MI MI - Ronald & Christine Jabalee, both 58, New Baltimore, 6 Oct 2006

sadsadsad said:

i can't stand the way so many people are convicting ron in the court of public opinion! i find it pretty humorus that so many people think ron's so call vicodin addiction will be used as some sort of excuse for the murder of his parents. especially when ryan and nikki were doing way more than vicodin 3 yrs ago. and how long has he had this addiction? isn't it plausable, if not probable, that he became addicted after the death of his parents. that maybe, just maybe it helped ease some of his emotional pain along with the physical pain he 1st took it for? ron doesn't just oversee all his family at the business - he works his tail off. watch the amw video's and see how he describes his families involvement in the business. truth is, without him owning & running the business as well as he does, nikki would probabally be working at a fastfood joint or in a bar and ryan would just be dealing drugs because neither one have any real skills. but to hear ron describe it (because he is such a sweet & generous guy) you'd think that they were intregral parts of the business. and knox - nice to see you posted my comment on all the wrong info out there from the macomb daily thread.

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Hi sadsadsad, welcome and thanks for posting an alternative view from someone who knows the family.

Regarding your comment I brought here ... What you said in your post rang true. There are times when I am in a position at work where I could not leave either so I got that concept.

Do you have any information on who, if not Ron Jr. may have had a motive to kill the elder Jabalee's?

Welcome to WS Sadsadsad. I too would like to hear more from you. For me, I feel Ron's addictions are the least of his problems. Ron Jr wasn't arrested for drug use, he was arrested for brutally murdering his parents. And since ryan and nikki haven't been arrested for murder, I'm not sure how their addictions or being slacker employees matters here. Unless you are insinuating they might be responsible for the murder?

Making threats on the day of Grand Jury testimony certainly doesn't make him look innocent. Just sayin'...

I do, however, have an open mind and am willing to listen to another POV.

Knox, not sure how the Dad was repaid. Probably he understated the profits, keeping the extra for himself... my guess only.

Sadsadsad, Welcome. I am open minded also, show me a better suspect and I would certainly look closely. Then Kittenish is right, making threats doesn't exactly make a person look innocent.

colette said:

Knox, not sure how the Dad was repaid. Probably he understated the profits, keeping the extra for himself... my guess only.

Sadsadsad, Welcome. I am open minded also, show me a better suspect and I would certainly look closely. Then Kittenish is right, making threats doesn't exactly make a person look innocent.

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Colette, that makes sense, as Ron Sr. was stated to "call every Friday" to see how the close went.

Because of the grand jury proceedings this case should progress quickly? Does anyone want to guess at a timeline for trial? Also, in the same vein, we will not see many details released prior to trial (in contrast to the Coleman case). Can you tell I am a nummy and do not know how all this works

I hope sadsadsad comes back, I am very interested in knowing who the Jabalee family thinks the murderer is and if they have any guesses on what Christine may have been trying to tell us in those letters on the garage floor. Also want to know why Ron Jr. cannot have contact with his neighbor.

i wouldn't call myself a friend of the family - just an acquaintance. i did work down at the market at the time of the murders and can tell you that when they 1st happened no one ever suggested ron being the murderer. rhumors i heard were that is was related to ron (sr) dealing drugs through his legit job at sherwood somehow. and the gratiot central, if nothing else, is quite the rhumor mill. everyone seems to know everyone elses business down there. i found it funny that in a previous post someone said friends of ron's said he got his house in manchester estates because of the murder of his parents cause the gated community made him feel safe, and felt they caught him in a lie because he had purchased the house before the death of his parents. that makes me wonder just how close those so-called friends were. i don't consider myself a friend by any means, and i had been to the house in august, before his parents died. at that point he was still living in his other house just a couple blocks away and they were doing minor renovations to the new house prior to moving in (painting, trim, new hardware, ect). i know i personally said that i was glad he had the house in the gated community after his parents died, because another rhumor was that it wasn't about his parents at all (their murder), it was a message to somone close to them, and see ron saying something similar. i mean, if your parents were murdered that way & you had no clue who did it, wouldn't you be thankful at that point to own a house in a gated community? i think trial is supposed to start 1st week of august. obviously, i was not there so i can not say with 100% certainty that ron did not do this, but from my personal interactions with him, his wife, and 4 kids, before and after the murders, i'll need to see a lot of evidence come out at trial to make me belive it was him.

and i agree completely that making threats does not make somone look innocent - i just have to wonder exactly what he said. and i have spoken to his brother-in-law rich recently and he told me 1. ron never threatened him (but the court said they weren't supposed to be around eachother anyways) and 2. not to believe a lot of the crap i'm hearing in the media here. some i can personally dispute, just from having been around back then, other things i can't because i just don't know. i'd love to hear from lost again since that person is a fmaily member & much closer to this than i am. my interest in this case, from the start, is in finding the real murder(s) - and i just don't think ron is it. his children lost the only grandparents they had left that night, as debbies parents were already gone. my heart goes out to ron & debbies 4 children - they, along with nikkis children and ryans little one are the ones that i pray for peace of mind and justice for.

