Jodi told Darryl she was making changes in life. She claimed to give up coffee and said she no longer wanted to cuss inside the house. In addition, she informed her live-in boyfriend that she no longer wanted to have sex.
“I want to save myself for my future husband,” she told him.
Darryl adhered to her wishes, and he and Jodi kept to their separate bedrooms. Through it all, he never knew about Travis. He had no idea another man had stolen her heart.
All he knew was this wasn’t the woman he had fallen in love with.
* * *
In October 2006, Travis and Jodi met for a rendezvous in Ehrenberg, a tiny ghost town on the border between California and Arizona, and a midway point for the couple.
During their two-day stay at a motel, they watched game shows, studied The Book of Mormon, and Travis made music CDs for her on his computer. Driving to the neighboring town of Blythe, they had dinner at Sizzler and saw a movie. On their last day, they got breakfast at a local truck stop before parting ways.
Weeks later, in November, Travis surprised Jodi at her house in Palm Desert. He was on his way to a Prepaid Legal conference and stopped at her house specifically to see her. Darryl was away at work and unaware of the visit.
By then, Jodi had developed strong feelings for Travis.
“I felt like I began to love him early on,” she said. “And as I got to know him, my love for him grew.”
But by late November, Travis seemed a bit distant and preoccupied. Jodi worried that he may be losing interest in her. Around this time she told him she was ready to convert to Mormonism.
Jodi claimed she felt a strong connection to the Mormon faith. Beyond the spiritual beliefs, she seemed drawn to the religion’s view on family values.
“The more that I discovered about the church, the more I discovered it did not conflict with my beliefs and was more in line with the values I had,” Jodi said.
In mid-November, Jodi asked Travis to be the one to baptize her. Travis was thrilled. On November 26, 2006, Travis baptized Jodi into the Mormon faith. The ceremony took place in Palm Desert. Jodi had invited Darryl and her family, but none of them attended on her behalf. Perhaps because they viewed her decision as hasty and impulsive, Jodi’s parents did not support her sudden religious conversion.
The baptism—the first ordinance of the Mormon faith—was meant to be symbolic of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Dressed in white jumpsuits, Travis and Jodi were photographed together, flanked by two missionaries in suits.
Travis stepped into a large baptismal font filled with water. Reaching out, he took Jodi by the hand.
“Jodi Ann Arias: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen,” he said.
Jodi took a deep breath and closed her eyes, as Travis submerged her entire body beneath the water. When she reemerged, Jodi’s past sins were forgiven in the eye of the church.
After her baptism, Travis seemed more attentive toward Jodi, and they resumed talking daily.
By all appearances, Travis and Jodi’s union seemed pure. But while they both preached Mormon virtues, their relationship was secretly steeped in sin.
CHAPTER 12
There was an undeniable physical attraction between Travis and Jodi, and very early on in their relationship, the two became sexual.
In court, Jodi would testify about their many erotic encounters. Their first intimacy was that first weekend together at the home of Chris and Sky Hughes, according to Jodi. After everyone had gone to bed, Travis slipped into Jodi’s room. They sat down on the bed, and without uttering a word, he began to passionately kiss her. Travis removed Jodi’s pajamas and performed oral sex; she reciprocated.
Weeks later, during their rendezvous in Ehrenberg, they spent most of the weekend having sex. When she arrived, Travis led her to the bed, which took up most of the length of the cramped motel room. He pulled her body to his chest, his lips meeting hers for a sensual kiss. Locked in an embrace, they lay down on the mattress and peeled off each other’s clothes. Once naked, Jodi writhed on top of him, while he caressed her body.
But at that motel, in between sexual encounters, Travis seemed disconnected. On the phone they spoke for hours, but in person it seemed purely sexual.
“The whole time he was checked in he was kind of distant,” Jodi said. “There wasn’t much of a mental or emotional connection like there was over the phone. It was just primarily physical.”
