all right, baby. (kevin) ahh. all right, barbara. good deal. i really believe that you will put in the time. yes, i really will. thank you. oh, you're just sucking up now, lance. thank you very much. all right, thanks, guys. thanks for-- thanks for all-- congratulations, guys. all your help and everything. good luck. congratulations. barbara, that was really clever. thank you. you're getting--you're getting the same salary they are. hey, i deserve it. we're so happy we're working with barbara. she said she's gonna put the time in. this partnership with barbara, it's gonna take us to a whole 'nother level we've never been able to reach before.

tonight on tw"20/20" -- breaking free, breaking bad. three women, freed from their prison. and another on her way to one. first, the all new details from cleveland. about a decade spent in hell. our exclusive interview with the mother of one of the victims. >> over ten years, was there any other opportunity for them to get out? >> an arrest the police missed, with suspect ariel castro as a gas station. >> driver's license? >> and the biggest miracle of all, how baby jocelyn was born in an inflatable pool. >> when that baby stopped breathing for a time, michelle gave her mouth to mouth. >> out of horror. new life, new hope. home at last. and, jodi arias. a verdict just this week.

>> guilty. >> is she now the most hated woman in america? convicted of slaughtering her boyfriend, travis alexander in a shower. >> were you crying when you were stabbing him? >> only here you'll see what happened in a way the jury never did, as we take you inside an exact replica we built of the crime scene. >> she gets a knife and stabs him in the chest. >> our exclusive interview with her that's never been seen before. >> that will have to do. >> tonight, we take you behind that closed bathroom door. >> once they find pictures, it was not just clear, it was -- >> graphically clear. >> here now, elizabeth vargas and david muir. >> what a week. incredible news breaking in two cities. in cleveland, freedom for three women. in phoenix, freedom taken away forever from jody areas. but we begin with that hell house in cleveland. every hour, we're learning new secrets from it and how those three women inside formed a sisterhood to survive.

david, you're just back from cleveland with exclusive interviews. >> those young women really extraordinary. and tonight, we learned what everyone suspected. dna confirming that the little girl, just 6 years old, amanda berry's daughter, her father is the suspect, ariel castro. don't, what you haven't heard about the birth inside that home and we retrace those agonizingly close calls. tonight, how often police were right there, the suspect, the young women, right under their nose. hard knock cleveland, ohio, where a proud people never give up hope. one of their dreams, a decade in the making, suddenly coming true this week in one of that city's darkest places, 2207 seymour avenue. where three young girls were locked up, taken prisoner for years as life passed them by just outside the front door. just tonight, as new developments come in, a team arriving to begin boarding up that house. but those young women, their faces known by an entire city

for a decade. suddenly, what everyone is now calling here the miracle in cleveland. after all these years, i got to ask you, did you think you'd be out here today telling us she's coming home? >> i got to say thank god because i'm relieved, and there were moments i questioned whether or not they were still with us. >> reporter: after so many years, amanda berry this week sensing this was the moment, trying to break out, pounding on the front door. her cries heard by two neighbors outside, who never knew she was there. one of them charles ramsey. >> we had to kick open the bottom. that door was cheap. she climbed out with her daughter. she went to my house and called 911. >> help me. i'm amanda berry. i've been kidnapped and been missing for ten years. i'm here. i'm free now. >> reporter: you could hear the fear in amanda's house that that man was coming back. >> okay, are they on their way now? >> we're going to send them as

soon as we get a car open. >> no, i need them now before he gets b >> reporter: 52-year-old ariel castro, now seen as the face of unspeakable evil in this city. now he's the one in captivity. his head buried. his blue jumpsuit. charged with multiple counts of kidnap and rape. the prosecutor not ruling out the death penalty. >> this child kidnapper operated a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of our city. >> reporter: looking back, the pieces to this puzzle were there. so many close calls, so many dots to connect. but no one did. one by one, they would disappear from the same street just blocks apart. michelle knight, 21 years old, vanishing on a long ago summer day, august 2002. last seen on lorraine avenue near west 106th street. kidnapped, police say, and held captive in the basement of ariel castro's house. she was alone, for now. her accused captor, the last

