B (26:02)
The purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant, you know having a trusted partner makes all the difference. That's why hands down, you count on Grainger for auto reordering. With on time restocks, your team will have the cut resistant gloves they need at the start of their shift and you can end your day knowing that they've got safety well in hand. Call 1-800-granger. Click granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. When 26 year old Jody Arias met 29 year old Travis Alexander, she thought it was fate. Although she was in a serious relationship at the time, Jody was instantly attracted to Travis and he felt the same way. So after months of getting to know one another. Jodi ended things with her boyfriend, Darryl Brewer, and started dating Travis. The relationship didn't last long, though. Jodi was clingy, possessive and paranoid. After five months, Travis broke up with her. But Jodi wasn't going to let him go so easily. When she told her friends she was moving to Mesa, Arizona in the summer of 2007, they were stunned. They thought things were over between her and Travis and didn't understand why Jody would move to his city. But to the 27 year old, it made perfect sense. After all, she'd completely changed her identity for Travis and molded herself into a devout Mormon. So to Jody, the breakup just meant she needed to try harder. Jody reached out to Travis as soon as she got to Mesa, and despite breaking up with her, Travis responded. They started talking regularly again. For a while, it seemed like maybe they could repair what had been broken. But then Jodi went off the deep end. Jody knew Travis's garage code and would regularly sneak into his house. And if she couldn't get in that way, she'd crawl through the doggy door. Travis was definitely frustrated with her, but he didn't seem overly alarmed by her behavior, probably because he was still attracted to her. If he came home to find Jody had snuck into his house, he would either tell her to leave or sleep with her. And each time they had sex, it reinforced Jody's belief that Travis still had feelings for her. Over the next few months, this toxic cycle didn't just continue, it grew. Jody and Travis kept sleeping together, having phone sex, and meeting up during work trips out of state. But that didn't mean they were back together. Although Travis kept seeing Jodi, he was actively looking for a devout Mormon girl to marry. Jodi wasn't oblivious to this, not because he told her, but because she was keeping close tabs on him. What started with her peeking at his emails quickly became much more concerning. Soon, Jodi was following Travis around and watching his every move. Around this time, she also started recording their phone calls, which were often explicit and highly sexual. It's not clear what Jodi was planning to do with these conversations. Maybe she just liked knowing she had something tangible that Travis didn't want anyone to hear. After all, he was very active in the Mormon community and had publicly claimed he was saving himself from marriage. If his friends or members of the church heard those recordings, his reputation would be ruined. Regardless of why Jodi made these recordings, she wasn't doing anything with them just yet. But now she had ammo in case things went South. And pretty soon, they did. Not long after Travis broke up with Jodi. Earlier that summer, he met a woman named Lisa. They started chatting at a church event and began casually dating, but decided to take things slow. When Jody heard about Lisa, she absolutely freaked out. She was so angry, she reportedly slashed Travis's tires on two separate occasions. She also started stalking Lisa, too. One time, she showed up at Lisa's house and banged on her windows before running away. Despite all of this, Travis just couldn't seem to stay away from Jody. They kept sleeping together even though Travis was dating Lisa. But the situation was a ticking time bomb, and eventually it blew up. Sometime in February 2008, Lisa found out about Travis and Jodi. At that point, she decided she'd had enough of both of them and broke things off with Travis. It seemed like the door was open for Jody and Travis to get back together. Except it turned out Jody wasn't as single as she let on. In January, she'd started a long distance relationship with a guy in Utah named Ryan Burns. It seemed like Jodi was serious about him. She'd even met Ryan's family. But in reality, she was still sleeping with Travis. And it's not clear if Travis knew about Ryan either. It was like Jody and Travis were each other's kryptonite. And since they were both in Mesa, their toxic love affair continued with late night visits, secret hookups, and emotional chaos. But before long, things finally came to a head. Jody and Travis were planning to go on vacation to Cancun, Mexico. They had their reservations lined up and everything. Then suddenly, at some point in April, Travis told Jodi he was going to bring a woman named Mimi instead. Jodi was so upset that she left Mesa and went back to California to live with her grandparents. For the first time in a while, it looked like the toxic cycle was really over. Travis saw Jody's move as a chance to breathe again. He even confessed to a friend that he was ecstatic about it, saying, I'm getting my life back. This is a whole new start. But whatever hold Jodi had over him wasn't so easy to escape. They kept having phone sex and sending each other dirty text messages. Here's an excerpt from one of the less explicit ones Travis sent to Jodi in May of 2008. When I'm all by my lonesome, I have no desire to think of anyone else in my scandalous fantasies. Because from my own experience, nothing is even enjoyable compared to you. Just a few days later, Jody published a cryptic blog post about the law of attraction, saying that it wasn't just about chemistry, it was about destiny too. By then it had been a couple months since she left Mesa and she was desperate to see Travis in person. There was just one problem, she was still dating Ryan. In the end, Jodi planned a whole road trip full of her relationships, past and present. She decided to go see her ex Daryl in California, then Travis in Arizona, and finally Ryan in Utah. On June 2, 2008, Jodi rented a car and headed over to Darrell's in Monterrey, California as planned. After that, she started the 1000 mile drive to Arizona. She arrived at Travis's place at around 4am on June 4, but it was just a short pit stop. After spending the day in bed with Travis, Jody got back on the road and headed for Utah. Nobody knew about Jodi's visit. Travis was also seeing someone else by then and of course Jodi was with Ryan, so the whole thing was very hush hush. But after Jodi left, Travis went completely mia. That evening he missed an important work call, which was extremely unlike him. In the days that followed, Travis didn't answer any text or calls. At some point his friends started to worry. They knew something was wrong, they just didn't know what. Eventually they learned the truth and it was far more horrifying than anyone could imagine. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next time for part two on the murder of Travis Alexander and all the people it affected. True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, Rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference and to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode early and ad free. We'll be back on Thursday. True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy and is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzofsky, Mark E. Lee, Sarah Camp, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening. The new year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. Lifelock monitors millions of data points per second if your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New year's goals with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. 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