The Best of October Southern Fried: 2022, Ep167: The Murder of Fred Jablin

Today's episode is a "best of October" Southern Fried is from 2022, 167: The Murder of Fred Jablin

Dr. Fred Jablin, a highly regarded professor of communication, was a dedicated husband to his wife, Piper Rountree. For years, he did everything in his power to make her happy, but nothing he did was ever enough. In 2002, the Jablin marriage came to an end and Fred was awarded full custody of their three children. 

Following the divorce, it took some time for Fred and the kids to adjust to their new normal. Luckily, by the fall of 2004, things were starting to look up. The children were adjusting well, and Fred was moving on romantically. He was even looking forward to his favorite holiday, Halloween. 

But Fred would never get the chance to celebrate. 

Piper would make sure of that. 

Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched and written by Haley Gray & Erica Kelley
Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
Original Music by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio
Edited & Mixed by Erica Kelley

Sources: https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/the-murder-of-fred-jablin

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, I'm sorry. I know this isn't the episode
you've been waiting for, and I am really sorry about that.
There are many reasons. First, my fault. As you know,
I have had health problems for years. I had a
procedure and needed to take time off. It was all unavoidable.
As that saying I hate goes, it is what it is.

(00:22):
I am human. This is a small indie show, not
a huge production with a bunch of episodes in the can.
However much I always wished to get far ahead. I
really appreciate the kind words you've sent me and tried
to answer when I could, but it was a bit overwhelming,
so I'm sorry if you didn't hear back from me. Also,
the case of Emily Anderson was never meant to be

(00:43):
two parts, but as always seems to happen when I
dig into some cases, it turned into a two parter
and that's why the break came at the worst time.
The procedure was already scheduled, and try as I might,
I couldn't get the second part done in time. But
I also so heard from a few outside sources for
part two that I needed to vet and see if

(01:04):
there were something we needed for the story and also
if appropriate. As you know, I am always sensitive to
the victims and their families and would never want to
upset them, though I am not talking about speaking to
family members for this part. It's other people who have
reached out that know things about the case. And then,
of course, the horrific disaster of Helene ripped through western

(01:26):
North Carolina as well as other states with Milton on
her heels. From what I can tell, the town and
county where Emily lived have been affected. And I've also
been waiting to hear some news I can share without
sharing misinformation, which there is way too much of going around. Again,
I do not want to add to the cacophony of

(01:47):
news still coming from every direction. That has been the
final thing that made me want to put off part
two for a bit longer. It feels the most respectful
thing to do. As you may remember, Emily volunteered with
the Red Cross in her home state of Kentucky after
a huge storm, and I feel a very solemn respect
toward her in that sense as well. I always want

(02:10):
to share the truth, but with the utmost sensitivity and respect.
With Emily's case, and now what's happened in her adopted
home state. I will be back soon with part two.
Don't worry, I want Emily's case wrapped up as much
as you guys do. Talk to you soon. Y'll take
care in the meantime and enjoy this October favorite and

(02:33):
as always, thank you. Southern Fried people are the best
true crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners,
and there may also be some explicit language used. Listener
discretion is advised. Fred Jablin was a man of routine.

(02:54):
Every day, he would wake up at six am, put
on a pot of coffee, and then go out the
back door to grab the newspaper from the driveway. Reading
the paper while drinking fresh brewed coffee was Fred's favorite
way to start the day. The morning of October thirtieth,
two thousand and four was supposed to be like all
the others. Fred woke up, put on a pot of coffee,

(03:16):
and walked out the back door to grab the paper.
He would have had an extra spring in his step.
It was almost Halloween, his favorite holiday. It was Saturday,
so he could lounge around enjoying his coffee and paper.
He was probably excited to get the candy ready for
trigger treaters. The next night, on Halloween Day, he was

(03:38):
supposed to take his three kids on a hay ride
before carving pumpkins and then getting into costumes. But he
would never get to drink that coffee or enjoy his Saturday.
Before All Hallows Eve, Fred was walking out his own
back door into an ambush. Just before six forty am,

(03:58):
A Henriko County genuine man named Bob called nine one
one to report three gunshots he had just heard in
his residential neighborhood. Police arrived in the neighborhood and started searching,
but they didn't find anything. At seven am, they called
Bob back to tell him the news. Bob said he
would take his dog for a walk when the sun

(04:19):
came up and if he saw anything, he'd give them
a call back. Less than thirty minutes later, Bob and
his wife were walking their dogs when Bob noticed something
crumpled up in a neighbor's driveway. It was the body
of fifty two year old Fred Jablin. He had been
shot twice. Another neighbor later told Dupress that because it

(04:43):
was such a nice neighborhood, if you didn't know any
better and saw the yellow crime scene tape across the
Jablin driveway. You would just think it was a Halloween decoration.
Welcome to episode one sixty seven, The Murder of Fred Jablin.

(05:03):
Frederick Mark Joblin was born on July twenty third, nineteen
fifty two, in Queens, New York. His father, Irving, was
an accountant, and his mother, Mildred, was a stay at
home mom while Fred and his older brother Michael were young.
She later became a bookkeeper. The Jablins raised their two
sons in Floral Park, a Jewish working class neighborhood. Growing up,

(05:30):
Fred wanted to be a scientist. He would later graduate
with a doctorate, but he didn't exactly become a scientist
like he had dreamed of. Instead, he conducted groundbreaking research
in the communications field. At the time of his death,
he was a very distinguished university professor and department chair.

(05:51):
Aside from Fred's intelligence, he was known for having a
playful nature, a sharp sense of humor, and a zest
for living. One friend told Catherine Casey, author of Die
My Love, that Fred had an infectious curiosity that made
him stand out in a crowd. Another said Fred had
a wry sense of humor and a contagious love of life.

(06:14):
Fred graduated from the State University of New York with
a bachelor's in political science and speech. He then went
to the University of Michigan in an Arbor and earned
a master's degree in communication. But Fred wasn't done with
school yet. He then graduated from Purdue University with a
pH d an organizational communication. After earning his pH d,

(06:38):
Fred accepted an assistant professor position at the University of
Wisconsin at Milwaukee. There he wrote his breakthrough article. It
was about supervisor and subordinate communication. The article was accepted
for publication and the Psychological Bulletin, a monthly peer reviewed
academic journal. Ad and colleague of Fred's told Catherine Casey,

(07:03):
at that point, organizational communication was just getting its legs.
Getting an article published and another discipline's leading journal was
a coup. With that paper, Fred leapfrogged to the head
of his class and built a reputation for himself in
the field. Not long after writing the breakthrough article, Fred

(07:24):
was offered a teaching position at the University of Texas
at Austin. He accepted and became a professor of organizational
communication At u T Austin, Fred met and befriended fellow
professor John Daley. He later said Fred was a true
teacher at heart. There was nothing he enjoyed more than

(07:45):
working one on one with a bright student. In his
first five years at the university, Fred wrote thirteen articles
for scholarly journals and was officially considered an expert in
the field. He won many award words for his groundbreaking research.
Fred bought a house on Harper's Ferry Lane in Austin.