person people would ever suspect. at night, playing bass in a band. playing here as police say his first victim was already locked up in his home. eight months after michelle vanished, police say he's back on lorraine avenue, this time, a few blocks away. and now, 16-year-old amanda berry, gone. the day before her birthday. her mother, louwanna miller, had her birthday presents wrapped and waiting at home. >> i remember her mom taking me up there, say, those are her presents. she would have come home for those. >> reporter: paul kiska, a long-time reporter in cleveland, knew that mother's pain. >> you would sit there on the porch and her tears were ever present. it was -- she was so broken-hearted. that her tears would land on you. >> reporter: and as michelle and amanda were locked up, we learn now how achingly close police came to those women chained in the basement. january 2004 and police are

knocking at the front door, not there for the girls, but to ask ariel castro, a school bus driver, why he'd returned his bus to the garage, forgetting a child was still on it. but no one answered the door, and police did not go inside. the fact that police came to his house, knocked on the door and there were women inside being held captive -- >> yeah. you know, in the movies, you hope they would have heard something or heard a scream or gone to the back door. they are busy. cleveland's a busy town for police. >> reporter: an opportunity to avoid another nine years of terror is missed. april 2004, almost a year after amanda vanishes, back on that same stretch of lorraine avenue, yet again. another girl, the youngest yet. gina dejesus, just 14, walking home from middle school. suddenly gone. but this time is different. ariel castro knew gina. she was one of his own daughter's best friends. >> it started at this cleveland middle school, one year ago today.

>> reporter: his daughter going on "america's most wanted" to talk about the friend she lost, not knowing her own father would, years later, be charged. >> she said, well, okay, i'll take to you later. >> reporter: and in a cruel twist, ariel castro would offer his own help, searching for gina, picking up flyers. he prays and comforts her family through the years. in an exclusive interview, gina dejesus' mother, nancy ruiz, told me she has known ariel castro for years. and so you would see him and he would say, "how are you doing?" >> yes. >> reporter: like nothing was wrong. >> yes. >> reporter: that's chilling. >> it is. >> reporter: all the while he had your daughter. >> yes. >> reporter: and when you think back to those conversations, what do you think? >> he never gave an indication of anything. >> reporter: never a hint of that other side. there was horror in that house, though, wasn't there? >> i can't imagine what went on

behind the doors. >> reporter: over that decade, it's believed they never left the property. walking outside of the garage only twice. the women telling police he put them in disguise, wigs and sub glasses. >> that's what's hard, because you don't know. >> reporter: all as amanda berry's mother, just a few minutes away, still waiting with those presents. louwanna miller spent years retracing her daughter's steps. >> i spent 470-some days and, just not knowing. any little detail. it's really, really hard. >> reporter: she agrees to appear on "the montel williams spoke" with famous psychic sylvia browne, who items her her daughter is dead. >> she's not alive, honey. >> reporter: friends and family say louwanna, already in failing health, is now devastated. she died at just 44 years old. the mother's death breaking hearts across a city that had come to know her. and everywhere we went this week we heard this.

>> and the mother, she just gave up. >> died of a broken heart. >> reporter: died of a broken heart? >> and the stress on her heart. just -- unbelievable. i didn't think they were alive any longer, you know? >> reporter: when we come back, the christmas day surprise. just how was a baby born in that house? and who jumps in to save the baby when she stops breathing? and another fateful moment. an opportunity missed. >> see your driver's license. >> reporter: the video of ariel castro pulled over by police. what he said to get police to let him go. when we come back. all business purchases. so you can capture your receipts, and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. so you can spend less time doing paperwork. and more time doing paperwork.

