Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias

by Velez-Mitchell, Jane

  Deanna and Travis were together for about a year when she told him she wanted to get married. She was twenty-four and ready to settle down and start a family. In the Mormon faith, she was already on the older side, with most couples marrying in their late teens or early twenties. Travis was not surprised by her request; they had discussed marriage before and had agreed it was a shared goal. Travis was one year older than Deanna, so he, too, was considered on the mature side for a single Mormon man. He knew that in the Mormon faith, dating was supposed to lead to marriage. But he told Deanna that although she would be a wonderful person to marry, he simply wasn’t ready. She was disappointed, but remained hopeful that he would come around soon.

  In 2004, Deanna learned that her company was relocating its operation to north Phoenix, Arizona. She could either move with them or be out of a job. At the time, Deanna was living with roommates in Huntington Beach, most of whom were either getting married or moving away, or both. On top of that, their lease for the share was up, making it a good time for Deanna to entertain a change. Moving to Arizona sounded kind of cool, and she liked the idea. When she told Travis about it, he also seemed open to the possibility. He told her he had been eager to buy a house somewhere, but real estate in Southern California was just too pricey, so Arizona had promise. The more they spoke, the better the idea sounded. Deanna decided to keep her job with the company, signing up with them for another year. If the job in Phoenix was horrible and she hated it, she could move back home in twelve months.

  Travis’s decision to relocate to Arizona was largely based on Deanna’s choice. There was nothing making him stay in California, and he could do his PPL business from wherever he pleased. Once he had made up his mind, he traveled to the area several months ahead of Deanna to look for a property he could purchase. He looked first in Mesa, twenty miles east of Phoenix, because of its large Mormon population. It was home to the massive Mesa Arizona Temple, located on a twenty-acre piece of property on South LeSueur Street. Almost immediately, he found the five-bedroom house on Queensborough Avenue in Mesa. He liked the neighborhood and just about everything about the 4,500-square-foot Spanish-style house. Of course, he didn’t need a house this big, but he thought it would be cost-effective; the more bedrooms, the more roommates he could have to help pay his mortgage. He would still have to contribute, but the amount was pretty much equal to what his roommates would be paying.

  When Deanna arrived, she rented an apartment in Phoenix, not far from her new office. That Travis and Deanna were living in different geographical locations meant that they belonged to different wards of the Mormon church and saw different bishops. They still attended the same temple, as there were more wards in the Phoenix area than there were temples.

  Typically, a Mormon temple is a big, beautiful sacred building for adults only, except for certain occasions when children can go. There are sacred ordinances performed in the temple, such as baptisms, endowments, and marriages. Worshippers must show a Temple Recommend, similar to an ID card, just to gain entry to an LDS temple. To obtain one, worshippers must first be interviewed by their bishop, who asks if the applicant is living up to the standards of the church and if he or she believes in its principles. Then, a decision is made. Recommends must be renewed every two years to assure church standards are being upheld. Both Deanna and Travis had their Temple Recommends.

  In Mesa, Travis joined the local LDS church on Hawes Road, and quickly became a popular member of its YSA, Young Single Adult Ward. To help pay his mortgage, he rented out rooms to church members, friends, and singles looking for a monthly arrangement. It was not long before he had a full house, all young men whose commonality was Pre-Paid Legal and/or Mormonism. At times, when the house was brimming with lots of handsome young men, the UFC fight-watching parties on Wednesday nights were the nights to look forward to. One of Travis’s first housemates was an ambitious young Mormon named Taylor Searle. Taylor had just returned home from a two-year church mission in Japan. He met Travis at a Pre-Paid Legal business briefing held at a local hotel. Travis was dressed in a gold pinstriped suit and was standing in the front of the room greeting people as they arrived.

  Travis soon became Taylor’s mentor at PPL, as well as his landlord on Queensborough Avenue. Seven other guys were living at the house when Taylor moved in. He recalled that it was basically like a hotel, with tenants coming and going, some leaving to get married or to move to more permanent housing. Travis had an open-door policy and friends said he never kept the house locked. Deanna had her own key and an open invitation to come by anytime.

