00:00:03
[music] >> 911 Yeah, uh This is you know State Road 135. My husband's in the our bedroom floor. He's
00:00:34
non-responsive and I need an ambulance early. Marsha Allen called 911. Do you want to start CPR if I help you?
00:00:42
Uh yeah, I could I could do that. >> [laughter] >> Okay. She appears to be crying on the call.
00:00:50
She appears to start getting a little panicked. He's laying here with his mouth open.
00:00:55
Okay. And he's white. Is he cold to the touch? First responders get there, what do they
00:01:01
find? They found Harold Allen unresponsive. He was dead. Yes. Harold [music] and Marsha Allen had only
00:01:16
been married for a year, a year and a half when this happened. Harold had had some health problems, so
00:01:22
it wasn't initially [music] a huge surprise that he would have died. And what was the cause of death determined
00:01:29
to be at that time? It was [music] uh heart problems. About 6 months after Harold's death,
00:01:39
Marsha wrote a self-help book about grief and losing someone that you loved. About Harold, she says, "He was my
00:01:52
world. [music] The grief I was experiencing after my husband passed away was unbearable and [music] still
00:01:59
is. Well, this is just a grieving woman missing her husband. A burglary call come over the radio.
00:02:13
Our detectives were going to Marsha's house. We started investigating the burglary
00:02:21
and in the process we're told there's a murder involved here. This woman is murder.
00:02:28
Okay. I know that. I have not gone to nobody and said anything cuz I don't have no
00:02:32
proof on it. Steven White told me that Marsha Allen had killed her husband Harold by poisoning a root beer float.
00:02:43
Marsha went to the kitchen and made a root beer float with whipped cream and sprinkles on top
00:02:49
of it. And she poured something out of the bottle into there. Poison is unique. I
00:02:54
think you see it in movies because it makes a good show, but it's not normally how homicide or death is carried out.
00:03:01
The toxicology report came back ethylene glycol was in Harold's system. It's the main component in antifreeze.
00:03:10
If you're consuming ethylene glycol, you're not going to know. You're not going to smell it. You're not going to
00:03:15
taste it. If you put it in a root beer float with ice cream and root beer, you're not going to know until it's too
00:03:21
late. [music] I think if the burglary wouldn't have happened, there would be no way that we would know
00:03:27
about it at all. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Right now we're probably about a half
00:04:19
mile north of where Marsha Allen and Harold Allen lived. When Harold Allen died suddenly in his home in Freetown,
00:04:27
Indiana, just a few days before Christmas 2022, the driveway going up to the Allen
00:04:34
residence would have been right there. Lieutenant Adam Nicholson, an investigator with the Jackson County
00:04:39
Sheriff's Department, says no one suspected anything out of the ordinary. >> [music]
00:04:45
>> 20 years on the job, I never thought I would see a case like this. Harold's younger brother Matthew and his
00:04:52
wife Samantha knew he had been dealing with some serious health issues. He was bigger. He was diabetic. Including
00:05:00
painful gastrointestinal problems, which had sent [music] him to the emergency room on multiple occasions late that
00:05:07
year. I think one time [music] they thought it was What was it like? >> Diverticulitis, they said. Yeah.
00:05:15
Diverticulitis. On Thanksgiving [music] 2022, as the family was enjoying their holiday feast,
00:05:23
Matthew noticed that Harold all of a sudden looked distressed. We were eating dessert
00:05:30
and uh he looked up at me like his his eyes got wide like he was kind of scared and I
00:05:36
was like, "What's wrong?" He goes, "The left side of my face just went numb." I said, "I'm either calling an ambulance
00:05:42
or I'm taking you to the hospital right now." And he's like, "Well, just give me
00:05:45
a second." Despite the family's urging to get medical help, Harold refused. Marsha was just like standing there, and
00:05:55
I was like, "Well, he needs to go to the hospital." And she was like, "Oh, I've been telling him that he needs to get
00:06:00
there." Harold's mystifying health condition worsened in the weeks leading up to
00:06:05
Christmas. Doctors struggled to diagnose exactly [music] what was ailing him. Then came December 20th, 2022, when
00:06:14
Marsha made a disturbing discovery and placed that 911 call. I work from home. I went back there to check on him
00:06:21
because he's been sick. He was just laying on the floor. It was like he was trying to get up and go to the bathroom
00:06:26
or something. And he's not breathing. >> [gasps] >> 52-year-old Harold, the oldest of three
00:06:34
brothers, had spent his life in this quiet, rural part of southern Indiana, where everyone knew this imposing man as
00:06:43
Peanut. I thought his name was Peanut until I was about 6 or 7 years old. That's
00:06:48
That's a true story. My brother was born premature, and my grandma said he's no bigger than a
00:06:56
peanut. I had a close family, but it was nothing like the Allens. When they were together,
00:07:07
all the pieces of the puzzle were there. >> [music] [singing] >> He self-taught himself like the guitar
00:07:14
and mandolin, and he played harmonicas. You really looked up to your brother, right? Oh, yeah. Like, he became a
00:07:21
controls engineer. Um, super smart. I wish I was as smart as him. Jackson County Sheriff's Department
00:07:28
Detective Clint Birchum says Harold worked for a global automotive supply company. A local factory in Seymour,
00:07:35
Indiana, Aisin Manufacturing. He liked riding his motorcycles. He had a Harley motorcycle that he rode for years. He
00:07:45
went deer hunting and fishing. We did fish a lot. Enjoying a full life, Harold became
00:07:51
nostalgic about his high school days. In 2019, he decided to attend his 30th reunion. The Austin, Indiana High School
00:08:00
reunion. It was there that the twice-divorced [music] Harold spotted former classmate Marsha
00:08:06
Buckston. They didn't even really speak in high school, but at this reunion is when they
00:08:12
started a conversation and just blossomed from there. Divorced herself with an adult daughter,
00:08:19
Marsha and Harold began dating. About 2 years later, the couple married in July of 2021.