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>> reporter: december 25th, 2006. and at the house on seymour avenue, three young women have already been held captive for years. and christmas would deliver something that would change all of their lives. a baby girl. at 19 years old, amanda berry is giving birth. ariel castro is the father. there is no doctor, no nurse. the oldest victim, michelle, telling police she was the one

who helped deliver the baby. amanda delivered that baby in an inflatable pool ariel castro is believed to have brought into the house. >> barbaric. christmas day, in a pool? >> reporter: in a police report, obtained by abc station wews, michelle told investigators that the newborn stopped breathing. when that baby stopped breathing for a time, michelle gave her mouth to mouth. >> these three women, they saved each other's lives. they kept each other alive. and it sounds like michelle saved this beautiful child. >> reporter: authorities tell us amanda named the baby jocelyn. do you think the birth of that little girl inside that house somehow gave these women hope and a reason to keep fighting to survive this? >> i think it had to give them a new focus. how could it not? they have a baby in the house. they have new sounds. a baby brings life. a baby has to bring hope.

>> reporter: the sisterhood growing, now a family of four. castro is allegedly now keeping them in bedrooms all upstairs. michelle and gina in one room. amanda and her little girl in another. gina's mother telling us the young women are told if they try to escape those locked doors, an alarm will go off. because so many people wonder, gosh, over ten years, was there any other opportunity for them to get out? >> no. >> you know, there is a mental abuse component to all this, too. they could have just been so scared. you know, they could have been -- >> reporter: brainwashed? >> yeah, that's a good word. you got to understand these were young, young girls at the time, and, you know, they were probably just terrified. >> reporter: and gina's mother tells us her sister just lives two blocks away from that house. she passed it too many times to count. >> i was so angry. you know how many times i've been through that street? i passed by that street?

>> reporter: after the baby girl is born, those girls face another 6 1/2 years trapped in that house. castro would buy the women clothes from one local store, but not often.amanda, we're tol sow, turning old clothes into new outfits. the women would cook. fbi special agent vicki anderson telling me the bond, unbreakable. you've been in the room, the hospital rooms with these young women. >> yes. >> reporter: you've seen the bond yourself? >> it was apparent these ladies have been through a lot, and they were there for one another. you could say the way they looked over at each other and were concerned of where the other one was. >> reporter: in that police report, michelle told investigators she too became pregnant. five times. but she says every time, castro would punch her until she miscarried. it's believed the other women sometimes witnessed the violence. in june 2008, another chance. police talking a ariel castro.

he was at a gas station on his motorcycle. >> your place is improperly displayed. >> reporter: the officer asking him about a helmet and his lie sense plate. >> you don't have a helmet on. >> reporter: but he would let him go. years would go by and by last year, that little girl was old enough to go to kindergarten. but likely didn't even know what that was. >> but she hasn't had a normal little girl childhood, that's for sure. >> reporter: play ground. >> no. >> reporter: school. >> no, right. girlfriends. >> reporter: and we're told amanda knowing that her daughter is growing begins teaching her, quietly home schooling her in that house. >> she liked to play school and so they, she had been working with jocelyn at the house. >> reporter: what kinds of subjects, do you know? >> i don't know. i saw some things that they had drawn, you know, that were pictures and things that were made. that gina actually pulled out, so, all kinds of things. >> reporter: so, gina had the

drawings of amanda's little girl. >> right. >> reporter: so, this is a group connected. >> i think so. >> reporter: and there was only one person in that group who was ever allowed out in public. we learned that not only did castro take the 6-year-old to the park, it's believed he took her to church and possibly to his own mother's house. the girl's biological grandmother. late this week, ariel castro's mother, lillian, speaking for the first time. "i'm really suffering," she said. "i ask the girls to forgive me. my son is sick. i have nothing to do with what he did." and why did authorities never wonder about a little girl? >> we were looking for gina, amanda and michelle, you know. we weren't looking for a baby, so, she could have been out on the streets. she could have been walking in a neighborhood, and, you know, i don't think our guys would have given her a second look. >> reporter: and just this past sunday at this little neighborhood park, israel lugo says he saw castro with a little girl.

