Read Online Killer Girlfriend: The Jodi Arias Story by Josh Hoffner Brian Skoloff - Free Book Online
Authors: Josh Hoffner Brian Skoloff
Ads: Link
proceeded at a deliberate pace before actually putting her in handcuffs about a month
later.
All of Travis’ friends saw her as the prime suspect from the minute police affixed
yellow tape to the perimeter of the property and began examining the bathroom and
house for forensic clues.
But Flores and his colleagues still had a lot of work to do to build the case; the
foundation was there with Jodi as a possible culprit, but they had to build a house
on top of the foundation.
Police quickly interviewed Mimi Hall and Travis’ two roommates, Enrique Cortez and
Zachary Billings, to make sure none of them had a particular beef with Travis.
Investigators thought it was odd that his roommates had no idea Travis’ bloated corpse
was stuffed into the shower in the days after Jodi killed him. A stench from the body
was present throughout the house, but Zachary and Enrique didn’t think much of it
and were so busy with their jobs, church and girlfriends that they weren’t home much
anyway.
Enrique remembered smelling it, but it was a bachelor pad. For all he knew, Travis
left some dirty dishes in his room before he went to Mexico. They never imagined that
the smell came from his decomposing body just a few feet away behind Travis’ bedroom
door.
Leads and tips started coming in to police. They had to chase down each one and cross
them off their list, a time-consuming task for the handful of officers working the
case.
One anonymous caller phoned police to say they needed to look at a man named Dustin
Thompson.
Dustin and his wife Ashley, an employee at a Dillard’s distribution center, were
seeing their marriage fall apart, and Ashley was friends with Travis. She had known
him for about three years and had visited his house to watch UFC matches on a Wednesday
night in May.
The caller notified police that Dustin somehow knew about the killing the day the
body was discovered and went to the house to see what was going on with all the officers
at the scene.
As it turns out, the tip was bogus and Dustin had nothing to do with the slaying.
But police had to follow the tip and dozens of others regardless.
As Mesa cops awaited forensic results, Flores, the lead detective, kept in close
contact with Jodi. The circumstantial evidence clearly pointed to her, but they wanted
iron-clad proof.
Almost everyone who knew Travis was convinced who did it. No doubt. It had to be
Jodi.
They had been creeped out by her bizarre behavior at various times and heard the
stories from Travis about Jodi’s stalking.
One friend even told police that Jodi had been “acting very ‘Fatal Attraction’” lately,
referring to the film starring Glenn Close as an obsessed mistress whose heightening
obsession with a married man ends in murder.
“There’s an old saying that, if someone is just not acting right, look into it,”
Flores would later say.
The detective began piecing together clues as Jodi tried to put the pieces of her
own life back together.
She tried to resume her activities in Yreka, but it wasn’t easy because she had to
carry on the outward appearance of a mourner while simultaneously dealing the psychological
trauma of knowing she had just killed the love of her life, the man she thought she’d
marry someday. She cried for days.
She went to work at a Mexican restaurant in Yreka. She updated her MySpace page to
say she “missed Travis. See you soon, my friend, but not soon enough,” while also
posting a photo gallery of her trips and time with him. As she flew back to California
from Arizona after attending Travis’ memorial service, she flirted with the guy sitting
next to her on the plane and got his number, calling him after getting home.
She even wrote letters of condolence to Travis’ family and sent a bouquet of white
irises to Travis’ beloved grandmother, Norma Sarvey, who raised him and inspired him
so much.
“Travis always told me he
later.
All of Travis’ friends saw her as the prime suspect from the minute police affixed
yellow tape to the perimeter of the property and began examining the bathroom and
house for forensic clues.
But Flores and his colleagues still had a lot of work to do to build the case; the
foundation was there with Jodi as a possible culprit, but they had to build a house
on top of the foundation.
Police quickly interviewed Mimi Hall and Travis’ two roommates, Enrique Cortez and
Zachary Billings, to make sure none of them had a particular beef with Travis.
Investigators thought it was odd that his roommates had no idea Travis’ bloated corpse
was stuffed into the shower in the days after Jodi killed him. A stench from the body
was present throughout the house, but Zachary and Enrique didn’t think much of it
and were so busy with their jobs, church and girlfriends that they weren’t home much
anyway.
Enrique remembered smelling it, but it was a bachelor pad. For all he knew, Travis
left some dirty dishes in his room before he went to Mexico. They never imagined that
the smell came from his decomposing body just a few feet away behind Travis’ bedroom
door.
Leads and tips started coming in to police. They had to chase down each one and cross
them off their list, a time-consuming task for the handful of officers working the
case.
One anonymous caller phoned police to say they needed to look at a man named Dustin
Thompson.
Dustin and his wife Ashley, an employee at a Dillard’s distribution center, were
seeing their marriage fall apart, and Ashley was friends with Travis. She had known
him for about three years and had visited his house to watch UFC matches on a Wednesday
night in May.
The caller notified police that Dustin somehow knew about the killing the day the
body was discovered and went to the house to see what was going on with all the officers
at the scene.
As it turns out, the tip was bogus and Dustin had nothing to do with the slaying.
But police had to follow the tip and dozens of others regardless.
As Mesa cops awaited forensic results, Flores, the lead detective, kept in close
contact with Jodi. The circumstantial evidence clearly pointed to her, but they wanted
iron-clad proof.
Almost everyone who knew Travis was convinced who did it. No doubt. It had to be
Jodi.
They had been creeped out by her bizarre behavior at various times and heard the
stories from Travis about Jodi’s stalking.
One friend even told police that Jodi had been “acting very ‘Fatal Attraction’” lately,
referring to the film starring Glenn Close as an obsessed mistress whose heightening
obsession with a married man ends in murder.
“There’s an old saying that, if someone is just not acting right, look into it,”
Flores would later say.
The detective began piecing together clues as Jodi tried to put the pieces of her
own life back together.
She tried to resume her activities in Yreka, but it wasn’t easy because she had to
carry on the outward appearance of a mourner while simultaneously dealing the psychological
trauma of knowing she had just killed the love of her life, the man she thought she’d
marry someday. She cried for days.
She went to work at a Mexican restaurant in Yreka. She updated her MySpace page to
say she “missed Travis. See you soon, my friend, but not soon enough,” while also
posting a photo gallery of her trips and time with him. As she flew back to California
from Arizona after attending Travis’ memorial service, she flirted with the guy sitting
next to her on the plane and got his number, calling him after getting home.
She even wrote letters of condolence to Travis’ family and sent a bouquet of white
irises to Travis’ beloved grandmother, Norma Sarvey, who raised him and inspired him
so much.
“Travis always told me he
Similar Books
