“If you’re dating someone, it’s okay,” Jodi told Travis. “You can tell me. I won’t freak out.”
Travis dropped his paint brush, slamming his palm against the wall in frustration. He left the room and went upstairs.
“I heard this thud, this banging. It was like something was hitting something over and over and over,” Jodi would later claim. “I went upstairs and went to the bedroom. He’s banging his head repeatedly on the linen room closet.”
She called Travis’s name and he stopped, eventually calming down.
Later, Jodi asked Travis again about Lisa, but he became angry. Once again Travis lied—telling her he was not seeing anyone else, according to Jodi. By this point, Jodi knew he wasn’t being truthful. Jodi wanted to tell Lisa everything, but didn’t want to lose Travis.
“The whole time we were seeing each other after we ‘broke up’ he had another girlfriend. I had no idea. He didn’t tell me about her,” Jodi recalled. “I felt so bad. This time I was the other girl.”
Jodi continued to snoop for information, checking Travis’s phone whenever possible and reading his e-mails. In court Jodi would later claim Travis gave her the passwords as a way to reestablish trust.
But Travis was disturbed when he caught her reading his correspondence. At times he sent himself e-mails directed as a message to Jodi. In the subject he wrote: “Jodi, you’re caught!”
“Stay out of my e-mail,” Travis wrote. “We will talk about this later.”
In 2007, Travis signed up for a Facebook account where he posted photos, videos, and regular updates on his life. By this time Facebook had been growing in popularity, overtaking MySpace as the leading social networking site.
Gradually, Travis stopped logging into MySpace as often and instead posted mainly on Facebook. Jodi used Travis’s Facebook page to keep tabs on him—checking on which girls he was speaking with and what he was doing.
When Jodi learned his password, she started logging into his account to read his messages. If she heard that he talked to another girl, Jodi would friend the girl on Facebook.
For Travis, juggling two women must have been difficult. He was committed to Lisa, but at the same time continuing to sleep with Jodi. In public with his friends, especially those who knew Lisa, Travis became openly disdainful of Jodi, claiming she was “obsessed” and a “stalker.”
In late 2007, a man named John Hepworth was renting a room from Travis. He came to realize that Travis was two-timing both women. At one point, John tried to explain the situation to Jodi, pulling her aside at Travis’s house.
“You know, he’s dating other women,” John said.
“I know he’s been on dates,” she replied.
“No, he’s really trying to date,” John said. “He’s desperate to get married.”
Later, Jodi told Travis what she had learned.
“That night I confronted him and we had a really big fight,” Jodi later told detectives.
But John also saw how Jodi would use sex to keep a hold on Travis. When Travis would distance himself from Jodi, John witnessed her often calculated behaviors.
“I talked with Travis on a number of occasions trying to convince him to not let her back in the house,” John recalled. “I knew what was going on between them. I was there for a couple of their fights. I saw how manipulative she was.”
If sex didn’t work, Jodi would make other threats. During their fights, if Travis told Jodi it was over, Jodi would threaten to commit suicide.
“She would always tell him that if he broke up with her she’d kill herself,” said Sky Hughes. “I told him if she did something like that he wouldn’t be responsible but he just said, ‘I could never live with myself if that happened.’”
In court Jodi would later testify that during the fall of 2007 she had, in fact, become suicidal.
After a particularly vicious fight with Travis, Jodi called her ex, Matt McCartney, and asked to borrow a gun. She told Matt about her deep depression and he urged her to call a suicide hotline.
In her journal she would write about her suicidal thoughts connected to her relationship with Travis.
“I just wish I would die. I wish suicide was a way out. But it is no escape,” she wrote. “I wouldn’t feel anymore pain though if I could just stop existing and have my consciousness dissolved into nothingness and my energy recycled into something else useful for I am of little use to the world right now through no fault but my own.”
* * *
After a few months of dating, Lisa began to suspect her new boyfriend wasn’t being entirely truthful. Travis was always talking about Jodi and when they were together Jodi seemed to call and text constantly. It was almost as if Jodi knew when Lisa and Travis were together—like she was watching them.
Lisa felt it was inappropriate to be in a committed relationship but remain so close to an ex. Anytime she brought it up to Travis, however, he insisted the relationship was innocent. Jodi was still in love with him, Travis told her, but he made it clear that they were no longer romantic.
“We’re just good friends,” he said repeatedly.
In mid-September, John Hepworth told Lisa’s sister the truth: Travis was still intimate with Jodi. To Lisa it made sense why Travis was always talking about Jodi.
“I came to the understanding that he was cheating on me,” Lisa later said in court.
Lisa promised not to reveal to Travis how she received this information. Instead, she decided to end the relationship.
On September, 23, 2007, Lisa sent Travis a lengthy e-mail.
In it she wrote that she thought they were not headed in the right direction. She laid out all her concerns over the past few months: she thought he was too focused on sex and it made her feel used and dirty. Throughout their relationship Travis had been self-consumed and was inconsiderate of her feelings.
More than anything, Lisa was mad about Jodi.