  Travis and Deanna enjoyed their thriving social scene. For Halloween that year, they attended a party with five other couples, all of whom were married. All the couples dressed up in complementary matching costumes. Travis and Deanna went as Johnny Lingo, a Polynesian trader, and Mahana, his Samoan wife, from the 1969 film Johnny Lingo, produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Travis wore a sarong and let Deanna smother him in self-tanning lotion. At the party, everyone played the Newlywed Game. Deanna and Travis couldn’t believe they had come within two points of winning, even though they were the only ones who were not married. They often laughed about how they had outscored couples who had been together for years. Yet, despite their obvious compatibility, Travis could not fully commit himself to Deanna. Several of his roommates said that he adored her, but he just had reservations. Ironically, the ambivalence Linda had felt regarding Travis a couple of years earlier, Travis now seemed to be experiencing regarding Deanna.

  What no one knew was that Travis and Deanna had begun having sexual relations, in spite of the church’s strict Law of Chastity, which forbids sexual activity out of wedlock.

  “Because we were sleeping together and we weren’t married, that was a violation in the church,” Deanna recalled in a telephone interview. “You’re not supposed to do that.” Travis and Deanna kept their intimate relationship secret for more than a year. Eventually, they agreed to go to their respective bishops to confess. There wasn’t a big fear in the church of going to the bishop, as letting him know what was going on was better than harboring the secret.

  In the Mormon church, confessions take place face-to-face in the bishop’s office. First, the repentant person reveals his or her sin, at which point the conversation turns to demonstrating a desire to change. The process continues with weekly meetings with the bishop, who shares applicable scripture and spiritual advice. “Every week, I would tell him about my life and how things were going,” said Deanna. “I had a really good experience with the whole process. My bishop was the sweetest man ever. He made me feel so comfortable and was so respectful about everything.” Deanna said all the church leaders treated her and Travis with love and respect.

  Deanna’s bishop did not physically take away her Temple Recommend, although he did advise her not to attend her temple until he deemed her temple-worthy. Travis, on the other hand, did have his Temple Recommend taken away. Neither was allowed to participate in sacraments in their churches, either. Deanna went through a ten-month repentance process, working with the bishop all the while. Finally, she was able to go back to temple, but Travis’s bishop wouldn’t allow him back for a year. The two vowed to their bishops that they would not have sex again with anyone until they were with a marriage partner. In the meantime, they ended their relationship.

  The story behind their breakup seems to differ depending on whom you talk to. Clearly, the rigors of repentance had to have impacted their romantic relationship in some form. According to Deanna, she came to the realization that Travis was never going to marry her and chose to end it, though they were able to segue into a loving friendship. Friends say that when it came to Deanna, Travis also had issues with commitment. One even suggested to him that he seek counseling, believing that because of his upbringing, he felt vulnerable and afraid to let people love him. Others say the many years of rarely interrupted chastity had left Travis, now a man in his late twenties, with a desire for a new expe
rience. A male friend said that while Travis often spoke of his deep yearning to get married, he also repeatedly referred to himself as having a highly sexed nature. Though quite pretty, Deanna didn’t exude the arm-candy sexiness that friends say Travis had begun to daydream about.

  Part of it was that Travis was living in a house full of single guys, all of whom were handsome, in great physical shape, and always seemed to be dating hot young women. While Travis was the alpha male, the one with the successful career, the big house, and the shiny BMW in the driveway, he envied their ability to get the bombshell girls. He thought that part of the problem was his weight. Travis grew determined to get healthy and into great physical shape. He began an exercise regimen that consisted of long workout sessions and strenuous hikes and bicycles rides, while also eating more fruits and vegetables. He was even juicing and—after viewing a documentary on the horrors of factory farming—had cut back on meat.

