Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story: A Beautiful Photographer, Her Mormon Lover, and a Brutal Murder

by Hogan, Shanna

  Each day of 2008 Travis read this affirmation. Despite his best intentions, his dreams would not be realized. Instead, the year would end in an unimaginable tragedy. Though there was no way he could have known it then, Travis Alexander had just six months to live.

  * * *

  In early 2008, the country was on the brink of a recession. The housing bubble had burst and property values were plummeting. The mortgage crisis had chilled consumer spending and layoffs were mounting. Banks and other creditors, burned by the sub-prime crisis, had tightened lending regulations, making it more difficult for everyone—from small business owners to private equity firms—to secure capital.

  Although Travis remained positive, like most Americans he was facing financial hardships. Recently he had taken more time off from work than usual—traveling with Jodi and developing his relationship with Lisa. Consequently his income had plummeted.

  With Prepaid Legal making money had come so easily to Travis. Now, it was not so effortless. Americans were holding on to their savings and less willing to take on extra expenses, including legal insurance.

  For Travis, the prospect of financial failure was frightening. Evaluating his finances, he realized he needed to tighten the budget or face serious debt. He created a plan.

  “What will I do to improve my finances?” he wrote in his affirmation. “I will work harder, yes, but more importantly I will work smarter and learn to leverage myself and get more out of one day then I previously got out of a month.… The money I earn I will not waste frivolously, but instead invest wisely so that my wealth will beget more wealth.”

  Travis’s largest monthly expense was his mortgage. The equity he had taken out of his house just two years prior was mostly gone—having been spent on home improvement and travel. Because he had refinanced at a higher price, his monthly mortgage was now beyond what he could afford. In early 2008, he refinanced his house a second time to lower his interest rate. Because his house value had dropped, he had to put some money back toward the principal to help lower his payment. His new mortgage: $332,500.

  To save money he had been renting out the extra rooms in his house to a few different male roommates. At least one, who stayed for a short period, had been a nightmare. After some seedy details surfaced about the roommate’s character, the man was evicted from Travis’s house and subsequently the church ward.

  Travis wanted his next roommate to be a friend. Several times he asked Taylor Searle to move in with him. For months he tried to convince his friend that living together would help motivate them to further pursue their clothing business and other entrepreneurial efforts.

  “This is the place to be,” Travis told Taylor. “Just move in. We can more efficiently get a lot of crap done in our lives.”

  Taylor, however, told Travis he needed to pay off some debt before he considered moving.

  When Taylor declined to move in, Travis asked around and found a twenty-two-year-old Mormon named Zachary Billings, who was looking to rent a room. A waiter at McGrath’s Fish House, a seafood restaurant in Tempe, Zachary was tall and athletic, with wavy blond hair and blue eyes. On January 29, Zachary moved into a spare bedroom on the second floor of the house on East Queensborough Avenue. He paid $450 a month for the room with full access to the rest of the house.

  At the time Zachary was in a serious relationship with a woman named Amanda McBrien, a twenty-year-old petite brunette with pale skin and deep brown eyes. Spending a lot of his spare time with his girlfriend, Zachary was rarely at home.

  * * *

  As the country slipped toward recession, Jodi too continued to struggle financially. Living in Mesa, she had been consistently broke. Her credit cards were canceled and she could no longer afford the payments on her Infiniti. In 2008, she stopped making the car payments, knowing the bank would soon repossess the car.

  Emotionally, Jodi was also teetering on the edge. Despite the pain caused by Travis’s infidelity, Jodi was still desperately in love. And they continued to have sex—delving further into carnal temptations. Jodi introduced him to sexual lubricant to make anal sex more enjoyable for her. They began to incorporate skimpy lingerie, sex toys, and even candy as they acted out each fantasy.

  On January 20, Jodi skipped a friend’s baptism to spend the night having sex with Travis. “We explored every naughty fantasy we could conjure up in our fruitful imaginations that we haven’t already fulfilled with one another,” Jodi wrote in her journal. “I love him, I really do.”

