Later, Jodi called Travis and told him about the encounters.
“He asked me on a date,” Jodi said. “He actually tried to kiss me.”
If at first he wasn’t bothered, Jodi escalated the behavior, coldly toying with Travis. She claimed these men wouldn’t stop calling her, wouldn’t take no for an answer. Eventually, Travis grew perturbed.
The Hughes weren’t the only ones wary of Jodi. When Travis first began bringing Jodi around his friends, many expressed concern. Clancy Talbot, an executive director with Prepaid Legal living in Utah, was in her forties, with long blond hair and a dark tan. She considered Travis like a “little brother.”
When she first met Jodi, Clancy said she could quickly tell something was “off about her.” Travis’s friends tolerated Jodi’s presence, but no one really liked her, she said.
“When you looked at Jodi, it was like she was empty. She never talked about her life, her past, her family, any friends. No one really knew anything about her—ever,” Clancy said. “She just kind of morphed into whoever she was around. She just took on the personality of whoever else was in the room.”
As word spread among Prepaid Legal associates about their relationship, an acquaintance of Travis’s also delivered a warning.
“She is bad news,” the friend said. “She is going to ruin your business. She will ruin your life.”
* * *
In late December 2006, Darryl Brewer found a job in Monterey and moved out of the house in Palm Desert, officially ending his four-year relationship with Jodi.
“We parted at this point,” Darryl said. “I didn’t feel the relationship had ended, but it had definitely changed. We both saw our paths going different ways.”
Their plans for the house were initially unclear. For the next few months, Darryl continued to pay his portion of the mortgage. But by February, neither could afford to keep up with the payments.
Their loan slipped into default. Jodi would continue to live in the house for several more months. By the end of the year, she would lose the first home she ever purchased to foreclosure.
* * *
By early 2007, Jodi’s desire for a commitment with Travis had become all-consuming. For Sky, it seemed like Jodi was constantly crying and complaining that Travis wouldn’t ask her to move to Mesa, wouldn’t give her a commitment.
For a period in January Chris and Sky started to feel sympathetic toward Jodi. The Hughes knew Travis had a reputation as a womanizer and a flirt. Jodi appeared so in love and, according to her complaints, it seemed that Travis was mistreating her.
At one point Sky e-mailed Travis and reprimanded him for using Jodi sexually without giving her a commitment, calling him a “heart predator.”
“Jodi was being treated horribly, you weren’t beating her physically, but you were emotionally,” Sky wrote. “She has given you everything, all control, and you give her 3 A.M. calls and make-out fests.”
It was clear to the Hughes that Travis and Jodi weren’t right for each other. During one of her unexpected visits to their house, the Hughes took Jodi aside and encouraged her to stop seeing Travis for her own good.
Soon after, Travis found out about the encounter, firing off an angry e-mail to Sky. “You crossed the line.”
He rebuked Sky for causing “irreparable damage to mine and Jodi’s relationship,” and denied being more than a “jerk” to her.
“I adore Jodi,” Travis wrote. “In fact, I don’t know if it has ever been easier to be nice to someone as it is with Jodi.”
Any sympathy the Hughes briefly felt toward Jodi, however, quickly vanished as Jodi’s behavior became increasingly strange.
Weeks after the e-mail exchange, Travis was with Sky in the kitchen of the Hughes’ house when he received an e-mail from Jodi. The message concerned a mysterious, anonymous e-mail that Jodi claimed she received from a male stalker.
“I watch your every move,” the e-mail read. “I will have you.”
It went on to describe Jodi as beautiful and talented.
“Travis doesn’t deserve you,” the e-mail continued. “He’s too far away to protect you.”
Jodi called Travis and told him more about the message.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Jodi said. “But I was scared, and it mentioned your name, and you deserved to hear about it.”
Alarmed, Travis read the e-mail out loud to Sky. When she heard it, Sky burst out laughing.
“Travis, Jodi wrote this,” she said with a chuckle. “This is totally fake. She wants you to ask her to move to Arizona.”
Travis became defensive. “This is serious and very scary.”
As much as Sky tried to convince him it was a ploy, Travis wouldn’t listen.
“Jodi would never do something like that,” Travis insisted. “She’s not like that.”
* * *
In early February, Jodi showed up unexpectedly at Travis’s home in Mesa. She had left Palm Desert after work in the evening, arriving at his place at 2 A.M.
As Jodi got out of her car, she began to have second thoughts, worried how Travis would react to the late-night visit.
Just as she was about to get in her car and head home, she noticed a blue light flickering in the second-story window. She could tell Travis was in his room awake, watching TV. Before she could change her mind, she went to the front door and rang the doorbell.
When Travis opened the door and saw Jodi, a wide smile spread across his face. They spent the next few days in his house, watching movies, reading books, and surfing the Internet.
At one point they were sitting on the oversize chair in Travis’s bedroom scrolling through pictures from an exhibit that recently came to the Phoenix museum called Body Worlds, which features preserved human bodies and body parts that reveal their inner anatomical structures.
Travis got out of the chair, leaving Jodi with his computer. Jodi began clicking the back button until she was in his MySpace account message inbox.