  Before long, his self-improvement campaign paid off. He had shed pounds and was looking buffed. His natural good looks supercharged his efforts. For the first time in his life, Travis was turning heads. He began to get attention from girls he used to consider out of his league. His reputation as a beloved dork had ended and what emerged was a handsome motivational speaker who felt he just might become the next Tony Robbins.

  After Deanna, Travis dated an attractive young woman named Esther. Not much is known about Travis’s relationship with Esther, except that they were together for a period of a few months.

  In May of 2005, Travis opened his home to a stunning female friend named Elisha Schabel. Elisha and her husband were heading toward a divorce, and she needed a temporary place to stay. At the time, Travis had eight male renters, so there wasn’t a free bedroom for Elisha. But wanting to help her, he invited her to share his large master bedroom. Elisha said that Travis expressed an interest in dating her, but she was not interested in a romantic relationship, and Travis was completely respectful. For the month of May, she slept in Travis’s bed with him, but the two remained chaste.

  “A lot of times he’s like, ‘Come sleep in my bed . . . Come stay with me. I’ll even sleep on the floor,’ said Elisha. And I’m like, ‘I’m not going to make you sleep on the floor in your own room.’ And so we would actually make a pillow barricade, just to keep us, keep him a man of his word. And keep each other honest. At the time, he had a jungle-themed bedroom and a huge stuffed animal lion that we put on top [of the pillows]. So, it was like this huge barricade. And every night he’s like, ‘Oh, Elisha we don’t have to do this.’ And I’m like ‘yes we do. Just to keep safe.’ But we would talk over the barricade every night. And, for like a few days or I don’t even know how long I ended up sleeping in that bed.” Elisha said Travis never crossed the line and respected her boundaries, literally and figuratively.

  That same year, Travis got a black pug. He had always loved pugs, because those were the dogs his beloved grandmother favored. He named his Napoleon. He treated the dog like his child, teaching him lots of commands and tricks. He brought Napoleon with him on road trips as often as he could. Even after the end of Travis and Deanna’s relationship, Deanna held on to a key to Travis’s house so she could take care of Napoleon while Travis was traveling. And Travis would be traveling a lot.

  CHAPTER 7

  DEDUCTIVE REASONING

  In the days following the medical examiner’s findings, Detective Flores hit the phones, reaching out to Travis’s friends and business associates with the hopes of getting a clearer picture of the victim and his relationship with his former girlfriend, Jodi Arias. His initial interviews with those close to Travis suggested that Jodi was a likely suspect, and his lengthy phone call with her that past Tuesday had raised his antennae considerably.

  On Monday, June 16, one of Detective Flores’s first orders of business was to follow up on a phone message left by Travis’s friend Clancy Talbot. Clancy, who lived in Salt Lake City, said she had seen Jodi Arias at a PPL seminar there on June 5. Jodi had been in the company of a man named Ryan Burns, who was also affiliated with PPL.

  Clancy explained that according to Ryan, Jodi had left California on Tuesday, June 3, but hadn’t arrived in Salt Lake City until Thursday, June 5. Ryan also told her that he had lost contact with Jodi for more than twenty-four hours during the drive, which Clancy found alarming because of the possibilities in the timeline. She knew the trip from Northern California to Salt Lake City was typically about ten hours, but Jodi had been traveling for nearly two days. Ryan told her that Jodi had claimed she had gotten lost and had parked on the shoulder of the road to sleep for a while. Clancy said she’d heard that other people at the conference had tried to call Jodi while she was en route, but had also been unable to reach her, as her phone was apparently shut off.

  Clancy wondered if Jodi had taken a detour to see Travis in Mesa. Jodi had been very clingy, very Fatal Attraction since the two had broken up, Clancy said. She added that when Jodi finally arrived at the conference, she was no longer a platinum blonde, but was now a brunette. As Jodi tried to give her a big hug, Clancy pulled out of it. Jodi was also acting “a little odd,” but Clancy assumed it was because she was probably tired after the long drive. Of course, at the time that Jodi showed up a day late in Utah, nobody had any idea that Travis was sitting dead in his shower in Arizona.

