Two Wigs, a Gun and a Murder Part 1 | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] now a special two-part edition of 48 hours [Music] people are involved here
parents who work parents to stay home it's the type of neighborhood when the kids go to the bus stop in the morning
you know the parents are there and Fred was there every morning Fred was just a wonderful man he enjoyed life like we
all do here I think his ultimate goal was to be a great dad to have a solid family he was very very involved with
his children [Music] 30th started out like any other morning he was a fairly precise individual
he taught at the University of Richmond it was his regular pattern to get up make some coffee come outside retrieve
the newspaper at 6 30 Fred jablin went outside in his slippers to go get his newspaper and he
was gunned down in his driveway my name is Kobe Kelly I'm a homicide detective with the Henrico County Police
I lost my best friend I lost my brother who goes through life expecting to know someone who gets murdered you don't ever
expect to have a friend murdered I was in Texas I was about ready to go out to a Halloween party with my sister
and I got a call from a good friend of mine she was just very very upset and she said Fred Fred's been killed and
I was just done my name is Piper Roundtree Fred jablin and I were married for 19 years she was
devastated because of his death he's the father of her children I met Piper and thought she was odd
until I met her sister and realized that Piper was the least of the two they were
very close Tina was an interesting character in her own right am I going to call them both nutty okay they're both
nutty from day one I was always disappointed that she married Fred he was a very nasty mean egotistical
person I think that neither one of them acted in the manner which we would expect
family members would normally act when they've learned that a former loved one has been murdered
my sister loves me we're very very close she will go out to save people and do things for people
that no other person would ever do it's definitely not your run-of-the-mill case you have a suspect flying in from
out of state carrying the weapon with them you have someone using a different identification you have wigs and makeup
and that sort of thing I never would have dreamed that any of that family would have done anything like that I
would have bet money absolutely not it's not what did I think about Fred jablins did
I kill Fred javelin um two wigs a gun and a murder [Music] [Music] in the fall of 2004 this sleepy suburb
of Richmond Virginia was all dressed up for Halloween ready for its annual visit
from pint-sized ghosts and goblins Church Street but for this close-knit neighborhood the
spookiest day of the year arrived early on the morning of the 30th I got up planning on going to the gym to work out
I was putting on my running shoes when all of a sudden my husband and I heard three loud sounds Bang Bang
we kind of looked at one another like what could that possibly be I said well maybe people are hunting
duck hunting down around Tuckahoe Creek Megan McCrary Shrugged it off and went to the gym for her morning workout but
just down the road the windows were open and all of a sudden I heard three gunshots go off bang bang
neighbor Bob mccartell saw something he couldn't ignore I saw someone running down the street
in front of my house it was so dark out couldn't tell if it was man woman I couldn't tell
my cartel called 9-1-1 and within minutes the police were searching the neighborhood
the three police officers here with cars first they started driving with their search lights and then they were out on
foot with their flashlights they came back to my house about 15 minutes later police told my cartel they hadn't been
able to find any sign of a shooter or a victim so I said all right well when the
sun comes up I'll take a walk out and I'll see if I can find anything and if I do I'll give you a call back
about 45 minutes later my wife and I took a walk and we just walked down towards Fred's house and zoreen actually
looked up and saw something up on the driveway oh it was It was kind of strange because it was Halloween time
and they had their house done up where they had like old things kind of sticking out so there was just like a
pile almost a lump [Music] lying in his driveway was Fred jablin a well-respected 52 year old college
professor a devoted father to three young children I yelled at Dorian I said call the police back I said it's Fred
and he's dead my pager went off at about 7 30 a.m I was a man down at heartglow Lane which is about three blocks from
from my home around that time an unsuspecting Megan McCrary returned home from working out
at the gym I came in through the door I was all set to cook everybody breakfast Tim came into the kitchen and said Megan
you need to come outside immediately he held on to me said Megan Fred Javelin is
dead I said what things like that it just it doesn't happen you know that's not this neighborhood He Said Fred
Javelin is lying in his driveway he is dead all I could think of right then were
those three children that were still in the house I was concerned about the children I
made inquiry I said well has anyone checked on the children officer Harry Boyd's children were close friends with