00:08:29
What kind of life did they lead together as a married couple? They liked to travel. They liked
00:08:34
uh the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Pigeon Forge area, Branson, Missouri. The following year, Marsha's daughter,
00:08:43
Ashley Jones, and her 5-year-old daughter moved in with Harold and Marsha. Samantha says Harold, who had no
00:08:50
children of his own, welcomed them with open arms. Peanut always wanted children. [music]
00:08:57
He always wanted a family and he enjoyed being called Grandpa. Ashley was a young widow. Her
00:09:05
33-year-old husband, Ty Jones, had died suddenly 3 years earlier. What were the circumstances of his death? Ty Jones
00:09:14
died of some heart complications is what the autopsy said. Describe the relationship between Ashley and her
00:09:21
mother, Marsha. Were they close? They were very close. Every day, Marsha Allen would send
00:09:27
Ashley Jones a message saying, "Good morning, baby girl." Every single morning. The house was now full with
00:09:33
three generations, and Harold seemed to enjoy his [music] instant extended family. He cared about what everybody
00:09:42
else was feeling >> [music] >> um and and just wanted everyone to be happy. At the time, Harold's autopsy concluded
00:09:54
his death was caused by multiple serious cardiac issues, including pericarditis and inflammation of the sac around the
00:10:02
heart. Practically still a newlywed, Marsha was now a widow. Heartbroken, she turned to
00:10:09
writing [music] about her grief. After Harold Allen died, his wife Marsha Allen publishes a book.
00:10:18
Self-published, it was intended to be a guide for others going through what she was.
00:10:25
She says that this is an intimate glimpse of what I went through when my husband died.
00:10:29
She writes about survivor's guilt that she was suffering with that. She says that her book is a beacon of hope,
00:10:36
finding the strength and courage to move forward and learning a new way to live.
00:10:42
How to grieve a loss of a significant other. Marsha would soon face another challenge. Nine months after Harold's
00:10:50
death, Lieutenant Nicholson was monitoring a call where investigators were dispatched to that break-in at
00:10:58
Marsha's. The case to me started like any other case. A burglary call come over the radio. Our detectives were
00:11:05
going to Marsha's house. Security cameras had captured two men breaking into her home. We started
00:11:14
investigating the burglary. In the process, we're told, you know, well, there's a murder involved here.
00:11:36
>> In September of 2023, Marsha Allen was vacationing in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, known for its beautiful fall colors and
00:11:44
[music] hiking trails. Little did she know that about 350 miles away, two burglars were exploring the
00:11:53
inside of her home. The burglary happened, I want to say like like 4:30 in the morning.
00:12:00
She had recently put a home security system in her house. The app for this system notified Marsha
00:12:07
that there'd been movement on her home's cameras while she slept. When she reviewed the video, she could see two
00:12:14
men opening her home's safe and rifling through her bedroom and jewelry. First thing you got to do is get your
00:12:22
She could watch them go through the house. There was a lot of stuff taken. Pretty major burglary.
00:12:27
One of the burglars caught Marsha's eye. Incredibly, he was someone she recognized. His name was Steven White.
00:12:35
Yo. Marsha immediately called local police in Indiana to report the break-in. Marsha Allen described
00:12:46
Steven White as her daughter Ashley Jones' best friend, really close friend. Why would her own daughter's best friend
00:12:53
burglarize Marsha's home? Ashley had moved to Missouri in the months following Harold's death.
00:12:59
>> [music] >> So, Marsha had been living alone. Reviewing the images, investigators
00:13:04
noticed the burglars had come prepared. It seemed like they knew right where to go, and the other thing was is that they
00:13:12
knew the code to the safe. Within hours, police found [music] Steven White living at his mother's home
00:13:19
nearby. Investigators [music] quickly made a house call. If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be provided
00:13:25
for you free of cost if you desire one. So, do you understand your rights? Yes, sir. Okay. So, do you have any idea why
00:13:31
we're here today? Well, they said that y'all got me on camera last night burglarizing the place. Do
00:13:38
you know anything about it? No. But the wonders of technology did not allow White to lie for long. I got a
00:13:46
picture here. Can I see it? Nicholson had a security camera screenshot of White committing the burglary on his
00:13:53
phone. That's just one of the five that they sent us. And they got video, too. And we got
00:13:59
video. That's just a still shot from a video. >> Hold on, let me see here. I mean, I really do not have
00:14:05
a hat. I don't even have a Unable to deny it, Nicholson says White admitted to burglarizing Marsha's home.
00:14:14
This woman has hated me for years, but I'm best friends with her daughter. Okay. What's her daughter's
00:14:20
name? Ashley Jones. Then, stunningly, White said something else based on information he claimed
00:14:27
Ashley had told him that Marsha was responsible for her husband's death. This woman is
00:14:35
murderer. Okay. I know that. I have not gone to nobody and said anything cuz I don't have no
00:14:40
proof on it. This woman's a psychopath. And I'm telling you guys that right now.
00:14:46
Harold Allen was her husband. She set a life insurance policy for him, went and married him.
00:14:51
White then revealed how Marsha allegedly cashed in on the policy. Steven White told me that Marsha Allen had killed her
00:14:59
husband Harold by poisoning a root beer float. White even knew the details of how the float was made. Marsha went into
00:15:07
the kitchen and made a root beer float with whipped cream and sprinkles on top of it.
00:15:13
And she poured something out of a bottle into there. Police placed White under arrest.
00:15:20
>> All right, going to put chains on your back. But as they did, he had one more
00:15:24
surprise about the burglary. He claimed Marsha's daughter was the mastermind. Ashley is the one who set this up. Okay.
00:15:33
White told police Ashley had mailed him a key to Marsha's house and given him the combination to the safe, unaware her
00:15:41
mother had installed those home security cameras. He also told investigators where they
00:15:46
could recover everything stolen the night before, including guns and jewelry. We found the guns where he told
00:15:54
us they were. He told me who the other suspect was and found that suspect wearing Harold Allen's jewelry. And I
00:16:00
told Detective Bergeron, I said, "You know, everything that Steven's told us up to
00:16:04
this point has been true." I said, "I feel like we at least have to ask her about Harold and Harold's death."
00:16:11
After notifying [music] police, Marsha had driven home from her vacation. The next [music] morning, she arrived at the
00:16:18
Sheriff's Department to discuss the burglary. So, that's your husband's ring or your husband's
00:16:23
>> Yes, my husband's ring. They got his mandolin, they got a bunch of his collectible Star Wars stuff.