  It wasn’t until Travis’s body was discovered in Mesa four days later that Clancy and others began reconsidering Jodi’s story and finding it curious that she was off the radar for so long around the very time that Travis was killed. Clancy had had dinner with Jodi, Ryan, and about twenty friends at Chili’s on the night of June 5. Jodi had Band-Aids on fingers on both of her hands.

  “What did you do to your hands?” one of the friends asked.

  “I’m a bartender, I cut my fingers,” Jodi replied.

  Clancy was skeptical. The story didn’t make any sense. Why would a bartender have so many cuts on so many fingers? The injuries didn’t seem to bother Jodi. She was acting like everything was totally fine, laughing at people’s jokes, not complaining about her cuts. Everybody was going to go four-wheeling the next day. Ryan invited Jodi to join them. Jodi usually loved the PPL side adventure trips, so everybody was surprised when she said she couldn’t make it because she had to work. Normally she would find somebody to cover for her.

  At the end of the call, Clancy provided the detective with Ryan’s phone number. Detective Flores thanked her, and the two hung up. Flores knew he wanted to talk to Ryan Burns, but he had other calls to make first. He also wanted to hear Jodi Arias tell her version of the Salt Lake City events once he had gathered enough information from other sources.

  For now, Detective Flores wanted to talk to Travis’s most recent girlfriend, Lisa Andrews. Her name had been mentioned by Travis’s roommate, Zach Billings, who had indicated Lisa had broken off her relationship with Travis that past February, in part because of Jodi. In a phone call with Detective Flores, Lisa Andrews confirmed her discomfort with Jodi Arias. She recalled a night from the previous December. Travis had been visiting with her at her house, when there was a knock at the front door. She went to answer it, but no one was there. It wasn’t until Travis went to his car later that night to go home that he realized all four of his tires had been slashed. It was unsettling, but they both dismissed it as a random act of vandalism.

  When the same thing happened the following night, the two could no longer ignore it. There was the same unexpected knock on the door, with no one there when they answered. This time Travis immediately raced to his car, only to find his tires slashed again. Lisa said they called the Mesa police, but after waiting several hours for an officer to arrive, he had to leave before they could file a report. Frightened, Lisa asked Travis to spend the night, which he did. She said they did not have sex; she just didn’t want to be home alone.

  Lisa said the next day she received an angry email from a “John Doe,” which she had saved. Filled with hostility, it mentioned her relationship
with Travis. “You shameful whore. Your Heavenly Father must be ashamed of the whoredoms you have committed with that insidious man. 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.” There were a number of religious references, with the email signing off: “Be thou clean, sin no more. 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 said that she and Travis suspected that Jodi had sent the email and slashed the tires, but they had never been able to prove it. Detective Flores asked Lisa if she could think of anyone other than Jodi who might want to harm Travis. No one came to mind, although Lisa did provide Flores with the name of one of Travis’s former roommates. She recalled that he and Travis did not see eye to eye, and that he had moved out suddenly in the middle of the night the previous December. Still, she didn’t believe he had a reason to hurt Travis. In her opinion, Jodi was a much more likely candidate.

  Detective Flores wanted to conduct follow-up interviews with some of the people who had been at the house when Travis’s body had been discovered, including Mimi Hall, Dallin Forrest, and Michelle Lowery. They all agreed to come to the station to be interviewed and to give DNA and fingerprint samples, a necessary step to exclude them from any evidence found at the scene.

  The detective also called Jodi Arias. When he learned that she was in the area, having traveled from Northern California to Mesa, Arizona, for Travis’s memorial service to be held that day, he asked her if she could come to headquarters the following day so he could speak with her in person. He explained that he already had three others coming to provide DNA samples for exclusionary purposes.