Jodi Arias; the sequence of events

[slanda]

Hi Slanda!

Pleased to meet you! I'm a 100% dyed-in-the-wool, stark raving mad gunfirster. I've argued gunfirst passionately since my very first posts on Websleuths (#258 and #269, page 11 of this thread). I absolutely believe the gun-first scenario fits the forensics and it also happens to make the most common sense.

You got it right with your scenario... welcome to the 'right' side!
:toast:
Dave

Well, thank you Dave! and pleased to meet you :toast:

Thank you again for all of your forensic work with the pictures, and I am in absolute agreement with you, definitely gun first, and I'll go back and read what you wrote... It's just really hard to make any other scenario "fit"

Good Job :rocker:

 

[sacrablue]

Still trying to figure out what the brass grommit belongs to seen in picture under Travis.
My latest idea is a suit/garmet bag cover which he made have had in closet. Both of these have a grommit in a right angle corner and would make a great sled.

 

[slanda]

FINALLY someone got it right! We may be outnumbered 2:1 in the voting, but I think this is the only sensible scenario given all the information we have.

I'm assuming most readers here have listened carefully to the police interrogation tape? There is a very telling point when Jodi describes Travis after he was shot by the 'intruder'. She says: "He was still alive!". The way she says this sends chills up my spine. She expressed a combination of surprise and emotion that was clearly genuine. This was the emotion she felt when she shot him in the shower. She fully expected a head shot would be immediate death. But it wasn't. She was very surprised when Travis was far from dead or incapacitated. She also indicated in the interrogation that the gun jammed. I think this was also an element of truth. Finally, if you'll recall, she describes that IF she were intending to kill Travis, she would do it humanely by shooting him until he was dead. She said this for two reasons: 1) this was her intent from the start when she brought the gun with her (which obviously she did); and 2) by describing this to the detective, she sets up a contrast with what the crime scene actually portrays. That is, why on god's green earth would she undertake to stab and butcher her ex when a gun would have been much cleaner and efficient?

So she expected Travis to die in the shower with a head shot while he was sitting down. The angle matches the bullet trajectory. But he doesn't die. She pulls the trigger again, and the gun jams. At that point she leaves the immediate scene to get the knife. Travis, stunned, stumbles to the sink, not knowing quite what to do. His sinus has been penetrated by the bullet, spilling blood into his mouth and lungs (as he breaths in through his nose, he aspirates blood). He coughs, and blood projects onto the mirror. Jodi returns with the knife, and starts trying to finish him off. He sees her in the mirror and turns to defend himself, acquiring defensive wounds. Mortally wounded and unable to stop the attack, he attempts to flee down the hall, where he falls and succumbs to additional stabs in the back and finally the throat slash. She is ferocious in her attack because she really wants him dead quickly, as the whole thing has turned from a carefully planned execution into a brutal nightmare. And she probably doesn't want him to suffer unnecessarily (as she indicated to the detective). What appears to be over-kill in cases like this is really just an attempt to end the life of the victim quickly. Stabbing rarely results in immediate death.

Ok, so what about Horn's testimony? Like the poster above, I was not at all persuaded by his suggestion that Travis would have been immediately incapacitated by the head shot. On what basis does he believe this? People often get shot in the head and don't go down immediately. It depends on what part of the brain is injured, the caliber of bullet, etc. The medical literature is full of cases of people with brain injuries who don't seem to be terribly affected by the injury. Sadly, suicides by gunshot to the head often fail to achieve the objective. This is particularly true of gunshots from the side into the temple. Some of us also seem to have forgotten that Horn stated that brain tissue degrades quickly upon death, and it was not possible for him to determine the extent of hemorrhaging. I'm frankly shocked that the defense let him get away with putting his scenario out there without vigorous cross examination and presenting an alternative scenario by expert witness. As this is a critical point in the trial, this mistake is huge.

For those who believe Jodi would have brought a gun as part of her plan, and yet bring upon herself all the mess, horror, and uncertainty of a knife attack as her first act of violence, I would recommend a careful re-listen to that police interrogation. There are haunting elements of truth to her story. Jodi was methodical. From the gas cans, to the staged robbery to get the gun, to all she did to try and cover her tracks. It makes absolutely no sense that she would have used a knife as the weapon of choice. She wanted a clean kill in the shower. Minimal mess, minimal DNA exposure to clean up. A scene of bloody mayhem is the last thing she would have wanted.

