With Minor's recent sleuthing I'm more convinced than ever all of May had Jodi becoming increasingly frustrated that her attempts to gain and maintain control over Travis weren't working.
I think she moved back to California hoping Travis would realize how important she should be to him. By May it was evident that wasn't going to happen. She knew he was taking someone else to Cancun. She taped the call hoping to be able to use it against him - perhaps just to give it to Mimi. I believe at some point she tells him about the tape hoping he'll cave to her. A week later though he's writing a blog about who he wants to marry. So a week after that you've got Jodi apparently sending texts threatening to expose him as a pedophile. While loose remnants of a murder scheme may have been evolving in her mind for the past few days I believe this is the point of no return. May 26th. Consistent with the time Travis' friends say he sent a 'harsh', very final sounding message to her. It is, iirc, May 28th the gun was stolen.
And days later he's dead. If you listen carefully to the call you can pick out points of unadulterated manipulation. Jodi sweet talked Travis, stroke his ego, and made him feel responsible for her self esteem. I think she ended up at his house that morning and used every exploitative, manipulative, and coercive tactic in her bag of tricks to spend the day there. Maybe she even promises he can have the tape 'IF'. At the end of it - I truly believe Travis had made it clear he really wanted the relationship over. (As I believe he told her May 26th too.)
The cruelest bit of my theory is I also believe Jodi either left or Travis believed she did before getting into the shower. For the briefest of moments, I believe he thought he was finally free of her.
