Slain woman loved to care for others, husband says
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS — Family members and her employer knew Jen Fulford by the nickname of “Jenny Poppins.”
The Altamonte Springs woman killed last week in Winter Park was crucial to Reid Berman’s household, where she worked as a do-all assistant and helped raise the single father’s two children for more than six years.
“I’m going to be so much of a better parent because of her,” Berman, a real estate investor who lives in Winter Park, told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview Wednesday. “I’m not replacing her. I’m doing what she did with my son.”
Like the famous character Mary Poppins, Jen Fulford loved to take care of others, her husband said.
“The man we suspect took her life, she probably would’ve done anything to help him out, just like she helped out other people,” said Robert Fulford, who joined
Berman in talking about his wife. “It’s just so indescribable … she was just so full of life.”
Details of what happened to Jen Fulford have yet to become public. The Winter Park Police Department hasn’t charged the suspect, Scott Edward Nelson, a transient who is in federal custody for violating probation after serving a five-year prison term for a bank robbery. He has a court hearing Friday in Orlando.
Jen Fulford, 56, was reported missing Sept. 27. Investigators launched a manhunt for Nelson after they found photos of him accessing her bank account at an ATM. He was arrested Sunday at a motel in Jacksonville.
The day before, her body was found in the woods in southwest Orange County, off Apopka-Vineland Road.
Winter Park Police Cpt. Pam Marcum said the agency is in the midst of an investigation and couldn’t say when more details would be released. Results of an autopsy completed Wednesday also weren’t available because of the ongoing investigation.
Family members did not talk about the case.
Jen Fulford, a mom to two adult children, sang and danced to Barbara Streisand as she cleaned the family’s home each Saturday. She also loved the outdoors and making her signature “Jenny’s Famous Chicken Salad,” family members said.
Jen and Robert Fulford married in 2010 after being friends and dating for years. They met in the early 1990s while working at the same photo lab in Dallas, where they’re both from.
They settled in a quiet Altamonte Springs neighborhood in a home she fell in love with because of its backyard lush with plants.
“I never really met anybody that compared to her,” Robert Fulford said.
After working as a travel agent, selling insurance and managing a deli over the years, she started her personal assistant business called “A House for your Home.” It was a play on her maiden name of House.
Berman recalled her showing up to his home six years ago for an interview wearing a T-shirt, jeans and lime green Chuck Taylor sneakers.
Within minutes, Berman’s son, who was 4 years old at the time, had her upstairs, where they played with his Army men.
Hiring her full time was an easy decision.
“To call her a nanny is a complete understatement … she knew exactly what to do and how to raise two children,” Berman said. “She could get on the floor and play games for hours with my son, and she could talk to my daughter about the changes she was going through at 12.”
Robert Fulford said his wife regularly cooked for an elderly neighbor who was a Korean War pilot and would talk to Publix cashiers about their high school proms.
He said she would sometimes buy a sandwich, chips and a drink for a homeless man who lived outside their local grocery store.
“He didn’t even ask for it,” said Robert Fulford, who works as a production manager for a trade-show company. “She just gave freely whenever she saw she could help.”
Her daughter Hanna Geist said Jen Fulford was her best friend.
Jen Fulford was supposed to travel to Dallas on the day she disappeared to meet her grandchild, who was born to her son Austin Geist and his wife, Laurel.
Through an Instagram account Austin Geist made for her, Jen Fulford shared photos of life in Florida for her friends and family back home in Texas.
“If more people in this world were like her, it would be a much better place,” Austin Geist said. “We could all be a little more like Jen.”
At the Berman home, Jen Fulford and Berman’s son planted an avocado seed after making guacamole one day several years ago.
Now, it soars 50 feet tall, Berman said.
As his son grows up, the family will always be able to look at the tree as a sign of Jen Fulford’s love.
“It’s the most beautiful tree in the world,” Berman said.