After they parted ways Travis didn’t call her for two days. Not hearing from him, even just briefly, caused Jodi to panic. She had begun to feel foolish for letting herself be so sexual so early on in the relationship and feared he was no longer interested.
Jodi left two voice messages and sent a text before Travis called her back. When he did, their long-distance relationship resumed.
In the beginning, they never progressed to the extent of vaginal intercourse. Instead they had oral sex and “outercourse”—physical stimulation without penetration. According to Jodi, Travis led her to believe oral and anal sex were less sinful than intercourse.
Prior to her baptism, Jodi was interviewed by officials in the church concerning the Law of Chastity. Although she had been sexual with Travis, Jodi claimed to be chaste. Later, she said she believed she had been following the law by restraining from intercourse.
“My understanding is that vaginal sex was off limits but all other sex was more or less okay,” Jodi said. “I didn’t feel like we were sinning.”
By defining sex only as intercourse, they seemed to justify their actions, cheating the Law of Chastity. Although Jodi was no virgin, she claimed she wanted to adhere to the law, if only by restraining from intercourse, because she believed it would enhance their relationship.
“I wanted to conform with that Law of Chastity because I believed our relationship would be blessed if we did that,” she said.
In court, Jodi claimed Travis was the one who pursued her sexually. Travis’s friends, however, say she was more likely the aggressor. While simultaneously presenting herself as a devout new Mormon, Jodi was also a temptress.
“She would always be sucking on his ear, kissing his neck—while we were sitting there talking to them,” Sky Hughes said. “She was glued to him. If he moved or shifted, she shifted.”
At the Hughes’ house, Jodi followed Travis from room to room, chasing after him like a lost puppy. When Travis sat on the couch, Jodi would sit on top of him or lay her head on his lap.
“It was beyond the cutesy new relationship. She was all over him, on top of him,” Chris Hughes recalled. “Travis was embarrassed. It clearly made him so uncomfortable. He was literally pushing her off of him.”
While the Hughes were initially impressed with Jodi, during her subsequent visits to their home, some unusual aspects of her personality began to emerge.
When Travis left his phone unattended, Jodi would grab it and scroll through his messages. If Travis stepped out of the room to take a call, Jodi stood just out of sight, eavesdropping on the conversations. On more than one occasion, Chris and Sky caught her standing outside of Travis’s room.
“I was about to knock,” Jodi would say quickly.
“She would literally stand outside the bathroom and wait for him,” Chris Hughes said. “When she heard that he would flush or that he was off the phone, she would walk away.”
During one visit, the Hughes took Travis and Jodi for a drive in a nearby ritzy neighborhood to view some of the multi-million-dollar homes in the area. Sky drove, with Chris beside her in the passenger seat. Travis sat next to Jodi in the backseat. As she was driving, Sky caught Jodi’s reflection in the rearview mirror. Jodi was gazing at Travis, while he stared out the window.
“She is making goo-goo eyes at Travis, and he wouldn’t look at her,” Sky recalled. “Jodi was going berserk because Travis wouldn’t look into her eyes. They almost fought because he wouldn’t gaze into her eyes.”
&
nbsp; Around the Hughes’ house, Jodi would carry her copy of The Book of Mormon. On occasion, while Travis played with the Hughes’ children, Jodi sat upright in an adjacent chair with the book on her lap. At times she appeared to be studying it, at others her gaze drifted to Travis, as if she wanted to ensure he saw her.
The Hughes found this odd. Although they were LDS, they didn’t make a habit of studying The Book of Mormon among the chaos of playing children. To the Hughes it seemed that Jodi was acting how she believed Mormons behaved.
“Jodi would study the scriptures at the strangest times,” Sky recalled. “She would sit there and pretend she was having a Mormon experience. It was all just for show.”
By the date of her baptism, the Hughes had begun to believe Jodi’s interests in the Mormon faith were entirely disingenuous. To them, it seemed Jodi was using Travis’s religion as a perverse form of courtship.
