48 Hours Mystery: Picture Perfect Real life drama

New books reveal Jodi Arias' troubled, highly sexual relationship with lover Travis Alexander — which ended in murder


48 Hours Mystery: Picture Perfect Real life drama  video;



Two new books uncover the sordid details of the relationship between the convicted killer and her young, Mormon beau, whose throat she slit ear to ear.
Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander's relationship ended on June 4, 2008, with Alexander’s naked body found in his Mesa, Ariz., home, covered in 27 knife wounds, his throat cut open. He had also taken a bullet in the face.

There's no question that Jodi Arias was a dangerous woman — slutty, nutty and, ultimately, murderous. As the convicted killer sits in prison awaiting the sentencing portion of her trial, two new books tell her story in chilling, salacious detail.

And not only her story, but that of Travis Alexander, the young Mormon man whose throat she slit ear to ear. No matter who’s telling the tale, it’s clear the two had an affair that was beyond sordid.

“Late at night, Jodi slipped into Travis’ house through the unlocked door. Creeping quietly up the stairs, careful not to disturb his roommates, she stepped into his bedroom. Stripping off her clothes, she crawled into his bed, stirring him awake with a lustful kiss,” writes journalist Shanna Hogan in “Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story,” out Sept. 3.

FILE POOL PHOTO
MARK HENLE/AP
On May 8, after dramatically changing her story three times and improbably claiming self-defense, Arias was convicted of first-degree murder.
“She was not simply placating Travis with sex; according to Travis, Jodi was a woman with a voracious sexual appetite. One of Travis’ best friends, Taylor Searle, said Travis revealed to him that Jodi was a sexual dynamo who could achieve numerous orgasms in a row,” writes Jane Velez-Mitchell, who covered the trial for HLN and is the author of “Exposed: The Secret of Life of Jodi Arias,” out Tuesday.

Their relationship would end on June 4, 2008, with Alexander’s naked body hunched sitting on the shower floor in his Mesa, Ariz., home, his upper body covered in 27 knife wounds, his throat cut open. Alexander had also taken a bullet in the face.

POOL PHOTO
ROB SCHUMACHER/AP
Though Arias originally said she wanted to be executed, following her conviction she changed her mind, claiming she wants to spare her family the pain of seeing her die.
Arias, back home in another state by then, thoughtfully called the police to offer her assistance in the investigation. But she had already done enough. On May 8, after dramatically changing her story three times and improbably claiming self-defense, Arias was convicted of first-degree murder. Still to be determined is whether she’ll get the death sentence.

Both authors agree that by the time Arias met Alexander, she was growing desperate. Though she was gorgeous — even more so after she dyed her hair blond in her 20s — she couldn’t find a man willing to marry her. She was in a tailspin from another failed relationship. By the time she stumbled across Alexander in 2006 she was searching for a way out of the financial sinkhole she’d created.

Both authors agree that by the time Arias met Alexander, she was growing desperate. Though she was a gorgeous woman, she couldn’t find a man willing to marry her.
JODI ARIAS VIA MYSPACE
Both authors agree that by the time Arias met Alexander, she was growing desperate. Though she was a gorgeous woman, she couldn’t find a man willing to marry her.
Alexander must have looked good to Arias when she met him at a convention for Pre-Paid Legal Services in Las Vegas. Alexander was a high-ranking executive with the legal insurance company that operated on a recruiting hierarchy some criticized as a pyramid scheme. He was 29, owned his own home, drove a nice car, and was looking to get married.

The son of two meth addicts in Riverside, Calif., eventually taken in by his grandparents, Alexander had converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a young man. He had already strayed from the vow of chastity and served his penance. Now that he was approaching 30, still being single was an odd fit in the Mormon Church.

Shanna Hogan’s 'Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story' details a night that Jodi Arias snuck into Alexander's house and crawled into his bed naked.
Shanna Hogan’s 'Picture Perfect: The Jodi Arias Story' details a night that Jodi Arias snuck into Alexander's house and crawled into his bed naked.
Velez-Mitchell writes that very early on, Alexander talked to Arias about how important marriage and family were, and that Arias might well have translated that to mean that he was interested in marrying her, although he never said precisely those words. It turned out to be the wrong message to send to the new recruit to legal service association, a waitress struggling financially.

There’s no question that their affair became sexual almost immediately. Velez-Mitchell recounts Arias’ version of events that first weekend when they joined another Latter-Day Saints couple, Chris and Sky Hughes, at their home.

In 'Exposed: The Secret of Life of Jodi Arias,' Jane Velez-Mitchell writes that Jodi Arias may have misinterpreted Travis Alexander's marriage talk to mean that he was interested in marrying her, though he never said those words.
In 'Exposed: The Secret of Life of Jodi Arias,' Jane Velez-Mitchell writes that Jodi Arias may have misinterpreted Travis Alexander's marriage talk to mean that he was interested in marrying her, though he never said those words.
“Travis came to see her in her bedroom after everyone had gone to sleep ... Jodi recalled that Travis was wearing his temple garments, the Mormon Church’s symbolic protection from the evils of the world, under his sweatpants. Before long the temple garments were discarded in a joint effort, and, according to Jodi, Travis performed oral sex on her. She then reciprocated.”

