Category Archives: Cryonics

We are lucky to have two of the most knowledgable golf gearheads in our office. And they are sharing their golf equipment knowledge with you. Golf Digest's equipment editors, Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson, have covered the golf equipment business for decades, and there are few who know the equipment industry better. We've asked them to answer your questions in a weekly equipment round-up. Tweet them any equipment questions you have, and they might answer your questions next week. (Click here or here to ask them a question.)

Drivers are hit at most 14 times a round while irons are hit 40+ times a round. Plus the average golfer hits less than 20 percent of their greens in regulation. So why not a bigger effort to create more forgiving, longer irons? @TedWilliams2017

Ahh, the Splendid Splinter, back from cryonics, good to hear from you. Perhaps the fact that youve been in the deep freeze for a couple decades might explain your mistaken understanding of the current golf club technology landscape. The good news is the technology in irons is vastly improved over the past 15 years, sort of like how baseball bats are better now that theyre not made of wood anymore. Of course, the primary reason for better iron designs is that much of the same technologies that have made drivers so awesome have found their ways into irons. Super thin faces? Check. Variable face thicknesses? Check. Multiple materials and dramatic weight savings that allow for a lower center of gravity and higher flight? Check and double check. Those technologies came to drivers first, because, well, as has been said, chicks dig the long ball. But secondly, its a lot easier to work within the structure of a hollow, 460-cubic-centimeter, pie-plate-faced driver than it is in the oddly asymmetrical shape of an iron. But that hasnt stopped progress in irons.

We just finished at looking at more than 70 irons for the 2020 Hot List, and wed guess that at least 95 percent of them have faster faces than they did as little as two years ago. Today, there are a whole bunch of irons with springlike effect very near or in some cases exceeding that of drivers. (OK, technically, no face can violate the springlike effect rules. But some irons are getting pretty spicy hot these days.) Heres another key point, not only are irons hotter today, its easier to make them fly higher, too. In one of our recent tests, we found that not only did new 7-irons go farther than 6-irons from a decade ago, they flew as higher or higher than many of those old 7-irons, too. Even comparing 7-irons from just a handful of years ago, we saw sometimes as much as a 20-yard distance advantage and on average a three-yard gain in carry distance on mis-hits and two yards higher flight. In short, today's irons are longer with better stopping power. And we havent even begun to address the advancements in hybrids or even utility irons that make your old long irons not even worth saving, cryonically or any other way you might choose.

Someone explain to me why lofts have been evolving and getting stronger. Or as Brandel Chamblee calls it, "loft creep." Im guessing guys can dial these clubs in and hit all sorts of trajectories high/low/mid even with the stronger lofts and the distance gained is coveted. @WeekendHack_YT

Dear Hack: Some of this is about physics and some of this is about business. First, the latter: If you want to sell clubs these days, particularly irons, you have to have technology that generates ball speed that shows up on a launch monitor. More ball speed means more distance. Of course, the easiest and fastest way to generate ball speed is not some super thin, heat-treated magic steel alloy. Its by making your 7-iron stronger lofted than someone elses. Weve even heard some manufacturers have taken to retool their demo clubs to a stronger loft than their standard just so they can better compete with other companies lower lofts. Messy, of course, when the 7-iron you got fit for in the shop is longer than the 7-iron that you actually buy, but thats why you should ask an extra question or two about the lofts of the irons youre testing. Not all 7-irons are, well, 7-irons.

Still, there also is some serious physics happening here. As club technologies have allowed for the center of gravity to get lower (leading in some cases to higher launch), an iron can then be designed with a stronger loft that takes advantage of that higher launch. Faster ball speed with the same or higher launch means more distance and a better landing trajectory. Thats why when you start seriously testing potential new irons, dont just look at distance. Use the modern technology of a launch monitor to assess those landing angles. Ideally, you want your shots to have a landing angle of more than 45 degrees for best performance coming into a green. The one problem with these stronger lofts in your middle irons: Bad distance gaps in your short irons. If the set youre eyeballing features a pitching wedge with less than 45 degrees of loft, our recommendation is to add another wedge every 4-5 degrees. The more full swings you can make at the short end of the set, the more scoring youll be doing with the scoring clubs.