00:16:29
Investigators at first made no mention of Steven White's murder allegation, instead treating the interview as part
00:16:37
of the burglary investigation, asking Marsha what was missing. I have a picture of me wearing the uh sapphire
00:16:44
earrings and necklace on our wedding. Yeah, if you think it'll help identify anything when we start going through
00:16:48
stuff. They also discussed Ashley's potential involvement. You said you talked to your daughter, what what is
00:16:55
she saying? She's denying She goes, "He's trying to drag me down." I'm like, "Ashley." I said, "I have proof."
00:17:01
Marsha said the proof was that White knew her safe's combination. She's the only other than me who knew the knew the
00:17:08
combination and I would never give it out to anybody. Mhm. Ever. Did you already have a plan to ask her about
00:17:15
this murder allegation? >> Yes, then after talking about the burglary, basically I end up telling
00:17:20
her, you know, "This has been brought to our attention." I can tell you we Detective
00:17:25
Burcham told Marsha what Steven had claimed. He He accused you of murdering your husband.
00:17:31
I did not murder my husband. Who was putting it in his drink? Marsha was defiant and seemed to have an answer for
00:17:38
everything. They would show me a toxicology report if that happened. Was there an autopsy done?
00:17:42
>> Yes. There was an autopsy. Autopsy and toxicology. He died because he had pericarditis that was undetected.
00:17:49
>> I'm just telling you what he said. He's lying. Okay. No emotion. No anything. Didn't even
00:17:56
catch her off guard. Marsha denied any involvement, but Steven White had given other details to police. Things he said
00:18:04
he'd heard from Ashley. Telling investigators that Marsha's text messages would contain incriminating
00:18:12
evidence. But we wanted to see if she would have any text messages that possibly said
00:18:17
anything about a murder of her husband. Would you be willing to consent to a download of your cell phone? Yeah.
00:18:25
Burcham left Marsha alone to get the paperwork for the download. And while I'm gone from the interview room, Marsha
00:18:32
ends up deleting items off of her phone. Marsha didn't realize that what she deleted could easily be recovered. And
00:18:41
those texts revealed a sinister plot. There are numerous text messages between her and
00:18:49
Ashley. And it starts to become evident that there's something going on that they
00:18:56
were indeed trying to poison Harold Allen. I mean, I'm seeing the same thing he's
00:19:02
saying. You know, he's calling me, I'm calling him. Like, "Did you read page 10,578?"
00:19:07
And he's like, "No, I haven't got that far yet." For mother and daughter, it seemed
00:19:12
Harold's death couldn't come soon enough. With Marsha texting Ashley, "He just needs to let go." Ultimately,
00:19:21
we all agreed that yes, we've got a murder here. She gave him a root beer float with poison.
00:19:37
contradicted by This woman is a murderer. With Steven White's accusation that Marsha Allen poisoned her husband
00:19:45
with a root beer float, This woman's a psychopath. and her devious [music] behavior
00:19:50
deleting texts with her daughter Ashley, investigators zeroed in on those messages.
00:19:57
Some disparaged Harold. Ashley complained, "He's a waste of space." Others celebrated the delivery of
00:20:05
poisons. Ashley wrote, smiley face, "I'm ready for that to arrive." Marsha replied,
00:20:12
"Me, too." They texted about everything. Jackson County Prosecutor Lindsay Fleetwood. There were thousands upon
00:20:21
thousands >> Did you just say thousands of messages? >> There were thousands of messages.
00:20:25
Investigators would spend weeks building their case, combing through nearly 7,000
00:20:30
texts exchanged over the 3 months before Harold died. Yeah, this is going to be very helpful. The more they read, the
00:20:39
more they learned of a diabolical plot to kill Harold. Why would they want him dead?
00:20:45
Greed. It was all for financial gain. Police learned Harold had a $120,000 life insurance policy through his job.
00:20:55
He also had those guns and several guitars. I think money was a very big motive in
00:21:01
this case. Investigators say those thousands of texts revealed Marsha and Ashley tried
00:21:08
to kill Harold over and over again with a variety of exotic poisons. Police found an order Ashley made on
00:21:16
eBay for pong pong seeds, a powerful toxin. Pong pong is a seed from a tree that grows in Southeast Asia. They
00:21:27
actually refer to this tree is called the suicide tree. It's not a native plant to the United States, so it had to
00:21:33
be ordered online somewhere. As Thanksgiving approached, [music] police believe mother and daughter put a
00:21:42
new dessert on the menu. Poison brownies. They texted about grinding up the pong
00:21:49
pong seeds, adding walnuts to hide the poison's bitter taste. What wasn't hidden was their apparent
00:21:56
glee. Ashley writes, "How's it going? Laugh out loud." And Marsha sends back a picture of a
00:22:04
half-eaten brownie. Ashley, "Ooh, let me know when it's gone. Laugh out loud." They're basically making a joke out of
00:22:12
the fact that they're going to [music] try to murder him. The smiley faces, the LOLs, when someone's in in excruciating
00:22:19
[music] pain. I mean, this shows you how evil >> [music] >> that these people actually are.
00:22:26
As Harold made repeated trips to the ER, suffering all those GI symptoms, police
00:22:32
say a new level of depravity emerged in a text from Marsha to Ashley. "I am irritated and can't [music] sleep
00:22:41
peacefully. I need this to be over." He's not dying fast enough. In another instance, after Marsha texted
00:22:49
Ashley that Harold was attending a family funeral, Ashley Jones messages Marsha and says,
00:22:56
"He just needs to go and drop in the hole, too." After the pong pong seeds failed to kill
00:23:03
Harold, police learned they ordered another lethal plant, water hemlock. Investigators say on several days in
00:23:11
December, they served him tainted chili, Sprite, and a margarita. He surrounded himself with people he thought loved
00:23:19
him. And to be poisoned on a nightly basis, basically, infuriates me. They poisoned him and they waited for a
00:23:31
him to die. But somehow Harold survived all those attempts. Police believe Marsha and Ashley then
00:23:40
shifted from plants to a chemical called ethylene glycol, which is used in antifreeze. They ordered it online.
