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

[PrayersForMaura]

with both of the people at the house having been murdered and no witnesses, how would anyone know that a small amount of money was missing??

 

[SeriouslySearching]

with both of the people at the house having been murdered and no witnesses, how would anyone know that a small amount of money was missing??

Good question, but it is what the policeman working the case said. I suppose someone could have seen him with cash earlier at a store or maybe he had withdrawn some from an ATM perhaps.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Maybe the killer, known to them, came by with a gas can asking for money to get gas claiming to have run out down the street. That could account for a small amount of missing money. Mr. Jabalee may have given it to him. Has it been determined if the houseshoes were headed up or down the stairs at the time and how far the cookie was dropped? Maybe she was coming down to garage eating a cookie or had invited the person up to have cookies before being attacked. She must have had time to get under he vehicle after being attacked. Broken fingers sounds like she was tortured. Sure hope they catch the killer/s.

I wonder why there are no fingerprints etc. if the gas can was brought in by the attacker/attackers? Wouldn't it be a tipoff to the couple if a man was wearing gloves and asking for gasoline?

The houseshoes look to be facing towards the inside of the garage like she was going down the stairs. (The photo is on the AMW site)

 

[christine2448]

It is my opinion this could say, "Steve, Steven, or Stevenson". Could be any other variation on that tho...Stevers, Stevel, etc.

That was my very first impression when looking at the words, Steven, Steve.

Now, has anyone flipped the picture around? Are we sure we are viewing it as intended? I wonder what it would look like upside down, I am at work and can't mess with it now.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

That was my very first impression when looking at the words, Steven, Steve.

Now, has anyone flipped the picture around? Are we sure we are viewing it as intended? I wonder what it would look like upside down, I am at work and can't mess with it now.

Hmmm...interesting. Let me try that!

 

[Summerskye1]

I wonder why there are no fingerprints etc. if the gas can was brought in by the attacker/attackers? Wouldn't it be a tipoff to the couple if a man was wearing gloves and asking for gasoline?

Since the killer took the time to mop up most of the bloody message, he probably did whatever he could to wipe his prints off anything he touched.

I'm rethinking the scenario I posted earlier. I think the wife must have entered the garage twice - the first time without the knives, just to see if everything was okay, and the second time with the knives.

I'm assuming that if she knew, while in the kitchen, that things in the garage were so dangerous as to require weapons for self-defense, that she would have called 911 before heading into the garage with two knives.

 

[JanetElaine]

Now, has anyone flipped the picture around? Are we sure we are viewing it as intended? I wonder what it would look like upside down, I am at work and can't mess with it now.

Actually I did, looked at it from all angels, but I am pretty certain that we are looking at it the way it is intended. Also if it was upside down the police would have released it upside down, and there is no way anyone could have layed between those cars and write all of the message.

If you look at it like the right end is actually the top, the characters don't make sense.

I'm specifically saying characters since it isn't certain they are all actually letters. There could be numbers in there too. I have said before that the 3rd one could be a '4'.

 

[JanetElaine]

Since the killer took the time to mop up most of the bloody message, he probably did whatever he could to wipe his prints off anything he touched.

I'm rethinking the scenario I posted earlier. I think the wife must have entered the garage twice - the first time without the knives, just to see if everything was okay, and the second time with the knives.

I'm assuming that if she knew, while in the kitchen, that things in the garage were so dangerous as to require weapons for self-defense, that she would have called 911 before heading into the garage with two knives.

Ahhh yes now I agree with you. I read your scenario first and something didn't sit right with me, mostly the part where she would have walked into the garage with a knife or knives in her hands. That didn't seem to jive with the picture painted of the woman she was.

But what I bolded above, yes I could see that happen. Her husband in a life threatening struggle, she desperately looking for something to defend them, seeing the knives.... yep. She might have dropped the cookie and lost the slippers then, too. Kicked them off to run back in (I think that was mentioned before).

 

[Reannan]

I can see a scenario where two individuals showed up with the gas can and they were wearing leather biker clothing, including gloves, thus no fingerprints. You also would not be surprised by a "biker" showing up with gloves on, but you would be suspicious of someone in a business suit, or blue jeans arriving at your door wearing gloves. I believe they confronted Ron in the garage, and perhaps one of them entered the kitchen looking for Christine. At this point, the person who stayed in the garage with Ron may have only been talking with him. The second person who entered the house looking for Christine may have just walked right in, and obtained the two knives before Christine knew what was happening....especially if they hid the knives in a jacket or in their pants. I believe this second person followed Christine out into the garage, and attacked her from behind as she was walking down the stairs......perhaps by first pushing her and then beginning to stab her on the ground. From the AMW site, it appears Ron had made it outside into the driveway and was dragged back inside, so maybe the person who attacked the wife thought she was out of it, and went to help drag Ron back inside. This could have possibly given Christine enough time to write the message. I also wouldn't be totally surprised if one of the two was a woman. I believe Christine was perhaps not alarmed at first, because I can't see her bringing the cookie she had been eating out to the garage if she initially came outside due to a concern about something she heard. I can see her sitting in her living room, reading a book and eating a cookie, only to hear voices, and upon getting up to see who it was, she encountered someone she knew. I think she walked ahead of this person into the garage and was attacked. It was most likely at this point that the individual who was speaking with Ron begin to attack him also.