(08:06):
This was game changing for Fred. He loved Halloween and
would decorate his house in cobwebs, spiders, and a dummy
he named mister Myers. He would carve pumpkins and host
an annual Halloween party. John Daly told Catherine Casey, Fred
believed that Halloween was a time when you could be

(08:27):
a different person. He'd spend days making sure the decorations
were just right, arranging and rearranging the cobwebs so they
looked real. Fred also obsessed over his costumes. His favorite
was an elaborate wizard costume. In the fall of nineteen
eighty one, John introduced Fred to one of his students,

(08:49):
a young woman named Piper Rountree. Fred soon learned that
Piper had previously been in one of his classes, but
since it was such a large class, he didn't remember her.
For a girl, he couldn't remember the determined Piper was
about to take over his life. Piper and Fred were

(09:09):
the epitome of opposites attract Catherine Casey described Fred as
precise and exacting and Piper as a free spirit. John
Daley said they each found something in the other that
they lacked. Piper helped make Fred quote more of a person.
I take that to mean a more easy going, fun person.

(09:33):
Fred was a brilliant, accomplished academic, so perhaps he was
a little awkward, and Piper helped smooth out the edges.
And Fred offered Piper financial support and commitment. They said
he waited on her hand and foot. It would seem
he adored her, at least in the beginning. I'm going

(09:55):
to pause now for a short commercial break. Piper Ann
Roundtree was born on January sixth, nineteen sixty in Japan
to parents Bill and Betty. Piper was eight years younger
than her soon to be husband, but she was used
to being the youngest. She was the spoiled baby sister

(10:18):
of five siblings. She was very close to all of
her family, but she shared a special bond with her
sister Tina, who was also eight years older than her.
The Roundtree family lived all over the place until Bill retired,
then they settled in Harlingen, Texas. According to Piper, she

(10:39):
grew up thinking her parents were divorced because Bill was
gone for many of her school years. She felt like
she barely knew her own father. When he was home,
he was drinking, and when he drank, he was mean.
Betty was described as a good mom by Piper's childhood friends.
She went to pta meetings and was always there for

(10:59):
her kids. However, Piper later told a psychiatrist that Betty
wasn't ever around. It was Tina who raised her. Tina
told a different story to Catherine Casey, saying Piper was
the baby of the family and my mom was really protective.
She would give Piper a lot of attention. Piper, a bookworm,

(11:21):
graduated from Harlingen High School in nineteen seventy eight. She
was very popular there and was a top student. She
was a member of the National Honor Society, the student Council,
and the yearbook committee. She was the editor of the
school's literary publication, and she participated in speech, drama, tennis,
and choir. In nineteen seventy eight, Piper started at the

(11:46):
University of Texas and Austin. She majored in speech and
studied German. She was already fluent in Spanish. It was
the fall of nineteen eighty one that Piper's teacher, John Daley,
introduced her to doctor Fred Jablin. At this point, Piper
was a senior at the university. She would often talk

(12:07):
to John in between classes. One day, he told Piper
about an event he and Fred were going to. She
asked if she could go, and John said yes. He
ended up having to cancel at the last minute, but
he asked Fred to still go. Fred went, and he
and Piper seemed to fall for each other right away.

(12:28):
By December nineteen eighty one, they were living together. In
the spring of nineteen eighty two, Piper graduated with a
bachelor's in communication in German. Then she left for a
year on a scholarship in Germany. While there, Piper met
another man. When Fred found out, he flew over to

(12:49):
win her back. His plan worked. She came back to
him when the scholarship was over, and they moved back
in together. In the fall of nineteen eighty three, Piper
enrolled in a San Antonio law school, with Fred paying
her tuition, of course. Then on October fourteenth, nineteen eighty three,
Fred and Piper got married. It wasn't long before Fred

(13:13):
found out that Piper wasn't exactly who he thought she was.
She was very demanding, and she had a formidable temper,
which she wasn't afraid to show. Despite all of this,
Fred remained an extremely devoted partner. When Piper's law school
grades dropped, Fred put his beloved house up for rent

(13:34):
and moved to San Antonio to help support her. He
continued working in Austin, driving three hours round trip to
work every day for two years. Fred's sacrifices seemed to
be worth it in the end. Piper graduated from law
school in the spring of nineteen eighty six, and the
couple moved back to Austin. She enjoyed painting while studying

(13:58):
for the bar and looking for a job. By October,
she had a job with the Hayes County District Attorney's Office,
but just a year later, Piper was unemployed. When people
asked why she left the DA's office. Piper said she
didn't feel safe as a prosecutor after a man came
in to negotiate a plea deal and took out a

(14:19):
gun and put it in between them. The truth was
that she had been fired. This would be the beginning
of a pattern of lying in Piper's life. She always
bent the truth to make herself sound better or to
sound like the victim in any situation. She was able
to get a new job at the Texas Association of

(14:40):
school Boards fairly quickly after being fired in nineteen eighty eight.
Piper and Fred started talking about having children, and in
July nineteen eighty nine, the couple welcomed a daughter, Jocelyn.
Piper continued to work while Jocelyn went to daycare, but
then quit the school Board Association and took a higher

(15:02):
paying job at a law firm. A year later, she
was unemployed again. She told people that she was fired
for being pregnant with her second child, but the firm
said it was for a lack of performance. Looking back
at the academic accomplishments of Piper Rountree, you would think
she was destined for success. Like her husband. Maybe she

(15:26):
was one of those people who thrives in an insulated
school environment, but struggles out in the real world. In
March of nineteen ninety two, Piper gave birth to a
boy named Paxton. She ended up experiencing intense postpartum depression.
She spent weeks in bed and didn't have the energy

(15:46):
to care for her newborn when she recovered. Piper then
went to work for the Texas Classroom Teachers Association. After
a year, she was let go for quote not having
passion for the job. Then Piper impetuously opened up her
own law office, which was unsuccessful from the get go.

