this is "nightline." tonight, fatal attraction. from red hot sex. >> he made me feel like a very beautiful person on the inside. >> to haunting red flags. >> she's the sanest crazy person you've ever met. >> the blond beauty bringing a man to his knees. >> you are just so attractive. >> now new insights from friends and family. >> the look on her face. it was, it was evil. >> when their affair took a twisted turn. >> he had been murdered at least three times over. >> the bizarre behavior, and the changing faces and stories of

jodi arias. >> i'm not a murderer. >> "nightline" will be right back.

good evening. thank you for joining us. for two lovers, instant chemistry would eventually turn

deadly. the twisted relationship captivated the nation. now the new interviews from friends and family. what they witnessed, and what they warned. >> she was the sanest crazy person you've ever met. >> jodi arias looked like the girl next door. >> he made me feel like i was beautiful on the inside. >> a beautiful young woman, who would become the center of the national spotlight. in a sensational trial, accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend travis alexander. >> it was a fatal attraction, definitely a fatal attraction here. >> testimony captivating the country. >> this was about obsession, white hot sex. rage. >> the warnings friends had given him before that fateful night. >> i said, "travis, i'm afraid we're gonna find you chopped up in a freezer." >> and the crucial evidence caught on camera -- >> even as the homicide occurred the camera is continuing to click photographs, it's almost like having somebody videotape your murder.

>> i have a large family. we're all pretty close. >> in high school yearbook photos, jodi appears to be a happy, innocent, carefree kid. >> jodi arias grew up in a small town in california. >> i've always been drawn to, um, to nature and, and things like that. i think that inspires a lot of my art and a lot of my photography as well. >> jodi couldn't make photography alone pay the bills, so she started working at a network marketing company. that decision would put her on a collision course with travis alexander. >> the company was having a convention in vegas, and it was a big deal. >> travis alexander was a successful 29-year-old motivational speaker and salesman for prepaid legal. >> he -- he had tons of friends and tons -- tons of people that always wanted to be around him, just because he was a great guy. >> in this youtube video, travis

talks about being single. >> when i first started training and things like that the first thing i'd hear is "by the way he's single" and, that's right, ladies, come get me. >> during the convention, one of travis's friends introduced him to jodi. >> she's beautiful. she's friendly. has long, blonde hair. cute figure. she was very sweet. >> he's riveted with everything she's saying. . >> the next morning, he tells me that he's found his wife and this is the girl that he wants to marry. >> we got to know each other through hours upon hours of phone conversations. we just discovered a lot of common interests and grew close. >> travis lives in mesa, arizona. jodi lives in california. so they're having a long-distance relationship. the new couple would often get together and go on trips, which jodi documented in photos she posted on her myspace page. >> i'm always pointing the camera in every direction, and

he was always a very enthusiastic and willing subject. >> the biggest problem, however, when it came to any kind of romantic relationship was one of religion. travi alexander was mormon, and jodi arias was not. >> if anyone is even remotely familiar with the mormon beliefs. no sex before marriage. >> but jodi and travis were having sex. >> he really was struggling and suffering in guilt. you know, because he knew that he was outside of the tenets of the faith. >> travis starts sending mormon missionaries to her house. at night, he talks about the book of mormon. he quotes scripture to her. within a short amount of time, jodi converts to mormonism, her baptism captured in this picture with travis. >> it was emotional, it was spiritual, it was powerful. >> but, according to travis's friends, something was wrong. >> this is around the time where she became very possessive of him. >> very possessive. she just had to sit right by him.

she didn't appreciate when he was talking to another female. friends chris and sky staged an intervention of sorts. >> we were just telling him all the things that we were worried about with her, and i said, "she's scary. there's something wrong with her." >> and i said, "travis, i'm afraid we're gonna find you chopped up in her freezer." and all of a sudden i got this cold feeling over me and i knew she was outside our door, and i mouthed to him and pointed to the door and i said, she's out there. >> and travis rips the door open, and she's there. >> and the look on her face, it was, it was just evil. >> travis and jodi continue seeing each other for another couple months until finally it's over. but in a strange move, after the breakup, jodmoves to mesa, arizona to be closer to her now ex-boyfriend. >> that's pretty weird, right? "i don't ever wanna see you again," and then she moves across the country, and into

your town. >> travis told friends that jodi would show up unannounced at his house. that she would sneak in through the garage door because she knew the code, and at one point she even snuck in through the doggy door. >> and sometimes travis would be angry and other times he would jump into bed right with her and they would have sex. >> it was very much a mutual thing. >> eventually, travis convinced jodi to move back to california. >> it just became obvious with time that there, we were -- we needed to go apart. we needed to grow apart. >> he said, "i'm getting -- i'm getting my life back. like, this is a whole new start, she's gone." >> each of them is pursuing somebody else. >> travis was interested in a woman named mimi. >> in the meantime, jodi seems to have found her own new love interest as well. but despite their new interests, jodi and travis can't seem to cut their connection.