00:23:50
If you're consuming ethylene glycol, you're not going to know. You're not going to smell it. It doesn't have any
00:23:55
color to it. It's described as maybe a slight sweet taste. Investigators believe because of its sweet taste,
00:24:04
Marsha and Ashley came up with the plan of a poisoned root beer float. If you put it in a root beer float with ice
00:24:11
cream and root beer, you're not going to know until it's too late. Marsha texted
00:24:16
Ashley, "He's all in for root beer floats." Ashley replied, "Okie dokie. I'll tell the kids that's what we are
00:24:23
doing tonight for dessert. Smiley face. Root beer floats." They probably had this so well planned
00:24:30
out that they knew exactly what he would eat and what he wouldn't. Marsha purchased the ingredients for
00:24:36
this poisonous beverage at a local store. She texted Ashley this photo of small soda cans.
00:24:44
Ashley encouraged her to buy large bottles. Investigators believe Marsha served Harold the fatal potion on the night of
00:24:52
December 19th, [music] 2022. I think they knew that this was 100% going to be successful. This
00:25:01
ethylene glycol, when it gets into your body, what does it attack? It starts attacking like some of the
00:25:08
organs, you know, like the heart, liver, kidneys, stomach, you know, you're sick, nauseated.
00:25:15
I believe it even starts to affect the brain some. They not only wanted to kill him, but it seems like they wanted to
00:25:23
profoundly make him suffer. What's the source of that kind of hatred? I don't know where a hatred that deep can even
00:25:30
stem from. The next afternoon, just 5 days before Christmas 2022, an ambulance rushed to
00:25:39
the Allen home. Harold could not be saved. Ready? After reading the blow-by-blow account
00:25:48
spelled out in those texts, on October 16th, 2023, investigators took action. Hi, Marsha. How are you? Can you step
00:26:01
out here for us real quick? Sure. We're here today cuz we got a search warrant for your house, okay? Officers
00:26:06
served a pre-dawn warrant at Marsha's home. Who are they accusing me of murder? There was text messages about ordering
00:26:14
ethylene glycol. Huh? I did not kill my husband. The ethylene glycol shows up at your
00:26:22
house on December 19th. And Harold passed away on December 20th. Yeah. So, and we're also being told that
00:26:31
the way he was poisoned, that it was through a root beer float. No. After serving the warrant to search her
00:26:53
house, Marsha was asked if she'd voluntarily come to the Jackson County Sheriff's Department for questioning. We
00:27:00
can show you some of these messages and you can explain to them. I don't have a choice. I mean, you you have a choice.
00:27:06
You don't have to go. What followed was a 4 and 1/2 hour interview in which Marsha said largely
00:27:15
nothing. [music] The rumor folks is confirmed in your text messages. And then there's a ethylene glycol that
00:27:21
was ordered and sent to your house. And you say you don't know anything about that. No.
00:27:28
Marsha was moved to a different room to show her some of those recovered text messages on a computer screen.
00:27:35
Undeterred, she [music] continued her claims of ignorance. Is there any reason that there would be any ethylene glycol
00:27:44
found in Harold's body? No. >> Anywhere. When Harold died, his autopsy cited cardiac issues. But the coroner did not
00:27:55
screen Harold's blood for poisons at the time because his death was not suspicious.
00:28:01
Luckily for us, they keep that blood for a year. Mhm. So we we you know have put a hold on that
00:28:08
blood and it's going to be retested for all kinds of other stuff. Right now, the way this is going, I have
00:28:15
a bad feeling that when we get these results back, that it's going to show ethylene glycol in his system. [music]
00:28:22
If it does, it's going to shock me. When the interview ended, Marsha wasn't arrested. She was allowed to return home
00:28:29
as the wait began for Harold's blood test results. That same day, her daughter Ashley,
00:28:36
who'd been living in Missouri, was extradited to Indiana under arrest for the burglary of her mother's house.
00:28:44
The next morning at the station, Ashley was about to be surprised. We're not going to talk to you about
00:28:52
Harold, okay? That's not what we're here to talk about. Investigators got right to the
00:28:57
point. >> We have some text messages from your mom's phone. Do you know anything
00:29:03
about the ethylene glycol? No, sir. The information we got was Harold did not die of natural causes,
00:29:10
basically that he was poisoned. Really? They told Ashley they'd already talked to her mother.
00:29:18
If you know something, if you know something now is the time to tell us so we can
00:29:24
I know she said she wanted out. And that's all. But that wasn't all. Just 10 minutes
00:29:33
later, Ashley, in a complete change of direction, named her own mother as Harold's killer.
00:29:40
She didn't want a divorce, and I said divorce. She wanted to be free of him completely.
00:29:46
She wanted him dead. And I said, "You're going to go to hell for that, Mom." No matter what happens, you're going to
00:29:52
hell. Ashley continued giving her mother hell, admitting she helped Marsha purchase
00:29:59
ethylene glycol and other poisons online, but claimed she was just being an obedient daughter.
00:30:06
I really didn't know ask many questions, which I guess I should. Mhm. I for that woman, I just
00:30:15
do what she asks and always have since I was a child. Remember, Ashley was in the house as
00:30:20
Harold was in agony during his final hours of life. She was asked why she didn't do more for Harold when he still
00:30:29
might have been saved. Did you ever mention anything to her that maybe you should call an ambulance? I did. I said,
00:30:35
"Are you sure you want to do that?" Yeah. You asked her if she was sure she wanted to do this.
00:30:39
>> Because this is awful. Okay. I mean, just doing that to anybody regardless of any which way or forward,
00:30:44
I didn't agree. But, loyalty to mothers is a hell of a thing. Unexpected news about her mother would
00:30:53
punctuate the end of Ashley's police interview when another officer entered the room. My name's Jessie,
00:31:01
and I'm a sergeant here at the detective's office. Okay? So, I'm here to talk to you about
00:31:06
something completely different. Okay. The night before, hours after Marsha's own interview ended and she'd returned
00:31:15
home, Marsha's parents had been unable to reach her on the phone. They had also been to the house knocking on the door,
00:31:22
and her car was home, but she wasn't answering the door. They notified police. That's the new key?
00:31:29
Then it was dispatched for our officers to go for a welfare check. It's not going to be an easy
00:31:35
conversation. Okay? Um after your mom was here yesterday and spoke with us, we got a call to go check on her welfare
00:31:44
um at her home. And she's passed away. What? She's She passed away. What happened?