“The temptation got the better of me so I clicked on his e-mail,” Jodi admitted.
In it she found sexual e-mails from Travis to other women. Most disturbing, she claimed, was an e-mail exchange with a married woman in the Mormon church. Most of these exchanges had taken place weeks and months prior.
Jodi made no mention of the e-mails to Travis. More than anything she still wanted an exclusive relationship with the man she adored. During her stay at his house Travis and Jodi had a discussion about their relationship. Perhaps because he was concerned about the other men in Jodi’s life or the apparent stalker terrorizing her, Travis decided he was ready to commit.
On February 2, 2007, they became a couple, much to Jodi’s delight.
“When I became what I believed was exclusive, I believed it was the natural next step,” Jodi recalled. “Things began to develop a little more rapidly.”
* * *
By late March 2007, Sky Hughes began to sense that Jodi was not simply strange, but that she may be dangerous. Her fixation with Travis was bordering on scary.
During a visit, Jodi asked to talk to Sky privately. They took a walk around the property and Jodi revealed to Sky what she found on Travis’s computer.
“I know he’s talking to other women,” Jodi said.
Jodi admitted that she had logged into his MySpace account and said she had e-mailed those messages to herself.
Later, Sky spoke with her husband, and they agreed they needed to tell Travis that they didn’t feel Jodi was the right girl for him.
Travis and Jodi’s final visit was in April 2007. As Chris was showing Travis something in his office, Jodi sat in the kitchen talking to Sky about her relationship.
By then, Sky had little patience for Jodi. As Jodi spoke, Sky slyly reached for her phone and typed a text message to Chris.
“She’s driving me crazy,” Sky wrote. “Get her away from me.”
Sky sat her phone on the counter, out of Jodi’s line of sight.
In the office, Chris
got the message. Before Chris could hide the phone, Travis’s gaze fell to the screen.
As Travis read the message, his face contorted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We need to talk to you later, bro,” Chris said. “We have some concerns.”
For the next few hours the Hughes pretended everything was normal. After dinner, Sky pulled her husband aside. “We need to talk to Travis.”
Around 10 P.M. Jodi went off to bed and the Hughes sat down with Travis for a private talk in their master bedroom.
“Travis, there’s something major wrong with her,” Chris began the uncomfortable conversation.
They listed instances of her weird behavior, including her unannounced visits, reading his e-mail, eavesdropping on his phone calls, her flirtations with other men and apparent calculated manipulations.
Travis appeared hurt, repeating over and over, “Really?”
Sky said they wanted to like her, but she was manifesting some disturbing behaviors. Travis, however, was unconvinced.
“Travis, don’t you get it?” Chris said. “There’s something wrong with her.”
“She’s just trying to be friends with you guys,” Travis said.
“I’m really uncomfortable with Jodi,” Sky told Travis. “Something’s not right.”
“She’s a nice girl,” Travis insisted.
“Dude,” Chris said. “You can’t see it. But we can see it.”
“She scares me,” Sky added. “I’m afraid we’re going to find you cut up inside her refrigerator.”
Travis laughed.
“I’m serious,” Sky exclaimed. “There’s something not right with her. Travis, I’m really worried.”
Travis shook his head. His friends were wrong about Jodi, he told them. The conversation went on for nearly two hours as they cautioned him about the relationship.
From downstairs Sky heard the faint sound of a door creaking. A moment later, a chill traveled down her spine. She was suddenly overcome by a sense that they were being watched.
Sky changed the conversation—talking loudly about something else. A few minutes later, there was a knock. Travis opened the door and found Jodi standing there.
“When are you going to sleep?” Jodi said.
“When we’re done,” Travis told her. “I’ll come say good-night before I go to bed.”
Jodi went downstairs and they continued to talk. About a half hour later, Sky got that cold, dark feeling once again. Silently, she mouthed to Travis, “She’s out there.”
Travis whispered, “No way!”
Quietly, Travis approached the door. Jerking it open, he found Jodi standing there, glaring at Travis. Her face was flush, her jaw tight.
“What do you want?” Travis asked.
Jodi’s glare darted between Sky and Chris.
“Is there a problem?” Jodi asked.
“Nope,” Travis said.
“Is this a private conversation?” she asked.
“Yeah it is,” Travis said.
Years later the Hughes would recall the fear they felt that night.
“She had this look on her face that gave us chills,” Chris said. “She had so much rage.”
“It was like pure evil,” Sky added. “She was emanating, pulsating this terrible energy.”
Jodi left the room. Soon after, Travis headed downstairs and met with Jodi in her room, where they talked until the early-morning hours.
Sky was terrified. “Do we need to get our kids and bring them in our room?” she asked Chris.
For ten minutes they debated getting their kids. They asked themselves how they had allowed someone in their home that made them feel so unsafe.
“I don’t want her here ever again,” Sky told Chris.
“Neither do I. I’ll tell Travis in the morning,” Chris said. “He is going to hate us.”
Eventually, they decided to go to sleep. Sky checked on her kids throughout the night.
The next morning, they spoke with Travis. “She’s absolutely not welcome in our home anymore,” Chris said.