If Im measured at a D3 swingweight for a driver, should I apply that same weight to all clubs I buy? @NBMH1

Although it certainly would seem logical that you would want all of your clubs to effectively feel the same as you swing them, fact is, from doing dozens of Whats In My Bags with tour pros for Golf Digest, weve seen it both ways. Some players like to keep all their swingweights the same (although sand and lob wedges tend to have a heavier swingweight), while some have numerous different swingweights with their clubs. Tony Finau, for instance, is D-6+ in his driver and D-4 in his fairway wood, although they rarely vary widely. So although consistency is generally a good thing, its not an absolute. If it feels good to you when youre swinging it, theres probably not much need to mess around with it.

RELATED: Golf equipment truths: Do drivers lose their pop?

Have the changes in wedge grooves in the last six years made a significant difference? @cfkuon

Actually, the new regulations on grooves went into effect in 2010, so it has been almost 10 years that wedge designers have been working within the new framework. Its interesting that back then the rule was viewed as spin Armageddon. Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington started using original Ping Eye2 lob wedges because its grooves were grandfathered in and Stewart Cink even went so far as to practice with duct tape on the face of his wedges, feeling that would be the equivalent of the new, less-aggressive grooves. But club designers are smart people and as many of them will tell you, while they dont like to have design within a box, a new rule always provides an opportunity to best figure out how to design within it. Thats what has happened here. Today golfers still apply plenty of spin to the ball and can hit pretty much all the shots they need to. Designers have explored areas such as edge radius and surface roughness, making designs with more grooves closer together and ones that even employ a half-groove on the bottom of the face to squeeze out as many revolutions per minute of spin they can. A significant difference? That might actually be an understatement.

RELATED: Golf equipment truths: Is your golf shaft robbing you of yards?

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Golf equipment truths: Iron faces are nearly as fast as a drivers. Here's why - Golf Digest

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is the world leader incryonics,cryonicsresearch, andcryonics technology.Cryonicsis the practice of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve a human body with the intent of restoring good health when thetechnologybecomes available to do.

The Cryonics Technology Market to raise in terms of revenues and CAGR values during the forecast period 2019-2024

The report, titled Cryonics Technology Market defines and briefs readers about its products, applications, and specifications. The research lists key companies operating in the global market and also highlights the key changing trends adopted by the companies to maintain their dominance. By using SWOT analysis and Porters five force analysis tools, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of key companies are all mentioned in the report. All leading players in this global market are profiled with details such as product types, business overview, sales, manufacturing base, competitors, applications, and specifications.

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Top Key Players of Cryonics Technology Market: Praxair, Cellulis, Cryologics, Cryotherm, KrioRus, VWR, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Custom Biogenic Systems, Oregon Cryonics, Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Osiris Cryonics, Sigma-Aldrich

The Research Corporation report focuses on the Cryonics Technology Market provides the analysis report includes the drivers and restraints of the market space along with data regarding the innovative progress in the field. Moreover, it explains the essential constituents to gain stability and maintain a persistent evolution in this industry. It elaborates on the variety of techniques that are implemented by the present key players and sheds light upon the amendments required to suit the developments in the market.

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The region segments of Cryonics Technology Market are: United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India, Central & South America.

By Market Product: Slow freezing, Vitrification, Ultra-rapidBy Application: Animal husbandry, Fishery science, Medical science, Preservation of microbiology culture, Conserving plant biodiversity

In This Study, The Years Considered To Estimate The Size Of Cryonics Technology Market Are As Follows:

Table of Content:

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Greatest Demand of Cryonics Technology Market 2019 Predictable to Witness Sustainable Evolution Over 2024 Including Leading Vendors- Praxair,...

