Sorry to reply after such a long time. I've been meaning to since forever, I guess I just got burned out from this case.
(Respectfully snipped due to length)
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It's good to have you join the conversation Femto; I can agree with the gunshot-first theory, I've never been married to either as arguments can be made for both, but the gunshot-first makes more sense of the totality of the crime scene/murder. as you so ably pointed out (the closeness she'd need to begin with the knife, the sink area, also the area over by the toilet closet, if she came back to him standing at the sink dazed from the gunshot she'd likely start stabbing his back and be able to get him on the floor near that door before he was able to attempt to flee down the hall).
But also, IMO, because going at Travis with a knife is just way too risky, especially in a wet environment where things could get slippery real fast and given Travis' size and strength compared to Jodi, the tables could have turned very easily on her and she would have known that. Furthermore, this wasn't some crime of passion that the crime scene would suggest, this was a cold blooded murder that she planned for a long time. And, as I said in my previous post, knives are extremely messy. It doesn't make sense for Jodi to lure Travis into the shower just so she could go ahead and do all that mess in the house. Travis was a warrior, he took so much punishment and made her chase him so much that by the end of it she couldn't clean anything out of that house. If he died nice and quiet in the shower, she would have never gotten caught and we'll probably be discussing who killed Travis and never seen Jodi in jail.
To your point about what's wrong with the 5:32:16 'pant leg' pic, if you look very closely at the digital one included in JM's book, you may agree that the dark area isn't Travis' head at all (no ear, no head wounds, no upper back wounds) but is blur caused by her bare foot moving upwards, and the 'foot' in the background is more probably his hand - I think the blood/wound we see is the neck wound moments after she inflicted it.
Hm... I don't know. The thing in the distance, to me, is definitely his foot. There is no way that is his arm, his body position and the manner in which his right arm is raised (definitely an arm judging by the size and shape) doesn't suggest that it's any other way. The thing about the head - it looks like the place that his head should be judging by his body position, it doesn't look like shadow or a blur to me. But it seems strange that there are no cuts on the head, and no blood coming out from there. Also for the blood, I'm no blood spatter expert, but the blood that's coming down towards his back definitely seems like a nose blood to me.
What if this isn't the moment she cut Travis' throat? What if this is the moment in which she continued to stab Travis in the chest while he is trying to grab the knife (judging by how his right arm is raised) and the immediately after she turned him on his back (or he crawled away) and then she cut his throat?
Because in that picture, to me, it doesn't appear that Travis is dying, he still appears to be fighting her off and his throat doesn't appear to be cut off given his head's position, the blood that's coming out and the way that his right arm is raised. His natural reaction in the case of the throat cut would have been to quickly put his hand on his wound and try to stop the bleeding, but he doesn't do that. IMO, this photo was taken as she was continuously stabbing him in the chest while he was trying to defend himself. Shortly thereafter she finished him.
I've always thought if the gunshot were first it was even more cruel as she was stabbing a very seriously injured, defenseless person, JM changing his sequence shortly before trial seemed mainly to be strategic (imo) as he could make either theory plausible to the jury.
Yes, it was definitely more cruel. A gunshot like that to his face would have hurt like hell and the shock that came with it.... can't imagine the pain he would have gone through at that moment. Not to mention the utter horror of seeing a crazy psychopath charging at you with a knife while you're unable to defend yourself because of the pain and disorientation. As for JM, I think he changed the sequence because most people are just stupid, and the jury would have been no different. If he went with the gun first theory, the defense would have tried to spin it off like "Oh she was merciful, she didn't want to kill Travis. He went after her and the gun just fired"... Yeah right. But there are some people that would have believed her, hell there are "people" now that believe her crazy account of the events. The jury didn't even give her the death penalty even after all she did.
What JM tried to do is put the "self-defence" scenario to rest by proving that the shot in the head came last, after he was dead. The killing was already brutal enough without the "gun first", so there was just no need to even go there. But there is no doubt in my mind that what Jodi did in reality was way more brutal than what JM presented (crazy, I know).
Oh, one other thing, in the 1st accidental pic I see what I think is a drop of blood flying near the lower corner of the shower door, as well as his feet moving while his arm appears still on his knee, this could also be a sign that the gunshot had just occurred.
Anyways, welcome!
Who knows? He appears rested to me, but probably not at ease.
Thank you.
So 4 hours to finish the kill, shove him in the shower, clean up, preen herself, and drive to Kingman area. I don't think this is possible, adrenaline or not.
My conclusion is that Travis' camera time was off. He was killed much earlier that day IMO.
We have to remember that the duration of the killing was 2 minutes. It's unlikely, but it's not impossible by any means. Also, from what I remember the (car wash, was it?) that she went to, the guy said that the car had stains of something resembling blood. So it's not like she spend a lot of time in the house cleaning herself (she must have thought that one of Travis' roomates may catch her so she cleaned herself fast and went right out).
