Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / The Root Beer Float Murder

Transcript

The Root Beer Float Murder · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Not on one.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is no state Road one thirty five. My
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: husband and are baking. PI is non responsive.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: And Marsha Allen called nine one one.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Do you want to start CPR if I help you?
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I could do that.
• 0:36
  Speaker 5: She appears to be crying on the call. She appears
• 0:40
  Speaker 5: to start getting a little panicked.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Way why is the.
• 0:50
  Speaker 6: First responders get there? What did they find?
• 0:52
  Speaker 7: They found Harold Allan unresponsive.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: He was dead.
• 0:57
  Speaker 7: Yes, Harold and Marsha Allen had only been married for
• 1:07
  Speaker 7: a year year and a half when this happened. Harold
• 1:10
  Speaker 7: had had some health problems, so it wasn't initially a
• 1:14
  Speaker 7: huge surprise that he would have died.
• 1:16
  Speaker 6: And what was the cause of death determined to be
• 1:19
  Speaker 6: at that time it was heart problems.
• 1:26
  Speaker 8: About six months after Harold's death, Marcia wrote a self
• 1:32
  Speaker 8: help book about grief and losing someone that you loved.
• 1:40
  Speaker 6: About Harold, she says, he was my world. The grief
• 1:43
  Speaker 6: I was experiencing after my husband passed away was unbearable
• 1:48
  Speaker 6: and still is. Well.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: This is just a grieving woman missing her husband. A
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: burglary call come over the radio. Our detectives were going
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: to Marcia's house. We started investigating the burglary, and in
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: the process that we're told there's a murder involved here.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: This one is a murderer, Okay.
• 2:19
  Speaker 9: I know that I have not wanted nobody, so I
• 2:21
  Speaker 9: didn't think. I don't have no proof on it.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Stephen White told me that Marcia Allen had killed her
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: husband Harold by poisoning a root beer float.
• 2:33
  Speaker 10: Marshall into the kitchen. I made a root beer float
• 2:36
  Speaker 10: with whipped pains and sprinkles on top of it and
• 2:40
  Speaker 10: supports something out of a bottle into there.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: Poison is unique.
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: I think you see it in movies because it makes
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: a good show, but it's not normally how homicide or
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: death is carried out. The toxicology report came back Ethlyn
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: Guy call was in Harold's system.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: It's the main component in ana freeze.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: If you're consuming athleene glycol, you're not gonna know. You're
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: not gonna smell it, you're not gonna taste it. If
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: you put it in a root beer float with ice
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: cream and root beer, you're not going to know until
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: it's too late. I think if the burglary wouldn't have happened,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: there would be no way that we would know about it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: At all.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: H Right now, we're probably about a half mile north
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: of where Marsha Allen and Harold Allen lived.
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: When Harold Allen died suddenly in his home in Freetown, Indiana,
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: just a few days before Christmas twenty twenty two.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: The driveway going up to the Allen residents would have
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: been right there.
• 4:26
  Speaker 6: Lieutenant Adam Nicholson, an investigator with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department,
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: says no one suspected anything out of the ordinary.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Twenty years on.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: The job, I never thought I would see a case
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: like this.
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: Harold's younger brother, Matthew, and his wife Samantha, knew he
• 4:44
  Speaker 6: had been dealing with some serious health issues.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: He was bigger, he was diabetic.
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: Including painful gastro intestinal problems, which had sent him to
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: the emergency room on multiple occasions late that year.
• 4:58
  Speaker 11: I think one time they I thought it was what wasulatus?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: They said, yeah, direticulitis.
• 5:07
  Speaker 6: On Thanksgiving twenty twenty two, as the family was enjoying
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: their holiday feast, Matthew noticed that Harold all of a
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: sudden looked distressed.
• 5:17
  Speaker 11: We were eating dessert, and he looked up at me
• 5:22
  Speaker 11: like his eyes got wide, like he was kind of scared,
• 5:26
  Speaker 11: and I was like, what's wrong.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: He goes the left side of my face just went numb.
• 5:30
  Speaker 11: I said, I'm either calling an ambulance or I'm taking
• 5:32
  Speaker 11: you to the hospital right now.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: And he's like, well, just give me a second.
• 5:37
  Speaker 6: Despite the family's urging to get medical help, Harold refused.
• 5:42
  Speaker 11: Marcia was just like standing there and I was like, well,
• 5:46
  Speaker 11: he needs to go to the hospital, and she was like,
• 5:48
  Speaker 11: I've been telling him that.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: He needs to get there.