Dave

Wow! My thoughts exactly! Thanks for referring me to this... I'm no forensic expert , but after about a bazillion scenarios, I did finally come to this too. It honestly, just makes the most sense.

And I do believe she gives snippets of truth to buttress her "story(ies)"

I do believe this is what happened. Thanks again Dave.

 

[wasnt_me]

I think in front of the shower is where the initial struggle took place as well, I thought that mark on the shower door edge was where something metal hit against it, is there a fiber lying on it or the floor? I sure wish we had gotten more testimony on this area.

I think the blood is flying from the gunshot, there is no rust anywhere on his shower door or stall edge, when I originally showed that pic I compared it with the shaving pic to show there was nothing in that corner when it was taken, that's a pretty new house and Travis kept it up well. And the timing fits just right, as does his position. If you angle the sitting pic to make the shower stall bottom straight like it would be in real life, his back more slanted than it looks, and moreso than in the face pic before it.

Thanks for at least being willing to discuss it.

Thanks. I don't think age of the house has to do with rust. Things rust due to water or oxidation, yes? A good place for water to build is a crevice just like that corner. Maybe the top corner has it as well--or not since water can drip down. If Travis had to clean his own shower after Jodi left, maybe he neglected his duties, water caused rust or soap scum build up. There was a lot of time between the shaving picture and the june 4th picture, wasn't there?

But what do you make up the bent up shower door and the piece of fiber sitting in the sill of the frame?

 

[wasnt_me]

I was just watching HLN, and Jodi told Juan that Travis got in the linebacker stance, lunged at her, and put his hands around her waist as the gun went off. I thought it was stated that Jodi had to have been at least two feet away from Travis when he was shot because there was no stippling. I think she changed her story, though, when she found out he couldn't have been that close

Interesting. Thanks.

In my opinion, Jodi would do well to just insist that her first fantastical stories are true than to make up another fantastical story!

 

[cluespotter72]

The discussion of his neck being cut and that it went through the airway is horrid. I remember years I go I watched a video on a news site of a prisoner of war being beheaded in Iraq and it was the worst thing I had ever seen and immediately regretted watching it. I will never forget the noises that were made. I could definitely see JA shooting TA just to make those absolutely horrid noises stop. However no one knows why she did that so that is just a theory on why she would shoot him afterwards.

I too, watched the same videos of the beheadings and even though everyone warned me not to, I still did and regretted it as I could never get it out of my head afterwards. No wonder she has PTSD! That happened right before her eyes, it must have been surreal. I still, somehow just don't understand why she didn't just shoot him first (you all know she didn't as she says) and fire another shot if it was necessary to finish the "job", as it was. She obviously went there to kill him, why in the world not take the easiest way, or is it that she is such a savage beast?!?!

 

[wasnt_me]

Not to give the knife firsters any more ammunition, but there is one thing in particular that bothers me about the gun-first theory (and, no, I'm not talking about the ME's testimony):

When the jury asked JA why she just didn't fire another shot, JA answered that she didn't know where the gun went. That seems like a strange answer to me. If the gun jammed, which is a likely event in a gun-first scenario, then why didn't JA just say that?

She might've been trying to maintain her position that, after the first shot, she entered the fog. Or she might've just been trying to be consistent with what she told Dr. Samuels. In other words, maybe she didn't want to add any details beyond what she told Dr. Samuels. Or she might've been trying to support her story that TA lunged at her after she fired the gun.

In any case, I'm a little bit surprised she didn't just answer the jury's question by saying that the gun jammed if that's really what happened.

It's possible that she decided against firing another shot based on the noise of the gun and went to the knife instead, knowing TA was nearly incapacitated and unable to fight back at that point. If that's the reason she didn't fire another shot, I don't blame her for telling the jury that she just lost track of the gun.

To me, "the gun jammed" sounds like a movie or crime novel. That's probably why she said it in her second story. That's why I don't believe it. It sounds fake, contrived and too easy. What we do know is her FINGER jammed. Maybe that why she couldn't shoot again.