I can appreciate your point of view sad. No one would like to think that someone they know (even just as an aquaintance) would commit such a heinous act.

LE took almost two years to bring charges in this case. I have to believe they were not getting the level of cooperation they needed from witnesses, hence the need to take this to a grand jury. The evidence may be primarily circumstantial, we have only heard that the motive was financial. Being around the business you would know ... Was Ron Sr. trying to control any aspect of the business? Did Ron Jr. report to him about financial matters?

I saw and linked (several pages back) the drug charge against Ron Sr. but that was back in the 80's. Did you hear anything about the phone calls that went unanswered at Sherwood the day before the murders? LE could not trace the phone number.

Last, what about Raquell or Roxanne Jabalee?

Thanks for posting.

i haven't met anyone but the immediate family. ron & christine, ron, debbie & their kids, nikki & paul, ryan & rosie, and debbie's brothers rich & mikey. i'm sure sr knew the stores financial matters as well as he knew his own. as for some alt suspects it was thought that nikki's husband paul coulda done it. apparently he used to get pretty physical with nikki & ron & christine put the squeeze on him for it. i could see ryan's loser friend scott doing the deed. he called them "mom & dad" but they did not see him as family as much as he liked to believe they did. you won't see me singing ron & chris's praises because they were never once nice to me - not that were outright mean to me, just never nice or friendly. they came across as controlling & overbearing to me. and it seemed like nothing ron did was ever good enough, but ryan could do no wrong - which is the funniest thing ever!! but even with their stange family dynamics i still can't see ron being the killer. and back to people's comments about ron saying that they got together at holiday's, ect on amw - there wasn't much more time for them to get together as a family. the store is open 6 days a week and ron is there open to close, rolling in between 4 & 5 am and not leaving until at least 6pm and sometimes staying past 8pm on a sat night.

Ok, so for some alternative suspects we have the ex and loser friend. Do you know if LE has cleared these two? I'm sure the family has given the names of those two long ago. I can see the ex-sil angle, tensions can run high when dealing with divorce. If the elder Jabalee's saw their daughter was being physically abused and stepped in to prevent, that would not go over well with a controlling abuser. But again, LE would have been all over this angle.

I thought your comment on the family dynamics was interesting. Ryan, who put minimal effort into the business (and his own personal life) was the golden child, no matter what he did. Ron, who worked his *advertiser censored** off at the business six days a week was never given proper credit for his efforts. As I read your post I was thinking about some of the studies I have read on Birth Order.

I never really gave much thought to the comments about family get-togethers except at holidays. My husband's family is that way and truthfully they are all so opinionated and competitive with each other a couple times of year is ok by me

Sad, by your own words, you say the elder Jabalee's were controlling and overbearing. Ron could never do enough to make them happy, as he slaved away 80 hours a week to make the business profitable. We don't know what events precipitated the murders but let's take a guess ... Because Ron worked so hard maybe he felt he was entitled to more money, over and above what his agreed upon compensation was. He was diverting revenue and not reporting it on the financials, cooking the books, as Colette put it. Dad found out and confronted him, perhaps he threatened to call the IRS and report it as embezzlement to LE. A fight ensued and well I am sure you can see the progression of events, Ron Jr. would lose everything he worked so hard to build, a crime of passion, born of years of repressed anger against his parents. Other issues that were a heated subject in the relationship were probably also part of the scenerio. Did the Jabalee's view Ron Jr. as a good parent to his four children? Do you know what the court case with son Alex was about?

Can't you possibly even consider the above scenerio playing out? I have to believe LE has all their ducks in a row on this one, probably more so than in the average case. They have to sell a jury on the murder of parents at the hand of their own son. The letters written on the garage floor in blood ... The thought of those last moments of their lives makes a chill run down my spine.

Knox, the scenario you described involving the apparent complicated relationships is spot on IMO. I see alot of anger from whoever commited the murders.