the jablin children and no one here at that point knew about any children so I told them immediately there were three
children somewhere police entered the home and found Fred jablin's children his 12 year old son and his two
daughters ages 10 and 15. all three children were asleep in their rooms we got them out as quickly as possible
through another door so they wouldn't come out into this area of the home of course and see Fred in the driveway
officer Boyd took Fred's children to his home nearby did you have an opportunity
to sit him down and explain at some point what happened yes we did that's tough to do oh it was it was the best
episode it was tough for all of us it was just a just a nightmare to have to do that and they were of course very
upset um we explained to them that their father had been shot and that we were trying to find out who may have done
that and that they were going to be staying with me and my family until until we could make arrangements to get
their uncle and the rest of their family here their Uncle Fred's older brother Michael
lived about two hours away in Northern Virginia my first reaction was was disbelief I
called my brother's home left a message called his cell phone and no response and then one of the arico county
officers told me this situation and I couldn't believe it I just couldn't believe what happened Fred's ex-wife
Piper Roundtree says she too was stunned when she learned of his murder I'd got a
phone call from a friend of mine who had heard about it and nobody knew what had
happened Piper was living in Houston Texas where she'd moved after their divorce
Thursday said he's the children's father the children need two parents they need a
mother they need a father back in Richmond homicide detective Colby Kelly was put in charge of the investigation
we saw the person had come out here wearing a robe wearing uh slippers detective Kelly's theory was that Fred
jablin was on his way to pick up his morning newspaper I suspect that someone or something drew his attention back
this direction as he was walking down to get the paper and that whatever confrontation took place probably
happened right here in this area so are you speculating that perhaps red Javelin actually talked to this person I
think in my mind I think so we'll never be able to prove that there was no one out here to hear anything like that but
I believe so it made sense to detective Kelly that Fred jablin may have known his killer
so he talked to him walked away and was shot in the back and that would explain yeah the bullets
entering through the back of the arm and out the forearm and the other one entering his back and
lodging inside his body after analyzing the crime scene Kelly went to work on suspects we were trying
to find out a little bit about the victim talking to neighbors talking to friends and family and just try to find
out if he had any enemies or anyone that would think to do something like this now Fred jablin is a professor at the
University here yes as you look for suspects who are thinking about possible suspects what what thoughts went through
your mind well I think initially maybe a student that hadn't done well in one of
his classes that comes to mind police went to the University of Richmond to check out that angle we were trying to
get to his office and see if there's anything there that would give us a direction to go to like bad grades or
F's and stuff like that absolutely but Colby Kelly knew what all homicide detectives know when looking for
Suspects start close to home I learned pretty early on that people said I have no idea who would want to do
this to Fred but have you talked to his ex-wife detective Colby Kelly reached Piper Roundtree in Houston and he said
all the immediate family was Under Suspicion Michael jablin and me at the time of the murder Piper and her
ex-husband had been apart for almost four years and she had started a whole new life in Houston
not only that but police would soon learn that Piper had an alibi for the day of the murder
it was the Saturday before Halloween a family friend and attorney Marty McVeigh remembers Piper stopping by his
Houston office on the very day her ex-husband was murdered more than a thousand miles away
I was in my office had my doors open for him let the breeze come through and about 4 30 in the afternoon Piper
Roundtree just walked in my office and sat down just a casual conversation nothing out of the ordinary
while detectives continued to check out Piper's Story another name surfaced I know she didn't kill Fred gaplin and
unlike Piper Roundtree this woman had nothing nice to say about Fred jablin he was a very nasty mean
egotistical person Piper's sister Tina [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] in our conversations with some of the
neighbors and and people in the area we knew that Piper did have a sister named Tina Roundtree
on the afternoon of Fred jablin's murder detective Colby Kelly got a major lead from airport officials in Virginia
we found that Southwest Airlines had a passenger on their manifest with the last name Roundtree and in fact the the
name on the ticket was Tina Roundtree so you determined that there was a Tina Roundtree with a flight booked a
