IMO, the



was absolutely sure she could sell the ninjas lie to a jury, and remained sure she could until Nurmi's efforts to convince her otherwise (summer 2009-early 2010) caused her to reconsider.
Why did she, so soon after her arrest, invent the lie about TA being physically abusive to her?
I don't believe she was thinking about a plan B self defense lie at that point. Until she spoke with Karp in February 2010, her lie of physical abuse was that he had hurt her exactly twice, and the context she gave was the same for both: Travis became physically violent out of jealousy, after she had brought up the name of another man.
The violent because jealous lie was entirely consistent with the efforts she made after the Flores phone interviews to manufacture evidence countering the suspicion of her by so many that Flores had relayed to her in those calls.
(She had also heard about those suspicions from Ryan, and had no doubt experienced significant hostility from many of TA's friends while she was in Mesa for TA's memorial service on June 16, iirc).
Her anger at what she was told was being said about her by TA's family & friends was evident in her letter to TA's family.
Her anger about what was being said of her grew, quickly and obviously. She wrote her assinine "manifesto" a month later, specifically in response to what "ignorant" folks were saying about her online & elsewhere.
Her portrayal of TA was already becoming sharper-edged and less flattering, but again, literally every lie she told about him in the manifesto was oriented towards describing Travis as the one who was obsessed enough with her that he invaded her privacy and couldn't let go.
So, physical abuse yes, but until February 2010 (at least), an accusation that IMO was still about supporting her lie she had nothing to do with his death because she had no reason to kill him.
Think about what changed after Samuels didn't deliver a trial-ready reason for her fog. To claim fog, she had to gin up another lie, or double down on an existing one.
She first doubled down on the existing lie about physical violence. That won her the fog, but created another, obvious problem. If Travis physically abused her dozens and dozens and dozens of times, didn't that give her a motive to kill him?
Now consider the position the



was in about the lack of any evidence of ANY physical abuse, and the fact that even as late as the time of her interviews with DeMarte- many months after she claimed self-defense -she STILL had not linked the pedo lie to her lie about DV.
I think it's important to remember what a transparent, stupid liar the



always has been. Remember the email Sky describes that she sent to Travis to convince him to ask her to move to Mesa? Yah. A stalker sent her an email telling her she was beautiful and talented and Travis didn't deserve her, but also that Travis couldn't protect her from being stalked or harmed because he lived so far away, in Mesa.
Stupid. And so obvious that Sky said she burst into laughter when Travis told her about the email.
Same thing can be said about boxing herself in with lies manufactured to prove she wasn't there and anyway, had no reason to kill him. Ditto the ninjas. Ditto her lies to Karp about DV.
Think about the absurdity of her pedo lie in general, and not just of the pedo lie so recklessly attached to January 21.
Her pre-pedo lies and manufacturing of evidence were all about TA being promiscuous, a serial cheater & flirt, sex-crazed, obsessed with her goddess body and self, and half-crazed with jealousy at the very mention or thought of her with another man.
How, exactly, was her accusation about pedo consistent with her first pack of lies about TA? It wasn't, and couldn't be made to be- as Nurmi, defender of pedophiles and sexual deviants has to have known.
She couldn't jettison her first pack of lies about Travis, and didn't want to, because she would never (and never has) admitted that Travis rejected her. Repeatedly, for that matter.
So, in her pedo lie, TA repeatedly seeks out sex with her because having "normal" sex helps squelch his deviant pedo desires.
In her pedo lie, she consents to have sex, repeatedly, with a man she knows is a pedophile, because she the spiritually superior goddess is benevolent ("I know you won't judge me, you never have." In forged 1/21 letter), and because she is willing to sacrifice her own spiritual well being in order to save little boys from TA.
That tied to a tree fantasy and her own "dirty little school girl" role and her post-murder journal lies about other fantasies past and future she had so carefully manufactured to make Travis appear the sex-crazed pursuer?
Right. To square those lies with the pedo lie, she repackages the original "fantasies"
as "fantasy reenactments" she engaged in with Travis to help him contain his pedo urges.
The pedo lie was way more evil than her ninjas lie, but it was also far more stupid and unbelievable.
I keep circling back to forgeries post-arrest because bottom-line, I see that timing as most consistent with the overall timeline, and as significant, with her long-term pattern of lying and MO of creating half-arsed lies to cover her lies, all the while being convinced she would be believed.