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: Harold's mystifying health condition worsened in the weeks leading up
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: to Christmas. Doctor struggled to diagnose exactly what was him.
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: Then came December twentieth, twenty twenty two, when Marcia made
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: a disturbing discovery and placed that nine to one one
• 6:08
  Speaker 6: call oho. I went back there to take one in
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: the dick. He was just playing the floor like he's
• 6:15
  Speaker 6: trying to get good bedrooms.
• 6:17
  Speaker 12: I'm not reading.
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: Fifty two year old Harold, the oldest of three brothers,
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: had spent his life in this quiet, rural part of
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: southern Indiana where everyone knew this imposing man as Peanut.
• 6:34
  Speaker 11: I thought his name was Peanut until I was about
• 6:36
  Speaker 11: six or seven years old.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: That's that's a true story. My brother was.
• 6:42
  Speaker 11: Born premature and my grandma said he's no bigger than
• 6:46
  Speaker 11: a peanut.
• 6:48
  Speaker 8: I had a close family, but it was nothing like
• 6:51
  Speaker 8: the Allen's. When they were together, all the pieces of
• 6:58
  Speaker 8: the puzzle were there.
• 7:02
  Speaker 11: He self taught himself like the guitar and mandon and
• 7:05
  Speaker 11: he played Harmonica's.
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: You really looked up to your brother, right?
• 7:09
  Speaker 11: Oh yeah, Like he became a controls engineer, super smart.
• 7:14
  Speaker 11: I wish I was as smart as him.
• 7:16
  Speaker 6: Jackson County Sheriff's Department Detective Clint Bircham says Harold worked
• 7:21
  Speaker 6: for a global automotive supply company.
• 7:23
  Speaker 7: A local factory in Seymour, Indiana, ice in manufacturing.
• 7:27
  Speaker 11: He liked riding his motorcycles, and he had a Harley
• 7:32
  Speaker 11: motorcycle that he rode for years.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: He went deer hunting and fishing.
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: We did fish a lot. Enjoying a full life, Harold
• 7:41
  Speaker 6: became nostalgic about his high school days. In twenty nineteen,
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: he decided to attend his thirtieth reunion.
• 7:48
  Speaker 11: The Austin, Indiana High School Reunion.
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: It was there that the twice divorced Harold spotted former
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: classmate Marsha Buckstone.
• 7:58
  Speaker 11: They didn't even really speak in high schoo but at
• 8:01
  Speaker 11: this reunion is when they started a conversation and just
• 8:04
  Speaker 11: blossomed from there.
• 8:06
  Speaker 6: Divorced herself with an adult daughter, Marcia and Harold began
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: dating about two years later. The couple married in July
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: of twenty twenty one. What kind of life did they
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: lead together as a married couple.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: They liked to travel. They liked the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Pidgeonforge area, Branson, Missouri.
• 8:31
  Speaker 6: The following year, Marsha's daughter, Ashley Jones, and her five
• 8:35
  Speaker 6: year old daughter moved in with Harold and Marsha. Samantha
• 8:39
  Speaker 6: says Harold, who had no children of his own, welcomed
• 8:42
  Speaker 6: them with open arms.
• 8:44
  Speaker 8: Peanut always wanted children, He always wanted a family, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 8: he enjoyed being called grandpa.
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: Ashley was a young widow. Her thirty three year old husband,
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: Ty Jones, had died suddenly three years earlier. What were
• 9:01
  Speaker 6: the circumstances of his death?
• 9:03
  Speaker 7: Did Jones died of some heart complications is what the
• 9:08
  Speaker 7: autopsy said.
• 9:09
  Speaker 6: Describe the relationship between Ashley and her mother Marsha. Were
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: they close?
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: They were very close every day Marcia Allen would send
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Astley Jones a message saying good morning, baby girl, every
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: single morning.
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: The house was now full with three generations, and Harold
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: seemed to enjoy his instant extended family.
• 9:30
  Speaker 8: He cared about what everybody else was feeling and.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: Just wanted everyone to be happy.
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: At the time, Harold's autopsy concluded his death was caused
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: by multiple serious cardiac issues, including harry carditis and inflammation
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: of the sack around the heart. Practically still a newlywed,
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: Marcia was now a widow. Heartbroken, she turned to write
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: about her grief.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: After Harold Allen died, his wife, Marcia Allen publish as
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: a book.
• 10:08
  Speaker 6: Self published, it was intended to be a guide for
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: others going through what she was. She says that this
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: is an intimate glimpse of what I went through when
• 10:18
  Speaker 6: my husband died. She writes about survivor's guilt that she
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: was suffering with that. She says that her book is
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: a beacon of hope, finding the strength and courage to
• 10:28
  Speaker 6: move forward and learning a new way to live.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: How to grieve a loss of a significant other.
