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It's hard to make too much of the body position by the blood on the hallway floor since she flooded it with water and it looks like she tried to wipe it clean too.
The question: was Travis dead in the 'foot' photo, or did he die on the carpet?
If he were dead on the tiles from the final throat slash, it is hard to make any sense of the crime scene that followed.
Consider the attached diagram.
If Travis were dead on the tiles, there would have been a massive spillage of blood at the location of the 'foot' photo (around photo "a"). While there was heavy bleeding (as depicted in the foot photo), the question I would have is where is all the blood from a full blown neck exsanguination?
It has been hypothesized that after the throat slash, Travis' body was moved toward the bedroom for unknown reasons. During this movement, the camera snapped the 'dragging' photo. Thus, Travis had 76 seconds to bleed out on the tiles from severed carotid arteries before the 'dragging' photo.
But looking at the totality of the scene, it appears greatest blood loss occurred on the carpet, in a relatively limited area (photo "c"). Looking at the photos and the diagram, the blood was still flowing, even as Jodi maneuvered Travis' around, and then dragged him down the hallway toward the bathroom.
Conspicuously absent is heavy blood in location "b", between locations "a" and "c". Even more conspicuously absent is a gigantic blood smear from when Jodi would have been dragging Travis' body through a pool of blood from 76 seconds of carotid exsanguination. In the 'foot' photo, Travis' feet are oriented toward the bathroom. Therefore Jodi would have had to pull Travis through his own pool of blood to get him to the bedroom.
I think the blood evidence in locations "a" and "b" demonstrates that Travis did not bleed out on the tiles, but rather bled out on the carpet.
The general death scene after the 'foot' photo follows a counterclockwise direction. There was much blood letting prior to the foot photo, Travis probably collapsed, regained some of his bearing on the floor, made one last instinctive, if feeble, attempt to get away by rolling to his left and getting on hands and knees against the blood-smeared wall, probably sustained some back stabs, and collapsed or was pushed down on the carpet by Jodi. Then Jodi ended it with a very deep throat slash. I imagine to cut to the spine, she would have had to saw, even with a very sharp knife.
Next Jodi made two attempts to move Travis' body back toward the bathroom while Travis was still face down and bleeding (as reflected in the blood trail animating from the blood pool on the carpet). She then decided to turn Travis over on his back and re-positioned his body head toward the bathroom. This left extensive and heavy blood stains on the carpet to the left of the blood pool (diagram photo "d"). She then proceeded to drag Travis back to the bathroom, knocking the camera and triggering the 2-second delay. This gave us the final 'dragging' photo.
If Travis had bled out on the tiles, the crime scene that followed the 'foot' photo doesn't make sense to me.... if we let the blood do all the talking.![]()
Happy to discuss alternative ideas!
Dave
Hey Dave, isn't it possible that TA's neck was already slashed on the carpet area before the first bleeding photo? I think the last two bleeding photos may simply show JA starting to drag TA back to the bathroom after having already cut his neck.
It's hard to make too much of the body position by the blood on the hallway floor since she flooded it with water and it looks like she tried to wipe it clean too.
I appreciate your depiction (and your thoughts). I think your depiction of what we're seeing of TA (back and side of chest) is spot on, but I still picture JA on the other end of TA, dragging him backward by the arms.
A "backward drag by the arms" is often seen on TV, in footage of law enforcement officers removing passive protesters from a public place. (If you google the term "protester dragged" or "dragging protesters" you'll see several examples, where an individual on his or her back is being dragged backwards by someone who is gripping their hands or arms.) If the "dragger" is standing and leaning backward for leverage (which also lifts the person being dragged higher and reduces their friction with the ground), it results in a similarly high angle of the torso, such as that seen in the photo, and with the head of the passive "dragee" falling toward their chest, rather than backward.