00:31:58
Without going into a lot of detail, it appeared that there was something ingested possibly
00:32:03
um and passed away on her bed. Marsha Allen was discovered deceased and it was ruled a suicide. She killed
00:32:13
herself? That is what we That's what we believe happened, yes. Why do you think she took her life at that moment? I
00:32:23
think she didn't want to have to spend the rest of her life in prison. You know, I told her
00:32:30
that we were going to send the blood off. I think she She didn't want to stick around and wait
00:32:34
and find out what those results were. 48 Hours obtained this photograph of the note Marsha left behind. And she wrote,
00:32:43
"I did not kill my husband. You win, Ashley." With an exclamation point. How do you interpret that?
00:32:52
I interpret that I don't really give it much weight. I think it's her way of trying to leave some message
00:33:00
and trying to get out of the fact that she killed her husband. Now, investigators would start building
00:33:07
their case against the last survivor in this [music] peculiar crime, Ashley, for
00:33:14
her role in Harold's death. I'm going to read you your rights. You're in custody. Okay. Make sure you
00:33:32
understand that. Just one day after her police interview and learning her mother had taken her
00:33:38
own life, And she's gone. Correct. Ashley Jones received more startling news. You are under the arrest for the murder
00:33:48
of Harold, okay? And conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. Ashley responded
00:33:54
with just five words. I need a lawyer. Still on the table was that burglary charge against Ashley.
00:34:05
Police were certain they knew exactly how it was connected to Harold's death. Marsha Allen paid Ashley about a
00:34:12
thousand dollars a month from the time of Harold's death in December of 2022 till like July of 2023.
00:34:21
The burglary occurred just two months after the payment stopped. She was going after money that she
00:34:27
thought belonged to her from the murder of Harold Allen. >> [music] >> Ashley Jones didn't feel like she
00:34:32
received her compensation for that. The prosecution said it had a strong case against Ashley, especially when
00:34:40
toxicology results confirmed exactly what police suspected. Harold had been given a root beer float poisoned with
00:34:48
ethylene glycol purchased by Ashley as those damning text messages showed. What Ashley said in those texts hurt
00:34:57
her. I mean, there's just no way around it. Ashley's attorney, public defender Joseph Robertson, knew it was going to
00:35:06
be a difficult case. There was a legal freight train headed toward your client. I mean, this was an impossible case.
00:35:13
Yes, by the time that all this evidence came out, we just told her, said, you know, we're in the tunnel and the white
00:35:19
light at the other end is the legal system coming after you. But Ashley would never have to defend
00:35:26
her texts or murderous actions in [music] court. In August 2025, she took a plea deal, pleading guilty [music] to
00:35:34
attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. I don't think I can ever say that I saw
00:35:44
remorse on Ashley Jones's face. Harold's brother Matthew and his wife Samantha were in the courtroom for the
00:35:52
sentencing. The judge said there's no other word but evil. There's no [music] forgiveness from this
00:36:00
court. And I have no choice but to give you the full time. Ashley was sentenced to 50 years in
00:36:09
prison. It was just the sigh of relief. We finally felt like we got a little bit of justice that my
00:36:18
brother deserved. In the end, these two women who would chuckle over their plans with
00:36:24
one another, they didn't get away with this. One took her own life when confronted
00:36:30
with her deeds. And the other one is gone for decades. Absolutely. I truly think they thought they were smarter
00:36:37
than the system. But Ashley's legal woes may not be over. There is another death in her past, her
00:36:45
late husband Ty Jones, who died when he was just 33. His autopsy said the cause of death was
00:36:53
heart issues. But two of his family members suspected foul play from the beginning. You believe that Ty Jones,
00:37:01
your nephew, was murdered? Yes, I do. [music] William Jones and Aretha Steivers are
00:37:07
Ty's uncle and cousin. What do you believe happened to him? I believe that he was poisoned.
00:37:14
Ty's body was not tested for poison [music] in 2019, and he was cremated at Ashley's request.
00:37:21
But his family says Ty was perfectly [music] healthy before suddenly dying. And after
00:37:27
his death, they say Ashley's strange behavior raised red flags. During Ty's funeral service, Ashley
00:37:35
Jones did not shed any tears. The next day, she showed up at Ty's place of employment to inquire about his
00:37:42
insurance policy. She expected a check that very next day. All of it to me said there is something going on here that
00:37:49
needs to be investigated. After William and Aretha heard how Harold died on the news, they contacted
00:37:57
police, sharing their suspicions that Ashley murdered Ty, her eye on an inheritance he had just received from
00:38:05
his great-grandfather. [music] I do believe that there was a large enough sum of money and a property that
00:38:12
Ashley [music] likely thought she would inherit, and that that could have been a motivator
00:38:17
for her. And in Ashley and Marcia's texts about murdering Harold, there was a reference
00:38:23
to Ty. After Marsha complained that deadly pong pong seeds were failing to kill Harold,
00:38:31
Ashley, out of the blue, >> [music] >> said Ty had weighed much less than Harold, writing,
00:38:37
"And previously, Ty was only 120, lol." >> [music] >> During their 48 Hours interview, William
00:38:45
and Aretta heard about that text for the first time. They reference Ashley's late
00:38:52
husband, Ty. There it is. There it is, right there. It's painful to hear. >> Yeah, it is. Because it's one thing to
00:39:01
suspect and to feel like you know, but to have that kind of evidence presented verbally for the first time
00:39:11
is gut-wrenching. It means what you have suspected all along is true. All the time.
00:39:17
All the time. Ashley maintains [music] that Ty died of a heart attack, but Indiana State Police
00:39:25
opened an investigation into his death. Nicholson says he's struck by the similarities between Harold and Ty's
00:39:33
deaths. I believe it's way more than a coincidence. Personally, I think that she probably
00:39:39
killed him. But that's my opinion. There's very few probably as evil as Marsha Allen and Ashley Jones.
00:39:48
They're the same person. I mean, just carbon copy evil. Looking back, Harold's family doesn't
00:39:59
think Marsha ever really loved him. I think she chose the person that she can manipulate.
00:40:10
Their memories are all that remain to fill the void left by the man they called Peanut, who had a big personality
00:40:18
and an even greater heart. I'll see something and I'll be like, "Oh man, that's something
00:40:25
Peanut would love to know about." And then I like I go to like actually call him. I and I'm like, "Oh, I can't." So
00:40:33
it is something that I would give anything to get back, honestly. My goodness, how much you miss him, huh?