>> whose kid is this? my girlfriend's daughter. >> reporter: 24 hours later, ariel castro might have made his first mistake in a decade. he fails to lock all of the doors and amanda berry seeps her chance and takes it. recordings from the police scanners reveal officers rushing to the scene, stunned. >> we found them. we found them. >> reporter: all three women and the little girl are rushed to the hospital. amanda berry calling her grandmother in tennessee, who asks her about the little girl. >> amanda? >> yeah, grandma. >> how are you? >> i'm fine. >> i'm glad to have you back. >> i'm glad to be back. >> i thought you were gone. >> nope, i'm here. >> is the little girl your baby? >> yeah, she's my daughter. born on christmas. >> reporter: and we asked about the 6-year-old, too. >> she looks great. happy, healthy. she was eating a popsicle last night. >> reporter: the little girl? >> yeah, i mean, she looked good to me. >> reporter: and then, the time had come.

amanda telling police she was ready to come home. the original poster hanging on a tree in front of the house, now outdated. and a new sign wishing, dreaming, a community's dream was coming true. as you can see, this is the moment that this community has been waiting for for ten years. amanda berry, coming home. >> reporter: and inside this van, gina dejesus, so overwhelmed, her mother telling her to give a thumbs up, you can do it. she does. >> i still think of her at a 14-year-old. i told her, if i'm stepping over the line, remind me. and tell me, mommy, i'm 23, not 14. >> reporter: and we're told during gina's first night at home, she tells her parents she doesn't want to sleep upstairs in a room, as she'd been forced to for a decade. >> i said, you don't have to anymore. so, that's -- part of the process, her healing and knowing that she now can do what she

wants. >> reporter: the entire family sleeping in the living room to grant that wish. tonight, they are now free, the young women, we are told, all smiling again. michelle is the last one out of the hospital. and in yet another sign of that sisterhood, it's believed michelle is looking to spend time with the friend she was locked up with, gina. gina's mother says she actually plans to do the cooking on mother's day, meatloaf, she's promised for the girls. what have you promised her now? >> anything she wants. sky's the limit. i told her. >> reporter: three faces, three young women, missing for a decade, lost and found. as you heard me say there, they're calling it the miracle in cleveland. and tonight, we want to know, what are your messages to the young women who escaped that house? tweet them, let's get a conversation starts, using #a #abc2020.

elizabeth and i will be right back. next, jodi arias. an obsessed woman who wouldn't let go of her on-again, off-again boyfriend. the pictures she took of him alive, and 70 seconds later, dead. >> almost everyone i know said jodi did it. >> find out how, in an exact replica of the crime scene we built. >> and after that, she remembers nothing. >> she doesn't remember slitting his throat or stabbing him 27 times. she has amnesia.

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just this week, a verdict five years in the making. jodi arias, guilty of first degree murder. by now, you know her as the one-time blond bombshell who transformed herself into a mousey brunette, wearing glasses in the trial. nearly everything about jodi kept changing, especially her version of the murder of her on and off boyfriend, travis alexander. but one thing that never changed, the crime scene photos from travis' own camera that helped convict her. when 30-year-old travis alexander closed his bedroom door on june 4th, 2008, he assumed that whatever happened behind that door would remain between him and his guest.

he also assumed he'd walk out that door alive. but that very private rendezvous has now become very public. >> please stand for the jury. >> reporter: in fact, the details of what happened in this community on the edge of a desert and how that tryst turned into bloody murder have been at the heart of the most sensational and stunning courtroom drama this year. >> now to that dramatic testimony in the jodi arias trial. >> how does she get to tweet from behind bars? >> jody arias speaks out. >> reporter: the trial of jodi ann arias, the woman america loves to hate. a 32-year-old femme fatale with made-for-tv looks, accused of slashing, stabbing and shooting to death her ex-boyfriend, travis alexander, a young, up-and-coming businessman active in the mormon church. five years after the crime, the secrets of that bathroom have finally bubbled to the surface. some written in blood.