 

[Reannan]

I just had a thought. What if the message is written in Arabic instead of English? Look at this Arabic alphabet site:
http://www.cafe-syria.com/Alphabet.htm

I have NO idea about how to read arabic, but a quick guess based on this alphabet looks like it could be the following letters:

Yaa Waaw Laam Jiim

I have to go get dinner ready and then I will be back to work on this a bit more. Does anyone here read Arabic? I also suspect the Arabic language is a bit more complex than this relatively simple alphabet I linked here. Surely, LE would have thought of this???

 

[txsvicki]

I just had a thought. What if the message is written in Arabic instead of English? Look at this Arabic alphabet site:
http://www.cafe-syria.com/Alphabet.htm

I have NO idea about how to read arabic, but a quick guess based on this alphabet looks like it could be the following letters:

Yaa Waaw Laam Jiim

I have to go get dinner ready and then I will be back to work on this a bit more. Does anyone here read Arabic? I also suspect the Arabic language is a bit more complex than this relatively simple alphabet I linked here. Surely, LE would have thought of this???

I noticed also that the link says that Arabic alphabet is written from right to left. I know that the family was American, but were they some other culture such as Hebrew or Syrian? Maybe it's just that the son's meat market is beside a Mideastern market.

 

[Reannan]

I believe someone here at WS's had posted that the name Jabalee is of Middle Eastern origin. It would be really helpful in these type of cases where LE asks for the public's help if they could offer a few pieces of information along those lines.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I just had a thought. What if the message is written in Arabic instead of English? Look at this Arabic alphabet site:
http://www.cafe-syria.com/Alphabet.htm

I have NO idea about how to read arabic, but a quick guess based on this alphabet looks like it could be the following letters:

Yaa Waaw Laam Jiim

I have to go get dinner ready and then I will be back to work on this a bit more. Does anyone here read Arabic? I also suspect the Arabic language is a bit more complex than this relatively simple alphabet I linked here. Surely, LE would have thought of this???

There should be a site which translates Arabic into English. I don't have time right now...but someone could try to look this up. It is possible it is written in Arabic. Good catch, Reannan!

 

[Beyond Belief]

Wouldn't family members be familiar with a different language?

 

[Summerskye1]

I posted on page 2 (I think) a list of border crossings / immigration records for persons named Jabalee who entered the U.S. through Detroit prior to 1960. A lot of those individuals were born in Syria.

However, even if the Jabalee family did have an Arabic background, I wonder how likely it is that Christine, who married into the family, would have known how to write in Arabic. It's certainly possible, but I wish we had enough info to know for sure.

 

[christine2448]

Actually I did, looked at it from all angels, but I am pretty certain that we are looking at it the way it is intended. Also if it was upside down the police would have released it upside down, and there is no way anyone could have layed between those cars and write all of the message.

If you look at it like the right end is actually the top, the characters don't make sense.

I'm specifically saying characters since it isn't certain they are all actually letters. There could be numbers in there too. I have said before that the 3rd one could be a '4'.

TY JanetElaine. I was hoping someone had flipped it around, JIC.

 

[christine2448]

There should be a site which translates Arabic into English. I don't have time right now...but someone could try to look this up. It is possible it is written in Arabic. Good catch, Reannan!

translating to Arabic to english gave nothing but the same text back, when I typed in Reeannans letters from english to Arabic I get this ياا وااو وله جييم


What should I be translating exactly? LOL, which letters?

NEvermind, I get what you did, scratch it! duh!

 

[itsreenw]

For a real close up of the letters for those of you who have Windows XP, go to "start", click on "All Programs" then "accessories" then click on "magnifier". Magnify and invert the image for the best view. Use your cursor on the regular image to navigate what area of the magnified image you want to view.

It is clear that the letters were written from L-R. The person that wrote the letter had a small injury or blemish on the finger they used to write with because you will see it in the darkest part of each letter. That to me, indicates that is where they placed the finger to begin each letter. The first letter is obviously an "S". There is too much curve in it to be a "J". The 2nd letter is an "e". You can tell that by the dot in the blood. It is at the part of the "e" that is closest to the "S". It appears that the finger was not flat but turned at an angle because the dot is toward the top of the blood and not a flat, round impression.

You can tell it is intended to be an "e" because the lines in the blood go from L-R starting from where the fingerprint blemish is, then up, an arch to the left and the arch continues down and swipes over the blood that was initially there from the L-R.

The next letter is illegible. Because of the amount of blood in the third letter, and the light patch under the 2nd and third letter, it looks like she wrote the 2nd letter then touched her injury to get more blood to start the 3rd letter.

It looks like she may have rested the bottom of her palm on the 2nd letter while she reached to start the 3rd letter. The blemish on her fingerprint is most evident in this letter. It doesn't look like she was trying to make the top of an "i", it looks like her finger was laid flat and the crease in her finger made the indentation.

I can't make out anything else. The last couple letters don't seem to have been smeared in an attempt to clean it up. It looks like the ground was damp and the blood ran. I don't know how the killer would not have seen the rest of the word.

Maybe Christine's fingers were broken while she was writing the message. Perhaps, smashed with an object to prevent her from writing the rest.

I haven't seen the AMW pics yet so I could be totally off base.

 

[kittykat1]

I definitely think the perp knew the victims and knew that he could be id'd by the blood written message. Why else would the blood be cleaned up? Any fingerprints on a mop? Rag? Garage door opener? Front door? The perp had to leave the house somehow. What about shoeprints in the garage?

 

[Reannan]

You bring up a good point, KittyKat1 - there should be LOTS of evidence in a case like this. The message written in blood can't be the only clues they have.