“I’m sick of hearing about Jodi Arias,” Lisa wrote. “What woman would hold on for so long without some sense of reassurance? If you really cared, you would tell Jodi to back off, regardless of your past.”
She told Travis not to respond to the message and simply to respect her wishes and leave her alone. Lisa felt betrayed.
“I didn’t feel I could trust him,” she recalled. “I felt cheated and lied to and didn’t want to hear anymore.”
A few days later, Travis called her and told her he still cared about her. If given the chance, Travis swore he would make it up to her. Eventually, he learned the reason for the breakup. Travis convinced Lisa that he had never really cheated with Jodi. And a few weeks after the breakup, Travis and Lisa resumed their relationship.
“I understood that he had not cheated and that I had received faulty information,” Lisa said in court.
After they got back together their relationship was much better. Travis seemed to take the words in Lisa’s e-mail to heart. He was more attentive to her needs and concerns.
When it came to sexual relations, he was almost too restrictive. When they made out, he would pull back before things went too far. On several occasions Lisa had to be the one to encourage him to continue kissing her.
* * *
In October 2007, Travis and Jodi attended the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the largest hot air balloon festival in the world. For years it had been a goal of Travis to attend the festival and he had planned the trip for months.
The weather that week was chilly, and Travis and Jodi were both cold and tired when they arrived at the Balloon Fiesta Park on the northern edge of the city.
When Travis first saw the sea of colorful balloons, he was speechless. Some were uniquely shaped—like a floating castle or eagle. Others were massive in size.
Thousands of people gathered on the field to watch the balloons launch. The highlight of the event was the mass ascension, with hundreds of balloons rising at once, filling the sky with bright colors and shapes.
Throughout the trip Jodi snapped dozen
s of photos. In one photo Travis and Jodi were side-by-side, their faces touching as a rainbow-checkered balloon was inflated behind them.
While in New Mexico, they stopped by the Carlsbad Caverns, which includes one of the deepest limestone caves in the world. In addition, they toured the UFO Museum in Roswell and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in Charma, where Travis had his first train ride.
They spent the trip trying new foods and enjoying new experiences together. For Jodi, it felt as if they were bonding. But when they returned to Mesa and Travis resumed his relationship with Lisa, Jodi was crestfallen.
* * *
Late in the fall of 2007, strange things began happening to Travis. He would return home and find his computer had been used, his property out of place. Once he found his personal journals were stolen. As he searched through his valuables, he discovered an engagement ring he had once purchased for an ex-girlfriend was also missing.
On one occasion he arrived home and found Jodi inside his house. The front door had been locked. When he confronted her about how she got inside, she reluctantly admitted that she broke in through the doggie door. She claimed she had left something inside his house and came in to get her property.
Then, in late 2007, Travis and Lisa were at her house, upstairs, when they heard a beeping noise. The house was equipped with a security alarm that chimed when someone opened the front door.
Travis and Lisa went down to see who may have come through the door, but no one was there.
“Hello,” Lisa hollered. “Is anyone home?”
When she found the house was empty, Lisa became scared. She asked Travis to stay the night. That night he slept in one of the spare bedrooms. Nothing happened the rest of the night.
Some weeks later, on the night of December 6, 2007, Travis was at Lisa’s house when there was a knock at the door. But when he answered, he found there was no one outside.
He stepped out onto the porch, glanced around the property, but found no trace of anyone. Travis went back into the house. That night he fell asleep at Lisa’s, as they watched a movie together on a LoveSac.
The next morning Travis discovered the tires had been slashed on his BMW. He went back into the house and told Lisa about the incident. They both assumed it must have been a random act and Travis had his tires replaced.
The very next night Travis was at Lisa’s house again when there was another knock at the door. Travis bolted off the couch and whipped open the front door. Again, he saw no one. Rushing to his car, he discovered the tires had once again been slashed.
Travis called the Mesa Police Department to report the incident and file a criminal damage report. Afterward, he called a tow truck and had the tires replaced again.
The following morning at 8:52 A.M., on December 8, Lisa opened up her laptop to check her e-mail. One message stood out. It was addressed from a “John Doe.” As she read it, Lisa was aghast. It referred to her relationship with Travis.
“You are a shameful whore. Your Heavenly Father must be deeply ashamed of the whoredoms you’ve committed with that insidious man,” the message read. “If you let him stay in your bed one more time or even sleep under the same roof as him, you will be giving the appearance of evil. You are driving away the Holy Ghost, and you are wasting your time. You are also compromising your salvation and breaking your baptismal covenants. Of all the commandments to break, committing acts of whoredom is one of the most displeasing in the eyes of the Lord. You cannot be ashamed enough of yourself.”
The message went on to urge her to repent of her sins.
“Think about your future husband and how you disrespect not only yourself, but him, as well as the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” the message read. “Be thou clean, sin no more. Your Heavenly Father loves you and wants you to make the right choices. I know you are strong enough to choose the right. Your Father in Heaven is pulling for you. Don’t ignore the promptings you receive, because they are vital to your spiritual well-being.”