purchase ticket to Houston yes Airline records showed that two days before the murder Piper's sister Tina Roundtree had
flown from her home in Houston Texas to Virginia where Fred jablin was killed and now on the Afternoon Of The Murder
record show Tina is booked on a return flight Back Home to Houston a flight that is already in the air so did you
make any contact with Houston PD at this we did and they got their people together and it's getting closer to the
point where the plane is going to land down there so we were trying to explain to them a little bit about our situation
and also get them to get to the airport where this plane was going to land to try to identify the person traveling
under the ticket Tina Roundtree so what happened in Houston well uh the detectives arrived down there and they
had a couple of detectives a lieutenant that was down there and several officers
and as they were approaching the gate my understanding is that the plane was unloading
[Music] at that time around 4 30 on the Afternoon Of The Murder detective Colby kelly didn't know what he and we at 48
hours would soon discover the Rountree sisters have a remarkably Fierce Devotion to one another and learning
more about the extent of that devotion would become one of the stranger twists in this already Twisted Tale
[Music] they're definitely two peas out of the same pod Tina and pipe are both the same
type of person Piper and I are I mean we're soul sisters we're we're incomplete without each other
she's someone that I need very very much and I get a lot from we call each other
two or three times a day we're very very tight how would you describe her Amazonian
that's usually the first word Amazon yes there's no one out there like Tina she is able to do anything that she sets her
mind to doing Tina Roundtree is eight years older than her sister Piper an age difference that
mattered when they were younger mother used to always make me sleep with her and I didn't like her crying in my bed
and having to sleep with her and she wouldn't be snuggled you're just a bit just a child she was wanting attention
but the family environment was very very close because my father was a physician
in the Air Force and we traveled every two years and so just as we made ties we would have to break him and so there was
a lot of dependency on each other today Tina and Piper are best friends over the last 20 years we've become very
very close in fact we sleep together frequently even as adults when we go to each other's houses
she's just incredible you you walk around the village where the area where she lives in Houston and most people
have a story about Tina one thing or another while the time Piper was in high school
the Roundtree family was living in a small town in Texas near the Mexican border but Piper had bigger plans I
always admired her because she was brilliant absolutely brilliant Piper headed off to the prestigious
University of Texas at Austin with dreams of becoming a lawyer she could do anything and she achieved
everything from theater to spelling bees to boyfriends to friend having lots of friends and I was and I didn't have all
that and I just thinks you know you admire other people especially that you don't have her that you want
while away at College Piper caught the eye of another admirer her Communications Professor Fred jablin I
suppose it was the classical case of a student falling for their Professor Fred jablin was 29 and very driven Piper was
a free spirit and eight years younger he was very witty and very different he is very very bright
[Music] one of the brightest men I think I've ever met I've always looked up to him he
he was exceptional he was one of the best teachers he also had a very quirky side to him as I've been described as
having myself I think those two qualities between us matched a lot they married two years later in the fall
of 1983. it was a really nice warm relationship we worked really well together that's probably our strength
professor John Daly knew Fred and Piper as newlyweds and was one of Fred's best friends we used to have lots of fun we
went out to get a drink after work at 10 30 11 o'clock at night if I remember correctly Fred was the one who started
this one night we're just sitting there and working away on our typewriters in those days computers didn't exist and he
just started barking just for fun I really didn't know that he was barking at school as well oh you did it at home
huh so he used to get the dogs barking in the neighborhood it was one of those things that that he
particularly was proud about Fred was also proud of his wife Piper and her plans to become a lawyer Piper
wanted to go to law school so Fred said fine you know try to get us into law school
after graduating from law school Piper landed a big job in Austin as an assistant district attorney I was a
prosecutor for oh a little over a year and then from there I went worked for the school districts in Texas she can do
anything it's amazing the knowledge that she has her sister Tina settled in Houston and
became a nurse practitioner a few years later Fred and Piper started a family Fred's brother Michael says the
marriage was solid they had two lovely children were born in Texas Jocelyn and Paxton and they enjoyed themselves but
for Piper a working mom life was hectic I'd be in the courtroom and I'd be looking at my watch thinking I've got to
