Muff Daddy
08-09-2007, 01:58 PM
http://www.dailypressandargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070809/NEWS01/70809006
STATE: Dying message is still a mystery
By Amber Hunt
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
Whatever message Ronald and Christine Jabalee tried to scrawl in blood as they lay dying, it's lost.
New Baltimore police have tried to decipher the words found on the garage floor next to the couple's bodies, but the killer apparently thwarted them, mopping away all but a few letters.
And even those are tough to read.
"It's obviously a message left to either the family or us as a clue," said New Baltimore Police Detective Ken Stevens. "We've run it through everything we could run it through. We can't figure it out."
They don't have much hope that anyone else will be able to decipher them either.
But on Wednesday — 10 months after the couple were beaten and stabbed to death — police released photographs of what was left of the message in case someone out there could do what they couldn't.
The readable letters, found beneath a Jeep in the couple's garage, are in three lines.
All that remains of the first line is an 's.'
Police believe the second line has two letters: 's' and 'e' -- though that 'e' really could be an 'o,' Stevens said.
The third line is trickier, he said. It is either 'u,' 'i' and 'c' or 'u,' 'j' and 'c.'
The Michigan State Police Lab in Lansing couldn't figure it out, even when given a slab of the garage floor measuring about 2 feet long, 2 1/2 feet wide and 5 inches thick.
Even the FBI in Quantico, Va., couldn't reassemble the message, Stevens said.
Police found the words next to the Jabalees when they were discovered dead about 9:30 a.m. Oct. 7. They were last seen alive the night before.
The couple, both 58, owned RJ's Meat Shoppe at Eastern Market.
This week, their son Ron Jabalee Jr. -- one of the couple's three grown children -- upped the reward offered from $80,000 to $160,000, said Shirley Schuler of Crime Stoppers of Michigan.
The original reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction for the slayings sparked just a handful of tips, she said.
People with information can call Crime Stoppers at 800-773-2587 anytime or go to www.1800speakup.org.
the pic can be found here: http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070809/METRO/708090444
(i've also attached it to the post)
i've applied a few photoshop filters to the image to see if you can read the message any clearer, but i'm not really that good at PS:
http://img130.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92482_bilde_emboss_filter_122_18lo.j pg
http://img34.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92484_bilde_glowing_edges_filter_122 _764lo.jpg
http://img188.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92490_bilde_ink_outlines_filter_122_ 172lo.jpg
http://img103.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92497_bilde_poster_edges_filter_122_ 942lo.jpg
i know there are a few talented image editors here with MUCH more knowledge of filters and image techniques than me.
...possible $160,000 reward. any takers?
STATE: Dying message is still a mystery
By Amber Hunt
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
Whatever message Ronald and Christine Jabalee tried to scrawl in blood as they lay dying, it's lost.
New Baltimore police have tried to decipher the words found on the garage floor next to the couple's bodies, but the killer apparently thwarted them, mopping away all but a few letters.
And even those are tough to read.
"It's obviously a message left to either the family or us as a clue," said New Baltimore Police Detective Ken Stevens. "We've run it through everything we could run it through. We can't figure it out."
They don't have much hope that anyone else will be able to decipher them either.
But on Wednesday — 10 months after the couple were beaten and stabbed to death — police released photographs of what was left of the message in case someone out there could do what they couldn't.
The readable letters, found beneath a Jeep in the couple's garage, are in three lines.
All that remains of the first line is an 's.'
Police believe the second line has two letters: 's' and 'e' -- though that 'e' really could be an 'o,' Stevens said.
The third line is trickier, he said. It is either 'u,' 'i' and 'c' or 'u,' 'j' and 'c.'
The Michigan State Police Lab in Lansing couldn't figure it out, even when given a slab of the garage floor measuring about 2 feet long, 2 1/2 feet wide and 5 inches thick.
Even the FBI in Quantico, Va., couldn't reassemble the message, Stevens said.
Police found the words next to the Jabalees when they were discovered dead about 9:30 a.m. Oct. 7. They were last seen alive the night before.
The couple, both 58, owned RJ's Meat Shoppe at Eastern Market.
This week, their son Ron Jabalee Jr. -- one of the couple's three grown children -- upped the reward offered from $80,000 to $160,000, said Shirley Schuler of Crime Stoppers of Michigan.
The original reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction for the slayings sparked just a handful of tips, she said.
People with information can call Crime Stoppers at 800-773-2587 anytime or go to www.1800speakup.org.
the pic can be found here: http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070809/METRO/708090444
(i've also attached it to the post)
i've applied a few photoshop filters to the image to see if you can read the message any clearer, but i'm not really that good at PS:
http://img130.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92482_bilde_emboss_filter_122_18lo.j pg
http://img34.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92484_bilde_glowing_edges_filter_122 _764lo.jpg
http://img188.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92490_bilde_ink_outlines_filter_122_ 172lo.jpg
http://img103.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=92497_bilde_poster_edges_filter_122_ 942lo.jpg
i know there are a few talented image editors here with MUCH more knowledge of filters and image techniques than me.
...possible $160,000 reward. any takers?