Let’s say you’re asked to write a recipe for the most sensational murder trial of the year. It might go something like this:

One charismatic victim.

One smart, sexy defendant.

A dash of religion. A large dollop of sex. Dozens of graphic photos. An unspeakable act of violence.

Stir the ingredients well with a hyper-aggressive prosecutor, and spread all over cable TV and the World Wide Web.

That’s the Jodi Arias trial. It started in January and has been grabbing eyeballs by the millions ever since. In case yours haven’t been among them, here are the basics.

In 2008, a handsome young man named Travis Alexander was found dead in his Mesa, Arizona, home. Not just dead — brutalized. Travis had been shot in the face and stabbed more than 20 times. His throat had been cut. Whoever killed him had dragged his body into a shower stall, ditched the weapons and fled.

Travis was by all accounts a great guy. He’d had a tough childhood. His parents were drug addicts. Sometimes there was no electricity, no food to eat. Travis might have been headed for trouble, but as a teenager he found the Church of Latter Day Saints — the Mormons. He came to see his life’s obstacles as steppingstones to success. He became a top insurance salesman, using his own hard-luck story to woo clients. He earned good money and liked a good time. He also liked women, and dated quite a few, according to his friends. But the LDS church prohibits premarital sex, and Travis had vowed to stay celibate until he found the right woman and settled down.

As it turned out, Travis’s vow of celibacy was no match for Jodi Arias.

A picture of their relationship emerges from court documents, trial testimony and interviews with friends.

Jodi grew up in small towns in California – the kind that aren’t so quaint. Last on the list Yreka, where she worked in her parents’ diner. Jodi dreamed of bigger things and, with her brains, looks and charm, had the tools to get what she wanted.

Tom Tingle / Pool via AP

Jodi Arias answers written questions from the jury on March 7 during her murder trial in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix.

Jodi became Travis’ secret lover.

Outwardly, they were dating, but chaste. Jodi even converted to Mormonism. But in private, Jodi and Travis acted out kinky sex fantasies. Their double lives took a toll. They broke up, got back together, broke up again. Travis told friends Jodi was stalking him. Yet he still slept with her too — and also paid her to clean his house.

When Travis was killed, Jodi quickly became the prime suspect. At first she told police she was nowhere near Travis’s home at the time. Then police found a camera loaded with snapshots. The pictures proved Jodi and Travis had sex the day he died. And one photo — taken apparently by accident — seemed to show Jodi’s pant leg, along with Travis bleeding on the floor.

Jodi suddenly changed her story, telling police that home invaders killed Travis, but for some reason spared her. She stuck to that story until her trial, when suddenly she changed it again. Her latest version: Travis was abusive, and she killed him in self-defense.

In a marathon 19 days on the witness stand, Jodi seemed to remember every demeaning sex act she said Travis made her perform — but tearfully claimed not to remember killing him.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez’s withering cross-examination made him an instant Internet superstar.

"Ma'am, were you crying when you were shooting him?"

"I don't remember.”

"Were you crying when you were stabbing him?"

"I don't remember."

"How about when you cut his throat, were you crying then?"

But at times, Arias gave as good as she got.

“You seem to be having problems with your memory …. What factors influence your having a memory problem?"

"Usually when men like you are screaming at me or grilling me, or someone like Travis is doing the same.”

The defense rested last week, and prosecutor Martinez began calling rebuttal witnesses to try to undermine Arias’ claims of abuse. The jury could get the case later this month. Dateline has been covering the case from the beginning, and we’re working on a special, hour-long report, complete with new interviews, new information, and a behind the scenes look at a trial unlike anything you’ve seen before.

JOLIET, Ill. — A jury on Thursday found Drew Peterson guilty of first-degree murder in the 2004 drowning death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

There were loud gasps in the courtroom as the verdict was delivered.

Peterson, a former Chicago-area police sergeant, sat stoically and did not react, and then was cuffed and led away from the courtroom.

When Savio was found dead in a bathtub, the death was initially ruled accidental. The 2007 disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, raised suspicions.

Read more about the case at NBCChicago.com

Little physical evidence linked Peterson to Savio's death, and the prosecution's case relied heavily on testimony from people who said Peterson threatened Savio, tried to hire a hit man and warned he could make her death look like an accident.

A seven-man, five-woman Will County jury spent about 14 hours deliberating over whether to convict Peterson on a case based solely on hearsay and circumstantial evidence. In the end, the words of Savio’s friends, family and close relations were enough to convince them of his guilt.

Outside the courthouse, people cheered, NBC station WMAQ of Chicago reported.

Former police sergeant Drew Peterson in booking photograph released by the Will County Sheriff's Office on May 8, 2009.

"This is better than the White Sox winning the World Series," Savio's brother, Nick Savio, said through tears outside the courthouse.

"We got the bastard," Savio’s brother-in-law, Mitch Doman, said as he left the courtroom, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Peterson "will never be able to hurt another woman again," Pam Bosco, spokeswoman for the family of Stacy Peterson, said outside the courtroom, the Sun-Times reported.

Bosco said the verdict is partial justice for Stacy Peterson because statements she made before vanishing were heard in the courtroom through testimony of other witnesses at the trial.