(16:07):
Then in nineteen ninety three, she found out she was
pregnant with her third child, but this time there were complications,
and well into the pregnancy, Piper suffered a miscarriage. It
was a very difficult time for Piper and Fred. They
were devastated and Piper fell into another deep depression. She

(16:29):
decided she wanted to stay home with the kids. She
no longer wanted to work. To help pay the bills,
Fred took on consulting work, something he didn't want to
do but felt he had to do to keep the
family afloat. The second job didn't last long, not because
Fred gave it up, but because Piper demanded he'd be

(16:49):
at home more with her and the kids. Around the
same time that Piper said she wanted to stay home,
the Jablin started going to marriage counseling. According to Katherine Casey,
they might have started counseling because of something Piper did.
Shortly after Paxton was born. Piper withdrew her retirement fund,

(17:10):
which was around sixteen hundred dollars. She combined that with
fourteen hundred dollars from a joint account with Fred, and
then she paid for breast implant surgery. Maybe it doesn't
sound like a huge amount she took from their joint account,
but it's worth about three thousand today, which adds perspective.
She didn't tell Fred until two days before the surgery,

(17:32):
and he didn't want Piper to get the surgery. He
was worried about leaking implants and how breastfeeding would work,
but Piper didn't care about his concerns. Yes, it was
her body and her choice, but healthy couples discussed major
medical decisions, and one partner should not be sneaking money
out of a joint account. That's a major breach of trust.

(17:56):
Then in nineteen ninety four, Fred was offered a job
at the University of Richmond in Virginia. This job paid
a lot more than his position in Texas. The Jablins
bought a house on hearth Glow Lane in the Kingsley
suburb of Richmond. It was a nice house, a two
story red brick home set far off from the street.

(18:19):
In December nineteen ninety five, Piper gave birth to another daughter,
Callen or Calli for short. Once again, Piper suffered from
postpartum depression, except this time when the postpartum left motherhood
didn't come as naturally as it had with her first
two kids. Callie needed attention, but Piper didn't have any

(18:41):
to give to her. In nineteen ninety six, Piper and
Fred were back in marriage counseling. She said she felt
underappreciated and ignored. She wanted Fred to pay more attention
to her and the kids. She complained that Fred kept
her on a financial leash. She wanted to be in
control of the money, so Fred gave her the control.

(19:06):
He always tried to give her what she wanted. By
nineteen ninety eight, people were starting to notice that Piper
didn't really seem to care about her children. She wouldn't
even pick them up from school if they were sick.
She would escape to her neighbor Mel's house just to
get away for a little while. She said. Mel would
then look outside her window and see Kelly playing in

(19:29):
the yard by herself. She would have been just over
two years old. Fred ended up sending Callie to day
care so he knew she would be cared for. He
hired nanny's and cleaning ladies even though Piper didn't work,
but she would often fire them. Fred told his friend
John Daly that Piper was never happy no matter what

(19:51):
he did. It wasn't enough, but he said he loved
Piper and had to keep trying. The year nineteen ninety
nine was another tough one for the Jablin family. Piper
started having an affair, something Fred knew nothing about, at
least for a while. She was also diagnosed with a
possible mood disorder and put on antidepressants and anti anxiety medication.

(20:17):
Also during this time, Piper wracked up thirty two thousand
in debt while being in charge of finances that would
be over fifty seven thousand today. When Fred found out,
he took back control of the finances and told her
she needed to get a job and help pay off
the debt. Piper ended up taking over an attorney's office

(20:37):
who was looking to retire, but she didn't have a
license to practice in Virginia. It wasn't long before the
Bar Association found out that Piper was practicing law without
a Virginia license. She was ordered to take their bar exam,
and Fred paid the three thousand dollars for a University
of Richmond review course to help Piper pass the bar.

(21:00):
He also hired a full time housekeeper to help Piper
at home while she studied, but she felled the bar
exam and fell into another deep depression. In early May
two thousand, Fred and Piper started seeing a therapist whom
Piper had already been seeing by herself for couples counseling.
The therapist quickly realized that Fred was sincerely concerned about Piper.

(21:25):
He was not the way Piper had made him out
to be during their solo sessions. That same month, Piper
had a hysterectomy and again became very depressed. Fred took
care of the kids that summer while she did her
own thing. I'm going to pause now to hear a
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(21:48):
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on your subscription. By the fall of two thousand, Fred

(25:27):
moved into a separate bedroom so Piper could sleep better.
Neighbors say her mood darkened, she was rarely seen around
the house. She eventually asked Fred for an apartment of
her own so she could paint, even though she had
the whole house to herself during the day. In December
two thousand, two days before the Jablin family was supposed

(25:49):
to go to Disney World, Piper called her neighbor Linda
and asked to borrow her car. Linda thought it was
for an errand, so she said yes. Hours pass and
Piper didn't return. Linda called her and asked where she was.
Piper said, calmly, I don't know. More hours passed and

(26:11):
her neighbor Mel got a call about Piper being at
a doctor's office. The caller said Piper couldn't drive she
needed a ride home, so Mel went to get her,
and she wasn't even able to walk. She was nearly
unconscious because the staff had given her something to calm
her down. Mel and her husband took Piper home. When

(26:33):
they carried her inside the Jablin house, the kids were
unfazed by their mother's condition or her absence. Then Mel
called Fred and told him to come home. Later that night,
Piper called Linda and asked her to come over and
tell her what had happened that day. When Linda went
to the house, she said Piper was manic and pacing.

(26:56):
She ordered Linda to tell her everything. Linda told Piper
what happened, but then she started yelling that Fred was
drugging her, and Linda got uncomfortable and left. The next morning,
Mel got a call from Fred asking where Piper and
Calli were. Mel said she didn't know. She hadn't seen
either of them since she had dropped Piper off the

(27:17):
day before. Come to find out, Piper had called her
sister Tina in the middle of the night and said
Fred was drugging her. She said she was scared and
wanted to travel to Houston with Callie. Piper packed her
suitcases and called a limo service to take her and
Calli to the airport. She didn't tell Fred, but he

(27:38):
eventually found out where they were. It is unclear if
he asked her to come home, but we do know
that he still took the other two kids to Disney.
He probably didn't want to ruin their vacation. While in Houston,
Piper told Tina that after she got home on the
day she borrowed Linda's car, Fred was angry. She claimed

(27:58):
he ripped her clothes off and put to bed, calling
her an embarrassment, and she said that Fred drugged her. Tina,
a nurse practitioner, felt like Piper was suffering from exhaustion
and that Fred was undermining her self esteem. Basically, everything
was Fred's fault. Meanwhile, Fred, Joscelyn, and Paxton spent a

(28:21):
week at Disney. Then they flew to Texas to see
Piper and Calli. A few days later, the whole Jablin
family went back to Richmond after it was agreed that
Fred would find a teaching job in Texas. He even
applied for his old position at the University of Texas
at Austin. Once again, Fred was giving in to Piper's

(28:42):
every demand. He would really do anything for his family,
but the good times never lasted long. On January sixth,
two thousand and one, Piper moved out of the house
and moved in with her friend Lonnie, who was getting
a divorce. Days later, on January eleventh, Piper called the

(29:03):
police and said that Fred had pushed her into a
wall during an argument. She had a small cut on
one hand, but said she didn't think it was from
the argument. When police showed up, Fred told them that
there had been a verbal argument. Police asked the kids,
who were witnesses, and they said nothing physical happened. Piper