Jodi knew Travis wanted to marry a Mormon, and appeared to believe she had a better chance at becoming his wife if she joined the church. The Hughes began to suspect Jodi was presenting herself as someone she was not.
“She is a chameleon. It was a hundred percent fake. It was theater from top to bottom,” Chris recalled. “She was acting when she got baptized; she was acting when she read the scriptures. It was all about manipulating Travis.”
* * *
Soon after meeting Travis, Jodi fell deeply in love. She seemed enchanted with him, engraining herself in every aspect of his life.
“It’s kind of like I was swept off my feet,” Jodi recalled. “He came at me really strong in a positive way. It was like nothing I had experienced before.”
While Travis liked Jodi, and was attracted to her, he knew her feelings were stronger than his. Travis wasn’t in the phase of his life where he wanted to be in a serious relationship, something he made Jodi aware of.
Over the next few months, Jodi seemed frustrated by Travis’s lack of commitment. Throughout their visits to the Hughes’, Jodi often talked privately with Sky, while Chris and Travis were in another room discussing business. With Sky, Jodi expressed her concerns about her relationship, agonizing that Travis would not commit. But the more questions Jodi had about Travis, the more concerns Sky began to have about her.
Tears in her eyes, Jodi would often say: “Why won’t he commit?” “Why won’t he ask me to move to Arizona?”
On more than one occasion, Jodi told Sky she wanted to marry Travis.
“I actually had a dream that we were getting married,” Jodi said.
By the end of 2006, Jodi began showing up at the Hughes’ house by herself, often unannounced. During these times Jodi talked to Sky about Travis, consulting with her for advice.
“She would show up and talk to us about him,” Sky recalled. “The more she did it, the more odd we thought she was.”
Concerned, Sky later mentioned it to Travis. In a later conversation, Travis also admitted to Sky that Jodi had no friends, aside from her ex-boyfriend, Matt McCartney. As Jodi explained, “All girls are jealous of me and all guys want to sleep with me.”
“You know what she told me, Sky?” Travis said. “She said you were her best friend.”
Sky was taken aback. She hardly knew Jodi and did not consider her to be a close friend, much less a best friend.
To Sky it didn’t make sense. “Is she really this nice or is she a psychopath?” she asked.
“No.” Travis laughed. “She really is that nice.”
* * *
In late 2006, Jodi was working part-time at an upscale restaurant called Bing Crosby’s in Rancho Mirage, a few miles outside Palm Desert.
As she grew close to Travis, Jodi’s coworkers noticed a change in her. Jodi had become consumed with her relationship with her new boyfriend.
Many times before her shift, she would show up in the parking lot, but wouldn’t come inside the restaurant. The other servers would find Jodi in her car talking or texting Travis, refusing to work until she heard back from him.
“I just need to know where he is,” Jodi explained.
In between waiting tables, she spoke constantly of her relationship with Travis. She told her coworkers she had met her future husband and the father of her children.
“I’m just so in love,” Jodi said. “I want to be with him all the time.”
It was beyond the intense infatuation of a new relationship. Jodi’s attachment to Travis was obsessive, said one of her coworkers.
“Jodi never knew what she was going to do with her life, or where she was going,” said a former coworker. “When she met Travis, it was like she found her purpose.”
* * *
Throughout the end of 2006, Travis and Jodi saw each other frequently. In addition to the trips to the Hughes’ house, Travis would visit her in California about once a month. In return, she drove to Arizona every few weeks to see him.
In December 2006, Prepaid Legal was hosting an event in Arizona. In preparation, Travis had invited dozens of friends from Utah and California to stay at his house. When Jodi learned of the event, she told Travis she would be attending. Since there was no room at his place, she said she would stay with other friends.
But the night before the event, Jodi showed up at Travis’s doorstep. Entering the house she announced herself as his girlfriend.
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Travis quickly corrected. “We’ve been dating.”
Travis reminded Jodi that there was no room at his place. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the event.”
But as the hours passed, Jodi lingered, her attention focused on Travis, as she followed him from room to room.