AFP - Getty Images file

Drew Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Ann Peterson, who has been missing since 2007. It was her mysterious disappearance that prompted state prosecutors to pursue charges against Drew Peterson in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder on Thursday.

Hearsay, or a statement not based on the direct knowledge of a witness, isn't usually admissible in court, but Illinois passed a law in 2008, dubbed "Drew's Law," that allowed it in rare circumstances.

Related content:

Savio family: 'Stacy, you are now next for justice'

So what happened to Stacy Peterson?

Peterson and Savio were divorced a year before her death. Prosecutors argued that his motive for killing her was fear that a pending settlement in the split would wipe him out financially.

Throughout five weeks of testimony, jurors heard of Savio's purported conversations with family and friends about threats Peterson allegedly made against her. In one, Savio said Peterson once held her captive at knife-point in her own home. In another, she said her husband told her he could kill her and make it look like an accident. Another witness said Savio was so fearful of Peterson that she slept with a knife beneath her bed.

Jurors also heard the purported words of Stacy Peterson through the testimony of divorce attorney, Harry Smith, who spoke to her by phone just days before she vanished.

Her body has not been found and no charges have been filed in connection with her disappearance.

M. Spencer Green / AP

Marcia Savio, step-mother of Kathleen Savio cries outside the Will County Courthouse after word that Drew Peterson was found guilty of murdering his third wife Kathleen Savio. She is accompanied by Kathleen Savio's half-brother Nicholas Savio.

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Judge Edward Burmila barred any mention of Stacy's disappearance during the trial and it was unclear what the jury, which was ordered to avoid media coverage of the case for nearly two years, knew about her or the fact that she's still not surfaced.

It's not immediately clear how much credence jurors gave to the forensic testimony given by a bevy of pathologists. State witnesses were adamant Savio's death was a homicide. Defense witnesses said precisely the opposite.

Peterson now faces a maximum 60 years in prison when he's sentenced Nov. 26. It's not immediately clear if Burmila will take into account the nearly three years Peterson has already spent in jail awaiting trial.

See previous NBC News stories on the case

Whatever the sentence, it could be cut drastically shorter if appeals promised by his defense team are upheld by a higher court. The trial was threatened three times by a mistrial after prosecutorial missteps, errors Peterson's legal team will no doubt attempt to exploit.

Speaking to reporters after the trial, Defense Attorney Joel Brodsky promised an appeal.

"Believe me, there's several world-class appellate lawyers that are just waiting to get their teeth into this case," he said.

State's Attorney James Glasgow also spoke to reporters, saying that prosecutors would "aggresively review" the disappearance of Stacy Peterson and potentially pursue additional charges against Peterson.

A legal analyst on NBC Chicago said that the prosecutors would, at a minimum, likely use the fourth wife's disappearance in its argument for more jail time at Drew Peterson's sentencing hearing scheduled for Nov. 26.

During the trial, jurors displayed unity by color-coordinating or otherwise matching their attire. It was business attire on one day; sports jerseys on another. Bewildered court observers searched for meaning in the choices.

After the trial, Peterson jurors did not immediately speak to the public, but issued a statement read by Will County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ken Kaupas saying they believe they took their responsibility with "solemnity" and "diligence" and "we have reached a decision that was just."

NBC News staff and Reuters contributed to this report by BJ Lutz of NBCChicago.com.

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Dateline NBC

Kathleen and Michael Peterson in happier times.

Michael Peterson, the best-selling author whose 2003 murder conviction in the death of his wife inspired the movie "The Staircase Murders," has been granted a new trial.

Peterson's motion for a new trial was granted Wednesday based on new evidence suggesting that the original investigation was botched and a bizarre alternative theory that has drawn support from scientific experts: the possibility that an owl killed Kathleen Peterson in Durham, N.C., in 2001.

The case had already drawn widespread international attention because of Peterson's fame — his novels "The Immortal Dragon," "A Time of War, A Bitter Peace" and "Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company" were well-reviewed and became best-sellers.

Kathleen Peterson, 48, was found dead at the bottom of a staircase at the family's home in Durham. Her husband, now 68, was sentenced to death after his conviction in 2003, but his family has been seeking a new trial based allegations that the State Bureau of Investigation mishandled the case.

Last year, a State Bureau of Investigation agent leading the case was fired after he was found to have mishandled evidence in 34 criminal cases. That was the basis for the ruling Wednesday by Hudson, who set bond at $300,000 and ordered Peterson held under electronic house arrest.

The case has also been closely followed because of an alternative defense explanation that has become known as the Owl Theory.

That evidence included a feather that was found at the scene and affidavits from neuroscientists and veterinary experts — including specialists from the Smithsonian Institution — saying the wounds on Kathleen Peterson's head were consistent with those that would occur if an owl had somehow become entangled in her hair.

In 2007, the case was the subject of "The Staircase Murders," a highly fictionalized account starring Treat Williams. It was also the subject of a 2006 "Dateline NBC" investigation, which raised the question of whether blood splatters at the scene were inconsistent with a blunt-force trauma attack.

Read the full 2006 "Dateline NBC" report

Kathleen Peterson's sister, Candance Zamperini, urged Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson not to grant Peterson's request for a new trial earlier this month, telling him: "Ten years I've been without my sister. Ten years her daughter hasn't had her. And 10 years the rest of us have been alive and had our freedom, but not Kathleen."

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