(29:23):
was adamant that Fred had pushed her. She said that
Fred was definitely abusive and they could ask her friend
Mel So. Police talked to Mel and Mel said no,
that was not true. Fred was far from abusive. A
week later, on January eighteenth, Fred sent Piper an email
saying that he wanted to stay together. He still cared

(29:46):
about her and missed her. He suggested that they stay
married but live in separate bedrooms while they saw a counselor.
He said he would keep looking for a job in Texas.
If he couldn't find one, he'd take Lee from the
University of Richmond in July, and then moved to Texas
with her and the kids. It is unknown what Piper's

(30:07):
reaction to this email was. On February fourth, Fred found
out that soon after their return from Richmond, Piper had
stolen his master card and ordered a City Bank card
with his information. In thirty days, she had taken out
nine thousand in cash advances and made nearly eleven thousand

(30:28):
in purchases. She also transferred three thousand of his paycheck
to an account she opened at a different bank. She
bought clothes, tennis equipment, three years worth of hair salon services,
and seven thousand dollars in prepaid moving expenses. That's thirty
thousand bucks in two thousand and one, which would be

(30:50):
about fifty grand today. The next day, February fifth, Piper
took Joscelyn to a doctor's appointment and then checked into
a hotel with her kids. She called Mel and said
that she was afraid Fred would have her arrested. On
February seventh, Piper and the kids were still in the hotel.
Piper told Mel she thought the police were going to

(31:11):
get her at any time, and then Piper called her
psychiatrist to cancel her appointment. The psychiatrist told her that
her actions were part of a pattern of chaos, her
emotions were out of control. He wanted her to take
medicine for mood swings. Later that day, Piper went to
file a restraining order against Fred. She said that on

(31:35):
January eleventh, Fred had been physically abusive. Hours after filing
the order, police arrested Fred at the campus for domestic violence.
After his release the same day, a defeated and probably
very embarrassed, Fred moved to a motel while Piper and
the kids lived in the house. On March eleventh, Fred

(31:59):
went to an emergency hearing and asked for temporary custody.
He said the kids were unsafe with Piper, and the
judge agreed. The next day, Piper felt another report of
domestic violence against Fred. Then she went home and took
all the items she wanted from the house, including Fred's
mother's piano, and moved into a townhouse. Naturally, she didn't

(32:23):
tell Fred, but Fred still wasn't ready to give up.
He begged Piper to come back for the kids, but
Piper said no. With no other move to make, Fred
asked his attorney to falford divorce on grounds of desertion.
On March sixteenth, a judge lifted the restraining order and
let Fred move back into the house. The judge also

(32:45):
ruled again that Fred would have temporary custody of their children.
Piper later followed a cross complaint asking for her own divorce.
She said Fred was cruel and was both verbally and
physically abusive, and she asked for joint custody. At this point,
Fred was caring for the children on his own while

(33:06):
paying Piper over eleven hundred dollars in alimony a month.
He needed more money, so when he was asked to
step in as the acting dean, a job that would
come with a pay raise, Fred said yes, and then
he hired a nanny. As the year went on, things
with Piper continued to spiral downward, and Fred became more
worried for his safety. He created a new will, saying

(33:30):
that his brother Michael would get custody of the kids
if anything happened to him. He also installed a security system,
and he talked to the kids about what they should
do if their mom came to take them away. By then,
the kids would have been around the ages thirteen, ten
and seven. Joscelyn and Paxton had witnessed so much drama

(33:53):
from their mother over the years, and poor Calli while
she was more neglected by Piper than anything. But imagine
basically explaining to your kids what to do if their
own mom came to kidnap them. On July eighteenth, Fred
filed for full custody. He was worried about Piper's behavior.

(34:15):
She had been doing a lot of odd things, like
sending an email to a bunch of people, including Fred
and her son Paxton, about an idea for a new
type of computer joystick that could be used for sexual pleasure.
Other concerning behavior included letting the kids cross a four
lane road by themselves to go to a gas station.

(34:37):
The list went on and on. Fred was genuinely worried
about the children when they were with their mother. He
needed full custody so he could keep them safe. In September,
the judge ruled that Fred would have physical custody, but
he and Piper would both continue to have temporary joint custody.
The judge ordered a psychiatrist to evaluate both to see

(35:00):
who was suitable to raise the kids. As the months passed,
Fred continued trying to be as cordial as possible, to Piper.
On January seventh, two thousand and two, a hearing was
held to go over the psychiatry evaluations for Piper and Fred.
Doctor Lee Hagen, a psychiatrist, testified about the results. He

(35:22):
speculated that Piper had eighty D bipolar disassociative disorder, issues
with substance abuse, or what he called a character disorder
because of her socially unacceptable behavior. Doctor Hagen said he
leaned more towards a dissociative disorder and said that Piper
was hyper emotional and might have impaired judgment, but he

(35:46):
also said there was nothing damaging about Fred. He relied
on tact and diplomacy. According to Catherine Casey, on March fifth,
two thousand and two, the judge said that both Piper
and Fred loved their children. However, the animosity between them
was potentially detrimental to their children. The judge said, doctor

(36:07):
Jablin is more of a peacemaker, more able to bend.
He brought up that Piper's own psychiatrist said Piper's mental
health improved while Fred had custody, which is telling Piper's
mental health improved when she wasn't responsible for her children.
It's sad that she could not accept that. Because of

(36:30):
these reasons and others, the judge ruled that Piper and
Fred would have joint legal custody, but Fred would have
permanent physical custody of all three children. Piper was inconsolable
when she found out. She told her friends that Fred
used his expertise in communication to manipulate the judge. She

(36:50):
didn't tell them that it was actually her bizarre behavior
that caused the judge's decision. Three days after the hearing,
Piper emailed a forty two page document to a bunch
of people Fred knew. The email's subject line was Jablin's
psychological profile, and it was marked relevant if you have children,

(37:11):
he supervises. The body of the email read, after serious
consideration of the wider implications of the attached court report,
I am forwarding it to you. But what she forwarded
was not an official court document. It was just a
word document full of lies that Piper's sister Tina typed up.

(37:33):
She even listed a bunch of fake credentials to make
the document look more official. According to Catherine Casey, the
document was a direct assault on Fred Jablin's character, morals,
and ethics. Tina wrote that Fred was a narcissist, He
didn't care about anyone but himself, and he lacked empathy

(37:53):
for everyone, including Piper and the kids. Tina wrote that
Fred had violent and a outbursts and showed a calculated
pattern of intentional neglect. She said that children were at
a high risk for psychological abuse. She wrote that Fred
frequently smoked pot and that he had physically and sexually
assaulted Piper. He never gave Piper any money or affection,

(38:18):
and that Fred hated children and never wanted them. Tina
wrote that Fred beat Paxton and that Joscelyn psychiatrist said
that since Fred started caring for the children, Joscelyn had
been bordering on anorexia and suicide for months. This is
not what the psychiatrist said. In fact, he said the opposite.