That night Travis slept in his office, while two female friends stayed upstairs in his bed. But Jodi never left as planned. Curling up on the living room floor, she slept underneath the Christmas tree.
Later, Jodi would say that during the trip she began to notice that Travis treated her differently in front of certain groups of people.
In front of strangers, he was affectionate. With his LDS friends in Arizona, Travis acted as if they were just friends. Jodi would try to hold his hand, or grab and kiss him, but he would push her away.
Perhaps Travis wanted to keep the true nature of their relationship secret, because he knew they were sinning. Or maybe he didn’t want to appear committed to Jodi because he intended to date other women. Whatever the reason, their sexual relationship continued, only in secret.
While Jodi was aware they weren’t exclusive, for the first few months they were seeing each other, she believed she was the only woman in Travis’s life.
After the December trip to Mesa, however, Travis admitted he had been seeing other women. He reminded Jodi that they were not committed, and encouraged her to date as well.
In December 2006, Jodi went on two dates with men she met through Prepaid Legal. One of those men was Abe Abdelhadi. A muscular man with bright blue eyes and a shaved head, Abe had met Jodi at a Prepaid Legal conference in Pasadena. The two exchanged phone numbers and when they saw each other at business events would sit together and go out to lunch.
They went on just one date, dining together in Anaheim. After dinner, they stopped by a Barnes & Noble bookstore, where they ended up in the spiritual section. As Jodi perused the books, she asked Abe about his religious background and explained her newfound interest in the Mormon faith.
“I’m dabbling in Mormonism,” she said.
Abe gave her a curious glance. Mormonism was highly restrictive—no caffeine, alcohol, or premarital sex, he told Jodi.
“Wow. That’s a very tough religion if you’re going to jump into religions,” he said.
At the end of the night, Abe walked Jodi to her car. They began to kiss, and Jodi pressed her body against his. Abe embraced her and, touching the waist band of her jeans, he could tell she was wearing thong panties.
“That’s not magic underwear,” he said, joking about the temple garments worn by Mormons.
“No.” Jodi gave a seductive smile. “But
there’s magic in them.”
She’s a fun girl, Abe thought. This is going to be exciting.
Abe was surprised when, weeks later, Jodi called him and told him she could no longer see him.
“She explained to me that she was getting back together with her ex and that she felt guilty,” Abe recalled. “She felt like she was cheating on him with me even though we really only got together the once.”
After the date, Jodi would talk to Travis about Abe, attempting to elicit a jealous response.
“Abe won’t stop calling me,” Jodi told Travis. “He keeps asking me out.”
Eventually, Travis grew contemptuous of the other men in Jodi’s life and began making disparaging comments.
In court, Jodi admitted that Travis became jealous when she discussed her dates with other men. But not because she was dating, she said. According to Jodi, he was angry the other men were not Mormons.
After December, Jodi rarely dated anyone else. She only wanted to be with Travis.
“I would go on dates occasionally with other people but there was no spark there because Travis had my heart,” she said. “There wasn’t making room for anyone else.”
* * *
The more time the Hughes spent with Jodi, the more peculiar they began to find her behavior. While she said all the right things, there was something off about her. She seemed bizarrely unemotional, her affect flat. She never got mad, even when she should.
Even stranger, Jodi seemed desperate to appear desirable. When Travis wasn’t around, Jodi spoke constantly about the men who “wanted her.”
At Prepaid Legal conferences, Jodi would lay her head on a married man’s shoulder and then tell the Hughes that he won’t leave her alone. Later, they learned it was typically Jodi who had initiated the contact. Other times Jodi fabricated stories about the guys who were “pursuing her.” It became evident to the Hughes that Jodi wanted them to relate these stories to Travis.
“She went to the seminars with us and we got to watch her in action. She was always trying to get a guy’s attention,” Sky recalled. “We would watch her as she manipulated these men.”
Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story: A Beautiful Photographer, Her Mormon Lover, and a Brutal Murder Page 9