This picture is like trying to see what the whole puzzle image looks like by looking at one puzzle piece. Who is to say for certain that she is dragging him in this photo, or that if she is that she is even dragging him by any of his appendages? There is definitely an item she has covered him in, you can see it. We cannot tell by the pic if it is just on top of him or whether it may be under him as well. We can't tell what body part is really showing for certain. She could be dragging him by the wrap material for all we know. There is just not enough info in this puzzle piece to nail down what is really going on. I am most interested in what the item is that we see she has added to cover him.
Man, you guys are a tough crowd!
RM, if we let the blood do the talking, there is a very clear blood trail in photo "e" in the above diagram. This where Jodi dragged Travis off the carpet toward the bathroom. The trail is passive. At the point Travis is dead and unmoving. This doesn't jibe with the location of the 'foot' photo, nor the bleeding that occurred at this location (per attached). The bleeding on Travis' left (in the reconstruction) exhibits activity... blood spots are all over the place. The blood trail to Travis' right (in the reconstruction) is passive... Travis is not moving at this point and is being dragged back to the bathroom.
To make the 'dead on the carpet' scenario work, you would have to have Jodi dragging Travis by the feet to the point of the 'foot' photo. The problem with this is that the camera stood between the carpet and the location of the 'foot' photo, thus she would have run into/over the camera with the Travis' body, or alternatively, somehow managed to get the camera behind her, where she had just dragged the body. Seems like some special gymnastics would have been required for the camera.
Finally, assuming the camera somehow got to the location of the foot photo, Jodi then takes a 76 second pause to turn the body around for the 'dragging' photo, as the body is being dragged from the arms/upper torso and is moving from left to right.
Given that the passive blood trail shown in photo "e" in the diagram above is an unbroken trail all the way to the bathroom, I think that pretty much rules out the above scenario. Per that blood trail, Travis' body was not maneuvered significantly when Jodi pulled him off the carpet. She took that trail all the way back to the bathroom.
I don't think this would have had too much effect. Have you ever cleaned up blood? It doesn't take long before it is very difficult to clean up. Even a nose bleed in a sink requires some mechanical action after only a couple of minutes. Simply splashing some water on it doesn't do the job. I would NOT want to be a criminal trying to clean up blood evidence!
Dave
Man, you guys are a tough crowd!
RM, if we let the blood do the talking, there is a very clear blood trail in photo "e" in the above diagram. This where Jodi dragged Travis off the carpet toward the bathroom. The trail is passive. At the point Travis is dead and unmoving.
Finally, assuming the camera somehow got to the location of the foot photo, Jodi then takes a 76 second pause to turn the body around for the 'dragging' photo, as the body is being dragged from the arms/upper torso and is moving from left to right.
I don't think this would have had too much effect. Have you ever cleaned up blood? It doesn't take long before it is very difficult to clean up. Even a nose bleed in a sink requires some mechanical action after only a couple of minutes. Simply splashing some water on it doesn't do the job. I would NOT want to be a criminal trying to clean up blood evidence!
No, I was only trying to show the position: I said like that , but by his arms as handles. The other pic had confused me showing him being dragged face first with torso set to topple down onto the outstreched legs....
I read JM as pointing out that the dark lines in both photos were blood, not that they necessarily matched a pattern.
Thanks for the link.
Does any one think this looks like flying blood?
![]()
Exactly how it seemed to me: If his legs are stretched in front of him and his head and torso upright, how are you going to get the forward motion? The only way to drag him, it would seem, is to get the arms and have the torso and legs behind, and drag him that way - completely turned around.I'm skeptical of the drag forward because it seems that's the kind of pull designed to get someone onto their feet when they don't want to stand up. If Travis cannot stand up, and Jodi could actually pull him forward, he'd not only fall onto his legs, but she'd have to pull even harder to get his waist area to elevate and then essentially flop over his legs somehow. Or his body would naturally twist and he'd wind up in a face down (meaning facing the floor), outstretched position.
I'm just not sure you can pull a lifeless body forward down the hall over their legs like that. Am I making sense?
I have gone through this over and over again and almost every scenario doesn't match the Forensics. I think Dave has done a very good job and has helped me tremendously in understanding the inadvertent photographs that we are all hypothesizing about and thus, the sequence of events.