  Four days later, she wrote about her feelings for Travis. Although she knew he was seeing other women, she was still fixated on him.

  “Well speaking of Travis, he frustrates me and thrills me. I love, love, love him. And he sings to me, goes out of his way to display a massive amount of love for me. I’m almost haunted by it,” she wrote in January 2008. “It stays with me. I can’t get it out of my mind and my heart, but it still remains that I cannot marry him.”

  By this point Jodi knew they were not meant to be. Over time she was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with a sexual relationship that was going nowhere. She had hoped that their sexual connection would reignite their relationship. Slowly, she began to realize that it was not to be. She knew she was in an unhealthy situation and needed to escape.

  Meanwhile, Travis had encouraged her repeatedly to move back to California. She was making his life unlivable. When they fought, he told her he wanted nothing to do with her.

  Jodi grew depressed by the constant back-and-forth with Travis. In the spring she decided to move back to Yreka. But because she was broke, Jodi couldn’t afford the move. She called her parents and her mom loaned her money.

  “It was miserable, I wanted to leave,” Jodi testified. “My relationship, the circumstances, and how things were going. The roller coaster we were always on.… The ups were great and the downs were horrible.”

  * * *

  By February 2008, Travis’s economic conditions had not improved. He had not fallen behind on his bills, but he found himself relying more and more on his credit cards. Around this time, he borrowed money from several friends, including almost $1,000 from Jodi, which he quickly paid back.

  To save money, Travis decided to sell his BMW. When he mentioned the idea to Jodi, she said she wanted to purchase it.

  Because her car would soon be repossessed and her credit was poor, they created an arrangement where Jodi agreed to make monthly payments directly to Travis. He sold her the car for $6,000, with an agreement that she would pay at least $100 a month, more when she landed a better job.

  “He gave me very easy terms to pay for it,” Jodi recalled. “I was a little bit leery about getting that car. I was reluctant, but his idea made sense to me because I had to give my car back.”

  Travis purchased a used 2004 Black Toyota Prius Hybrid. Trading in his car was largely a financial decision, but he also felt good about helping the environment, which had always been one of his passions. Whenever possible he would recycle, reduce waste, and use cloth grocery bags. The Prius was one more way he could live greener.

  Travis was somewhat embarrassed by his financial problems. While his close friends were aware of his money troubles, he kept them well hidden from others. When asked about why he traded in his BMW, he told some friends that that it was entirely driven by concern for the environment. With others he admitted it was economically motivated.

  Travis’s money problems bled into other aspects of his life, too, including his relationship with Lisa Andrews. Travis always planned on being financially stable by the time he got married and had kids. His debt was now preventing him from moving forward with that plan, he believed.

  Analyzing his situation, he decided to end the relationship with Lisa and focus on his finances. In February, he broke up with Lisa. For Lisa, the breakup was abrupt. When she asked why the sudden change of heart, Travis stammered. He couldn’t explain—he was ashamed to admit he was going broke.

  “Lisa was confused by Travis’s breakup. H
e was prideful and didn’t want to explain,” recalled a friend of Travis’s. “She was upset and confused because he didn’t explain the cause for the breakup.”

  Later, even Travis seemed unsure of the real reason he ended the relationship. Was he looking for excuses? Did he still have a fear of commitment? Was he just not ready for marriage?

  “I don’t know if he had a real honest reason for breaking up with her other than it was time for a real commitment,” Taylor Searle recalled. “They were getting real close and he freaked out, as they were on the precipice of getting married.”

  While Travis was breaking up with Lisa, Taylor was also ending his relationship with his girlfriend. Because they were both going through breakups, Travis and Taylor formed an even closer kinship, spending hours several nights a weeks commiserating over their shared relationship woes.

  In later online chats with Taylor, Travis admitted that one of the factors in his breakup with Lisa was his attraction to another girl at the church singles ward, twenty-nine-year-old Marie Hall.

