First day of interrogation, July 15, 2008. From “Jodi Arias Unedited Police Interrogation Videos” posted to YouTube by David Lohr. Jodi wears black v-neck t-shirt, white pants, barefoot (shoes have been taken by police).
Disclaimer: I transcribed these as notes; they are not verbatim. Please do not get hung up on wording as it may not be accurate. Not everything was transcribed; not all questions or discussions are shown here. Please watch videos for accuracy. (G&AMom)
Video 1
Jodi enters room in handcuffs. Sits in chair. Moves to sit on floor. Female detective says Detective Flores will be in to question Jodi and may remove handcuff at that time, moves Jodi back into chair.
Rachel had civil marriage in Las Vegas the weekend before Jodi arrived. Rachel would be going to Oregon to plan another ceremony. In the eyes of the church, it would look bad for an unmarried woman staying alone in house with husband, so Jodi was asked to leave. She says she was already planning/looking for another place to live.
Moved closer to Travis. New place was in Travis’ ward but it overlapped with a different singles ward. Did not want to be in same ward as it would be “weird.”
Video 2
Jodi talked with Sky Hughes about relationship with Travis. Sky told her some things about Travis that she (Jodi) didn’t know. Jodi says Travis wrote Sky a “long, long, long letter saying, ‘I just got off the phone with a very-reluctant-to-talk-to-me Jodi’ and she wrote back saying something to the effect of ‘I wouldn’t want my sister to date you. Why do you kiss Jodi in the dark and act like you are not together in the day time?’”
Flores says Travis did not see her as marriage material and “I don’t know why not; I see you and you are a great girl.”
Jodi tells story about car breaking down, tow truck driver gave her a ride to get something to eat. This got back to Sky via Travis and made Jodi look like she would do weird things like that. Travis and Sky had a lot of arguments that Jodi “was the root of.” Sky gave him a really hard time about the relationship between Travis and Jodi.
Jodi: If I had broken away completely from Travis I would probably be married by now and have my own family.
Flores asks what kept Jodi from that? She knows relationship was not healthy, why did she stay?
Jodi pauses for a long time. Long story about spirituality. Says she drove the spirit away.
Flores: Friends say Jodi was obsessed. She showed up unexpectedly or uninvited.
Jodi says she had “full access privileges” to his house when he was at General Conference in October for her to care for Napoleon. Deanna found her at his house. Travis told Jodi he spent 3 hours calming Deanna down, she was “freaking out that I was there.” It was very stressful and that is why they decided to keep their relationship a secret.
Flores and Jodi talk about her cleaning Travis’ house. She giggles about him sending her picture of French maid’s outfit. Flores says Travis was quite a flirt. Jodi laughs and agrees. Jodi says while cleaning the house, Travis’ friend John (Hepworth?) told her Travis was dating others, “I said okay,” and John says Travis “desperate to get married” and “I said I know that’s true.” John says that he doesn’t think Travis is being honest about it. That night she says she confronted him and they had a big fight. Then Travis said he is not dating anyone else. Travis got mad at John and asked him to mind his own business. This was in October.
Flores: Had the jealousy with you continued even after you moved away? Jodi says she doesn’t think she was jealous; sometimes Travis was jealous.
Flores: The first week in June (of this year, 2008) you took a trip to Salt Lake City. You rented a car in Redding, decided to go to Santa Cruz, stayed the night at Monterey, then went to Pasadena. Jodi says she got lost and slept in the car. (Jodi draws map of trip.) She saw signs to Phoenix and realized she was lost. Very long discussion of routes traveled; Flores says it is impossible for her to have driven where she says. Jodi says she may have gone into Arizona twice but she did not go near Mesa. Flores says she left on Monday, June 2nd, and arrived in SLC on Thursday, June 5th. There are more than 20 hours unaccounted for. He says this is what people (investigators) are focusing on.
There is a long pause. Jodi says she did not go near his house. Flores says her cell phone records show her phone was turned off then turned back on (he indicates spots on map). Jodi says her phone died, then she found charger under passenger seat. Flores asks why she didn’t look for charger when she realized she was lost. Jodi says she wouldn’t have looked for it while she was lost.
Flores says there is plenty of time available for her to visit Travis. She had the opportunity. Flores discusses locations of her phone by cell phone towers. He says one tower was quite a ways inside Arizona, not possible according to her story. Flores says her story of getting lost and where she drove doesn’t make sense.
Jodi says she was nowhere near Mesa or Phoenix; she wasn’t even close to Travis’.
Flores: What if I told you I could show you proof that you were there? You had a sexual encounter. There are pictures. I have them and I will show them to you.
Jodi (voice changes): The last sexual contact I had with Travis was in April.
Flores: Someone put the camera in the washing machine but the card is fine. We got the photos from the card. They are time stamped.