some captured by photograph. others from the mouth of an admitted killer. >> did you kill travis alexander on june 4th, 2008? >> yes, i did. >> reporter: a story breathlessly told by correspondents. >> it's all anybody in this town is talking about. >> reporter: local minstrels with jodi-inspired ballads. ♪ now jodi is a narcissist in the nth degree ♪ >> reporter: and even internet parodies. >> miss areas, do you have a problem with your memory? >> i don't remember. >> reporter: but just two days ago, the verdict. >> we the jury do find the defendant, as to count one first degree murder, guilty. >> reporter: eight men and four women who listened patiently through months of raunch and religion found arias guilty of first degree murder. the crowds that gathered physically and virtually to follow the case seemed to agree. >> thank god she got it. >> reporter: but back in 2007, police were just arriving at a

crime scene. travis alexander was dead. the wounds on his body so numerous, investigators couldn't even count them at the scene. the medical examiner eventually tallied the inventory of violence. 27 stab wounds, a deep cut to the throat and a gunshot wound to the head. and his friends said they knew just who did it. jodi arias. >> as soon as we found out he was dead, almost everyone i know said, "jodi did it." this is the only woman with enough hate and venom in her life to do this to travis. >> reporter: it began so differently. they met working for a legal insurance company. travis was 29, very successful, an elder in the mormon church, known for its strict poll sills against premarital sex. jodi was 26, an aspiring

photographer and looking for mr. right. and for a little while, it looked like she'd found him. >> she was popular with everybody. with everybody. people flock around jodi. >> she was very quiet, very mysterious. >> but very polite. >> yeah, very nice. very sweet. everybody liked her and thought, originally, it'd be a good fit for travis. >> reporter: jodi plunged head-first into travis' world. just weeks into their friendship, she is baptized into the mormon church, travis at her side. to the outside world, they were a chaste mormon couple. but behind the facade of faith and chastity, illicit passion. >> jodi wanted nothing but to please travis. it really appeared like they were involved in a very loving relationship. but nothing could be further from the truth. because in reality, jodi was travis' dirty little secret. >> there was a five-month window where they were dating and they

were serious. but this was the girl he was going to have sex with. this was the girl that was going to keep his bed warm until he married a proper mormon girl. >> reporter: and yet, she stayed in his life and in his bed. she moved just a few miles from travis in mesa. the temptation was even greater. jodi wrote in her journal, "his bedroom becomes our playground where our passions run wild and certain fantasies are taken to the extreme. the rules melt away." travis, torn by his religious beliefs, decided to end the relationship. but somehow, even as he started dating other mormon girls, jodi and travis secretly kept seeing each other. >> why were you still acting as his booty call? >> i was making a string of bad choices during that time in my life. >> reporter: listen to this tape recording from one of their phone calls. >> if you were here, my grandparents are asleep, i'll

put you in my bedroom. we'll shut and lock the door, and we'll just have a big [ bleep ] fest. we'll go on all night. >> reporter: but to his friends, travis said they are done and painted jodi as a jealous stalker. >> he was saying things like, you know, "you have no reason to be in mesa. we're not together. we're not going to be together. why are you there?" you know, "why can't you leave me alone?" >> reporter: in fact, just weeks before his death, travis told jodi arias he had invited another woman to go with him to cancun, mexico. >> everyone in his life knew jodi was obsessed with him. he told everyone in his life. and they were all aware of this woman. >> reporter: so were police, now that he'd been found butchered in what appears to be a very personal crime. but the lead investigator, mesa detective esteban flores, didn't have to go looking for jodi. she came looking for him. >> jodi arias calls the authorities. >> reporter: that takes a lot of gumption. >> well, this is part of the cover-up. >> well, i just wanted to offer any assistant that i might have. i was a really good friend of travis.

>> what have you heard so far? >> nobody's been able to get a hold of him for almost a week. and that was about the last time i spoke to him, too. i used to live there. i live in northern california now. >> you haven't been back in town since then? >> since i moved? no, i haven't. >> reporter: very quickly, however, police learn that, in fact, jodi had been at the house. >> it became very clear to the authorities, early on, that she was there. >> the detective, as he's exiting the house, he passes through the laundry room, and he sees a red smear on the washing machine. >> reporter: inside? the clue that will unlock this entire case. >> these are inadvertent photographs. accidental photographs. these are photographs that the killer did not want taken. >> reporter: and the jodi arias interview you've never seen before. >> areas arias -- a-r-i-a-s.