00:40:41
Yeah, yes. It's crazy. >> Every day. Every day. Welcome to Post Mortem. I'm 48 Hours
00:41:35
correspondent Anne-Marie Green, and today we're discussing the murder of Harold Allen in Freetown, Indiana.
00:41:42
Now, in December of 2022, Harold was poisoned with a root beer float made by his wife, Marsha Allen, and Marsha's
00:41:49
adult daughter, Ashley Jones. His death was originally determined to be from natural causes, but then after a
00:41:56
burglary at Marsha's home 9 months later, police discovered a string of damning text messages between Marsha and
00:42:04
Ashley that prompted them to investigate Harold's death as a possible murder. So,
00:42:09
Peter Van Sant is joining us. He was the correspondent on that hour. Peter, thanks again for joining us. Hey, great
00:42:15
to be here, Anne Marie. And folks, you heard it right, murder by root beer float.
00:42:20
>> Mhm. And the maliciousness of this case really struck me. Marsha and Ashley attempted to kill Harold multiple times
00:42:29
during a 3-month period leading up to his death with a variety of exotic poisons.
00:42:34
And something we didn't share in the hour, investigators said that there was evidence that Ashley was plotting other
00:42:42
murders. Okay, so we definitely are going to get into that. Um but first, a quick reminder for everyone. If you
00:42:49
haven't watched or listened to this episode, the root beer float murder, go check it out right now and then come
00:42:55
back for this conversation. All right, Peter, getting into it, there are a lot of really strange elements in this case
00:43:01
and one that really stands out right away is Harold Allen's original autopsy. It concludes that that his death was
00:43:09
caused by cardiac issues. The coroner did not screen for poisons in his blood. Why wasn't his blood screened? Well,
00:43:18
Harold had a history of genuine health issues. And also, remember he'd been to the emergency room a couple of times
00:43:25
when these attempted poisonings didn't work out. So, his death was not considered suspicious. And routine
00:43:31
autopsies, they don't screen for poison because there's simply not enough hours in the day to to screen for every poison
00:43:37
out there unless there's a specific reason to do so and they didn't have one in this case. Routine autopsies do
00:43:44
involve a toxicology screen that looks for things like alcohol and medication overdoses. And Harold had been on
00:43:51
prescription meds and they were found at therapeutic levels. Now, every state has
00:43:56
different laws about keeping blood and tissue samples postmortem. In Indiana, they hold on to samples for a year. So,
00:44:04
when suspicion was finally raised in Harold's case, they could still send that out for testing. Yeah, that was
00:44:11
really fortuitous. I did not know that they held on to samples that long, especially when initially there doesn't
00:44:16
seem to be a suspicious death. Um the case really reminded me though of another poisoning case that's getting a
00:44:23
lot of attention, the Kouri Richins case. Uh she was a Utah author and mother who in 2026 uh was found guilty
00:44:31
of murdering her husband with a fentanyl-laced Moscow mule, also a pretty sweet drink, I think. Um like
00:44:39
Richins, Marsha wrote a book about grief after Harold's death. Did you read the book? I did. Uh
00:44:47
it's not going to make a best-seller list, but the name of the book was from surviving to thriving, rebuilding your
00:44:53
life after the loss of a spouse. And she self-published this book about 6 months
00:44:59
after Harold died. It has just 29 pages. Some of it reads like Hallmark card stuff. And yet as we as we know it it it
00:45:08
ends up being a bunch of hooey. Investigators believe that she wanted people to feel sorry for her and or she
00:45:14
wanted to convince others that she was mourning for Harold when she knew she had inflicted all this pain and torment
00:45:22
on this man and yet was trying to cover that horrible deed with this book. So then over 9 months after Harold's death,
00:45:30
Marsha's home security system alerted her to a burglary while she was away on vacation.
00:45:36
When she reviewed the video, she could see two men opening her home safe and then rifling through her bedroom and
00:45:42
looking for jewelry. Marsha immediately identifies one of the burglars captured on this camera. It's her daughter
00:45:49
Ashley's best friend. His name is Steven White. She reports this burglary to police.
00:45:56
But I got to wonder, why would she do that? She knows that she's involved in this other crime. You would think the
00:46:04
last thing she would want to do is bring authorities to her house. Absolutely. Especially since she she knows she had
00:46:13
committed a murder. Were it not for Marsha's vindictive nature of reporting a burglary that she
00:46:19
knew her own daughter was responsible for, both she and Ashley would likely be free
00:46:25
today. And Ashley was the only other person who knew the combination to the safe. So, Marsha knew Ashley was behind
00:46:33
this burglary. And Harold, he had a life insurance policy of $120,000. Marsha had been paying Ashley about
00:46:40
$1,000 each month since Harold died, but it stopped making those payments 2 months before the burglary. So, she
00:46:48
Ashley was upset with her mother because she felt she wasn't getting enough money. When police spoke to Steven
00:46:54
White, he's one of the guys one of the burglars seen on that tape, he told them that Marsha killed her husband by
00:47:00
poisoning a root beer float. And that's when investigators decided they needed at least to ask Marsha about Harold's
00:47:08
death. So, Marsha returns from vacation. She goes to the sheriff's office to discuss, she thinks she's going to be
00:47:15
discussing this burglary, but then investigators also raise the accusation that Steven made about her
00:47:22
killing her husband Harold. And they ask to download the contents of her cell phone, and she agrees. But then
00:47:30
when the detective leaves, she starts frantically deleting text messages, right? It's like people don't watch 48
00:47:37
Hours, Peter, because they would know. You I mean, you can never delete a message. Yeah, I know. Everyone watching
00:47:44
and listening to this who watches 48, they all know there is digital evidence out there and you can't just erase it.