Shares of Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based Brooks Automation (NASDAQ:BRKS)traded higher by 8% on Thursday, as the company's fiscal fourth-quarter 2019 report, released Wednesday, pointed to momentum in its life sciences sample management business. Shares of the small-cap automation equipment manufacturer have appreciated 50% over the last 12 months.

As we walk through highlights of the last three months below, note that all comparative numbers are presented against the prior-year quarter.

Data source: Brooks Automation. EPS = earnings per share. N/A = not applicable; difference too small to be meaningful.

Image source: Getty Images.

In Brooks Automation's earnings press release, CEO Steve Schwartz commented on the company's momentum from a perspective that included earnings, cash flow, and the organization's stronger balance sheet following the sale of Semiconductor Cryogenics:

In the fourth quarter we delivered continued growth in our Life Sciences business, solid performance in our Semiconductor business, and one of our highest quarters in cash generation. We capped off a year in which all areas of the business provided growth and margin expansion. It was truly a transformative year for us as our team successfully completed the acquisition of GENEWIZ and closed the sale of the Semiconductor Cryogenics business. We have good momentum in Life Sciences revenue, strong bookings in the Semiconductor Solutions business, and a solid balance sheet that supports additional investments. We have set the stage for a strong 2020 fiscal year.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2020, the company projects that revenue will land between $204 million and $214 million. Management expects diluted earnings per share of $0.09-$0.17 and adjusted EPS of $0.20-$0.27. The midpoint of this range will represent an improvement of 38% over the $0.17 in adjusted EPS that Brooks booked in Q1 2019.

This is an appreciable earnings leap: It's worth keeping this small-cap automation dynamo on your radar screen to see if it surpasses its guidance next quarter and generates further momentum in calendar 2020.

Originally posted here:
Brooks Automation Ends Its Fiscal Year With Brisk Life Sciences Growth - Motley Fool

The report discusses many vital industry facets thatinfluence GlobalCryonics Technology industry acutely which includes extensive study ofcompetitive edge, latest technological advancements, region-wise industryenvironment, contemporary market and manufacturing trends, leading marketcontenders, and current consumption tendency of the end user. The report alsooversees market size, market share, growth rate, revenue, and CAGR reportedpreviously along with its forecast estimation.

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Cryopreservation technology is used for the preservation of living cells and tissues at very low temperature.Cryonics technology adopted by medical sector to preserve living body organs which can boost the demand of this technology. Government investment in medical sector and increasing deaths caused by incurable diseases are the major driving factor for this industry.

The Global CryonicsTechnology market report chiefly includes following manufacturers-

Praxair, Cellulis, Cryologics, Cryotherm, KrioRus, VWR,Thermo Fisher Scientific, Custom Biogenic Systems, Oregon Cryonics, Alcor LifeExtension Foundation, Osiris Cryonics, Sigma-Aldrich, Southern Cryonics

Segmentation by Type: Slow freezing, Vitrification, Ultra-rapid

Segmentation by Application: Animal husbandry, Fishery science, Medical science, Preservation ofmicrobiology culture, Conserving plant biodiversity

Global CryonicsTechnology Market Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape of the global Cryonics Technologymarket is broadly studied in the report with large focus on recentdevelopments, future plans of top players, and key growth strategies adopted bythem. The analysts authoring the report have profiled almost every major playerof the global Cryonics Technology market and thrown light on their crucialbusiness aspects such as production, areas of operation, and product portfolio.The report discusses about the growth of the global as well as regionalmarkets. It also brings to light high-growth segments of the global CryonicsTechnology market and how they will progress in the coming years.

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-MarketCompetition by Manufacturers

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-MarketingStrategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

-MarketEffect Factors Analysis

-Global CryonicsTechnology Market Forecast (2019-2025)

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Each segment of the global Cryonics Technology market isextensively evaluated in the research study. The segmental analysis offered inthe report pinpoints key opportunities available in the global CryonicsTechnology market through leading segments. The regional study of the global CryonicsTechnology market included in the report helps readers to gain a soundunderstanding of the development of different geographical markets in recentyears and also going forth.