go pick up my child at daycare there were times when the kids were sick and I'd take the kids into the court with me
and the judge would be bouncing on his lap in the middle of a hearing I was the main support person in the first 15
years of her marriage or so when she lived in Texas I would go visit them all the time I'd babysit for them all the
time I was the primary other person then in the summer of 1994 life for the javelin family changed Fred
accepted an offer to teach at the University of Richmond and uprooted the javelin family to Virginia Piper did not
want to leave Texas because that was her home base that was her family was there
right after we moved up here within two weeks I had a rupture to topic pregnancy
and almost died and so had a completely revised outlook on really what was important and after that the doctor told
me that I would never have children again it's just not going to be possible and within about six months I became
pregnant with my third child Callie and she was a gift from God Piper decided to change the focus of her
life and become a full-time mom to Cali Paxton and Jocelyn she cooked for them she played with them she you know they
made cookies they went rock hunting together she took them fishing and she did all the things that typically a
father would do Piper was like she was like a little Pied Piper all the little kids would just come up and circle
around her Annie Williams was Piper's friend Piper is wonderful about taking them outside and doing things and has
more patience probably than I did and she frequently would come pick up my son with rollerblades or his bike and take
him out to the park for a day just being outside all day but Piper missed the rest of her family back in Texas and her
marriage started to suffer you started to drift apart yeah and we had pretty much two separate lives
live to Richmond Tina Roundtree never forgave Fred for moving her sisters so far away one of
the main reasons that they moved to Richmond was so that Fred could get Piper away from her family because she's
a very strong family person eventually Piper told Fred she was leaving him she wanted to escape
and she wanted to get away from him and that's when the real trouble began Fred jablin decided to fight for sole custody
of the couple's three children she was devastated she was she was shocked and we were I we were because I mean how you
don't take a take children away from a mother who is a she was a primary caregiver while the idea of losing her
children was devastating to Piper it was inexcusable to her sister Tina I mean how many hours I spent with her
car I mean she was crying it was horrible and she had a very close relationship with them didn't she it was
to see this precious three-year-old screaming to be with her mother Piper's sister Tina doesn't try to hide
her hostility towards Fred jablin even after his brutal murder from day one I was always disappointed
that she married Fred he was ugly I thought he was a very controlling man he built
himself up by putting her down but did Tina Roundtree hate Fred jablin enough to kill him
on the Afternoon Of The Murder detective Kelly was hoping for answers police officers were at Houston's Hobby Airport
primed and ready to greet the plane carrying a passenger named Tina Roundtree but what happened next
surprised everyone foreign [Music] the afternoon of Fred jablin's murder police were working their first big lead
a tip that a Tina Roundtree was in route to Houston after spending the past two days in Virginia it was Saturday October
30th 2004 detective Brett McDaniel had raced to the airport hoping to meet the plane before it landed I knew I was
looking for a 40-something white female we had some driver license photos of both teen and the sister as well as
Piper Roundtree although the ticket was booked in Tina's name Houston police were also on the lookout for another
round tree the Dead Man's ex-wife Piper who may have had more of a motive than her sister we were looking for females
we were looking for females and and I was putting my money on blondes Piper had brown hair Tina had blonde I
stationed at uniform off at the end of the terminal with a set of pictures and asked him as well to stop anyone he
thought might be either of the individuals probably at least a dozen women after
the last of the stragglers the officers realized their target had slipped through their fingers
she just got past it so there's too many people too few of us not enough people to stop every possible female that could
have been this person everyone had come off the plane and they had not located Piper Tina whoever would have been
traveling under that name mysterious passenger had managed to pick up her luggage at baggage claim without
being noticed and then banished she was gone the next day with the investigation now
focused in the city where both sisters lived detective Kelly hopped a plane to Houston from Virginia got up around 4 30
the next morning didn't get much sleep that night no not at all 48 Hours wanted detective Kelly to show us what happened
next so we flew him back to Houston to retrace his steps we were interested in talking to Piper now certainly we were
not ignoring anything that would lead us in a different direction but at that point it was pretty good place to begin