00:47:51
So, nearly 7,000 texts were exchanged between Marsha and Ashley in the months leading up to Harold's death and they
00:47:58
were easily recovered, right? She thought she deleted them but she hadn't. Marsha even told investigators that all
00:48:04
she deleted from her phone were some photos and this is what she said, "Just want to make sure you don't see me in my
00:48:11
underwear." Mhm. So, she she was suggesting there were some risque photos on there that she didn't want
00:48:17
>> Of course, that's what she was deleting when in fact what she was deleting were
00:48:21
these incriminating text messages and investigators say those texts revealed Marsha and Ashley had tried to kill
00:48:27
Harold over and over again with a variety of exotic poisons including a lot of this I hadn't heard of before but
00:48:35
pong pong seeds which can cause cardiac arrest, water hemlock which attacks the nervous system and can cause grand mal
00:48:44
seizures and ethylene glycol which affects the the nervous system. That's that chemical that goes into antifreeze.
00:48:52
We didn't include this in the hour but there is one exchange where Marsha texts Ashley, this is what Marsha said to
00:48:59
Ashley, his exact words, "I am feeling a lot better since drinking Gatorade." Now, this is bad news right to the two
00:49:06
women because they're trying to kill him. Ashley replies to her mother, "Well, we need to reorder." Mhm. And
00:49:13
Marsha texts WTF, what the you know what. Mhm. They were so determined to finish this job. They weren't going to
00:49:21
be stopped and they carried on until they killed him. So, when I heard pong pong seeds, I
00:49:27
immediately thought of the TV show The White Lotus on HBO. In the third season, there's a character that nearly dies
00:49:34
after accidentally drinking pong pong seeds in a protein shake. But, my question that I kept on asking
00:49:42
myself, how on earth was it possible that Marsha and Ashley could buy these exotic poisons online? You would I there
00:49:50
would be some sort of restriction on that. The poisons they purchased are not illegal. They have legitimate uses. Pong
00:49:57
pong seeds and water hemlock are used in gardens, and ethylene glycol is a component in antifreeze and can be used
00:50:04
as a solvent. What's interesting, too, a quick aside, is that each of these have
00:50:09
a unique taste or a smell to them. Some are sweet, and that's why if you mix it with
00:50:15
something like a root beer float, you have no idea that you're drinking this antifreeze chemical. So, investigators
00:50:22
believe that the motive here for Marsha and Ashley was money. And I'm always surprised at the amount of money that
00:50:30
motivates people to murder. A $120,000 life insurance policy? It's not a little bit of money, but to kill someone? Come
00:50:40
on. Everyone you spoke to said that he was a great guy. He had a big heart. He welcomes like Marsha and Ashley and
00:50:47
their entire like the family into his family. To me, they had it good. Yeah, I mean, his nickname is Peanut. I mean, a
00:50:56
guy nicknamed Peanut, you know is a good guy. It's It's really It's just so tragic.
00:51:02
So, was it really about money? Well, look, investigators believe that these two uh
00:51:09
were evil personified. And um there was a conversation going on in those texts about that money, but
00:51:18
Lieutenant Nicholson and investigator with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department told us that Marsha and
00:51:22
Ashley believed something else, something that could have been another motive for murder, that there was a
00:51:28
demon living inside Harold. And they needed to kill him so this demon could be released. They thought that the demon
00:51:38
inside of Harold was going to escape and attach to other people living in the house.
00:51:45
No one we spoke with could tell us whether Marsha and Ashley genuinely believed that Harold was a demon or if
00:51:53
it was just a way of amusing themselves as they plotted a real murder. Mhm. And the prosecutor, Lindsey Fleetwood,
00:52:01
believes that money, not evil spirits, was driving their motivation. I'm with the prosecutor, Peter. I call BS on
00:52:09
that. In fact, when when you were talking about it, I thought, this seems like another attempt to distract and
00:52:15
cover their bases. So, as the investigation unfolds, it's October 16th, 2023. Investigators serve Marsha
00:52:24
with a search warrant for her home, and she voluntarily returns to the sheriff's
00:52:28
department and she's questioned. But then, even after investigators confronted her about the text messages,
00:52:34
she continues to go to, you know, say that she had nothing to do with Harold's death. And then, she's allowed to return
00:52:40
home. I was kind of surprised. Why did they let her go? You know, I've had the exact same reaction you just had. I'm
00:52:48
I'm going, what? You let them go? But, it was a strategic choice. And as you know, Ann Marie, authorities need to
00:52:55
reach a certain threshold of evidence in order to make an arrest, and they wanted
00:53:00
to build out a strong case [music] first. So, Marsha was warned by detectives that they were sending the
00:53:06
blood out for testing and expected the results to show that Harold was poisoned.
00:53:15
Welcome back. So, the same day that Marsha returned home from questioning at the police
00:53:20
station, Ashley, who'd been living in Missouri, was extradited back to Indiana on that burglary charge. We see footage
00:53:27
of her interview with investigators, and as soon as they confront her about Harold's murder,
00:53:33
she seems to turn on her mother. As she tells them the whole thing was Marsha's idea, that she was just being an
00:53:39
obedient daughter. I have to say, you know, Marsha and Ashley seemed really close when they were plotting
00:53:47
Harold's murder. I mean, thousands of text messages between them. I was really surprised that Ashley was so quick to
00:53:53
point the finger at her mother. It and it's chilling in a way, too. It is that that flatline emotion.
00:54:02
No matter what they're she's told, she just doesn't react as you would expect uh
00:54:08
a normal person would react like any of us would react. >> just very casual. Yeah, and um it just goes back to the
00:54:15
heartless nature of these two people. Right, which brings me to this, something you brought up earlier in this
00:54:21
podcast. Police discovered that there's evidence that Ashley had actually been plotting more murders
00:54:28
after Harold died. What do What do we know about that? We didn't have time to include this in the hour. The police
00:54:34
discovered that Ashley was plotting to kill several other people while she was in custody.
00:54:40
She stayed at the local jail in Indiana for several months, and she had a bunky,
00:54:44
as they call it, a cellmate friend who was going to be released soon. They became close, and as they approached
00:54:52
bunky's release date, Ashley gave her what police called a kill list with names of people she wanted assassinated.
00:55:00
Now, there were several names on the list, all people she had some relationship with while she and Marsha
00:55:05
were plotting this murder. It included her best friend Steven White, one of the burglars. Right, no surprise that
00:55:12
started this whole investigation. But also Steven White's mother was on the list. The cellmate went to authorities
00:55:19
and agreed to wear a concealed recording device in her cell. She drew Ashley out
00:55:25
in conversation about this kill list, and the detectives interviewed the cellmate right after, and let's listen
00:55:32
to a portion of that interview where the cellmate is talking about her reaction to Ashley approaching her with this kill
00:55:40
list. She said we're going to win this game of chess. And she said, you know, >> [snorts]
00:55:46
>> since she was seven, her mom has trained her, you know, this [ __ ] up. What did What was she
00:55:51
talking about? >> I mean, you hear me saying your shark eyes, pupils, man, they go big when she starts
00:55:58
talking about killing people. And then they go pinned up, and then they go big, and she just I mean, it's [ __ ] up.