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Cryonics Technology Market Insights and Technology Growth 2019, Forecasts to 2025 - The Market Publicist

CHELMSFORD, Mass., Nov. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --Brooks Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq: BRKS), a leader in automation solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing and life sciences industries, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019.

Financial Results Summary

QuarterEnded

Year Ended

Dollarsinmillions, except per share data

September30,

September30,

September30,

September30,

2019

2018

Change

2019

2018

Change

Revenue

$

200

$

160

25

%

$

782

$

632

24

%

Semiconductor Solutions Group

$

106

$

109

(3)

%

$

448

$

435

3

%

Life Sciences

$

94

$

51

85

%

$

334

$

197

70

%

Diluted EPS Continuing Operations

$

0.08

$

(0.02)

$

0.14

$

0.95

Diluted EPS Total

$

5.69

$

0.15

$

6.05

$

1.64

Non-GAAP Diluted EPS Cont. Operations

$

0.24

$

0.17

43

%

$

0.77

$

0.64

20

%

Adjusted EBITDA

$

31

$

22

39

%

$

128

$

93

37

%

On July 1, 2019, the Company announced that it had completed the sale of its Semiconductor Cryogenics business to Edwards Vacuum LLC (a member of the Atlas Copco Group). In accordance with GAAP, the Company reports the results of the Semiconductor Cryogenics business as discontinued operations for all periods presented.

Management Comments "In the fourth quarter we delivered continued growth in our Life Sciences business, solid performance in our Semiconductor business, and one of our highest quarters in cash generation," commented Steve Schwartz, CEO of Brooks Automation. "We capped off a year in which all areas of the business provided growth and margin expansion. It was truly a transformative year for us as our team successfully completed the acquisition of GENEWIZ and closed the sale of the Semiconductor Cryogenics business. We have good momentum in Life Sciences revenue, strong bookings in the Semiconductor Solutions business, and a solid balance sheet that supports additional investments. We have set the stage for a strong 2020 fiscal year."

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Brooks Automation Reports Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results of Fiscal Year 2019, Ended September 30, 2019, and Announces Quarterly Cash Dividend -...

Fifteen years ago on October 30, 2004, University of Richmond professor Fredric Jablin was shot and killed in his driveway in Henrico County. A little more than six months later in May 2005, his ex-wife Piper Rountree was sentenced to life in prison for the murder. The story below originally ran on January 1, 2005, about two months before the start of her trial.

Piper Rountree is a whisper in smoky coffeehouses and bars in this south Texas metropolis, where men and women sit huddled around pints and lattes and wonder out loud how it happened.

A sign on the front lawn of 2210 Bissonnet Street near lush Rice University once advertised her law practice. Today, her name is covered with silver spray paint. About 160 miles northwest in Austin, on the bustling campus of the University of Texas, faculty offices that once echoed with Rountree's contagious laughter are quiet, replaced with muffled musings about what happened that night.

Texans have their theories:

That Rountree fell deeper and deeper into a depression and lost touch with reality; that she was overcome by anger because her three children were more than 1,000 miles away; that her ex-husband's new life with a new woman pushed her past jealousy and into rage.

Or that she's being persecuted for a crime no loving mother could commit.

Whatever the theory, Fredric M. Jablin is dead, and police say Rountree killed him.

The tangled story of Fred and Piper ended Oct. 30 in the quiet suburbs of Richmond.

But it began years before and miles away in Texas.

* * *

Harlingen, Texas, is due south of Austin and just 30 minutes north of the Mexican border.

"The Valley," as locals call it, is a popular spot for midstate Texans to escape the occasional winter snowflake.

But when Piper Rountree was growing up there, it was an agricultural community of 28,000 where everyone knew everyone and no one locked their doors.