Sky Hughes claims that Alexander told her that “I left her wanting,” and that he had said, “I want you to know that I respect you, and I don’t want you to regret anything and let’s move slowly.”

A nude photo of Arias was part of the evidence at trial. Velez-Mitchell writes that according to Alexander, Arias was 'a woman with a voracious sexual appetite.'
A nude photo of Arias was part of the evidence at trial. Velez-Mitchell writes that according to Alexander, Arias was 'a woman with a voracious sexual appetite.'
Arias would also claim that Alexander forced anal sex on her shortly after baptizing her into the church and then was brusque with her, making her feel like “a used piece of toilet paper.”

Meanwhile, Alexander would talk to friends about Arias’ almost insatiable sexual needs, calling her a nymphomaniac. His friends also noticed how provocative she was with him, all over him in public to the point where he had to push her off.

Arias' behavior became more bizarre when Alexander began seeing another woman. She sent a sinister email to the new girl, and the tires on Alexander's car were slashed twice.
ROSS D. FRANKLIN/AP
Arias' behavior became more bizarre when Alexander began seeing another woman. She sent a sinister email to the new girl, and the tires on Alexander's car were slashed twice.
Sex seemed to be the only aspect of their relationship that was working. While the two could have deep, meaningful phone conversations when she was back home in Palm Desert, Calif., when they were around his friends he’d often act distant, disavowing her as his girlfriend. And she was a little stalkerish from the start. That Christmas, she crashed a massive party at his house after he had told her not to come. The next morning a guest found her asleep under the Christmas tree.

But things truly turned sordid and steamy after the two broke up. Her paranoia and jealousy were the cause. Arias was banned from the Hughes home after she shot Sky a look of “pure evil” when she was caught lurking outside a closed door, eavesdropping on a private conversation. According to Velez-Mitchell, Arias elicited “Travis’ reckless forbidden passion” but he felt she was also “the vehicle of his moral corruption.”

The debauchery of their last day and night together was endlessly detailed during the trial when Arias took the stand for 18 days. Time-stamped photos from Alexander’s camera showed her naked on his bed and then in the frame with his bloody corpse.
ROSS D. FRANKLIN/AP
The debauchery of their last day and night together was endlessly detailed during the trial when Arias took the stand for 18 days. Time-stamped photos from Alexander’s camera showed her naked on his bed and then in the frame with his bloody corpse.
In June 2007, they ended their relationship. And, incredibly, it was then that Arias moved to Mesa. Alexander started dating a nice Mormon girl, but continued a secret sex-driven relationship with Arias that was degrading to both of them.

Their texts and emails ranged from merely lewd to incredibly nasty. In one, Alexander referred to her as a “slut” and a “three hole wonder.”

A bizarre video shows Arias singing, talking to herself and doing a headstand in an interrogation room minutes before she's charged with brutally murdering Alexander.
NEWSAROUNDU VIA YOUTUBE
A bizarre video shows Arias singing, talking to herself and doing a headstand in an interrogation room minutes before she's charged with brutally murdering Alexander.
Arias got crazier, sending a sinister email to the woman Alexander was seeing. She’d obviously been following them. The tires on his car were slashed twice. She stole his journals. Alexander started seeing another Mormon woman, but still didn’t quit Arias. Even after she moved back to her hometown of Yreka, Calif., he was sexually wired to her.

At the trial, a tape Arias had made of a phone conversation was played and in it Alexander uses extremely pornographic language, saying that he wants to tie Arias to a tree and sodomize her, among other things. The conversation took place a month before the murder.

Arias, now 33, faces either execution or life in jail.
NEWSAROUNDU VIA YOUTUBE
Arias, now 33, faces either execution or life in jail.
But Hogan reports there was another phone conversation after that, one that was possibly even more provocative. Alexander told a friend, Taylor Searle, that he had confronted Arias, saying, “I never want to see you again. This is it.”

“They had a chat where he tore her apart,” Searle recalled. “He called me and told to me what he had said to her. I said, ‘Aren’t you afraid she’s going to hurt you?’”

Alexander responded, “No. She’s crazy, but she’s harmless.”

The debauchery of their last day and night together was endlessly detailed during the trial when Arias took the stand for an incredible 18 days. She tried to deny the murder at first but the police had the pictures to prove it. Time-stamped photos from Alexander’s camera — which Arias had dumped in the washing machine at his Mesa home — showed her naked on his bed and then in the frame with his bloody corpse.

Arias claimed intruders broke into the house and gave interviews to “Inside Edition” and “48 Hours Mystery.” After two years in jail, she changed her story, claiming she had murdered Alexander in self-defense. After a day of sex and bondage, she was photographing him nude in the shower when she dropped his expensive camera, she said. Arias claimed Alexander was so furious he body-slammed her into the tile floor and went for her again after she got up.

On the stand, she said she remembered shooting him but not stabbing him more than two dozen times.

After a trial that became a media circus in the face of her preposterous claims and sensational disclosures, Arias, now 33, faces either execution or life in jail. Though she originally said she wanted the former, following her conviction she changed her mind, claiming she wants to spare her family the pain of seeing her die.

She can tell that to the jury, and see what they come back with.