00:56:05
She basically is saying that they're going to win this game of chess. And apparently this game, this poisonous
00:56:13
game, uh still had some moves to to to be made. And among them was this desire to to create even more victims. I mean,
00:56:23
was Ashley ever charged for that? I know she wasn't. I asked the prosecutor about
00:56:27
it, and she said Ashley is not currently being charged for anything to do with that kill list for certain legal
00:56:35
reasons. But that investigators did take it seriously, and they followed through
00:56:40
with their investigation on it. Let's go back to Harold's case now. Um there is a
00:56:44
shocking turn of events. Uh hours after Marsha returns home from questioning on October 16th, 2023,
00:56:52
police were dispatched to the house for a welfare check, and they discover that she has died by suicide. I asked
00:56:59
Lieutenant Nicholson about um Marsha's suicide, and he said, "I think she didn't want to have to spend the
00:57:06
rest of her life in prison. Um you know, I told her that we were going to send the blood off. I think she
00:57:12
she just didn't want to stick around and wait and find out what those results were when she knew what the results
00:57:17
were." She leaves a note, and it reads, "I did not kill my husband. You win, Ashley."
00:57:28
So, the prosecutor said in the hour that she believed that the message was Marsha's way of trying to get out of the
00:57:33
fact that she killed her husband. I get for I guess even in death she didn't want people to think that she was a
00:57:38
murderer, but what do you make of it? We talked about this a lot as a team and based on all of our interviews and
00:57:45
research, we believe there there is another layer that the note reads like a mother trying to implicate the daughter
00:57:53
she supposedly loved. So indeed when the toxicology report on Harold's blood comes back, it is confirmed that
00:58:01
ethylene glycol was in his system. And there were text messages from before Harold died that actually discussed
00:58:07
preparing this these root beer floats which would mask the sweet taste of the ethylene.
00:58:14
Now, here's the question. Who is the mastermind behind this plot? Both women benefited. Both women are
00:58:24
pointing the finger at each other. Who do prosecutors believe was really behind this? I asked the lead prosecutor
00:58:33
about this and she said she doesn't believe we'll ever know who pushed harder to murder
00:58:38
Harold. They were both so enthusiastic, both will so willing to discuss strategy
00:58:44
of what kind of foods and beverages we can put this into. Um the prosecutor points out that that
00:58:51
Marsha was married to him. She was the one that laid beside him at night and she was the one who ultimately put the
00:58:57
poison in the root beer that killed him, but she also said that Ashley was uh on
00:59:03
her side, constantly in her ear, helping her every step of the way, encouraging her mother every step of the way, being
00:59:10
a facilitator for her mother. Um at the end of the day after we sorted through all of it, this was really a
00:59:17
team effort and I think they both shared uh equal responsibility for this this brutal murder. So Way August of 2025,
00:59:26
Ashley took a plea deal, pleading guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. I was sort of surprised.
00:59:33
She was sentenced to 50 years in prison. That's I not the best deal on her end. But, we
00:59:40
have to talk about Ashley's late husband, Ty Jones. He died in 2019. He was just 33 years old. The autopsy
00:59:47
listed his death as related to heart issues, which is kind of surprising for a 33-year-old. Ty's family went to the
00:59:54
police as soon as they saw Harold's case on the local news. They raised their suspicions that Ashley really may have
01:00:01
had something to do with Ty's death, as well. Do police believe that they have evidence tying Ashley to Ty's possible
01:00:11
murder? Well, it is an ongoing investigation, and we're not told all the evidence that
01:00:17
authorities have. Ashley maintains that Ty died of a heart attack and has not been charged.
01:00:24
According to Ty's family, Ashley didn't shed any tears during Ty's funeral service, and the next day,
01:00:31
she shows up at Ty's place of employment asking about his life insurance policy.
01:00:37
Uh no one reported his death as suspicious at at that time, and heart attacks can happen to otherwise healthy
01:00:44
people. Um and then he was cremated shortly after his death uh at Ashley's Ashley's urging to have him cremated.
01:00:54
Suspicion also came into play well after his tissue and blood samples would have
01:01:00
been disposed of. So, there was nothing to go back, no no tissue, no blood to be
01:01:06
able to examine to see if there were poisons in there. Mhm. We do know there's one text exchange between Ashley
01:01:12
and Marsha after Marsha complained that the pong pong seeds were failing to kill
01:01:17
Harold. Ashley texted that Ty had weighed much less than Harold writing and previously Ty was only 120
01:01:28
lol. During our interview, Ty's uncle William Jones and cousin Aretha Styvers heard
01:01:37
about that text for the very first time and we want to play a clip from the moment that they learned this
01:01:43
information. There it is. There it is right there. It's painful to hear. >> Yeah, it is. Because it's one thing to
01:01:52
suspect and to feel like you know, but to have that kind of evidence presented verbally for the first time
01:02:02
is gut-wrenching. It means what you have suspected all along is true. All the time.
01:02:08
All the time. And that suspicion is is that Ty was poisoned. Both of them cried. There was a sense of relief to
01:02:16
get this news. It was really profound for them and for me sitting across from them. It closed a circle of pain and
01:02:23
injustice. When you heard that sound, you know, it was like, yes, we got it. We've got it. We've got it.
01:02:28
We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it.
01:02:30
We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it.
01:02:33
We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it. We've got it.
01:02:35
We've got it. >> It must have meant so much for them to understand that indeed they might be on
01:02:41
the right track and you know, push push more. Absolutely and we'll see where this goes. I mean it is still under
01:02:48
investigation. >> We will reiterate that Ashley says that her husband Ty died of natural causes.
01:02:55
Um, Peter, another great hour. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, thank
01:03:00
you Anne Marie. So, if you like this episode, please rate and review on Apple podcast or
01:03:05
Spotify.