Part 3.
I think the threads- and threats- began converging around May 18. We don't have the full texts yet for May, but I'm sure they'll reflect that T continued to seek out advise about Lisa from Taylor and from Michelle, as he had done throughout April.
On May 18 T writes in his journal of not being able to sleep, of weeks now spent feeling deep regret, sadness and depression as he comes to understand that he is genuinely in love with Lisa. He realizes that chasing after Mimi et al was his way of diverting himself from those feelings, AND from facing up to what went wrong.
What went wrong, he begins to see with great clarity, keeps coming back to JA.
He writes of Lisa:
"I miss her. I still love her. I thought I'd be over her by now but I am not. Strange feeling." TA. 5/18.
Around this time TA is also IM'ing with Regan H. Some of the IM's flat out mock the killer about her snooping spying ways, the term "stalker" comes up, as does the tire slashing.
May 21. After agonizing about Lisa for many weeks- at least since the end of March, Travis decides at last that he needs to act on his feelings. He writes in his journal "Freaking!!!!!" He's going to call Lisa in 10 minutes to "clear the air." (Texts this to Taylor and Michelle ?) He says- "I'm doing the right thing. Stay tuned."
May 22. Travis writes that Lisa hasn't called back. He says " I am broken up. I made some big mistakes and I am paying for them."
He is even more determined to reach her. He's not going to let it drop, and he's not going to be diverted by anything.
MAY 22. The day the killer texted Travis that she'd done something serious enough that she was calling a lawyer, involved T, urgent, Travis tells her he knows what she did, won't talk with her until she comes clean. They won't be in touch again until May 26.
She writes in her journal this is the day they agreed to share passwords anymore, that they had a big fight because they'd talked about their involvements- she was fine with his, he went ballistic over hearing about Abe and John Dixon, etc.
May 23. Travis writes he still hasn't heard from Lisa, so he will call her again.
May 24. The killer sings the Pledge of Allegiance. Travis not only doesn't come to see her, he stays completely out of touch.
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My conclusion: It was always about Lisa. Travis began dating Lisa immediately after breaking up with the killer. Lisa stood in the way when the killer arrived in Mesa. JA became more and more unhinged over Lisa. Seeing Travis with Lisa in August, peeping in the back window, reduced her to incoherent rage and hysteria. She writes in her journal in the fall of something happening that causes her what sounds like a breakdown, that tosses her into an abyss. My guess? One of the days she walked in on Travis hugging Lisa and the two of them exchanging I love you's.
Her journal entries in fall 2007 speak to a woman trying to hold back truly awful thoughts, dark enough she is scared by them. She writes she knows thinking thoughts will make those thoughts reality so she needed to be careful. She hopes thinking good thoughts will bring her what she wants.
She loses control by December, slashing tires, full out stalking Lisa and Travis. She succeeds in breaking them up, twice in 2007 and then again in February 2008. She is no doubt reading T's journal throughout. I believe he wrote of his regret as early as mid-March, which is what prompted her to steal the Lisa journals and the diamond ring.
The killer claims that Travis "came clean" to her about Lisa just before she left Mesa. ( iirc, the killer says Travis physically attacked her during the conversation). That of course was a gigantic lie in the sense that she'd always known about Lisa. I've always thought she told it to distance herself from the tire slashing, etc, and still think that's true.
But I think there was also a grain of truth in what she said, in that I think Travis talked to her about Lisa then, and his feelings for her, and his suspicions about what the killer had done. Travis says as much (though not the feelings part) when he and Michelle text on April 3 and he tells her JA denied slashing the tires and the nasty letter to Lisa had been discussed.
Michelle asks him....how can you believe her when she's lied to you about so much? And T 's reply makes clear he's still willing to believe the killer. Until he finds out by April 8th that she's lied again about how she knew so much about what he said and did with Lisa and Mimi over the previous 6 months.
The killer soothed him yet again after that, but she knew the precariousness of that "understanding." If Travis believed and trusted her enough he would never act on his threat to expose her, or on the "bitter feelings" he was having about her, or on his threat of "revenge" if she kept it up.
By May 21, she knew he'd speak with Lisa and be completely honest with her, the two would compare notes and realize just what she'd done. She would be exposed. Travis would hate her, Lisa would tell, Travis would tell, the word would spread, Travis and Lisa would reconcile, Travis would marry Lisa. It was over.
I think she tried one last thing...the "putting something in the pipeline" when she signed into his FB account as him-- he caught her red handed, and the hacking into his computer to erase a letter he intended for Lisa( he mentions both on May 26).
She may have brought up the sex tape on the 26 but I don't think so. What Travis was waiting for was that last email from her...she'd already said she refused to put anything incriminating in writing.
I don't think there was one last thing on the 26 because I think that last thing had already happened a few days earlier. I think she reached the tipping point of hating Travis by early May, dwelt upon and fed her hatred until the 3rd week of May, and deliberately pushed Travis beyond his breaking point on the 26th to justify to herself the decision she'd already made to kill him.
ETA-- the killer has consistently placed a huge emphasis on that "come clean confession" by Travis of his interest in Lisa. It's there in her journal, in her Manifesto, and in her letter to his family.
I suggest reading what the killer says about wanting to tell Lisa about "being the other woman, " and why she says she didn't. Very revealing, IMO.
Now I'm excited about something, so it helps. Her name is Brooke Rogers. So time will tell. I'm just happy to have something to think about it. Anyhow it's my time to hit the stage. I'm out. T.V.A."
