Part one of the investigation into the murder of Fred Jablin. On October 30, 2004, Fred Jablin was gunned down in the driveway of his Virginia home. He was a well-respected college professor and devoted father to three young children. Police zeroed in on Fred's ex-wife, Piper, who owed him nearly $7,000 in back child support. Circumstantial evidence, including an airline ticket, two wigs and gas purchased in the area, all with a credit card in the name of Piper’s former boyfriend, indicated to investigators that Piper plotted to kill her husband using her sister's identity. “48 Hours" correspondent Harold Dow reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 8/25/2007. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened on the morning of October 30, 2004?
Chapter 2: Who was Fred Jablin and what made him notable?
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 Javelin 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 Jablon is a professor at the university here. Yes. As you look for suspects or thinking about possible suspects, 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.
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Chapter 3: What led to the investigation of Piper Roundtree?
She cooked for them. She played with them. 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 once we came to Richmond.
Tina Roundtree never forgave Fred for moving her sister 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.
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Chapter 4: What circumstantial evidence was found in the case?
Fred never understood what the problem was in the marriage or why we needed to go through divorce, even though we'd been through counseling three times before and 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 need. He brought that attitude home with him.
In almost all cases, we never use just one sequencing of questions.
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Chapter 5: How did the community react to Fred's murder?
She had to leave Virginia.
Yeah. 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 couldn't really step back into the field that I was in after 10 years of being out of the field. And so I started back into working just doing any type of case that walked in. I had three kids to 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'd 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 go up to the school, and he had signed up 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 bitter 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? Did that bother her? Yeah, she was bitter. When she talked to you about it?
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