detective Kelly met up with the Houston team working the case thank you and together they headed over to Piper
roundtree's house knocked on the door rang the doorbell looked in the garage we can see the Jeep Liberty sitting in
there we were probably outside our house for a good 10 to 15 minutes Milling about peaking in Windows and knocking on
the door trying to get someone to come to the door never did with no answer they decided to pay a visit to her
sister Tina we drove the whole half hour plus down to Tina's house but just in case one of the officers stayed behind
at Pipers did the piper ever come out of the house she did we got a call from Sergeant Ferguson who was sitting
outside her house he saw her vehicle leaving the driveway a vehicle like this one and uh he followed her Sergeant
Ferguson stayed on Piper's tail and relayed the route she was taking to the rest of the team so they could turn
around and join the pursuit and what turned out was she began to head south on the interstate we were heading north
on the interstate at some point we turned around and got in by behind her and the chase was on we were certainly
following her vehicle hoping to be able to talk to her one-on-one when she stopped no she had to look in the
rearview mirror and saw this police parade behind her right absolutely at one point she made kind of a last
minute diversion from a one-off ramp while back onto the Interstate and of course we're doing the same little
Serpentine move and uh yeah I think she definitely knew the pursuit ended on a residential
street in Central Houston she pulled into a parking spot I got out of the car approached hers and introduced myself
introduced the other people around me she said come on inside and we walked into the open door Piper had driven to
the law office of trial attorney and friend Marty McVeigh as it turned out McVay wasn't alone there was a also a
female there Tina Roundtree Piper sister Tina Roundtree also a friend of mcvays had arrived a few minutes before Piper
Tina Roundtree walks in my office that's the first time I heard that Fred had been killed she came in and said did you
know have you heard Fred was killed yesterday morning I said no I haven't but McVeigh was in for another surprise
Piper comes walking in my office door with four detectives two from the Houston Police Department and two from
the Henrico County wanting to talk to her I took Piper in my office talked to her for a minute she wanted to talk to
them they sit right here in this reception area and had a conversation I wanted to ask her who do you think
would have done something like this and that was a good entree into getting her to talk to us but Piper says she had
only one thing on her mind who was taking care of her three children it was just incredible the total lack of
interest that anybody had until that meeting almost 36 hours after Fred's murder Piper hadn't been told her
children were safe with Fred's brother Michael and certainly anyone could understand that a mother concerned about
her kids and the police were not putting her in touch with the kids anybody could
understand that that would be an explanation for some of her behavior at any point did you sense that Piper was
being accused of this murder to the opposite they told her she was not a suspect the majority of Piper's
conversation with them was concerning her children the meeting was cut short because McVeigh had to leave to pick up
his son later detective Kelly decided to try another tactic he and a few other officers drove to Tina's house hoping to
speak with her alone we had a conversation with her it was she was fairly on target with uh where
the kids kids need to be with their mother those sort of questions that you said you bring the kids here or
something to that effect and then we'll talk again we ended up getting pretty much ejected from her house
meanwhile Piper was doing her own detective work she needed to firm up her Alibi putting her in Houston not
Virginia the night before Fred's Murder She asked the bartender if she remembered seeing her
Piper returned to this bar the volcano where she claimed she'd been on Friday night to see if anyone remembered seeing
her there bartender called me and said do you remember her and I said yeah I remember seeing her
she wanted our phone number so that she could give them to the police to substantiate that she was here all
right you said you did remember seeing her here right what major distinctive features and petite and pixie haircut
you know she's cute yeah it was The Alibi Piper was looking for and she passed it on to detective
Kelly she left a message for me saying that there were two people a guy named Kevin O'Keefe and a lady named Cheryl
Crider who's a bartender at this volcano they could put her in the volcano on that Friday night which would uh it
would be pretty good because she obviously couldn't be in Richmond the same time she was there
so now Piper had Witnesses who saw her in Houston the night before the murder to go along with her lawyer friend who
saw her on the afternoon of the murder at the same time the airplane from Virginia was Landing
if what you say is true it would be difficult for her to get in your office at 4 30 in the afternoon