(38:40):
Tina also added that Fred beat Paxton, and of course
she couldn't end the document without a racist comment about
Jewish people having a persecution complex. The document was very
damning to Fred's reputation. He had to make many embarrassing
phone calls telling people who got the email that it

(39:02):
was all lies. But in the end Fred didn't feel
that was enough, so he withdrew his name from consideration
from the permanent deanship. He also told Piper that her
actions were detrimental to the children's welfare. Yet still, over
the summer, Fred remained as cordial as ever, even though

(39:24):
he didn't legally have to. Fred always told Piper what
was going on with the children and what their plans were.
Piper would, in turn fight Fred on everything. Her behavior
had a profound effect on the children. According to the neighbors,
they became quieter, withdrawn, and less interested in playing with friends.

(39:46):
On July fifteenth, Piper and Fred went to court to
discuss the document Piper sent out. At the hearing, Fred
asked the judge to finalize their divorce. His request was granted.
Piper and Fred were a thing divorced. Then Fred asked
that he be granted full permanent custody. He said, I
cannot trust Piper's judgment. This email shows a person who

(40:10):
does not know right from wrong, has no moral standards,
will lie and spread hatred. She does not have the
welfare of the children at heart. The judge gave Fred
full permanent custody and limited Piper's visitation to twice monthly weekends, holidays,
and three weeks a summer following this ruling, Piper told

(40:33):
a friend Fred torched my village. In August, Piper moved
to Houston and started living with Tina. She didn't tell
Fred she was moving. He heard about it from the kids.
Then Piper started working as a guardian ad litem. She
was an attorney in charge of overseeing the best interests

(40:54):
of other people's minor children and divorce cases. Good Lord
the irony. Her business card said that she had twenty
years of experience, yeah, twenty years of screwing up her
own children's lives. After she was ultimately fired from being
a guardian, Piper took a job working as a landman,

(41:16):
and the oil filled. As the months passed, Fred emailed
Piper about the kids and their activities, and she for
once appeared to be cordial. That didn't last long. By
the summer of two thousand and four, Piper was not
paying child support. She was over eight thousand dollars behind
at that point, close to thirteen grand and twenty twenty

(41:39):
two dollars. Even though she wasn't paying anything, Piper demanded
that Fred pay to fly all three children out to
see her in Texas. She said he had to do it,
but Fred knew better. There was nothing in the agreement
stating that he had to do that, so he didn't.
He was finally standing up for himself. That had to

(42:02):
feel good. Despite his issues with Piper, things in Fred's
romantic life were going well. He had started dating a
woman named Charlene and had even introduced the kids to her.
He was moving on. He was finally happy again. In
October two thousand and four, Fred and the children got

(42:24):
ready for Fred's favorite holiday by decorating the outside of
the house with a homemade scarecrow, carved pumpkins, and sheet ghosts.
For Halloween Day, Fred had plans to take the children
to a local farm so they could pick out pumpkins
and go on a hay ride, but that trip would
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(46:28):
On Wednesday, October twenty seventh, Piper told her boss she
couldn't work on Thursday or Friday because she had a
continuing education class. This was a blatant lie. Piper wasn't
taking a continuing education class. She did have other plans though.
On the morning of October thirtieth, fifty two year old

(46:49):
Fred followed his daily routine wake up at six am,
put on the coffee, and grab the newspaper from the driveway.
At six thirty seven am, Fred walked out his back
door to grab the paper. Because it was still dark outside,
Fred could not see that Piper was waiting in the
driveway for him. She ambushed her ex husband, shooting and

(47:14):
killing him while their children slept inside. Fred's next door neighbor, Bob,
called nine one one to report three gunshots. He told
the despatcher that after hearing shots, he looked out his
window and saw a shadowy figure running left to right
across his lawn. Police arrived in the neighborhood and started searching,

(47:36):
but they didn't find anything. At seven a m. They
contacted Bob to tell him the news, and Bob said
he would take his dogs for a walk when it
got light out and if he saw anything he would
give them a call. Bob and his wife were walking
the dogs by Fred's driveway when he noticed something crumpled
up in the driveway. His wife said to go check

(47:58):
what it was. It was Fred. He was lying in
his driveway on his stomach with his head turned to
the side. He had landed on a bed of leaves
in a fetal position, staring toward the street, with his
glasses lying on the ground. Bob turned to his wife
and told her to call the police. It was seven

(48:20):
twenty five am. The police came back and paramedics showed
up soon after, but it was too late. Fred was
dead from two gunshot wounds. Later, an autopsy would show
that the first of two bullets entered from the back,
piercing Fred's lower right side. The bullet did a lot

(48:40):
of damage to organs and was a fatal shot. The
second bullet entered Fred's right arm and exited without hitting
any vital tissues. The killer most likely stood near the
garage and waited for Fred to get his newspaper. Then
they approached him and fired. No casings were found at
the site, meaning the weapon was most likely a revolver.

(49:04):
Because no one knew where the shooter was, it was
unclear if the children were being held hostage inside the house.
SWAT arrived and made their way inside to rescue the children.
Just then, fifteen year old Joscelyn came out of her room,
confused about what was going on. Officers escorted her out
of the house. Next, they went to eight year old

(49:27):
Calli's room and woke her. Then they woke up twelve
year old Paxton. On the way to a rescue vehicle,
the children were directed away from where Fred lay in
the driveway. They were taken to the home of a
police officer's family. The family lived nearby and the kids
were on the same soccer team. Henriiko County police quickly

(49:50):
got to work investigating Fred's murder. They started searching the
sewer for the murder weapon, talking to witnesses, obtaining search warrants,
and swabbing for DNA. Officers called Fred's brother, Michael to
relay the bad news. After the initial shock, he asked
if they considered Piper to be a suspect. When officers

(50:13):
spoke with the neighbor, Mel, she told them about Piper
and Fred's new girlfriend, Charlene. After Mel explained all the
things that had happened during the Jablin's divorce, officers could
see while Michael asked if Piper was a suspect yet.
Police interviewed Charlene, who said she had talked to Fred
the night before. They talked about how Fred was going

(50:35):
to let the kids go to Texas for Thanksgiving, but
how he also had to email Piper about money, she owed.
Police also spoke with the Jablin children. Joscelyn said she
had heard the shots, but she didn't know what the
sound truly was, so she went back to sleep. All
three kids said their relationship with their father was great,

(50:57):
there were no problems, and nothing unnews usual had happened recently.
They said their mom had called them the night before
to say she was driving home from Galveston. After hearing
this information, officers wanted to obtain Piper's phone and bank
records to see if she was telling the truth. They
also asked Houston police to go to Piper's and see

(51:20):
if she was home. She was not. By eleven am.
Henriko Police had Piper's phone records. They found that she
had made calls from her cell that bounced off towers
in Richmond. She made a call at four thirty am
and it bounced off a tower five miles from Fred's house.