"You could ride a bicycle across town and not be worried," said childhood friend Lavon Guerrero.

Rountree was the youngest of five children, with two brothers and two sisters. Her father was a military surgeon, her mother a stay-at-home mom who did all the cooking and cleaning and even found time to make all the girls' clothing.

"They had this closet full of fabric that was just magical," Guerrero said. "I loved going to their house. There was so much love."

She said Rountree was an inquisitive, friendly child who embraced nature from an early age. The two girls used to hide under bridges and catch guppies with netting. When they were 10, they brought the tiny creatures home and tried to create cryogenics in the Rountrees' refrigerator.

The experiment failed.

Rountree loved working on her high school yearbook committee. She got good grades, but they didn't come easy. She had to work for them.

Growing up, Rountree was liked by classmates but was not the most popular girl in school.

"Most people would probably have described her as quirky," Guerrero recalled a few weeks ago at an Austin coffee shop.

So when Rountree moved to attend the University of Texas in the fall of 1978, she was in her element. Austin is a college town where anything goes, where the peculiar is mainstream.

She and Guerrero roomed together their freshman year.

"I used to wake up, and she'd have a hot cup of tea waiting for me," Guerrero said. "I didn't even have a coat when we came to Austin, so she'd go to class at 8 o'clock and come back and give me her coat before my 10 o'clock class.

"She's a very nurturing person."

* * *

As Rountree was getting her bearings in Austin, Fred Jablin was finishing his first teaching job at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He was looking for a change, and the University of Texas at Austin was looking for a professor.

His friend John Daly, who had been a fellow doctoral candidate at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., was teaching at Texas and recommended Jablin for a job there.

Jablin recently had divorced his first wife, Marie, and wanted to start over. He moved to Austin in 1979.

"He came down in his yellow Toyota Corolla, with his whole life packed inside," Daly said last month during an interview at his office.

"We did everything together for a few years -- scuba diving, flying lessons. And we tried to make it to every bar in town."

Jablin taught organizational communication, and in the spring of 1981, he had a student who would change his life.

"Piper was bright, smart, nice, asked good questions. She used to come sit in my office and talk," said Daly, who also taught Rountree.

By all accounts, her relationship with Jablin was strictly teacher-student until the fall of 1981, when they had their first date. She no longer was his student. They drove to a nearby lake and talked for hours.

After that, Jablin's friends rarely saw him. He was captivated.

The University of Texas at Austin is an oasis of eccentricity in a state of dry conservatism.

There, Jablin made a living being organized and showing others how. His world was a series of deliberate, studied decisions, punctuated by occasional wacky outbursts. Often, when he was a young professor and working late at night, he would let his colleagues know it was time for a drink by barking through the office corridors. They'd bark back and leave for their favorite bar.

It made sense, then, that when he went looking for love, he found it in someone who balanced his calculated, hard-working side.

He fell for a whimsical woman named Piper. She was beautiful and smart and artsy, "more attractive than he deserved," one of Jablin's friends joked. Fred was a "a hard-working nebbish" who quietly hovered for hours upon hours over his desk, lit by a green lawyer's lamp.

"I'm sure Piper's quirky side appealed to him, and his calmness was very attractive to her," Guerrero said.

But Piper was different. Friends say Jablin would do anything for her, including moving to San Antonio so she could attend law school there. When they returned to Austin three years later, he built a house for her. And when they started having children, he got a better-paying job at the University of Richmond so she could stay home with her babies.

"She could be very charming, but soon after they got together, she changed," Texas professor Daly said. "She was always high-strung and had peaks and troughs, but I think those peaks and troughs got higher and higher and deeper and deeper as things went on."

* * *

By the early 1980s, Jablin already had started making a name for himself as one of the country's leading experts in the field of organizational communication. His early focus was on how brainstorming works and how supervisors and their subordinates communicate. Later, he became interested in "organizational socialization," which Daly described as "how newcomers to an organization make sense of what is happening."

