Oh, I do agree with you there. But it is interesting to me that no one at all has mentioned anything about her (friends, family or even acquaintances).
I have a friend who is gay and mormon, and he even tried to convert using counseling from the minister for years (to no avail) to please his family and the church. But, in fact, the minister eventually encouraged him to just embrace who he was and enjoy his life (despite being shunned from the temple).
I am bringing this up because it is possible that he did have more than just sexual feelings for her, but didn't want to be shunned from his church if he had an open and committed relationship with her (his friends wouldn't allow her in the house if I recall as they thought their relationship inappropriate).
Before I bring up my next point, I want to first say that I am not in anyway okay with his murder. I want to say though that we really don't know to what extent he played on her emotions and manipulated her to gain sexual favour--have is cake and eat it too. Possibly that eventually became her breaking point -- and we don't know anything about her past to know if this kind of treatment provoked something in her. Not justifying, just exploring ideas.
Didn't they have contact via telephone before she arrived at her door? Not sure if this was shown via cell phone records, but thought I had read that somewhere. If he was afraid he could have also called the police when he knew she was coming to his door. It seems to me from what I read he was waiting for her to arrive. Again, he might not want to turn her away, but then he goes ahead and has sex with her? That part doesn't make sense when you place it in context with what his brother and friends say about his discomfort or fear of her. Just saying.
Hi, GladiatorQueen, thanks for a great, abundant post.
To me, that Mormon minister sounds extraordinary. I hope that your friend is doing well.
You bring up some fascinating points. I never imagined that you were attempting to lessen the guilt of Jodi.
Jodi had joined the church and many Mormons have premarital sex without it being a major issue, although the percentage is lower than in most other sects. I think that his friends had strong feelings about her because of her jealousy and other control issues and also probably because of her public displays of affection and because she seems to have dressed less conservatively than most women in his circle.
I do think that Jodi was undoubtedly more sexually experienced than Travis. That his closest, in some cases long-time friends were able to cast Jodi as a Jezebel indicates that they felt that she was the aggressor. That said, for him, her erotic allure continued after their breakup: On her Face Book (or perhaps MySpace), he alludes to her sexiness. (That they had sex when she showed up seems more like a relapse on his part than the continuation of a long-distance affair.)
In his professional life, Travis emphasized his unmarried status and wrote on his blog about the difficulty of finding a mate. Jodi thought that she had found a mate. Travis clearly disagreed: His professional and personal circles overlapped heavily and Jodi didn't fit the bill as a good Mormon wife to himself, the Hughes, or other close associates.
I think that, as you say, Travis was drawn to her in nonsexual ways also. Jodi is a high school dropout, but she's fairly bright, articulate, vivacious, and apparently interested in a variety of things. Travis seemed self-conscious about educational gaps that showed in his writing. And Jodi was supportive--to a fault.
I think that you're right. There was a telephone conversation, but I'm not sure that it alerted him to a visit or the time. I think that Travis' fears about Jodi were more about the damage that she could do to his reputation than physical harm to himself. That he was much larger than her certainly will be an important part of her defense.