Lisa was sickened by the e-mail. Perhaps the sender of the message was under the notion that Mormons were daft—that faith in the Lord would lead them to believe a mysterious e-mail was a message from God. Lisa, however, was no fool. Immediately, she thought of Jodi Arias.
Weeks later, when Lisa was at Travis’s house, the tires on her car were slashed as well. She told her boyfriend she thought Jodi was responsible. For a while Travis couldn’t conceive that his soft-spoken ex-girlfriend would be capable of such destruction.
Eventually, he would come to believe that Jodi Arias was a very dangerous woman.
* * *
Despite Jodi’s invisible presence, Travis and Lisa’s relationship became increasingly serious. Travis began to talk about marriage.
Perhaps Travis was in love only with the idea of Lisa. She may have represented the wholesome, true love that he so desperately desired. He seemed to believe she was the one.
But in early December, as he discussed marriage, Lisa began having reservations about their relationship. Lisa was still just nineteen and not ready for such a serious commitment.
“He started talking about marriage earlier than I was comfortable with at the age of nineteen,” she later said in court. “I felt I was too young and too immature and wanted to live my life before I got married.”
She told Travis it was better if they ended their relationship. She thought that if he was at the point in his life where he felt he should be married, then he should explore other options.
But Travis and Lisa continued to talk. A few weeks after she broke it off, Travis convinced her to take him back and their relationship resumed.
* * *
Even in the midst of this twisted love triangle, Travis continued to devote much of his life to spiritual and personal development.
Travis spoke to Lisa about how he had been inspired to live 2007 as if he were dying, and she admired his determination for self-improvement.
“Throughout the time I knew Travis, he was constantly trying to better himself. He considered mediocrity a sin. He refused to accept it from himself or from anyone else that was around him,” she recalled. “He didn’t care what kind of background you came from because he said that anyone had the potential to make of themselves whatever they put their mind to. He pushed us all to be better.”
Always striving toward self-improvement, Travis had developed a method to help him achieve his goals each year. Instead of creating a New Year’s resolution, he did something different that he credited with making all the difference in becoming a better person by the end of the year. Travis wrote about this principle, “auto suggestion,” or vocally exclaiming what one wants to do, be, and have.
For the past three years Travis had practiced this devotedly.
“I take the month of December and do a huge self evaluation of me for the good, the bad and even the ugly, and based on all that, I get busy being ambitious and create the accomplished individual I want to be on paper,” he wrote. “I will read it and adjust the wording several times until I can feel the power of the words internally.”
On January 1, while listening to music, typically the songs of Enya, he read it “out loud and animated.” At least once a day for the rest of the year he would recite this mantra.
“After a few months with no effort it is memorized and becomes part of my regular daily thoughts and in consequence the person I am becoming is always at the forefront of my mind,” he wrote. “My daily actions are based upon the words I speak daily and my life becomes what I want it to be.”
In December 2007, Travis spent the month reflecting on how he could improve himself during the following year. Among his goals for 2008: to have a thirty-two-inch waist and be his personal pinnacle of health, earn a six-figure Prepaid Legal ring, become a published author, succeed at real estate, and create multiple streams of income from his other entrepreneurial endeavors.
Perhaps most important to Travis, he was ready to get married and start a family. He wrote, “I will f
ind an eternal companion that enhances me exponentially.”
As 2007 was winding down, however, even as he created his goals for the next year, Travis still had not completed his last aspiration for his year of living like he was dying. He had gone skydiving and climbed the Rocky Mountains but he still hadn’t ridden a bull. Taylor Searle’s father owned a ranch for troubled youth and Travis had discussed going there to complete his ride. As the days slipped away, he realized he wouldn’t have time. He was disappointed in himself for not creating the opportunity.
On New Year’s Eve 2007, Lisa had made special arrangements.
“I knew he was disappointed in himself for not conquering one of his biggest fears of riding a bull,” Lisa said. “But little did he know I had a surprise all lined up for him.”
She took Travis to a Walmart in Apache Junction, a suburb of Phoenix. Inside, toward the front of the store, was a toy mechanical bull designed for kids to ride for a quarter. At 10:45 P.M. on New Year’s Eve Travis mounted the bull, holding on to the plastic handle with one arm. “And he made it eight seconds,” Lisa said.
After riding the bull Travis rushed home to read the last few pages of the Bible. He finished just before midnight. Travis had accomplished each of his goals for living 2007 as if he were dying.
“I can honestly say that Travis did ‘love deeper and spoke sweeter’ the more I got to know him,” Lisa recalled, in a reference to the lyrics of the song that inspired Travis. “He became a better individual by working on things that he knew would also better a relationship.”
CHAPTER 16
“This year will be the best year of my life,” read Travis’s affirmation for 2008. “This is the year that will eclipse all others. I will earn more, learn more, travel more, serve more, love more, give more and be more than all the other years of my life combined. This is a year of metamorphosis, of growth and accomplishment that at previous was unimaginable. A year where the impossible becomes common place and the unachievable become effortlessly achieved. Where I raise myself to heights only visited by the great men and women of this world and by doing so this year will be the best year of my life.”
Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story: A Beautiful Photographer, Her Mormon Lover, and a Brutal Murder Page 13