  Petite, with an olive complexion and dark brown hair, Marie, who went by the nickname Mimi, was a natural beauty, although she sometimes played down her looks with thick-framed glasses. A lifelong Mormon, she was intelligent and well-traveled, having visited France, Austria, Germany, London, Italy, and many places in the United States. She worked in finance and had ambitions to serve as a justice of the peace.

  After graduating from college in Provo, Utah, in 2007, Mimi returned to Mesa, where her family lived. She first met Travis that summer, when she began attending the Desert Ridge singles ward. For months Travis and Mimi saw each other at church activities where they chatted casually about their families and jobs. One Sunday she gave a presentation to the congregation, after which Travis complimented her. Beyond that, they did not associate.

  “Realize I never spoke to her other than, ‘Hi,’ before I broke up with Lisa,” Travis told Taylor in an online chat. “But I couldn’t hang with Lisa and figure it out with Mimi.”

  In February 2008, shortly after breaking up with Lisa, Travis asked Mimi out. She said yes.

  Travis became enamored with the idea of Mimi. She was beautiful, smart, and successful. He decided she was his perfect match.

  After his breakup, Travis finally admitted to Jodi the truth about his relationship with Lisa. By then, Jodi had been aware of his deception for months. When she reacted with seeming indifference, Travis started being more honest with Jodi about his feelings toward other women. And once he began dating Mimi, Travis told Jodi he thought she was “the one.”

  He explained to Jodi that he was receiving signs from God that Mimi would be his future wife. Over the next few weeks, Jodi became convinced Travis and Mimi would soon be married.

  On their first date, Travis and Mimi went to dinner. Then, they walked to a Barnes & Noble, where they perused the bookshelves, chatted, and sipped on hot chocolate. Throughout the date, however, Mimi seemed uninterested. She was concerned that members of their church ward would find out they were dating, and she didn’t want to be the subject of rumors. Travis, however, felt he was receiving contradictory signals from Mimi. He wanted to get to know her better but she seemed closed off.

  “I thought he was a really nice guy but I didn’t have any sparks,” Mimi later said in court. “I acted like the way you act with someone when you’re not really into someone.”

  At the end of the date Travis brought Mimi back to her place, where they exchanged a hug.

  “I had a great time,” Mimi told him. “Thank you very much.”

  A week later, Travis asked Mimi out again, but she declined. She had begun dating another Mormon at the church.

  “He was sweet and respectful and understood,” Mimi said.

  In late February, after Mimi stopped seeing the other man, she agreed to another date with Travis. For their second date Travis took Mimi to As You Wish, a paint-your-own pottery store.

  That night they chatted casually as Mimi painted a bowl. Although she still didn’t have romantic feelings for Travis, she was intrigued.

  “He was a really fun guy. I was trying to get to know him,” Mimi recalled. “I didn’t want to write him off too soon.”

  On their third date, on leap day 2008, Travis took Mimi to the Phoenix Rock Gym in Tempe, where they spent a few hours indoor rock climbing.

  During the date, Mimi was so aloof that Travis found himself overcompensating. He was awkward and self-conscious, which was out of character. Typically he was the confident one. With Mimi, he felt befuddled.

  Although their relationship wasn’t progressing as quickly as he would have liked, Travis remained optimistic.

  When he arrived home from the date, Travis found Jodi in his house sleeping on the LoveSac upstairs in his loft. She told Travis she had laid down for a while and accidentally fell asleep, but Travis believed Jodi was waiting for him to return from his date.

  Over the next few weeks, Travis continued to notice personal possessions missing from his house. On one occasion, he came home and discovered pages of his new book were missing. By this point he suspected Jodi may be responsible.

  * * *

  In early March, Travis picked up Jodi and they went out to breakfast. On the way home, she told him of her plans to move back to Yreka. Once she moved, she would no longer take part in Prepaid Legal, she said.

  For a few minutes, they stayed talking in his car. Jodi was able to tell Travis some of the things she had wanted to reveal for months. She wrote about this conversation in her journal, in an entry dated March 2, 2008.

