of first-degree murder on 8 May 2013 and sentenced to life behind bars; Jodi was also close to receiving a death penalty, but the jury couldn’t agree on it. The death penalty re-trial started in October 2014, but the new jury was also unable to agree on it; her life behind bars sentence thus remained, with the possibility of parole granted only after she had served 25 years.
Who was Travis Alexander?
American non-celebrity Travis Alexander was born in Riverside, California USA, on 28 July 1977, meaning that Leo was his zodiac sign. He was raised in Riverside by his mother Pamela Elizabeth Morgan Alexander and father Gary David Alexander; Gary died in July 1997, and Travis’ mother has been staying away from the media’s attention since his murder.
Travis was 11 when he moved in with his paternal grandparents for unknown reasons, and his seven siblings moved there as well after their father’s death. Travis was a problematic teenager as he often got into fights, and told his friends that he was able to become a better person only after he started going to church. He matriculated from a local high school in 1995, and then became a stand-up comedian, often performing in bars in his hometown under the alias Eddie Snell.
At the time of his death, Travis was working at Pre-Paid Legal Services as a motivational speaker and salesman.
Most popular YouTube videos
Jodi’s the subject of many videos which have been uploaded onto the video sharing network YouTube by a number of users, most of which cover her personality, the motives behind the murder of Travis and her life in general. We’re going to write about the three most popular videos amongst these, which seem to offer the best insight into the case.
The #1 video “Wrath of Jodi” was uploaded by JCS – Criminal Psychology on 24 December 2020, and has since been watched close to 35 million times; it’s a two-hour video which covers Jodi’s life from birth up to her imprisonment.
Her second most popular video “Jodi thought the camera was off” was uploaded by CNN on 30 April 2013, and shows what Jodi was speaking when she believed that the cameras were off.
Her #3 video “Watch Jodi Arias’ reaction as guilty verdict is read” was uploaded by Fox News on 9 May 2013, and has since been watched close to 12 million times.
Jodi Arias is serving her sentence in the Arizona State Prison Complex in Perryville; she may be eligible for parole in 2040.
