Jodi Arias

She was born on July 9, 1980, in Salinas California, US, to William Angelo and Sandy S. Arias. She has one older half sister, one younger sister and two younger brothers.

According to Arias, her childhood days starting from seven years of age were marked with child abuse. She claimed that her parents used to beat her with belt and wooden spoons.

She attended ‘Yreka Union High School’ but dropped out in the 11th grade. Later she earned GED.

She developed a knack for photography at ten and such interest continued leading her to pursue it as a profession and take up several part-time jobs as professional photographer.

She took server’s job at a Californian restaurant located at Ventana Inn and Spa in Carmel in the fall of 2001. There she met the restaurant’s food and beverage manager Darryl Brewer and they started dating in 2003.

She started working for ‘Pre-paid Legal Services’ (presently ‘LegalShield’) in February 2006 while still serving the restaurant. Gradually she drifted towards the Mormon Church that saw visitors of the faith frequenting her house for Bible studies and prayer sessions.

As her association with ‘Prepaid Legal Services’ increased her relation with Brewer started deteriorating. She also started defaulting on the financial obligations agreed with Brewer. The two parted ways in December 2006, although kept in touch as friends.

Meanwhile in September 2006, she met Travis Alexander, a salesman and motivational speaker for ‘Prepaid Legal Services’ at the company’s conference in Las Vegas, Naveda. Alexander was a Mormon. According to Arias they developed a sexual relationship following a week of their meeting.

Arias and Alexander developed an immediate attraction towards each other that saw them travelling to many states together. While not with each other they used to be in touch through daily phone calls and email exchanges.

A ceremony at a Mormon Church in Southern California held on November 26, 2006, saw her getting baptized into the ‘Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’. According to her, she took the step to be closer to Alexander, a dedicated Mormon.

On June 4, 2008, Alexander was murdered and as he missed a vital meeting and did not turn up for a scheduled trip to Cancun, Mexico, his friends became worried about him. This made them visit his Mesa house on June 9, 2008, where they found him lying dead in the shower.

His brutally murdered body had around 27 to 29 stab wounds, a gunshot wound in the head and his throat was slit from ear to ear. Many forensic evidences were collected from the murder scene by investigators, which included a digital camera that was found in the washing machine.

Investigations including interviewing Alexander’s family and friends revealed the strained relationship between Arias and Alexander hinting at a possible involvement of Arias in the murder. This led the detectives turn towards her.

Arias however gave different stories at different times to show her innocence. She once claimed that she was not in Mesa on June 4 and had seen Alexander for the last time in April 2008 and some other time she said two intruders broke into Alexander’s house who murdered him and assaulted her.

Images originally deleted were retrieved by the police from the damaged digital camera. Images taken on June 4, 2008, showed Arias in sexually compromising situations with Alexander. One photograph taken later on that day showed Alexander lying on the bathroom bleeding profusely.