On June 4, 2008, salesman Travis Victor Alexander (July 28, 1977 – June 4, 2008) was killed by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias (born July 9, 1980), in Alexander’s house in Mesa, Arizona. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013 and sentenced to natural life in state prison on April 13, 2015. At the time of the killing Travis Alexander sustained multiple knife wounds and a gunshot to the head. Arias testified that she killed Alexander in self-defense. The murder and trial received widespread media attention in the United States. Travis Alexander was born on July 28, 1977, in Riverside, California. After his father’s death in July 1997, Alexander and his seven siblings were taken in by their paternal grandmother, Norma Jean Preston Alexander Sarvey (1932–2012), who eventually introduced them to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alexander was a salesman for PPL – Prepaid Legal Services (later renamed LegalShield), a legal services company. He also worked as a motivational speaker for PPL.

Arias was born on July 9, 1980, in Salinas, California. She and Travis Alexander met in September 2006 at a PPL Services conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alexander was a Mormon and on November 26, 2006, Arias was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a ceremony at a Southern California Mormon church. Alexander and Arias began dating in February 2007. Arias moved to Mesa, Arizona. In April 2008, she moved to Yreka, California, and lived there with her grandparents. Travis Alexander was killed on June 4, 2008. On June 9, 2008, Alexander’s body was discovered by his friends in a shower at his home in Mesa, Arizona. Alexander had sustained 27 to 29 stab wounds, his throat had been slit, and he had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Medical Examiner Kevin Horn testified that Alexander’s jugular vein, common carotid artery, and trachea had been slashed and that Alexander had defensive wounds on his hands. Horn further testified that Alexander “may have” been dead at the time the gunshot was inflicted, and that the back wounds were shallow. Alexander’s death was ruled a homicide. He was buried at the Olivewood Cemetery in Riverside, California.