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>> reporter: 12 hours into the travis alexander homicide investigation and detectives had a lot of blood. and a lot of fingers pointed at

jodi arias, travis' on and off ex-girlfriend, who according to friends with a full on stalker. but what detectives needed was proof she was there, and they're about to find it in an unlikely hiding spot. inside the washing machine. still wet from the rinse cycle was travis' camera. on the data card, stored in the memory, time-stamped photos from the day travis was killed. >> on june 4th at 1:42, mr. alexander was very much alive. not only was he very much alive, he was involved in these photographs with a woman. >> reporter: and who was that woman? one jodi arias, now a brunette, posing in pig tails. the photos tell the story of an afternoon of prolonged passion. these were all taken between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. that day. these photos were taken around 5:00. but less than two minutes after

travis posed for this haunting picture, the camera captures this. a series of inadvertent photos, caused by a design flaw in the camera. in this one, the camera appears to be falling to the ground, a shot of the bathroom ceiling. and then this one -- a foot alongside travis' bloody body. >> they were able to retrieve these photos. and they somehow, miraculously, don't just tell the story of before and after, but during. and also provides, most importantly, a time frame when the actual crime occurred. >> reporter: and there is another critical clue. a bloody palm print on a wall just down the hall from the bathroom where investigators believe travis was dragged back to the shower. lab tests reveal that, too, belonged to jodi. and there's more. one week before the killing, a break-in at the home of arias' grandparents. one of the items missing? a .25 caliber gun.

the same caliber used to shoot travis. coincidence or criminal cunning on jodi's part? >> the burglar. the person who went in there. right there. it's jodi arias. that's the burglar. and she needs a gun, and she needs a gun to kill travis alexander. >> reporter: it was time for a chat with ms. arias. investigators headed to yreka, california, 1,000 miles from mesa, arizona, and arrested her outside her grandparents' home. they brought her here to the local sheriff's office. >> so you remember me? >> of course i do. >> i've been working on travis' case ever since it happened. i know a lot of details. >> okay. >> and i believe that you know some of these details. and i think you can help us. >> i would love to help you in any way that i can. >> okay. >> reporter: when you watch the tapes of her interrogation, what strikes you most? >> she seems completely unflappable.

and this goes to why she's such a good liar and potentially a good witness. >> reporter: a good liar? try casey anthony-caliber champion liar. listen to this. >> were you at travis' house on wednesday? >> absolutely not. i was nowhere near mesa. i wasn't even close to him. >> what if i could show you proof you were there? would that change your mind? >> i was not at travis' house. was not. >> you were at travis' house. you guys had a sexual encounter, which -- there's pictures. and i know you know there's pictures, because i have them. >> she's very masterful at sounds very, very believable. and very innocent. >> if travis were here today, he would tell you that it wasn't me. >> she seems very genuine in what she's saying. and we know now it's a lie. >> i would never hurt travis. >> you did. >> i'm not guilty.

i didn't hurt travis. if i hurt travis, if i killed travis, i would beg for the death penalty. >> reporter: getting nowhere, the detective shifts gears and hits jodi with the evidence. >> that's you. i wanted to cover you up because that's you -- all of you. >> oh, that looks like me. >> but this one i don't know if i should show you, but it's just one of the photos that was taken by accident. it's your foot, jodi. that's travis. >> this is his bathroom. that is not my foot. >> reporter: but this may be even tougher to explain. >> should have at least done your makeup, jodi, gosh. >> reporter: while jodi waited, she didn't seem like a normal person facing potential murder charges. she seemed -- well, off the wall. the next day, after a night in