I think I've maintained a theory that she had the gun on him, but she had the knife in the room to cut either the magical rope or duct tape because Travis didn't have scissors. I believe she intended to bind him. She either did bind him and as she was cutting the bindings, he charged her like a linebacker, and she had to resort to the weapon in hand--the knife. She might have put the gun on the counter or something and he saw she was vulnerable for him to defend himself and figured he'd get control of the knife.

I think the ceiling photo was taken as he charged her, knocking her down, that lowered the camera viewpoint and tilts it up because she is going down and squeezing camera.

Given the foot print on the shower baseboard and the broken shower door, that where the first fought. he could have been stabbed in the chest at least once at some point there, which caused him to jump off her and climb up the counter.

She keeps saying she was fighting for her life and I have no doubt that's true because Travis was fighting for HIS life before she could take it first.

 

[deedee21]

Im watching 20/20. Story number 2 is about a stalker.

 

[BW0000]

This should help everyone determine where the foot pic is located.

[video=youtube;Iniso_hINQY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iniso_hINQY[/video]

Listen around 14:00 min mark.

Onward peepers

 

[BW0000]

Day 25 2 of 3 is over on the right for those interested. It talks about the closet and eventually the shooting. JM talks about distance and other things in the closet. She talks about slamming the door, closing the door, shutting the door.

I hope her fingerprints aren't on that door

 

[Madilu]

I have gone through this over and over again and almost every scenario doesn't match the Forensics. I think Dave has done a very good job and has helped me tremendously in understanding the inadvertent photographs that we are all hypothesizing about and thus, the sequence of events.

I initially thought she stabbed him first, but to me, the most plausible is much like the one posted here a day or so ago.

1. While JA was taking pictures; she pulls out the gun and most likely says something, I'm sure she wanted him to know her vengeance before she killed him, she probably wanted him to "know" a lot. She can't ever shut up or "be wrong" so this makes sense to me.

2. Keep in mind, this is a small gun. I'm almost certain TA probably did lunge at her to get it away, or get away.

3. She was probably a little startled by that and the reaction of her was enough pressure to pull the trigger. The trajectory of the GSW would fit in this theory.

4. I do believe TA was stunned but didn't lose consciousness. (As stated above, lots crazy traumas happen to people's heads and they are not always immediately rendered unconscious. I read where a man had an iron construction hook lodged into his temple that went far up into his head and he remained conscious at the scene, etc, and then he survived--)
I also think she tried to shoot him again, but the gun jammed (she mentions jamming in her previous scenarios. And I do believe she tries to weave parts of the truth in her lunacy).

5. At this point, TA staggers over to the sink and tries to clear his sinus's that were full of blood, coughing, etc... Jodi then freaks out more, knowing that he's still alive, runs to get a knife.

6. While TA is standing, bending over the sink, he's probably saying/trying to yell and says, "I'll kill you *****" (who wouldn't?!?!)

7. I think she then runs back into the bathroom and starts stabbing him while he's standing/leaning there (the cluster of 9 stab wounds in the back, back of head they are all relatively superficial but would obviously hurt) he turns around and tries to grab the blade (all of his hand wounds).

8. In her frenzy, and his attempt to grab at the knife left his chest "open" and she managed to stab in in the heart. I think he does get by her, maybe pushes her and he begins to try and run down the hallway.

9. As the ME stated, there would be lots of blood loss, and the stab to the heart vessel would be deadly, but not immediate, his cavity begins to fill up with blood and he gets dizzy and collapses, and drags blood throughout the hallway as Dave described.

10. I think he collapses with his head orientated towards the bedroom threshold of the carpet, or close to, and then the coup de gras.

11. The camera does get kicked around and maybe set off an inadvertent timer, or gets stepped on, etc.. who knows. And she drags him Back to the shower.

12. Since he was sitting in the shower for the attack, I think JA wanted him there the entire time (No, if any, or very little DNA-- he's confined in the shower and would have just stayed in it if she could have murdered him according to her "plan"-- I don't think she "planned" on the gun jamming and having to find an alternate way to kill him. *Actually going through this sequence is personally disturbing. I can't even imagine how awful that must have been for TA

13. She's many things, but I don't think she wanted to stab him initially but clearly when she "had" to, she went crazy and it's clearly an overkill. It's obvious she couldn't, didn't want to stop killing him and the coup de gras was a clear indicator of that. To even do that to anything requires tremendous hatred and power and such a psychotic state that it's hard for me to understand.