that's correct and if she was on that flight it would have been impossible for her to
get to my office at 4 30 because I understand the flight didn't come in until 4 40. it was 10 minutes late
and it's at least a 30 or 45 minute drive from Hobby Airport to my office but Tina Roundtree says she couldn't
have been on the plane either because she was seeing patients all day Melissa can you come here just a second please
at her Women's Health Clinic detective Kobe kelly didn't know what to think but he was sure of one thing about
the Round Tree sisters I think that neither one of them acted in the manner which we would expect
family members would normally act when they've learned that a former loved one has been murdered both of them acted
oddly as far as I'm concerned and it wasn't long before the investigation would zero in on just one
of them did you kill Fred Jabba um it's not what did I think about Fred jablins did
I kill Fred jablin yes um that's impossible too the answer is no the answer is no
[Music] [Music] as detective Kelly learned more about the jablins nasty divorce it was very
very very bitter he started to see the scars it left with Piper and her sister Tina it was very very painful for me
because I love her so much she's we're a part of each other Fred never understood
what the problem was in the marriage or why we need to go through divorce even though we'd been through counseling
three times before and it it you know just it wasn't working they've been married for nearly 19 years
and it hadn't been working for quite some time a year and a half before the divorce
Piper got a warrant charging Fred with domestic violence and filed for a protective order against him
and you've witnessed some of this abuse either physically or emotionally well physically no Tina Roundtree only knows
and believes what her sister told her she had told me the next day that he had hit her the only other instance I
remember it was as far as physical abuse goes mental abuse definitely it was sick
according to Tina Fred's abuse was also directed at their three children I saw him frequently lose his temper with the
kids because you know you get into a mode when you're a professor and they all say yes sir and they do what you and
he brought that attitude home with him in almost all cases we never use just one sequencing of questions and expected
that Piper or the children especially do exactly what he said when he says it in
February of 2001 Piper finally moved out of the house and later filed for divorce
she finally had the courage to escape and become her own person again in July of 2002 the divorce went through
when they first got divorced there was like a joint custody Arrangement Piper lived down the road from my brother's
home and they tried to arrange joint custody according to Tina that's when Fred really tightened the screws once he
had to face the fact that he was going to you know have lose face in the community he was going to be a divorced
man he all of a sudden switched gears Fred decided to fight for full custody of their three children and according to
Tina red jablin was a trained expert questions are something you don't think about at winning arguments it feels like
a PhD professor in persuasive Communications so she that was a tough one to go against from the beginning at
the custody trial Fred pulled out all the stops he wants to win and everything yes that that was Fred he can't take
losing he can't lose face red painted Piper as an unstable mother Fred would say you know she got into this drug
stuff she probably had an affair at one point she apparently became unpredictable with
the kids and he told the judge that Piper had racked up more than fifty thousand dollars in debt without his
knowing he had to make her look like the bad guy Fred also accused Piper of being
unfaithful she did not have an affair it was when they were separated they were physically separated and she was out of
the house when she started seeing him Michael jablin wouldn't go into details with us but he believes his brother's
accusations and he wasn't alone some of Piper's behaviors were questionable and some of her things she was doing for the
sake of the children Piper seemed to have just gone off the deep edge over a period of time I think the judge in the
case reviewed the facts and realized that Fred would make a better parent in July July 2002 Fred jablin won full
custody of their three children Piper could have visitation and I think it took a lot of decisions on the judge's
part to come up with that because normally mothers get custody in this case it was very unique the judge saw
that Piper had some problems afraid to provide more stability into in the home life it upset you that he got custody of
the children well yeah naturally it did I was I was very very upset did your children understand what was happening
as much as they were able to uh the littlest is was you know it's just very difficult
remarkably Piper Roundtree not only lost her children but she was ordered to pay
Fred jablin almost nine hundred dollars a month in child support in part to pay back some of the thousands of dollars in
debt she owed her ex-husband now you were paying child support to your husband yes which is the reverse of
the way it's normally done yes right yes I was was that difficult for you yes it
