Lethal Vengeance Deadly Women

The murder of Diane and Alan Scott Johnson occurred on September 2, 2003. They were shot to death in their Bellevue, Idaho home by their daughter Sarah Marie Johnson.

History

On September 2, 2003, Alan Scott Johnson and Diane Johnson were shot to death in their Bellevue, Idaho home. Their daughter, Sarah Johnson, was found guilty of their murder. Sarah was 16 years old at the time. Her apparent motive was her parents' prohibiting her from dating a 19-year-old.

At approximately 6:20 am on September 2, 2003, Johnson took the murder weapon, a Winchester rifle from the guest house, walked into her parents' bedroom and then shot her sleeping mother in the head. She then walked into the bathroom, where her father was taking a shower, and shot him in the chest, right above the heart.

DNA evidence was presented at trial from a discarded bathrobe and a latex glove that police found in the garbage can in front of the house. It contained the DNA of both victims and Sarah. Along with the robe and latex glove was a leather glove that had gunshot residue on it. In Johnson's bedroom investigators located the other leather glove that belonged to the pair.

Johnson was found guilty of the murders of her parents by an Ada County, Idaho jury on March 16, 2005. She was sentenced to two concurrent life terms plus fifteen years for a firearm enhancement. The Idaho Supreme Court upheld her conviction.

Piper and Fred

Piper Rountree was born and raised in a small farming community in Harlingen, Texas. According to Paige Akin writing for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, she was the youngest of five siblings, including two brothers and two sisters. Rountree's father was a military surgeon and her mother was a homemaker.

Rountree was reported to have had a happy childhood and family life. She had close friendships and was liked by her fellow students although she wasn't the most popular girl in school, fellow classmate Lavon Guerrero suggested. Rountree excelled academically and was eventually accepted by the University of Texas at Austin in 1978. As an undergraduate, she studied speech communication.

The following year, Dr. Fredric (Fred) Jablin left a teaching position at the University of Wisconsin and took a new position teaching communications at the University of Texas at Austin. He was recently divorced and looking for a new beginning.

In 1981, he taught a course in organizational communications, for which Rountree registered. Jablin was immediately captivated by Rountree's artistic and energetic nature. Their student/teacher relationship ended in the fall of 1981 and six months later they began a romantic relationship.

The two were smitten with one another and became increasingly inseparable. In 1983, the couple moved to San Antonio, Texas when Rountree was accepted as a law student at St. Mary's University. Jablin did not give up his position at the University of Texas because his career was just beginning to take off, despite the 180-mile commute from his new home.

Later that year, the couple married while Rountree was still enrolled in law school. The marriage initially got off to a good start but it wasn't long before cracks began to appear. According to Bowes, Jablin reported in later court documents that he "became aware early in their marriage that Rountree suffered "emotional problems," after learning that she had been bulimic and was receiving psychological counseling 'because of family issues.'"

So what made Christa Pike kill?

Psychiatrists examined her and found her to be an “extremely bright young woman.” Her IQ tested at 111, which the clinicians found remarkable considering her upbringing and the fact that she was a drop-out. They judged her to be sane in legal terms. They found no symptoms of brain damage, which can corrolate to violence in some cases (usually frontal lobe damage).

The battery of tests found that Pike was marijuana-dependent and abused inhalants. She was diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder, a condition that takes its name from its original assumption that a person suffering from the disorder was on the borderline between neurosis and psychosis.

People with borderline personality disorder are similar to psycopaths and just as dangerous. They have poor impulse control, volatile affect, a fluctuating self-image that bounces between despair and self-aggrandizement, and they often have problems in relationships.

According to criminologist Katherine Ramsland, people with borderline personality disorder are highly resistant to treatment because, “like vampires, these people just drain a therapist and move on to the next one.” Even Pike’s own family found that she had refused to abide by the basic standards of society from an early age. There is almost no chance that she can change now. At best, the taxpayers of Tennessee will simply have to warehouse her until she is too old and feeble to be a danger to anyone, and even then I wouldn’t turn my back on her.