A long-time television talk show producer was arrested earlier this week in a bizarre murder case involving her own sister. Jill Blackstone who has worked as an executive producer on a number of TV shows including Divorce Court, Family Court With Judge Penny, The Tony Danza Show and producer on The Jerry Springer Show was taken into custody on Monday with charges of murdering her sister. Though Blackstone has been released for further investigation, the state she was found in puts her in serious question.
Law enforcement sources opened up to TMZ about the investigation earlier today and the scene they walked into on Saturday is not a particularly normal case. Jill Blackstone’s sister, Wendy appeared to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning… from a BBQ grill. When law enforcement showed up to the scene on Saturday afternoon, paramedics found Wendy Blackstone on the floor of the garage where her and her sister Jill had lived. There was a BBQ grill in garage and the grill had ash it in. Apparently, the victim was holding a handwritten suicide note. But, police concluded that the note was written by Jill and are also questioning the placement of the grill at Wendy’s feet. Because of these elements, the murder investigation was opened, as it appeared the suicide was staged by someone else.
Initially Jill was arrested for murdering her sister, but was released on Wednesday evening after the D.A. “kicked it back to police for further investigation”. On the scene, Jill had told paramedics that she also passed out, but came to on her bed and called a friend for help. The friend was the one who called 911 and told the authorities to go check on Jill who she assumed had suffered a stroke due to her slurred speech on the phone. Wendy was pronounced dead on the scene, but Jill had also suffered from severe carbon monoxide poisoning and was hospitalized for two days following. She was arrested for the murder after her release from the hospital.
TMZ also reports that Wendy was deaf and partially blind. She also had not been seen by anyone other than Jill since the previous Thursday, two days before her death. Wendy’s exact cause of death is still unknown, as official reports must come out of the Coroner’s Office toxicology results. Whether or not the TV talk show producer and sister to the deceased had anything to do with the murder is still under investigation. The whole scene is pretty strange though, and police seem pretty convinced that the murder was most definitely staged. Was it Jill? Was it someone else? Did the two sisters have a disagreement? If only Jerry could’ve solved it before it was too late.