very was Piper had failed the bar exam in Virginia so after the divorce she struggled to find a job it was amazing
it was absolutely amazing she couldn't get a job she's a licensed attorney in the state of Texas she was a prosecutor
she'd get a job at Walmart but that's not going to pay her 900 child support payment nor put food on the table nor
provide for the children which is her responsibility so Piper moved back to Texas to find
work she didn't have a choice she had to leave Virginia of course they claimed she was abandoning her children
no she had to survive because Fred gave her nothing Fred took everything it was very difficult to begin with just
starting out as sort of a new attorney because I um I couldn't really step back into the
field that I was in after 10 years of being out of the of the field and so I started back into working just doing any
type of case that walked in I had three kids support her three children stayed behind in
Richmond Virginia with their father my brother was wearing two hats a mom hat and a dad hat he would attend soccer
games Cub Scout meetings tennis tournaments dance classes he go to school he'd be there all the time he
would be a School parent many times and a classroom parent he was very very involved with his children you know you
go up to the school and he had signed up you know for all the parties to bring napkins drinks how often was she allowed
to see her children well she had to ask for permission every single time so actually Piper saw them six days out of
an entire month and that was it she had a bit of divorce with her ex-husband her
ex-husband actually got custody of the children Piper Roundtree ended up paying child support Marty McVeigh shared a law
office with Piper in Texas that's correct was she bitter about that that bothered her yeah she was bitter and she
talked to you about it oh yeah what'd you say she didn't understand why she was being
treated like she was by the court in the judicial system in Virginia and that was where most of her
animosity was directed to it was not directed at her ex-husband but it was the way she
was being treated in her divorce case she was not very happy when she was having to pay alimony when she was
struggling and not having much money Jerry Walters became close to Piper shortly after she moved to Texas and he
too says Piper never voiced any hostility towards Fred she was not enamored with Fred by no means any
longer but she did not walk around the house muttering under her breath I hate Fred I hate Fred I she didn't like the
situation she was in and she didn't like not having her kids but she never alluded to
doing away with Fred no if Piper was bitter towards her ex-husband she hid it well her sister
Tina on the other hand and to see what the courts did then and now I'm kind of understanding it seen some blatant some
blatant misjustices and did you ever see the children once Fred got custody of them I wasn't allowed to go over there I
mean how can you stop someone from seeing their aunt who comes all the way and they did
they went to court and said nope can't do it so you were not allowed to see them no
Piper says she'd come to terms with her situation long before Fred was murdered and so had no reason to kill him the
money that I was making in Texas uh I was I was fine you know it was comfortable it was I was able to make
enough to pay the child support to have a very nice uh lifestyle and see my kids and be with my
kids I didn't have any once except seeing my kids a little more maybe and although she's not naming names
Piper says she's pretty sure she knows who did have a motive to kill Fred Joplin is it someone that might hate
your husband have a grudge against your husband yes so much so that they'd be willing to murder him yeah I think so
truth was about to catch up with Piper Roundtree [Music] this special two-part edition of 48
hours will continue [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]

A beloved professor is gunned down, but the clues are stranger than the crime. "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Harold Dow reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

The murder of Fred Jablin reveals family secrets and motives involving his ex-wife and sister-in-law during a tense investigation.

Key points

The Murder of Fred Jablin. On a seemingly normal morning, Fred Jablin was tragically gunned down in his driveway.
Custody Battle Unfolds. Piper Roundtree faces a devastating custody battle after Fred's murder, complicating family dynamics.
The Investigation Begins. Detectives start piecing together the events surrounding Fred's murder, uncovering family tensions.
A Community in Shock. Neighbors react to the shocking murder of a well-respected professor in their quiet suburb.
The Mysterious Passenger. The police lose track of a key suspect, Tina Roundtree, who slips through their fingers.
Piper's Alibi. Piper seeks witnesses to confirm her whereabouts the night before the murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's definitely not your run-of-the-mill case.

A detective describes the unusual circumstances of the murder.

2:49WatchMay 30, 2023

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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