14. She gets him back in the shower and attempts to clean the entire death scene, maybe then goes through photos and deletes them, throws the camera on the bed accidentally and wraps it up and throws the towel, sheets etc. in a pile on the bed to put in the washer for when she leaves....But she has to wash off herself and him.... I can't even imagine the depravity of that, but she took a shower with him in it. She probably had her hair up, but washed off her body and his. (Does any one remember the discussion about her waxing habits during trial? Well, she said that Travis liked that, but maybe she had a Brazilian so she wouldn't leave any pubic hair, and maybe that is why her hair was in braids, lesser chance of shedding her hair...)

Wow, after having to write all that out, I feel sick. It's just really terrible to think about like that.

This is a scenario that makes a lot of sense to me. Any thoughts?

Thanks. This is quite similar to my thoughts! I want to add that I think the conversation while he was showering her is to make one last ditch attempt to seduce him into bringing her on the trip. He playfully said no, you're not gonna change my mind Jodi (while she snaps away, begging, painting pictures like, "just think how hot it would be to do it on the beach, or something like that!). Then the pic of him looking at camera was right before she pulled a gun, then the next photo of him sitting was after the gunshot...he sat/slid down, stunned..then like you said -stumbles over to sink...then she comes at him with knife -at his back side as he is coughing, then he turns to fight back (hand defensive wounds...getting dizzier and more disoriented, down the hall, collapses. then she slices, then drags back, etc...locks the BR door, puts up the doggie gate...all to buy her time. I can't say my idea is matching forensics either, but there must be some strong evidence for JA to base her whole defense story on the gunshot first, then "fog." I also believe that if she did not actually go thru with the killing that she planned to expose him to his peers with the pics and audios. FTR I do not view her as being a victim of domestic violence and I don't believe she was harshly disciplined either -when she recounted wooden spoons and stuff, that was not real, IMO. The way she recited this was very different from the stories she recalled about her boyfriends. Those I believe actually. Anywho, I use to get my butt beat with a belt in the 70's and could tell ya some stories...sisters and i putting books in our pants, trying to hide, plotting revenge, planning to run away, etc...her recounting of this so-called abuse did not ring as genuine to me -ie. she did not actually experience terror and fear from real harsh butt whippin's by parents. Didn't happen. IMO

 

[danzn16]

I too, watched the same videos of the beheadings and even though everyone warned me not to, I still did and regretted it as I could never get it out of my head afterwards. No wonder she has PTSD! That happened right before her eyes, it must have been surreal. I still, somehow just don't understand why she didn't just shoot him first (you all know she didn't as she says) and fire another shot if it was necessary to finish the "job", as it was. She obviously went there to kill him, why in the world not take the easiest way, or is it that she is such a savage beast?!?!

It really shows how absolutely sick she is. She choose to do that to him. If any normal person did that they would have serious, serious mental issues after doing something like that. She stabbed him in the back, she had a chance to get away and not cut TA from ear to ear... but she is pure evil and she did. Absolutely one of the most horrible things she could do to a human being IMO

 

[geevee]

Not to give the knife firsters any more ammunition, but there is one thing in particular that bothers me about the gun-first theory (and, no, I'm not talking about the ME's testimony):

When the jury asked JA why she just didn't fire another shot, JA answered that she didn't know where the gun went. That seems like a strange answer to me. If the gun jammed, which is a likely event in a gun-first scenario, then why didn't JA just say that?

She might've been trying to maintain her position that, after the first shot, she entered the fog. Or she might've just been trying to be consistent with what she told Dr. Samuels. In other words, maybe she didn't want to add any details beyond what she told Dr. Samuels. Or she might've been trying to support her story that TA lunged at her after she fired the gun.

In any case, I'm a little bit surprised she didn't just answer the jury's question by saying that the gun jammed if that's really what happenned.

It's possible that she decided against firing another shot based on the noise of the gun and went to the knife instead, knowing TA was nearly incapacitated and unable to fight back at that point. If that's the reason she didn't fire another shot, I don't blame her for telling the jury that she just lost track of the gun.

BBM Not a strange answer at all if he lunged at her after he was shot and knocked her down or the gun out of her hands on his way out of the shower.

