Tina Roundtree

She can do anything. It's amazing the knowledge that she has.

I was the main support person in the first 15 years of our 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.

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.

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.

She wanted to escape and she wanted to get away from him.

She was devastated. She was shocked, and we all were. Because, I mean, you don't take children away from a mother who is a, she was a primary caregiver.

I mean, how many hours I spent with her. I mean, she was crying. It was horrible.

It was to see this precious three-year-old screaming to be with her mother.

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.

He's the father of her children.

From day one, I was always disappointed that she married Fred. He was a very nasty, mean, egotistical person.

My sister loves me. We're very, very close.

Um... It's not, what did I think about Fred Javelin? It's, did I kill Fred Javelin? Yes. That's impossible to... The answer is no. The answer is no. The End

It was very, very painful for me because I love her so much. We're a part of each other.

Well, physically, no.

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.

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.

And expected that Piper or the children especially do exactly what he said when he says it.

She finally had the courage to escape and become her own person again.

Once he had to face the fact that he was going to lose face in the community, he was going to be a divorced man, he all of a sudden switched gears.

He was like a PhD professor in persuasive communications. So that was a tough one to go against from the beginning.

Yes, that was Fred. He can't take losing. He can't lose face.

He had to make her look like the bad guy.

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.

It's not, what did I think about Fred Javelin? It's, did I kill Fred Javelin? Yes.

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.

She didn't have a choice.

Yeah. Of course they claimed she was abandoning her children, No, she had to survive because Fred gave her nothing. Fred took everything.

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.

Her sister Tina, on the other hand... And to see what the courts did then, and I'm kind of understanding it, seeing some blatant misjustices.

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.

No.

Gather your people. We're going to need every one of them.

I know she didn't kill Fred Javelin.

He was a very nasty, mean, egotistical person.

Piper and I are, I mean, we're soul sisters. 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.

Mother used to always make me sleep with her, and I didn't like her crawling in my bed and having to sleep with her, and she wanted to be snuggled. She was 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 them, and so there was a lot of dependency on each other.

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.

I always admired her because she was brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

She could do anything, and she achieved everything, from theater to spelling bees to boyfriends to having lots of friends. And I didn't have all that. I mean, it's things you admire in other people, especially that you don't have or that you want.