jail and a wardrobe change, jodi was back in the hot seat. but this time, she admitted she was at the house, where the killing happened. >> i was, like, right here on my knees and his bathtub is right here. >> reporter: she told the detective that masked intruders broke in and attacked her and travis. >> i think i got knocked out but i don't think i was out long. there were two people there. one was a guy and one was a girl. >> what did they say? >> the girl wanted to kill me, too. >> why didn't they? >> reporter: she said she tried to help a badly injured travis. >> i came back this was, pushed her and he said, go to my neighbors, go to my neighbors, and he's like, i can't feel my legs. and they wouldn't let me by by him. >> reporter: police didn't believe it. >> so many inconsistencies. >> reporter: but it turned out there were plenty of people that wanted to hear it, and jodi was more than happy to oblige. >> no jury is going to convict

me. >> why not? >> because i'm innocent. and you can mark my words on that one. >> reporter: one of the cameras jodi sat down before was ours. >> you have a mirror? >> reporter: you are watching never before seen footage of jodi in 2008, just after her arrest. >> born and raised in california. >> reporter: portraying herself as a family girl. >> i have a large family. >> reporter: a loving girlfriend. >> he made me feel like a very beautiful person. on the inside. >> reporter: and an innocent victim. >> all of the evidence, to me, is very compelling, but none of it proves that i committed a murder. if this were something that i could have done, it would be scary times, i think, spiritually and, thinking of what life beyond this. >> reporter: what lines beyond is the answer to the ultimate question. >> ladies and gentlemen, i understand you have reached a verdict. >> reporter: two stories. >> which story do you want to believe? >> reporter: two minutes between an intimate moment and a stabbing frenzy. gets a knife and stabs him in

the chest. >> that's when it starts. >> reporter: what really happened in that bathroom? >> that is almost certainly what killed him. >> that is almost certainly what killed him. >> reporter: that's next. we l. which is why enterprise will pick you up when you need to rent a car. [ employee ] stuck at the repair shop...... we'll pick you up. at your house..... we'll be there. that's why enterprise has more rental car locations than anyone else, including more than 230 airport locations all across north america. always near by. always standing by. ♪ let us show you what that means. [ male announcer ] pick enterprise. we'll pick you up. excuse me. would you mind moving your enormous phone? you mean the enormously awesome galaxy? ping! search "one trick pony." [ all gasp ] aren't you a little young to have an iphone? [ all gasp ] whee! [ indistinct shouting ] you think if they knew about the nokia lumia they'd stop fighting all the time? i don't know. i think they kind of like fighting. come on! ♪ [ male announcer ] the windows phone nokia lumia 920.

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"20/20" continues. once again, elizabeth vargas.

>> reporter: for 4 1/2 long years, jodi arias sat in this phoenix jail. after dozens of media interviews, the chatty and seemingly confident murder suspect was now on a different stage, facing a very different audience -- 12 jurors who will decide her fate. prosecutor juan martinez's case for first degree is clear. if jodi couldn't have travis, she decided that no one else would. >> he says, it's the worst thing that's ever happened to me. and that's true. she couldn't let him go. >> reporter: the veteran prosecutor laid out a sinister tale. a paper trail of premeditation left by the defendant, including getting gas cans and turning off her phone so she couldn't be traced as she traveled from california to arizona with murder on her mind. but the crux of the state's case was here in this bathroom. what happened between this photo to this photo, the camera flying

through the air. she takes this haunting, beautiful, last picture of him and then sets the camera down and what, begins attacking him? >> we don't know what transpired between jodi arias and travis alexander that day. >> reporter: did he tell her it was over? did all her anger at being his dirty little secret, warming his bed until a better girl came along, suddenly erupt? or had she plotted this for weeks after he told her he was taking that other woman to cancun? each side, the prosecution and the defense, would tell very different stories of what happened next. renowned trial lawyer kathleen zellner has agreed to walk "20/20" through the defense case, although she does not agree with its theory. and she testifies they come back into the bathroom? >> yes. >> reporter: travis gets in the shower? >> exactly. so he gets into the shower, and she begins snapping photographs of him. he's posing.