(51:41):
By noon, it was used in Norfolk, Virginia. One and
a half hours later, it was used in Baltimore, Maryland.
With this information, officers knew Piper had flown somewhere, so
an officer drove to the Norfolk airport and found out
that a Tina Rountree had flown out of Norfolk at
twelve thirty PM. That plane changed in Baltimore and was

(52:05):
going to lend in Houston at four thirty Central. Henraiko
called Houston police and asked for officers to go to
the airport with pictures of Piper and Tina. They needed
to see which one got off the airplane, then seize
any luggage until police had a warrant. But the Houston
police did not find Piper or Tina at the airport,

(52:27):
they were too late. One Houston officer headed to Tina's
house to see if Piper was there, and another went
to Piper's house. Neither were home. By the evening hours,
police had obtained more of Piper's cell phone records. These
showed that at four forty six a m. Someone checked
messages on Piper's phone near Fred's house. The tower was

(52:49):
by a bunch of hotels. Police then checked with those
hotels to see if Piper or Tina had been registered.
A clerk at Homestead Sue Eat said that a Tina
Rountree had a reservation for last night, but did not
check in. At around nine p m. Henriiko Detective Kobe
Kelly finally got a hold of Piper. She immediately asked

(53:13):
where her kids were. Kelly said he wanted to talk
to her about that, but first he asked about her divorce.
She said Fred was physically abusive and then changed the subject.
She said she wanted to come and get the kids
because she had custody. No matter what Detective Kelly said,
Piper only wanted to talk about the kids. Kelly informed

(53:36):
her that Fred had a will stating that the kids
would go to his brother, not to her. After hearing this,
Piper became angry. She told Kelly that she was their mother,
but before she could continue, her phone went dead. The
next day, Detective Kelly arrived in Houston with his partner.

(53:56):
They met with HPD, and then they all went to
speak with Piper. After tracking her down, officers asked where
she was that weekend. Piper became uncomfortable and squirmed. Officers
asked if she was in Virginia on October thirtieth, and
she said no. One of the officers later said he

(54:17):
could tell that Piper was lying. She was slow to
answer and was evasive. They asked her where she was
on October thirtieth and if anyone saw her. She said
she was uh right here, and they asked in this
room and she said no. She was working in Houston
and Galveston. She couldn't give a clear answer on where

(54:40):
exactly she was working. She said she was all over.
Piper said she was in her car driving from Galveston
when she called Paxton. Police kept trying to get Piper
to tell them exactly where she was. She finally gave
in and said she was with a married man and
that's why she wasn't being truthful. The officers reminded Piper

(55:03):
that this was a homicide investigation and she needed to
tell the truth, no matter how embarrassing it was. And
then Piper changed her story. She had been at Tina's house,
but Tina wasn't there. Officers kept questioning Piper. They said
if she gave them information, they could try to work
something out with CPS, with a mention of getting to

(55:25):
see her children. Piper asked the officers if they had
talked to Fred's girlfriend. She said they had been dating
for five years, two years before the divorce, that Fred
cheated on her a lot, but of course she hadn't
noticed because she was too busy caring for her kids.
Can you hear my eyes rolling? Knowing they weren't getting anywhere,

(55:49):
officers decided to end the conversation. Piper promised to call
Detective Kelly at six o'clock that night so they could
talk about custody of the kids. She said she would
provide Kelly with the name of the married man she
was with during the murder. Now, the police headed to
Tina's place to talk to her. They asked if she

(56:10):
had seen Piper on October twenty ninth or thirtieth. Tina
was evasive. She wouldn't answer any questions. Instead, she just
kept asking about the children. After some time, Tina said
she would tell the officers where her sister was on
the twenty ninth and thirtieth, but only if they brought
the kids to Texas. They asked where she was on

(56:33):
October twenty ninth and if she saw Piper. It was
an easy question, but Tina wouldn't answer it again. She
said she was not going to talk to them. Then
she yelled at them to leave. That afternoon, Piper told
Detective Kelly that she didn't want to talk because she
felt like she was between a rock and a hard place.

(56:54):
He asked if she felt like she was being accused
of anything. She said she was exhalted and needed to
figure out how to get her kids. They agreed to
meet the next day at nine a m. But that
meeting never happened because Piper called Detective Kelly and said
she couldn't meet him due to the thunderstorms. When the

(57:16):
storms passed, she asked her former boss to tell the
police that she had talked to an attorney in Virginia,
and they suggested that she not talk to the police
as anything she said could hurt her case. What case
if she was innocent her custody case. I suppose Fred
did name his brother Michael as guardian of his children.

(57:37):
But still with the round Tree sisters not talking, officers
kept digging, hoping they would find enough evidence for an arrest.
They found that Piper used a friend's account to purchase
two wigs at Paris Boutique Whigs. The whigs, one read,
the other blonde, were long and flowing. Police also noticed

(58:01):
that the same friend's debit card was used on October
twenty eighth through the thirtieth in the Richmond area. One
of the purchases was at CVS for make up and
a box of small Latex gloves. They obtained camera footage
from places the debit card was used. One tape from
A seven eleven showed a woman who looked like Piper

(58:23):
wearing a blond wig similar to the one bought on
the website. On November second, police found that one of
Piper's calls in Virginia was to a Papa John's. They
called the pizza place and asked if a person with
the last name of round Tree ordered a pizza they had.
It was delivered to Homestead Suites to Room one seventy

(58:46):
one on the twenty eighth, police went to Homestead Suites
and asked who rented Room one seventy one. The manager
on duty from that night said it was a woman.
She checked in at nine fifty on the night of
the twenty eighth under the name Tina Roundtree. Then she
asked to change the name on the register to Jerrelynn Smith.