>> they're still talking on the phone and texting. >> unbeknownst to him, she was tape recording him. >> you make me so horny. i seriously think about having sex with you every day, several times a day. >> i'm glad that we started ---. >> i think jodi recorded it to have a weapon in her arsenal to use against him if he did something that she didn't like or just to threaten him with. >> in early june, both travis and jodi have travel plans with different people. jodi's supposed to go to salt lake city to visit her new love interest. travis was taking his love interest mimi on an all expenses paid, company retreat to cancun to woo her. his friends chris and sky were already there. >> his phone just kept going to voicemail. we kept trying to call again and again, and all of a sudden, the voicemail was full. >> by june 9th it has been five

days since any of travis's friends have heard from him. some of those friends go by travis's house to find him. inside, a horror scene. >> when they first cast open the doors for the master bedroom, there's this smell, this horrendous, foul odor. there's also blood on the floor, then travis's roommate goes into the bathroom. >> as he turns the corner, he spots travis curled up in the shower, and he's clearly dead and has been dead for several days. >> how did this happen? do you have any idea? >> nope, we have no idea. everybody's been wondering about him for a few days. >> she said there is blood. is it coming from his head? >> it's all over the place. >> he was slaughtered. there's no other way to describe it. >> he had been murdered at least three times over. 27 stab wounds, his neck sliced. to top it off, he was shot in the head. >> this was overkill to the

extreme >> in the house, detectives also found a bloody palm print, and several long brown hairs. they also noticed travis's bed sheets were missing. >> we went through the laundry room. >> we just happened to lift the -- the lid of the washing machine, and lo and behold, there's a camera. the computer forensic investigator, he called me up and said, "you're not gonna believe what i just found.." >> it's the clue that's going to unlock this entire case. >> that's unheard of to have that kind of evidence. >> coming up -- >> the evidence and the bizarre interrogation tapes. >> detective, i'm not a murderer. >> plus, the stunning moment when jodi takes the stand. >> he called me a --- and he kicked me in the ribs.

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it's june, 2008, and in mesa, arizona, police are baffled by a violent murder. travis alexander, shot and stabbed to death in his own home. the motive and the killer setil unknown. >> i'm a really good friend of travis'. >> hundreds of miles away, his ex-girlfriend, jodi arias reached out to the police. >> what have you heard so far? >> i heard that he passed away. that there was a lot of blood. i'm sorry. >> her name is coming up. she was an ex-girlfriend. she wouldn't leave travis alone. >> reporter: jodi first told police she hadn't seen travis in months. she revealed they were secretly still having sex.

>> jodi talks herself to the top of the list of potential suspects. >> reporter: but she volunteered to help police any way she could. >> she had her fingerprints done and i got a dna sample. >> reporter: they already discovered what was on that digital camera. >> i said oh, my goodness, that's jodi arias. she lied to me. she was there. >> they find photos of both travis and jodi, in sexually provocative positions. >> reporter: but that wasn't all. later photos may have captured travis' final moments. >> the camera accidently somehow fell and took a couple shots during the course of the killing. unbelievable. >> one of the photos is of the back of travis' head, with blood running down it. and in the foreground is a leg and a foot, wearing blue pants. >> reporter: within a month, tests would also reveal that some of the blood at the murder scene belonged to jodi arias.

that's enough for an arrest. >> it was almost an out of body skiepd of experience, almost like i was watching the whole thing unfold. >> reporter: during her interrogation, jodi repeatedly denied visiting or hurting travis. >> i'm not guilty. i didn't hurt travis. if i hurt travis, if i killed travis, i would beg for the death penalty. i'm not a murderer. >> detective flores plays his ace, and his ace is those photos. >> i know there's pictures, because i have them. >> are you sure it's me? because i was not there. >> it's you. the camera took a couple photos by accident during the time he was killed. >> really? >> yeah, jodi, really. you levft a palm print at the scene in blood. this one.