and then, she drops his camera on the floor. >> reporter: okay. and that enrages him -- >> enrages him. >> reporter: -- she testifies? >> so she claims he comes out and he lunges at her, flips her over in a body slam. she recovers from it, though, and takes off down the hall. she claims now she's in fear of her life. >> reporter: okay. so, she runs this way, according to testimony, and then back into the closet? >> exactly. because she remembers that his gun, supposedly, is in the closet. she grabs the gun. it's a .25 caliber. she continues out this door. >> reporter: runs into the bathroom to the middle of the bathroom, at which point she turns around? >> right, and he's down like a linebacker. she demonstrated that. shoots him, right temple through the left cheek. >> reporter: and then after that she remembers nothing? >> she doesn't remember slitting his throat or stabbing him 27 times. she has amnesia. >> reporter: according to arias, this wasn't the first time travis had snapped. over 18 days of testimony, jodi arias defames her dead lover, claiming he degraded her.

>> he called me a skank. >> reporter: abused her repeatedly. >> kicked me in the ribs and got on top of me and started choking me. >> reporter: and exposed her to his alleged secret perversions. >> i walked in, and travis was on the bed masturbating. he started grabbing at managsomg on the bed and it was a photograph. >> what was the photograph of? >> it was a picture of a little boy. >> reporter: but the defense cannot produce a single witness to corroborate these claims. and the prosecution says these are all just more wild and desperate tales from an admitted liar. >> we know the sequence is completely false. and that's why she has amnesia. >> reporter: you're saying that jodi's version of events doesn't match the forensic evidence in the case? >> it absolutely does not. >> jodi arias is one of the greatest liars ever. >> reporter: dan abrams, legal analyst for abc news, makes the case for the prosecution. so she's taking photos of him and asks for one final picture

where he's looking directly into the camera. and at some point the prosecution says she gets a knife. >> that's right. >> reporter: and stabs him in the chest. >> and that's when it starts. and he staggers to the sink. some how gets here, puts his hands on the sink, coughs up blood on the mirror, trying to sort of balance himself. >> reporter: and she continues stabbing him according to prosecution in the middle of his back, the attack continues. >> reporter: t >> it continues. wounds in the front and back. and then, he some how continues to try to get away. >> reporter: down this long hallway. >> again, some how staggering, probably not that quickly. and then around here, right at the edge of the bedroom, he collapses. >> reporter: at this point, she slilts his throat, from ear to ear. there's a massive blood stain on the carpet in this location. >> they believe that's what

killed him. >> reporter: at this point, she decides to drag him back into the bathroom. he's 5'9", 180 pounds. she's 5'4", wakes much less. and to balance herself, she puts her hand up on the wall. at that point, leaves a bloody palm print. >> very important piece of evidence. because that's what placed her at the scene, definitively in addition to the photographs. >> reporter: and she manages, even though he's so much bigger and heavier, to drag him all the way back this long hallway, all the way back into the bathroom. and this is where we find the shell casing. >> so, he was shot at some point in the bathroom. they're not certain, did it occur earlier, later, but we know that that shot occurred somewhere in this area. >> reporter: and then she's able to drag his body back into the shower, where the attack began, where she turns on the shower, in effort to clean up?

>> that's what they believe. >> reporter: shot in self-defense or stabbed as part of a premeditated cold blooded murder? >> please stand for the jury. >> reporter: it took just 15 hours of deliberation for the jury to decide. >> we the jury do find the defendant guilty. >> reporter: as relatives wept a crowds cleared, areas looked into the eyes of the jury that will now decide whether she lives or dies. in an interview she granted with a local station, she says she would rather face death. >> i said years ago i would rather get death than life. if i hurt travis, if i killed travis, i would beg for the delt penalty. >>. >> reporter: arias is now on suicide watch. she wishes she could take it all back. >> i have a million regrets. i wish it was just a nightmare that i could wake up from. >> reporter: and for the relatives of travis, that's perhaps as close to an apology relatives of travis, that's perhaps[ male announcer ]ology can gravity be used

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