  “This will help us both move on and close the gap,” Jodi wrote. “It was the beginning of bitter sweet closure. He is my best friend in the whole world. It is so unimaginable to live without him, but it has to be this way. It will be better for both, I think.”

  At the end of their conversation, Jodi leaned in to give him a hug. He turned his head so their lips met.

  After Jodi told Travis she was moving, they began to argue more frequently. During this time, Travis’s roommate Zachary witnessed many of these encounters with Jodi. To Zachary, Travis seemed exasperated by Jodi’s conduct. Consumed with his feelings for both Mimi and Lisa, Jodi was simply a nuisance.

  Despite the turmoil, Jodi would later claim they continued to have sex. At this point, however, the interludes were less frequent. “It eventually became just about sex,” Jodi said.

  But if Jodi felt used, she did not express it. Perhaps she wanted so badly to be close to Travis, she tried to appear accepting of a purely sexual relationship. Over time, however, it seemed to cause deep resentment.

  “It was kind of like old habits die hard,” Jodi said. “There was still some chemistry or attraction to a degree. I knew it was unhealthy but I wasn’t making healthy choices at that time so I continued to sleep with him.”

  * * *

  In March 2008, Travis threw a nineteenth birthday party for his friend Michelle Lowery. For her birthday, she had just one request: a piñata filled with candy. Without hesitation, Travis nailed a hook in his living room ceiling to hang it for her.

  That night Travis’s house was packed with people. Among the guests: Michelle’s new boyfriend, twenty-year-old Dallin Forrest. Lanky, with spiked brown hair and a boyish face, Dallin lived with his parents and worked at a printer press.

  Michelle had just begun dating Dallin and her birthday party was one of the very first occasions they spent time together. When Dallin arrived, Michelle brought him directly upstairs to the loft, where they stayed for most of the party.

  At one point, Michelle pointed out Travis to Dallin. Because Travis was busy mingling with guests, however, he didn’t formally meet Dallin that night.

  Several weeks after the birthday party, Dallin, Michelle, Travis, and Mimi went out together on a double date to dinner and a comedy club.

  Michelle was close friends with Mimi. Over the next few weeks, Travis often consulted with Michelle about his relationship with Mimi, to get a
female perspective.

  “I would always get the ‘411’ on his dating ups and downs, his problems and successes,” Michelle recalled. “And since I happened to be friends with all the women he was interested in, he dubbed me his ‘wingman.’ As his ‘wingman,’ my job was to talk him up. And every time I happened to be talking to one of the girls, I had to figure out a way to bring him into the conversation.”

  Any time Michelle spoke with Mimi, Travis would call her or send a text message.

  “What did you say?” he would ask. “Did you bring me up?”

  * * *

  Jodi spent most of late March planning and organizing to prepare to move to Yreka. But separating from Travis was complicated.

  “I knew I was making the right decision about moving back, even if it was difficult,” Jodi said.

  While she was looking forward to spending time with her family, she wanted to stay connected to Travis. On March 2, 2008, she wrote an entry in her journal about her pending move.

  “I wish I could turn back the clock and make some different decisions,” she wrote. “I have anxiety about moving. This is going to be the period of my life when I will need to breathe deeply and flow.”

  Throughout March, Travis and Jodi argued habitually. By this point, Travis seemed largely unconcerned about Jodi. He was getting over Lisa, while at the same time preoccupied with chasing Mimi.

  As he pursued Mimi, Travis found himself missing Lisa’s companionship. He had had a real connection with Lisa, something lacking on his dates with Mimi.

  Travis began to regret the breakup. He realized he had made a mistake. Yet, when he saw Lisa at church functions, she completely ignored him.

  “Lisa has an effective, yet heartless method of moving on,” Travis told Taylor in an online chat. “Complete excommunication. I am dead to her.”

  Travis had wanted to marry Lisa and now she was out of his life. He was miserable. While in the midst of pining after Lisa, he found himself having less and less patience for Jodi’s antics.