He uprooted from Austin in mid-1983 to move with Rountree to San Antonio, where she studied law at St. Mary's University. He still worked in Austin and commuted 90 miles each way.

That October, Rountree and Jablin exchanged vows in Travis County, Texas. She was 23; he was 31.

After Rountree graduated, they moved back to Austin and had two children -- a girl, then a boy. Another daughter came later.

From the start, Jablin's cerebral ways clashed with Rountree's emotional personality. Rountree often would call the university's communications-studies office and leave frantic, hysterical messages for her husband.

"She called once and demanded to talk to Fred, and he wasn't available. So she said, 'Tell Fred I had to fire the maid,' or 'Tell Fred he needs to come home right now,' " recalled Deanna Matthews, administrative associate at the communications-studies office.

Where Rountree was very spontaneous and sometimes irrational, Jablin was the epitome of reason -- sometimes so much that his friends and co-workers had to laugh at him.

"When Piper first got pregnant, Fred came in to ask the women here how much he should expect to pay for his child's ear infections in an average year," said Margaret Surratt, the office's executive assistant.

"Fred retreated into being more and more rational because he coped with her unpredictability in the way that made the most sense to him."

Jablin had a fairly traditional view of marriage and believed that a wife should stay home with the children if the family could afford it. And since Rountree bounced from job to job and never found her niche, friends say, it was easier for Jablin to convince her to be a stay-at-home mom.

In e-mails and interviews, Rountree's family and friends have said Jablin tried to control her.

Regardless, when the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies offered Jablin about $30,000 more than he was making in Austin, he didn't hesitate about moving his family in 1994. Here, they could afford for Rountree to stay at home.

Her children came before all else -- her siblings, her career, her marriage. She relished her role as a mother.

Rountree and Jablin stayed together in Richmond for about seven years before the marriage went sour.

"She comes from a family that believes in family," Guerrero said. "The Piper I know loved nature and all living things. It's very hard for me to imagine that she could have done this. She's a person who would pick up a spider and put it outside. I can't imagine she could have done something that would have orphaned her children."

* * *

They had their good times. Jablin and Rountree were fiercely devoted to their children, both were adventurous, and they threw wild Halloween parties every year in Austin.

But as passionate as they once were for each other, their relationship turned rocky after they moved to Richmond.

Soon after relocating, Jablin became a sought-after professor whose classes at UR filled quickly. Friends say he was particularly excited about his new research on the concept of courage -- what it is and how it works.

And even though Rountree got to spend more time making a home for her children, she wasn't content.

In late 2000 or early 2001, Rountree began an affair with a married Richmond-area doctor who also had young children, according to court records. Jablin's divorce from her was granted on the grounds of adultery.

After Jablin moved to Richmond, Daly saw his friend only a few times a year at professional conferences. Jablin routinely complained about Rountree, about how their marriage of 18 years was ending so poorly, about how he was spending most of his retirement savings on attorneys.

"Fred was always saying he was going to sue everyone. Piper's affair bothered him badly, and he wanted to sue her and the doctor," Daly said. "Fred always said he couldn't understand how a mother could do that to her kids."

Their divorce was a particularly cold one. Both Jablin and Rountree told friends they spent thousands of dollars on attorneys.

"Things could have been so different if they could have had an amicable divorce," Guerrero said.

Rountree lost custody of the children and had to pay $890 a month in child support to Jablin, but she often failed to do so, according to court records. She was living in Houston with her sister, Tina, and worked first as an attorney and then as a researcher for a title company.

She saw her children only a few times a year.

"Fred was not willing to give her any access that wasn't mandated by the court," Guerrero said. "It was all about winning with Fred."

Jablin's friends, though, say Rountree never came to terms with losing custody.

"For a while, Fred thought it would never end, that she would torture him for the rest of his life," Daly said. "I don't know what drives a person like Piper, except a deep sense of righteousness."