I rewatched Day 25 or 26, when JM is going through the murder with her and he shows the dragging pic again, you can get a good screen shot of it when it's not in motion, it looks like the sheet she was on in the nudie pics, small squares with some kind of pattern. And something is in the upper left, but looks obfuscated, either by pixelization or blood but it's the best day to get a s/s of it to study.

Oh, and yes, JM did point out to her a few times (and she agreed) that to the right of the bloody shoulder pic is the bathroom with his feet pointing towards it and his head pointing towards the bedroom.

 

[geevee]

Thanks. I don't think age of the house has to do with rust. Things rust due to water or oxidation, yes? A good place for water to build is a crevice just like that corner. Maybe the top corner has it as well--or not since water can drip down. If Travis had to clean his own shower after Jodi left, maybe he neglected his duties, water caused rust or soap scum build up. There was a lot of time between the shaving picture and the june 4th picture, wasn't there?

But what do you make up the bent up shower door and the piece of fiber sitting in the sill of the frame?

I still think it's flying blood, no sign of any rust anywhere else on the shower, and in negative and embossed you can see the outline of it and it covers both the stall edge and door edge as a whole (not with some on door and some on shower), and it's much too red to be rust. moo

I do think they struggled against that door right after he got out of the shower, and it looked to me like the marks on the door edge was a metal-on-metal scrape (gun or knife), there is also a grouping of his hair with blood and fiber down the hallway (think it's marker 8 or 9), let me see if I have it uploaded and I'll post it below. How do you think this occurred?

I uploaded the still of the dragging pic also if anyone wants to upload it to their computer and play with it, it's a bit large so here's the link:

http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/g...rt=3&o=2&_suid=136465107353101293653397563742

 

[BW0000]

BBM Not a strange answer at all if he lunged at her after he was shot and knocked her down or the gun out of her hands on his way out of the shower.

I rewatched Day 25 or 26, when JM is going through the murder with her and he shows the dragging pic again, you can get a good screen shot of it when it's not in motion, it looks like the sheet she was on in the nudie pics, small squares with some kind of pattern. And something is in the upper left, but looks obfuscated, either by pixelization or blood but it's the best day to get a s/s of it to study.

Oh, and yes, JM did point out to her a few times (and she agreed) that to the right of the bloody shoulder pic is the bathroom with his feet pointing towards it and his head pointing towards the bedroom.

Geevee

The spread she laid on with the small squares and T's spread are what I compare. They appear different with T's having larger squares and double wide light color then large square. (foreground) On the picture of her with braids there is some white. The window is over there but possibly to close. The white seems to be like a set of plans or scroll shape.

In the foot pic, what ever is under his foot (mat, towel, ??) the is another shape there on the left side. For lack of better description, I'll call it a mug with ears. (shaving mug ???)

Take a look

 

[Pink Panther]

What I meant by 'passive' drops is that the blood stains are not all over the place in random fashion, but follow a line, suggesting that the blood source was no longer involved in a fight, but was immobile and being dragged in a straight line.

In attachment 1 below, the blood trail leads directly from the location of the huge blood pool on the carpet. While one can invoke various scenarios, the simplest explanation is that a dead Travis was being dragged from this location on the carpet to the bathroom.

As far as the effects of water, when blood spills on a surface and is allowed to coagulate for some period of time (such when Jodi was stuffing Travis in the shower), throwing some water on the floor is NOT going to cause the spot to move to a new location. It may remove some of the un-coagulated blood and spread it around in dilute form, smearing edges, etc., but the basic blood spot/stain will remain unless someone start scrubbing (HARD) to remove it.

I think the photo in attachment 2 shows this. The variegated blood stains on the floor are from the water removing some of the blood from the floor stains, diluting this soluble blood, and then the water dries on the floor and leaves this appearance.

What you don't see in attachment 1 is the variegated appearance suggesting that there was much blood solublized by the water. What you do see is some smearing of the blood stains along the blood trail. But the blood trail is clearly there. Its pretty obvious to me that this blood trail was likely left when Travis was being dragged back to the bathroom.



Per above. There is clearly some smearing of the blood spots by water, but I don't see any indication there was a major effort by Jodi to get on her hands and knees and scrub this floor down. I agree, she gave up, probably quickly, when she realized how hopeless the task was. But the story of the blood reads like a good novel and it remains intact, despite some smearing by Jodi's passive attempt at cleaning up. It all fits together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle. You may disagree, but I don't see any missing pieces!