“Fine,” Travis said. “Then you tell her that.”
In an awkward, two-hour conversation, Sky spoke to Jodi alone, informing her they did not feel comfortable with her anymore.
Toward the end of their talk, Jodi asked incredulously, “Are you going to tell Travis not to date me?”
“Yes,” Sky said. “I don’t think you are good for him.”
That afternoon, Jodi left. The Hughes never let her back inside their house again.
“We made it very clear to Travis that if you continue with this relationship, you’re going to have to do it at a distance from us,” Chris said. “Because she is not coming around our kids, she’s not coming around our house. This is not going to be your meeting ground anymore.”
The decision put a strain on the Hughes’ relationship with Travis.
* * *
Although Travis and Jodi no longer met at the Hughes’ home, neither was willing to end their romantic entanglement.
Yet, now the couple had a big obstacle to overcome—the thousand miles of open road separating them. Overcoming that hurdle, Travis and Jodi took their relationship on the road.
CHAPTER 13
Travis Alexander spent the last full year of his life living as if he were dying. For Travis, that meant challenging himself to explore new experiences, seizing new opportunities, and broadening his long-term perspective.
It was a life philosophy inspired, strangely enough, by a country-western song.
In March 2007, Travis was driving, with Jodi by his side, to a Prepaid Legal convention in Oklahoma City when he first heard the song he made his anthem. Passing through the wide open plains on the outskirts of the city, his car radio lost reception. He tuned the dials, but the only stations he could receive were country music stations.
“It’s Oklahoma, what did I expect?” he told Jodi.
Travis hated country music, but since he had no choice, he left the station on. He preferred it over silence. A particular song caught Travis’s attention: Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying.”
Travis turned up the volume, paying close attention to the lyrics. The song was powerful, inspiring—and it ignited something in Travis.
The song was about a man in his early forties who, after learning he had a terminal disease, decided to live life to the fullest. The song’s chorus listed all the things that the man decided to do with his remaining time on earth, including skydiving, climbing the Rocky Mountains, and riding a bull.
At that moment the song spoke to Travis. He decided to quite literally live the next year as if it would be his last.
Later that spring, Travis went skydiving. During a trip to Colorado, he hiked the Rocky Mountains. The song includes the line, “I finally read the Good Book.” As part of his goals Travis started reading the Bible and was determined to finish it by the end of the year.
For the rest of the year, he put his career on the backburner and began traveling the country. Around this time he came across a book called 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List. The guide listed a thousand exotic places around the world, including sacred ruins, grand hotels, wildlife preserves, hilltop villages, castles, hidden islands, and museums. Each location included a description of the destination.
Later, he mentioned the book to Jodi.
“There’s this great book I found,” he said.
Travis told Jodi he wanted to spend his life crossing off all the places on the list. Jodi seemed to echo his enthusiasm and together they began taking weekend trips, checking off the destinations one by one.
“He thought it would be a cool goal to have, maybe a lifetime goal, to check off as many places as you could. I began to join him on that pursuit,” Jodi said. “We began calling it ‘the list.’ And we were checking places on ‘the list.’”
While touring many of these destinations in the travel guide, the pair also visited significant Mormon sites, incl
uding places mentioned in The Book of Mormon. With her during every trip, Jodi had her camera, snapping hundreds of photos.
“I’ve always had my camera, always,” she said. “So it goes everywhere I go.”
On several weekends Travis also drove to California to see Jodi and they toured nearby beaches and museums. In Los Angeles, they went to the Getty Center, a museum specializing in pre-twentieth-century European paintings, drawings, and sculptures, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European photographs.
In the spring of 2007, they spent a day at Disneyland and Disneyland California Adventure. Together they posed for a picture on the teacups ride.
On another trip as they were passing through Amarillo, Texas, they drove an hour out of their way to visit the famed “Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” monument. Viewed by more than ten million people each year, the memorial features a 190-foot freestanding cross that can be seen from twenty miles away. The base of the cross is surrounded by life-size bronze statues depicting twelve scenes from the life of Jesus.
Jodi snapped a picture of Travis posing, his arm around one of the Jesus statues like he was having a conversation with a close friend.
On their trip to Oklahoma, they stopped outside the Oklahoma City Temple, the ninety-fifth operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They also drove to Nauvoo, Illinois, where they toured the historic town that was first established in the early 1800s by members of the Mormon church.
During the trips, Travis and Jodi shared a hotel room and were often intimate. As they walked around the tourist destinations, they were openly affectionate and acted as if they were a couple.
But when they were at Prepaid Legal conferences, Jodi noticed a change in their interactions. In front of his friends, Travis was distant. He ignored Jodi and sometimes wouldn’t hold her hand.
At out-of-town Prepaid Legal events, which were attended by many of Travis’s Mormon friends, they kept separate rooms. As part of the Law of Chastity, single Mormons are discouraged to share a room with members of the opposite sex.
“I knew it was a church standard,” Jodi said. “I knew we were going against the church standard when no one else knew about it.”
Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story: A Beautiful Photographer, Her Mormon Lover, and a Brutal Murder Page 10