I had been trying to decide if this crime was premeditated or if it was a spontaneous burst of rage. A better understanding of the family dynamics is helping me to see how a fit of rage could have easily transpired between the parents and several other suspects in the family - but I still feel Ron Jr. is suspect number one. Sorry Sad.... I know you like the guy and I am sure he probably is a nice guy, but family dynamics where a child has always felt he/she was "left in the shadows" when they worked harder than any of the other siblings is a recipe for murders like the Jabalee case. In Ron Jr.'s defense, I still can't reconcile the message left in blood with him being the murderer. I still think it looks like it starts with an "Se..." What was Christine trying to say??? :waitasec:

ron never said he felt that way - lets just clear that up. that is how their family dynamics came across to me, an outsider. i believe any situation is possible, i really do. but my question for knox's scenario is, why then the mom? if it was an arguement that broke out between father & son, even if mom walked in on the situation, i can't see that being enough of a reason to do to her what was done. he's a butcher by trade - if he only wanted to prevent mom from going to the cops ron would know how to slice her up to shut her up. to me the murders still come off as a message. sr's brother roger was a drug dealer & had dealings with various motorcycle gangs in the area - who's to say sr didn't have his own run ins with that same crowd. i can't wait for trial. ron's gotta save his own life, so i can only imagine all the sh*! that is gonna come out in court. he'll have to put suspicion on others in order to create reasonable doubt for himself, so the court case should be interesting to say the least!

Reannan ... Your posts are always well worded and after reading your latest, I took myself to task for speaking in absolutes. Ron Jr. is innocent until proven guilty, period. I can have an opinion about facts we know to be true, but the rest is all supposition. I do not know any of the people involved in this case and have not heard any facts come directly from their mouths.

Duly noted sad, the family dynamics are your observation only. As to why the attack on CJ, simple ... She was an eyewitness to the assult/murder on RJ Senior. Trying to recall what was released on details of wounds, coroners report never made public. Maybe someone else can list what her verified injuries were. If you are saying that had Ron indeed committed the murders, she would have only suffered cutting injuries I don't understand? In theory he could have grabbed the closest heavy object to incapacitate her initally. To throw one's hands up to protect the head from a blow would be instinct. Hence, any blunt force trama and broken fingers. The knife wounds could have been an effort to finish the deed.

I am not trying to be agumentative with you, honest. I appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts and debate them here. I agree with you, the trial will be interesting.

Hello to all . Have been following your website since day one kind of interesting how some of you have info that has never been released to the public. First off I would like to say to sadsadsad you are a mere acquaintance !. Ron is not a JR.. Ryan has a college degree and chose to work at the store for his fathersake and mother. Nikki hasn't worked at the store in quite some time. Granted Scott is a poor choice for a friend(loser). But as I recall Rich doesn't have a drivers license and why would that be. Hmmm. Ron may have worked hard when his mother was downtown but as of now(the last three years) is preoccupied in the office when present. The viacodon wasn't something that just happened its an ungoing issue. I do believe in Innocent Until Proven Guilty. But there are just some really strange moves on Rons behalf.

IMO, if the murder was the result of rage, then Ron Jr. would not have had his butchering tools with him. He probably grabbed the closest thing possible to hit them with then went in the house for the knives to finish them off.

Welcome to WS Abracadabra!! :wave:
Great first post!! You obviously know and are privy to close info in the J fam. Your post was very interesting, and thank you for sharing some more details we were unaware of.

I am confused by the comment about Ron is not a JR? Is that just because they didnt officially call him JR or am I missing something altogether? :waitasec: Do you think that SR was involved in his brother's drug activity? Do you think that Ron's vicodin habit was there when his parents were murdered? I know someone who has been hooked 20+ years

Again, Thank you for sharing and hope to hear more from you.

Abracadabra is correct, the Father was Ronald G, son is Ronald F., I thought we used the Sr/Jr to prevent mixing up the two.

i too have been referring to them as sr/jr for the same reason as knox. don't know why abra felt the need to agree with me as being only an acquaintance when i've tried to make it perfectly clear that it's all i am. are you family abra? i know ryan has a college degree, and rich has no liscence for alcohol reasons. i my self haven't worked down there in quite some time so thanks for the update on nikki and ron work habits now. and suzie - two knives were reported missing from the house - that is all the tools a butcher needs. looks like my posts upset people so i won't post anymore - just read what ya'll say like i had done in the beginning. my only intent in posting to begin with was to correct some of the wrong things said and to show everone that ron has a different side than the awm video's because i too believe innocent until proven guilty.

Sadsadsad, please don't go! I find your posts and personal insight very interesting. I would love to have you around when this case goes to trial.

My feeling about the knives is they were a second weapon. If he knifed them first, he probably would have not needed to beat them. Seems to me the beating came first and was sudden. Just my observations of what has been released about the crime and the crime scene.