A final thing I would add regarding whether Travis bled out on the tiles prior to the 'foot' and 'dragging' photos, or bled out on the carpet at the location of the major carpet stain: one has to ask whether there was arterial pressure when this carpet stain was made, or had Travis' heart stopped beating prior to the carpet stain. The heaviness of this stain and the indications of arterial spray suggest Travis had blood pressure at this location. If Travis had bled out of two severed carotid arteries prior to the 'foot' photo, and been allowed to bleed out for a minimum of 76 seconds (prior to the 'dragging' photo), he would have had zero blood pressure and his heart would have stopped prior to the carpet stain. There would have been some passive flow of residual blood, but no blood being actively pumped from the wound.

Dave

I'm not sure that this has been discussed but I think TA's neck was slashed from behind. (He was running away and his back was to her so his face was forward.) Then JA turned his body over onto his back and dragged him back down toward the bathroom by the feet. Your two attached pics below show this - the blood stains left to the right of the pics is him trying to leave the hallway going toward the bedroom; the blood stains on the right - he is on his back and being dragged back. I think that the "foot" picture is not a "dragging" picture as described but her still up near his head flipping him. The second picture where we only see a small part of his shoulder was likely taken when he has already been dragged a bit down the hallway with his shoulder being roughly where the #8 marker (not the arrow) appears on the second picture.

moo

 

[Pink Panther]

Geevee

The spread she laid on with the small squares and T's spread are what I compare. They appear different with T's having larger squares and double wide light color then large square. (foreground) On the picture of her with braids there is some white. The window is over there but possibly to close. The white seems to be like a set of plans or scroll shape.

In the foot pic, what ever is under his foot (mat, towel, ??) the is another shape there on the left side. For lack of better description, I'll call it a mug with ears. (shaving mug ???)

Take a look

I don't believe it's his foot at all. It's a spot of blood that looks like a little tiny foot. His feet cannot be seen in this picture.

moo

 

[wasnt_me]

I still think it's flying blood, no sign of any rust anywhere else on the shower, and in negative and embossed you can see the outline of it and it covers both the stall edge and door edge as a whole (not with some on door and some on shower), and it's much too red to be rust. moo

I do think they struggled against that door right after he got out of the shower, and it looked to me like the marks on the door edge was a metal-on-metal scrape (gun or knife), there is also a grouping of his hair with blood and fiber down the hallway (think it's marker 8 or 9), let me see if I have it uploaded and I'll post it below. How do you think this occurred?

I uploaded the still of the dragging pic also if anyone wants to upload it to their computer and play with it, it's a bit large so here's the link:

http://s1287.photobucket.com/user/g...rt=3&o=2&_suid=136465107353101293653397563742

I see more fiber in this picture. I wonder what the fiber has to do with it. Fiber on the shower, fiber in this corner....

It appears to have a lot of long hair in it, which means Travis really had a grip on her hair or head at one point. Since it's up by the palm print, I'm guessing that he was pulling her hair and she beared against the wall, yelling in pain. The second hallway photo could have captured his right shoulder while he was doing this. Maybe he wasn't being dragged. Maybe he was sitting up (or almost sitting up) and still fighting with Jodi out of camera shot to the left. The hair against the west wall indicates they were still fighting up by the door to the bedroom.

I think that if that corner of the shower was blood, JM would have pointed it out while doing the crime scene pictures. He pointed out the blood that appears to be in that footprint on the shower baseboard, but not directly above it where this other stain you discuss is located. Granted, he didn't point out that footprint, either. But it appears to match the left shoe impression in blood, which leads me to think she didn't have a right shoe on at some point because we never see a right shoe print and JM discusses her being in socks. I think it's feasible that she got knocked out of one shoe.

He also pointed out that blood spatter right by the shower on the opposite wall. I think that and the drops right in front of the shower have some kind of story to tell.

This picture attached shows where I circled more of this rust, sub scum or residue.

 

[wasnt_me]

Here's the blood shoe print and the shoe print left on the shower baseboard. Both appear to be from the left shoe, yes? On the shower baseboard, it appears that the left shoe hit it at at least twice at and made a print half way over itself.