Anne van Kleeck, who also taught at Austin, was good friends with Jablin and Rountree until they moved to Virginia. In August, van Kleeck reconnected with Jablin via e-mail.

"He told us how much of a grade-B movie the dissolution of his marriage with Piper had been. And it turned into a horror film," she said last week.

From his e-mails, it was clear that Jablin was "happy but a little overwhelmed with single parenting," she added. "It was clear how devoted he was. The kids came first."

Van Kleeck and her husband, Jim Smeeding, used to have dinners with Jablin and Rountree. They even went with the couple to visit Rountree's family in Harlingen.

"I never thought of it as a troubled relationship," van Kleeck said. "They're different people, but most of us are connected to people who balance us out."

After the tumultuous divorce in 2002, friends say Jablin got back on track. He had a routine with his kids, he loved teaching at Richmond, and he even had started dating. One woman had connected particularly well with him, and the children liked her, too.

"I think his life was back together again," Daly said.

Rountree, though, did not like another woman getting close to her children, Jablin's friends say.

* * *

Martin McVey is the Santa Claus of Houston.

Last month, his office was crowded with tubes of wrapping paper and boxes of toys. He plays St. Nick at a local children's hospital each Christmas.

He also helped Piper Rountree get back on her feet after she separated from Jablin.

Rountree moved to Houston in 2002 to be close to her sister, Tina, a nurse practitioner near Rice University who specializes in menopause treatment and weight management. Tina Rountree found her sister an office space just down the street in McVey's duplex. It was a small, first-floor back room -- once a bedroom -- with peeling paint and sparse furniture.

McVey is a criminal-defense attorney who practices law in a cluttered downstairs office and lives upstairs in the house at 2210 Bissonet St. His white Jeep Cherokee is parked in the driveway when he's there and open for business. He chain-smokes and wears shorts in December, a luxury some Texans enjoy.

McVey worked under the same roof as Rountree for a year and a half, when she left to work for a title company. He described her as "a highly educated lady that dearly loved her kids."

He was called to testify at her divorce trial.

"She would talk about Fred, but mostly she was just upset with the court system in Virginia. She felt it was not being fair to her in both the property issues and the custody issues," McVey recalled.

"I didn't sense anything more than the regular animosity that recently divorced people who have had a custody battle would have. When you try a custody case, you have one really happy person and one very unhappy person. There's not much middle ground."

McVey didn't see Rountree for about a year. Then, this past Halloween -- a Sunday -- she returned. She said Jablin had been killed.

"She came in the front door of my office and had four detectives with her -- two from here, two from Virginia," he said, taking a long drag on his cigarette, followed by a gulp from a large jug of orange juice. "She was totally hysterical, crying, and she kept saying, 'I want to talk to my kids.'"

McVey calmed her down, spoke to the detectives and told her to find a good family attorney in Virginia so she could get her children back. Having worked his fair share of homicide cases, McVey knew how to deal with the detectives and Rountree.

"The next Sunday, she came by and said she was going to Virginia for a court hearing for her kids," McVey said. "I asked her, 'Do you have a good lawyer up there?' She said yes, and I said, 'Have at it.' Next thing I know, she's charged with murder."

* * *

For a woman who so embraced nature and the outdoors, Piper Rountree has traded toads and kittens and flowers for cold steel and concrete.

She celebrated her 44th birthday on Thursday in a Henrico County Jail cell, awaiting trial Feb. 22.

"I'm concerned about her, not being around nature," Guerrero said.

Police say they believe Rountree flew to Virginia sometime before the weekend of Oct. 30 using her sister's identification and wearing a blond wig. They say she checked into a local hotel and then shot Jablin, 52, just before dawn on Saturday, Oct. 30, in the driveway of the Henrico home they once shared, 1515 Hearthglow Lane. He was hit in the arm and the back when he stepped outside to retrieve his newspaper.

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From the archives: 15 years ago a UR professor is killed in his Henrico driveway by his ex-wife - Richmond.com