I initially thought she stabbed him first, but to me, the most plausible is much like the one posted here a day or so ago.
1. While JA was taking pictures; she pulls out the gun and most likely says something, I'm sure she wanted him to know her vengeance before she killed him, she probably wanted him to "know" a lot. She can't ever shut up or "be wrong" so this makes sense to me.
2. Keep in mind, this is a small gun. I'm almost certain TA probably did lunge at her to get it away, or get away.
3. She was probably a little startled by that and the reaction of her was enough pressure to pull the trigger. The trajectory of the GSW would fit in this theory.
4. I do believe TA was stunned but didn't lose consciousness. (As stated above, lots crazy traumas happen to people's heads and they are not always immediately rendered unconscious. I read where a man had an iron construction hook lodged into his temple that went far up into his head and he remained conscious at the scene, etc, and then he survived--)
I also think she tried to shoot him again, but the gun jammed (she mentions jamming in her previous scenarios. And I do believe she tries to weave parts of the truth in her lunacy).
5. At this point, TA staggers over to the sink and tries to clear his sinus's that were full of blood, coughing, etc... Jodi then freaks out more, knowing that he's still alive, runs to get a knife.
6. While TA is standing, bending over the sink, he's probably saying/trying to yell and says, "I'll kill you *****" (who wouldn't?!?!)
7. I think she then runs back into the bathroom and starts stabbing him while he's standing/leaning there (the cluster of 9 stab wounds in the back, back of head they are all relatively superficial but would obviously hurt) he turns around and tries to grab the blade (all of his hand wounds).
8. In her frenzy, and his attempt to grab at the knife left his chest "open" and she managed to stab in in the heart. I think he does get by her, maybe pushes her and he begins to try and run down the hallway.
9. As the ME stated, there would be lots of blood loss, and the stab to the heart vessel would be deadly, but not immediate, his cavity begins to fill up with blood and he gets dizzy and collapses, and drags blood throughout the hallway as Dave described.
10. I think he collapses with his head orientated towards the bedroom threshold of the carpet, or close to, and then the coup de gras.
11. The camera does get kicked around and maybe set off an inadvertent timer, or gets stepped on, etc.. who knows. And she drags him Back to the shower.
12. Since he was sitting in the shower for the attack, I think JA wanted him there the entire time (No, if any, or very little DNA-- he's confined in the shower and would have just stayed in it if she could have murdered him according to her "plan"-- I don't think she "planned" on the gun jamming and having to find an alternate way to kill him. *Actually going through this sequence is personally disturbing. I can't even imagine how awful that must have been for TA![]()
13. She's many things, but I don't think she wanted to stab him initially but clearly when she "had" to, she went crazy and it's clearly an overkill. It's obvious she couldn't, didn't want to stop killing him and the coup de gras was a clear indicator of that. To even do that to anything requires tremendous hatred and power and such a psychotic state that it's hard for me to understand.
14. She gets him back in the shower and attempts to clean the entire death scene, maybe then goes through photos and deletes them, throws the camera on the bed accidentally and wraps it up and throws the towel, sheets etc. in a pile on the bed to put in the washer for when she leaves....But she has to wash off herself and him.... I can't even imagine the depravity of that, but she took a shower with him in it. She probably had her hair up, but washed off her body and his. (Does any one remember the discussion about her waxing habits during trial? Well, she said that Travis liked that, but maybe she had a Brazilian so she wouldn't leave any pubic hair, and maybe that is why her hair was in braids, lesser chance of shedding her hair...)
Wow, after having to write all that out, I feel sick. It's just really terrible to think about like that.
This is a scenario that makes a lot of sense to me. Any thoughts?
Exactly how it seemed to me: If his legs are stretched in front of him and his head and torso upright, how are you going to get the forward motion? The only way to drag him, it would seem, is to get the arms and have the torso and legs behind, and drag him that way - completely turned around.