you absolutely cannot, cannot explain that away. >> couldn't my palm print have already been there if i touch td? >> jodi, this is over, this is absolutely over. >> jodi, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence, evidence that proved that she was there at the time of the murder, jodi is still in denial. >> thank goodness they had a camera going, because nobody would believe what happened next. ♪ hmm, hmm >> she sings. ♪ the stars are brightly shining ♪ >> she even does a headstand in the interrogation room. who does that? >> very, very odd behavior for someone accused of murder. >> reporter: the next day, jodi changed her story, telling police she was there, but two intruders attacked her and travis. >> i don't really remember,

except travis was screaming. i think i got knocked out, but i don't think i was knocked out long. >> in is the most far-fetched story i've ever heard, and it's not going to help you. >> did not kill travis. >> i believe you did, and there's nothing to show anyone else did this. >> reporter: jodi would spend more than four years behind bars. by the time her trial started in january 2013, she'd undergone quite a transformation. >> she'd gone from blond bombshell, sex pot, boom, now she's walkin' into court looking like a librarian. the public was obsessed, because this was a case that was drenched in sex. and lies. and sex. and religion. and sex. >> reporter: the prosecution laid out its argument first, spending days detailing how jodi killed travis, saying she stole a gun from her grandparents.

died her hair brown so no one would recognize her. >> and prosecutor juan martinez's version of events she had carefully planned this murder of travis as an act of rage from a woman scorned. >> reporter: the prosecutor says jodi attacked travis in the shower, stabbing him, slit his throat and finally shot him with the stolen gun. >> mr. alexander did not die calmly. he fought. >> reporter: when the defense began its case. >> ms. areas, you may come forward and take a seat please. >> reporter: in a shocking move, jodi took the stand and changed her story again. this time admitting she did kill travis. >> did you kill travis alexander on june 4, 2008? >> yes, i did. >> why? >> um, the simple answer is that he attacked me, and i defended myself. >> reporter: the defense argued travis was emotionally and physically abusive although there was no evidence to back

that up. jodi's lawyers also argued he controlled her through sex, those salascious phone calls played in court. >> i'm going to tie you to a tree and [ bleep ]. >> oh, my god. that is so debasing, i love it. >> the sex tape was like a hand grenade. >> reporter: she testified they had sex but testified he attacked her after she dropped the camera. >> travis flipped out. he stepped out of the shore awed picked me up. he was screaming that i was a stupid idiot. >> reporter: jodi said she managed to get away and grab a gun. >> like a linebacker he grabbed my waist. >> basically, the gun went off, and she doesn't remember anything after that. >> i don't know if i blacked out or what. there's a huge gap. >> do you remember stabbing travis alexander? >> i have no memory of stabbing him.

>> do you remember dragging him across the floor? >> no. >> justice for travis, justice for travis! >> reporter: the jury deliberated for just 15 hours. >> we the jury, duly empaneled and sworn do find the defendant as to count one first degree murder guilty. [cheers and applause] >> everybody in my family was bawling. they were happy. you know, we were all hugging. >> and i was really hoping the jury would see things for what they are. i feel a little betrayed by them. >> reporter: in the sentencing phase the prosecutor wanted the death penalty. but after two hung juries, jodi arias was sentenced to life in prison. she's appealing her case in part for prosecutorial misconduct. the state says she receive add

fair trial. >> none of it effects the fact that she murdered my brother and admitted to it. >> she snuffed out a very bright light from this earth. about things i diding and wondering if that was the last time i was going to do that thing. i thought i'm not letting anything take me away from my family that loves me and needs me without a fight. when i came to cancer treatment centers of america, it felt so different from any other hospital we'd ever been to. whether it be spiritual, physical, emotional, they take it all into consideration in healing you. infusion, imaging, everything is here. i don't have to go anywhere else. they create a treatment plan that's for you. they cared about my victories. they cared about me as a person beyond just being a cancer patient.

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tis better than the criminal in democrathe white house.esident we all have progressive plans to address the big challenges facing our country. what makes me different, is i've been working for ten years outside of washington, to end the corporate takeover of our democracy, and to return power to the american people. i started need to impeach to hold this lawless president accountable. i'm proposing big reforms like term limits... ...a national referendum... ...and ending corporate money in politics. as president, i'll declare climate change an emergency on day 1. and, use those powers to finally address the climate crisis. and, i've spent 30 years building a successful international business. so, i can take on donald trump on the economy - and beat him.