The absence of blood on this shower door frame is also very telling for people who think Travis was shot right there.

 

[wilsodh]

I'm not sure that this has been discussed but I think TA's neck was slashed from behind. (He was running away and his back was to her so his face was forward.) Then JA turned his body over onto his back and dragged him back down toward the bathroom by the feet. Your two attached pics below show this - the blood stains left to the right of the pics is him trying to leave the hallway going toward the bedroom; the blood stains on the right - he is on his back and being dragged back. I think that the "foot" picture is not a "dragging" picture as described but her still up near his head flipping him. The second picture where we only see a small part of his shoulder was likely taken when he has already been dragged a bit down the hallway with his shoulder being roughly where the #8 marker (not the arrow) appears on the second picture.

moo

That pretty much captures it methinks, although imo Travis regained some bearing after collapsing to the floor prior to the 'foot' photo. This could have occurred when his head, now at floor level, regained some circulation helping him maintain some consciousness. Like a boxer trying to get up from the canvas after a knock out, Travis lifts his head, regains some bearing, realizes he is in a terribly vulnerable position, and instinctively tries to roll over onto his hands and knees in a feeble attempt to save himself. The photo depicts a very weakened Travis trying to maintain consciousness rather than giving up and dying. He manages to roll to his left, get to his hands and knees, brushing against the wall and smearing it with blood, but Jodi is stabbing him in the back and he collapses face down on the carpet, perhaps being pushed down by Jodi. Then I think Jodi administers the final neck slash, perhaps sawing with the knife to cut very deeply and end this thing once and for all.

I think the neck slash was a result of Travis being slow to die. Jodi expected him to die with a gunshot to the head in the shower, but he didn't. She didn't realize that small caliber gunshots to the head may or may not do the deed. Then after fetching the knife, I think a scenario that makes sense is that she approached Travis at the sink while his back was turned, perhaps pretending to be concerned about the injury he just sustained (I can just hear her faking that). This was to keep Travis' guard down, and when he turned to face her, she made a straight knife lunge for his heart before he started actively defending himself. He was probably disoriented from the head shot, and may not have been expecting Jodi to now come at him with a knife.

Jodi had one thing in mind: end this horrible thing as soon as possible. The gun failed, and the next thing in her mind was a knife to the heart. It certainly makes sense that would be her next move. Once again, Travis didn't go down immediately, and made some attempts to defend himself. Jodi could do only one thing: keep stabbing. Her subsequent stab wounds were not well aimed, because at this point there was physical defense by Travis. None of the remaining stab wounds would have been deadly.

Travis, however, was fading fast. He was experiencing shock and a weakening circulation. The first thing that happens when blood flow to the head is reduced is the person collapses. This put Travis' left foot in that somewhat awkward position depicted in the 'foot' photo. Jodi might have hesitated at that point to see if Travis was dying. This allows blood to flow down Travis' shoulder in the 'foot' photo. Jodi see Travis is still moving, and she moves around behind his head, jostling the camera. This sets off the 2-second delay. Travis, instinctively fighting to stay conscious, lifts his head and right arm. Jodi attempts to resume the attack. Travis still has a tiny bit of fight left in him, and he rolls to his left.

My guess is that Travis sustained most of the frontal wounds after turning to face Jodi while at the sink. I think the heart wound was her first stab: a straight, well-aimed lunge that found its mark before Travis even realized she had a knife. She would have wanted Travis' guard down for that lunge, and probably concealed the knife as she approached him at the sink. I think generally at this point Travis would not have turned his back to Jodi, realizing he was fighting for his life. His only hope would be to try and grab Jodi's knife hand at the forearm and stop the stabbing. But Jodi was too quick. Then Travis grew feint and crumpled to the floor prior to the 'foot' photo.

I suspect the back wounds occurred after the 'foot' photo at the only time Travis turned his back to Jodi: trying and protect himself on the floor by rolling to his left and getting on his hands and knees to move away toward the bedroom. What else could he do?

So, at this point, Jodi, to her horror, sees that Travis is STILL not dead. She stabs him in the back when he turns over (in a good position to administer a cluster of back stabs), and when he tries to crawl away toward the bedroom, she pushes him down on the carpet. There is only one thing to do now: slash this man's throat from ear-to-ear, as deep as she can.

Ugh. The horror.

Dave