(59:10):
The woman paced the lobby and look nervous, according to
the manager. Officers showed the manager a photo of Piper.
They confirmed that it was the woman who checked in
that night. She had been wearing a hat, coat, scarf
and sunglasses, even though it wasn't cold out and it
was nighttime. Next Henriiko officers found that a Tina round

(59:34):
Tree had called around October twenty fourth, asking if she
could rent a car later that week without a credit card.
The clerk said she could, but she needed to bring
a driver's license and utility bill. This Tina asked to
reserve a car, but they said they only rented on
a first come, first serve basis. At around five pm

(59:56):
on October twenty eighth, this Tina called the company from
the airport, asking them to hold a car for her
when she got there. The clerk noticed she was clearly
wearing a wig and heavy makeup. After handing over her
driver's license and utility bill, Tina said she would return
the car on the thirtieth. Police showed the clerk a

(01:00:19):
photo of Tina, but the clerk didn't think that was
the woman they had seen. Then officers showed a photo
of Piper and the clerk was one hundred percent sure
it was her. Unfortunately, the van had already been cleaned,
rented to someone else, and returned back to the rental agency.
The police still went through the van to see if

(01:00:40):
they could find anything. They found one piece of evidence,
a key to homestead suits. Meanwhile, Detective Kobe Kelly was
still in Houston. He went to Tina's clinic and talked
to her medical assistant. He asked the assistant if she
saw Tina on the thirtieth. The assistant said, yeah, yes,

(01:01:00):
Tina had appointments with patients until twelve thirty. At that time,
she got a phone call and left in a hurry. Next,
Kelly looked into the flights Tina aka Piper had taken
between Houston and Norfolk. He spoke with the ticket agent
who checked Piper in for her flight in Houston. The

(01:01:21):
agent remembered Piper because quote she was a really cute
woman who was wearing a blond wig. Detective Kelly showed
the employee a photo of Piper and she confirmed that
it was the woman she had seen. She recalled that
Tina was in a rush. She needed to be on
the next available flight to Norfolk, and she had a

(01:01:41):
gun to declare. Tina hesitated when the clerk told her
the gun had to be inspected. She fumbled around and
finally got it out and showed that it wasn't loaded.
Then the agent gave Piper forms to fill out and
called over a TSA agent to inspect the gun. Detective
Kelly talked to the TSA agent who inspected the gun.

(01:02:03):
He said it was a revolver. When shown a photo
of Piper, he said he thought it was Piper, but
he wasn't sure. The hair was different. Meanwhile, Piper got
a hotel room to avoid the police. She did not
fly to Virginia to attend Fred's funeral with her children. Instead,
she went to the Volcano Bar and asked the bartender

(01:02:26):
if she remembered seeing her. On Friday, October twenty ninth,
the bartender. Cheryl said she thought so, but wasn't sure
if it was Friday or not. Piper said she needed
to find the married man she had been talking to
that night. Cheryl turned to a group of people and
asked if any of them had seen Piper. A man

(01:02:49):
named Kevin said he thought he remembered seeing her, and
then asked why it was important. Piper said that she
got a call from Virginia police that her ex boyfriend
and had been stabbed to death and police wanted to
know where she was. Piper asked Kevin for the best
way to get a hold of him in case she
needed him to prove where she was. He gave Piper

(01:03:12):
his number, and then she left. A few minutes later,
Piper went back inside the bar, this time accompanied with
Tina and two men in business suits. The men asked
Kevin to sign a statement and have it notarized so
she could prove she was there on Friday. He said
no and said that she had his number. If the

(01:03:34):
police wanted to talk, they could call. Piper started arguing
with Kevin, but Tina told her they needed to leave.
Piper later let Detective Kelly know about Kevin and the
bartender Cheryl. She said she was still trying to find
the married man who walked her home. Kelly set up
a meeting with Kevin at the Volcano Bar. Kevin relaid

(01:03:57):
the story Piper told him about her ex boyfriend getting stabbed.
Detective Kelly said it was her former husband of eighteen
years who had been shot. Kevin then admitted that he
wasn't one hundred percent sure he saw Piper at the
bar on Friday night. Detective Kelly asked the bartender, Cheryl,

(01:04:18):
to check the tabs. Then she realized Kevin hadn't even
been in the bar on Friday. That meant he couldn't
have seen Piper. Then they figured out that Kevin and
Cheryl were both at the bar on Saturday night and
that's when they had seen Piper. She had gone to
the bar the same day she killed her husband. I'm

(01:04:43):
going to pause now for a final commercial break. After
the revelations at the Volcano Bar, police found out that
Piper asked Tina to stay the night at her house
on the night of October twenty ninth. This way, when
a neighbor delivering Girl Scout cookies came by, she would

(01:05:06):
think Piper was home, but Piper's plan didn't work. The
neighbor realized the person who answered the door wasn't Piper.
This woman was bigger, and Tina cracked criminal that she
was parked her car outside of Piper's house. On November sixth,
police met with a friend of Tina and Piper's named Carol.

(01:05:28):
They had received a tip that she knew something about
the murder. During their meeting, Carol told the police everything
she knew. On the twenty eighth, the same day Piper
left for Virginia, Tina contacted Carol to say that she
thought Piper was going to do something stupid. Piper had
taken off with Tina's driver's license and credit card, and

(01:05:50):
the week before she had gone to a shooting range
with Tina's boyfriend for practice. Carol said that on October thirty,
first Tea called crying because Piper had gone to Virginia
and killed her ex. Tina went on to detail how
she helped Piper dispose of evidence, including a purse and
a wig. Tina put them in grocery bags and threw

(01:06:14):
them into dumpsters, one at a medical center and one
at a convenience store. After Carol told Tina that the
dumpsters weren't safe, they decided to retrieve the bags. When
they were done, Tina dropped Carol off at work, and
when she came back to get her, the bags were
gone from the car and it had been washed inside

(01:06:35):
and out. Carol said that the next day she went
to Tina's house. While there, Piper arrived. Carol asked Piper
where the gun was and she said she didn't know.
Then Piper asked if either Carol or Tina knew someone
who could change a hard drive. Piper also asked Carol

(01:06:55):
to get rid of the garbage bags in her garage
and to throw out the desk, top, tower and laptop.
Tina suggested Carol take her computer too. After she thought
things over, Carol started worrying. She ended up contacting a
lawyer who told her to give the evidence to the police. Instead,

(01:07:16):
she gave it all back to Piper. Carol later signed
an immunity agreement. As the investigation went on, Piper called
Detective Kelly a few times to see how it was going.
He thought Piper was feeling him out to see if
she was going to be arrested. Piper was right to worry.

