Jodi Ann Arias was born on July 9, 1980, in Salinas, California, to William and Sandra Arias. Arias and Alexander met in September 2006 at a PPL conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arias converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Alexander was a member, and was baptized by him on November 26, 2006 in a ceremony in Southern California. Alexander and Arias began dating in February 2007. Arias moved to Mesa to live closer to Alexander. In April 2008, she moved to Yreka, California, and lived there with her grandparents.
Alexander and Arias dated intermittently for a year and a half, often in a long-distance relationship, taking turns traveling between their respective Arizona and California homes. Alexander's friends who knew Arias and observed them together tended to have a negative opinion of her, stating that the relationship was unusually tumultuous and that Arias' behavior was worrying.