The great unknown for me is not what the killer thought or meant to do on June 4, but what Travis was thinking and feeling that day up to the time she somehow forced him to sit in the shower.
All we know for certain is that she was in his house that day, and that she took pictures of him after 5PM while he was in the shower (ok, Geevee, maybe not this for certain.
). Given the length of the shower and the number of pics taken, I find it very difficult to believe he didn’t know she was there taking the pics, and given that, whatever else happened or did not happen that day, he did not stop her from photographing him naked in the shower, for whatever reason within or not within his control.
The June texts will hopefully help illuminate a timeframe for when she was there and how focused he was on her. On a typical day TA texted frequently, and to multiple people. He had an important conference call that night, was due to leave shortly for Cancun, and at least during the last week of May, seemed happy and very sociable. It is definitely odd, IMO, that he stopped texting and answering calls around 12:15PM that day.
More generally. I do wonder what the killer would have done if Travis had refused to communicate with her at all after May 26. Would she have been so intent on killing him that she’d take the chance of going there blind? Would he have called the police if he had woken up and found her in his house? In other words, would cutting her off entirely had made a difference? But. He didn’t. Not entirely. FWIW, below are all the communications we know about between Travis and his killer between May 26 and the day of his murder.
The May 26 confrontation ended early morning on the 26th. The next time either texted one another was on May 30, four days after their confrontation and two days after she has stolen her gfather’s gun.
At 10:52am the killer texted TA that she had an hour if he “needs any help.” No response.
She texted him again at 12:23pm., saying she was “way off” and telling TA to call her when he was “done working.”
TA texted her back within ONE MINUTE to ask-- way off on what? This is a standard TA before the 26th kind of response, an immediate reply to her one of her routine “accidental” texts intended for another person manipulations. His reply indicates he hasn’t cut her off completely, but not why he hasn’t done so. His immediate reply might mean he blew up on the May 26th but could be persuaded once again to resume communications as if nothing much had changed.
Or…it could mean that he felt threatened enough by whatever was discussed on the 26th to not dare ignore her entirely, and to have interpreted the “way off” as related to what came up on the 26th (who knows, maybe she she told him she was pregnant, but wasn’t sure who the father since, true confessions, she’d slept with one of her imaginary BF’s in Mesa}.
Whatever the case, she does not reply to him immediately, another of her favorite manipulative tactics.
At 1:46pm she texts him that she was looking at the “wrong calendar” and tells him to call her later. At 3:33 pm she texts again to say she is at work and has missed his call. She adds- call me\me you later, an expression she has never used in any previous text to him.
I’m sure JM knows whether or not TA actually called her back. We don’t. IMO she is intentionally trying to create a text record that downplays the rupture of the 26th, one which suggests they are back to normal. The absence of texts for the remainder of that day on through the next day into the evening is suggestive about TA’s not getting drawn back in, but inconclusive without access to email and phone records.
The next text is sent by the killer the following day, May 31, a little bit after 11pm, and this time for sure she is playing the accidental text game, texting TA --did you get it? Travis again responds to her immediately—get what? And is rewarded with what had long ago had become familiar to him, her whoops, that text was meant for……
In this case she claims she meant to send a pic to Angela, and in one of her asides that is actually always her central point she says, btw, Travis, I haven’t heard from you today but that’s OK, days can be like that. Sure hope you’re making the most of cheat day (cheat day is the one day a week TA allowed himself to go off his diet. Somehow I don’t think the killer is referring to food, though).
No response from TA. She texts TA a pic and says—yes, that one was for you. Texts- Did you get it. She tells TA it was taken just after she sang the National Anthem.
Taken the weekend before, on the Memorial Day weekend when he was supposed to have been there, witnessing and marveling her glorious performance. But he hadn’t gone to Yreka at all, had remained in Mesa, without plans, telling friends how boring the weekend had been. Even though she had told him how much it meant to her that he be there, even though she had told him how nervous she was and that she had agreed to do it because she was following his advice to push her limits, to go out of her comfort zone. Much of this said to him on the ‘May 10” sex tape, when she also tried to sing him the Anthem, only to have him mock the words {“never again, friend,” she tells him then. “That is an important song.”
.
And, as she tells TA on May 26th, that oh so important event her parents hadn’t bothered to attend either.
Did you get the pic, she asks TA. His reply is one word: “yah,” as he keeps on texting with Maria, telling her he wants her to be his dancing partner, asking her to send him a pic of herself, flirting. He’s also simultaneously texting with Chris H about UFC fights and with Deanna about John Gait and Eddie and not wanting to know what happens..
No more texts until near midnight of June 1 on into early morning of June 2, the day she begins her journey to kill him.
She texts him to please call her, she has something to tell him, then 3 minutes later says “oh, things, plural,” with a happy face. A minute after her second text he replies and asks- “what is it?”
She doesn’t text back until 2:06AM, telling him to hurry up, that’s she’s getting sleepy. According to phone records, though, she also calls him 4 times between 1-3AM, the longest is 17 seconds.
At 2:12am she prompts him again with zzzzz’s, then 7 minutes later texts him a “poem”:
“There once was a T-dizzle, whose things would not fizzle. He always kept his word, and had a whistle like a bird. And when he sang, it would sizzle!” smiley face. (quote is from Beth Karas subscription webpage).
Travis sends the last text he’ll ever write her around 2:30AM, telling her he’s in the middle of something but will call her as soon as he can.
She replies a minute later with the last text she will send him before she slaughters him, telling him, OK, T-dogg, and asking him- did U like my poem?
At 3AM TA does call her and they speak for about 18 minutes. For whatever reason they get off the phone, but he calls her back almost immediately and they speak for another 41 minutes.
4:03AM she calls him. That call lasts for 2 minutes 48 seconds. Combining the calls, they have spoken virtually non-stop for just over an hour, and he has made 2 of those calls.
At 5:39AM the killer is on her way out of Yreka, heading for Redding to rent a car. She calls him 2 more times on the 2nd, at 4:03pm and at 5:28pm, as she is driving between Redding and Lodi, CA. Each calls lasts under a couple of minutes.
The final calls she makes to Travis are on June 3. She calls him from the Monterey-Salinas area, after she has made her bank deposits and before she buys that gas can at Wal-Mart: at 12:57 (17 seconds) and at 1:51PM (2 minutes 50 seconds). The last call she makes to Travis is at 8:16PM, in or near Pasadena; the call lasts 2 minutes and 9 seconds.
Notes: Ryan Burns says he heard from the killer around 9 or 10pm on June 3. The approx. distance from Pasadena to Mesa is 390 miles, a 6 hour drive.
The only instance we know for certain Travis was in direct contact with his killer at any point during her murder trip was between 3-4:05AM on June 2, by phone, fully 48 hours before she allegedly arrived at his house and found him awake waiting for her.