(01:07:36):
The prosecution finally felt like they had enough to charge
Piper with two counts of unlawful use of a firearm
and first degree murder. They made plans to arrest her
as she left a custody hearing in Virginia on the
afternoon of November eighth. They also obtained an arrest warrant
for Tina for helping cover up the murder. On November eighth,

(01:08:00):
Raicho police headed to the Henroiko County Courthouse where Piper
was attending the custody hearing. The judge ruled that the
children would stay with their uncle and aunt until the
investigation into Fred's murder was over, then another hearing would
be ordered. After Piper left the courthouse, officers followed her

(01:08:20):
and then pulled her over at a stoplight. They boxed
her in with four cars. Piper was arrested and taken
back to the police station. Officers knew she wouldn't speak
to them, so they asked who her lawyer was. She
said her lawyer was Mary Janie, a high profile defense attorney.
Janice was called to the police station and Piper never

(01:08:42):
talked to the police again. Back in Houston, officers were
busy arresting Tina at her clinic. They brought her back
to the police station. They told her that if she
helped them, they might help her not lose her nursing license,
as well as help her avoid possible jail time. Tina

(01:09:03):
said she wanted to talk to an attorney. She refused
to talk to the police further and was later released
on bond. On November eleventh, a judge ruled that Piper
was not eligible for bond. While awaiting trial, she called
the kids from jail, but got no answer. She wrote
them letters instead. She wrote that the police had told

(01:09:26):
her she was cleared as a suspect, and she didn't
understand why she was still in jail. The children eventually
wrote their mother back and talked about their new lives.
Piper's trial began on February twenty second, two thousand and five.
The prosecution said Piper killed Fred so she could regain

(01:09:47):
custody of the kids, stop making child support payments, and
probably most importantly, get his two hundred thousand dollars life
insurance policy that she was still the beneficiary of. They
said that Piper planned the murder and then covered it up.
The following timeline is what the prosecution presented on October

(01:10:09):
twenty eighth, Piper arrived in Norfolk. She rented a van
using Tina's ID and utility bill, and then drove to Richmond.
She spent the next two nights in the hotel. On
the morning of the thirtieth, Piper drove to Fred's and
ambushed him in his driveway, shooting him to death as
their children slept just inside the house. Ninety minutes later,

(01:10:33):
she stopped for gas before she returned the van in
Norfolk just after nine a m. Then she flew back
to Houston. The defensive strategy was to plant reasonable doubt.
They suggested Tina was the guilty party, not Piper. No
one saw Piper pull the trigger, and there was no
forensic evidence tying her to the scene. No one could

(01:10:57):
say that the cell phone pings were made by Piper herself,
and everything was in Tina's name, not Piper's. Piper was
too smart to leave behind so many breadcrumbs. Piper testified
that she did not kill Fred. She also said that
she did not own a thirty eight, but Tina did. Also.

(01:11:19):
She said she didn't own any wigs, but Tina did,
and Tina used her cell phone all the time when
asked if she wanted the jury to believe Tina was
the murderer, Piper said she had no idea what happened.
On February twenty sixth, the jury deliberated for less than

(01:11:40):
an hour before finding Piper guilty a first degree murder
and use of a firearm during commission of a felony.
Piper cried when the verdict was read. According to her
friend Lonnie, she truly thought she was going to be acquitted. Next,
the jury needed to make a sentence recommendation to the judge.

(01:12:03):
They recommended the maximum life in prison. One jury member
said they decided quickly they didn't want Piper to come
back into the lives of her children. They were better
off without her. On May sixth, Piper was sentenced to
life in prison plus three years. In November two thousand
and five, Tina took a deal and pled guilty to

(01:12:26):
a misdemeanor charge of tampering with evidence. She was sentenced
to nine months deferred adjudication, a three hundred dollars fined,
and eighty hours of community service. She kept her license
and clinic. Piper later appealed her convictions and sentences, both
of which were affirmed today. Piper and Rowntree is incarcerated

(01:12:51):
at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Troy, Virginia, where
she has been extremely litigious, suing her warden and other
prison workers for various offenses, including supposedly being deprived of
her bible. Tina, always protective of her baby sister, actually

(01:13:11):
told reporters in twenty fourteen, after one lawsuit that prison
officials were scared of Piper because she used to be
a prosecutor in Texas. Tina neglected to mention that Piper
had been fired after one year with the Die's office.
I swear these two hair brained criminals would be hilarious

(01:13:33):
if we were not talking about the brutal murder of
Fred Jablin, father of three. You don't see many mentions
of the Jablin kids in these more recent articles, thank God.
From what I can tell, they are all flourishing adults
with different careers around the country. Hopefully, as adults, they

(01:13:55):
moved on with their lives and are not saddled themselves
with the burden of maintaining a relationship with their mother
in prison, not after what she did to them. When
Piper was convicted, her high profile attorney Murray Janis, announced
that he would not be representing her in any appeals

(01:14:16):
and asked the court to appoint a public defender. Virginia
has some different laws regarding parole, specifically that once a
prisoner turned sixty or has served fifteen years, that could apply.
Janis told the press at the time of her conviction
that he didn't believe any parole board would let Piper
Rowntree out. He was right. She is exactly where she belongs.

(01:14:43):
Piper's first chance at parole was in twenty twenty, when
she was sixty, but it was denied. The reasons given
were that her release would diminish the seriousness of the
crime and the serious nature and circumstances of the offense.
Her next chance at parole will be into twenty thirty three,
when she is seventy three years old. This is the

(01:15:05):
part of the episode where I usually wonder about the why,
but we know why Piper did it. Sure Fred's life
insurance policy would obviously be a motive for a woman
who hemorrhaged money the way she did, although I seriously
doubt two hundred thousand would have even lasted a year

(01:15:26):
in her hands. But I think it's painfully obvious Piper's
motive was really revenge. She was furious she had lost
to Fred. I don't even think she wanted custody of
her children in any real sense of that concept. She
had never been a real mother to them. I will

(01:15:46):
say it is obvious she suffered from depression, and especially
postpartum depression, and that is truly sad. But there is
a quote I've seen floating around the last few years
that I feel strongly applies to Piper Rowntree. Your mental
illness is not your fault, but it is your responsibility.

(01:16:10):
It's a quote thrown around more and more as we
speak more openly about mental health issues, but it is
also true legally, both criminally and in civil suits. Piper
saw any number of therapists, including psychiatrists, over the years,
and her victim went to couples counseling faithfully with her.

(01:16:34):
He supported her, He wanted her to get better. She
had much more support and help than many people get
for their mental health struggles. Piper knew what she was doing,
she knew right from wrong. She hurt her children, often
neglecting them for her own selfishness. She was a hateful

(01:16:56):
spiteful woman, and she is a cold blooded murderer. Fred
Jablin was the epitome of a nice guy. He had
truly loved his wife, despite how emotionally abusive, not to
mention financially abusive she was to him. Even after all

(01:17:17):
she did to him and said about him and humiliated him,
Fred always remained civil and friendly to his ex wife.
He went above and beyond in communicating with her about
their children. He always tried to do the right thing.
Fred just wanted peace. He wanted to make sure his

(01:17:41):
children were safe, and he wanted to move on with
his life with a woman he cared about and one
who finally cared about his feelings and treated him with
love and respect. Instead, he was brutally shot down by
his ex wife in his own driveway as their children

(01:18:02):
were sleeping inside his house. Southern Fraud True Crime is
hosted and produced by me Erica Kelly. Today's episode was
researched and written by Hailey Gray. As always, editorial opinions
are all mine, especially my closing and especially any sarcasm.

(01:18:24):
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(01:19:29):
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