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: Marcia would soon face another challenge. Nine months after Harold's death,
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: Lieutenant Nicholson was monitoring a call where investigators were dispatched
• 10:46
  Speaker 6: to that break in at Marsha's.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: The case, to me started like any other case. A
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: burglary call come over the radio. Our detectives were going
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: to Marsha's house.
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: Security cameras had captured two men breaking into her home.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: We started investigating the burglary in the process that we're told,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: you know, well, there's a murder involved here.
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: In September of twenty twenty three, Marcia Allen was vacationing
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, known for its beautiful fall colors and
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: hiking trails. Little did she know that about three hundred
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: and fifty miles away, two burglars were exploring the inside
• 11:44
  Speaker 6: of her home.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: The burglary happened, I want to say, like at like
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: four point thirty in the morning. She had recently put
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: a home security system in her house.
• 11:55
  Speaker 6: The app for this system notified Marcia that there'd been
• 11:58
  Speaker 6: movement on her home's camera while she slept. When she
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: reviewed the video, she could see two men opening her
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: home safe and rifling through her bedroom and jewelry.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: She could watch him go through the house. There was
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: a lot of stuff taken pretty major burglary.
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: One of the burglars caught Marsha's eye incredibly, he was
• 12:21
  Speaker 6: someone she recognized. His name was Stephen White. Marcia immediately
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: called local police in Indiana to report the break in.
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: Marsha Allen described Stephen Why as her daughter, Ashley Jones'
• 12:38
  Speaker 7: best friend, really close friend.
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: Why would her own daughter's best friend burglarize Marsha's home.
• 12:45
  Speaker 6: Ashley had moved to Missouri in the month's following Harold's death,
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: so Marcia had been living alone. Reviewing the images, investigators
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: noticed the burglars had come prepared.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: It seemed like they knew right where to go. And
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: the other thing was is that they knew the code
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: to the safe.
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: Within hours, police found Stephen White living at his mother's
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: home nearby. Investigators quickly made a house call.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, want to
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: be provided for you for your costs that you desire one.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: So do you understand your rights?
• 13:19
  Speaker 10: Yes, sir?
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Okay? So you have any idea why we're here today?
• 13:22
  Speaker 9: Well, they said, the shaw got me on camera last night,
• 13:26
  Speaker 9: burglarized in a place.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Does you know anything about it? No?
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: But the wonders of technology did not allow White to
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: lie for long.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I got a picture here, Cassie.
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: Nicholson had a security camera screenshot of White committing the
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: burglary on his phone.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: And that's just one of the five that they sent us.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: And they got video too, and we got video. That's
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: just a still shot from a video.
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: Don't let me see.
• 13:53
  Speaker 9: I mean, I really do not have a hat.
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: I don't even have a unable to deny it. Nichols
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: since says White admitted to burglarizing Marsha's home.
• 14:04
  Speaker 9: This woman, he's hated me for years. I'm best friends
• 14:07
  Speaker 9: with her daughter. Okay, R's ther daughter's Nick Ashley Jones.
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: Then, stunningly, White said something else based on information he
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: claimed Ashley had told him that Marcia was responsible for
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: her husband's death.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: This woman is a murderer.
• 14:26
  Speaker 10: Okay, I know that.
• 14:28
  Speaker 9: I have not wanted to nobody and so I anything
• 14:29
  Speaker 9: because I don't have no proof on it. This woman's
• 14:32
  Speaker 9: a psychopath and I'm telling you guys that right now.
• 14:36
  Speaker 9: Harold Allen was her husband. She set a life insurance
• 14:39
  Speaker 9: policy for him, went and married him.
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: White then revealed how Marcia allegedly cashed in on the policy.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Steve, and White told me that Marcia Allen had killed
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: her husband Harold by poisoning a root beer float.
• 14:52
  Speaker 6: White even knew the details of how the float was made.
• 14:56
  Speaker 10: Marshall went into the kitchen. I made a root beer float,
• 15:00
  Speaker 10: was whipped cream and sprinkles on top of it, and
• 15:04
  Speaker 10: support something out of a bottle into there.
• 15:08
  Speaker 6: Police placed White under arrest, puts on your back, but
• 15:12
  Speaker 6: as they did, he had one more surprise about the burglary.
• 15:17
  Speaker 6: He claimed Marsh's daughter was the mastermind, is.
• 15:21
  Speaker 9: The one to set this up.
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: White told police Ashley had mailed him a key to
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: Marsha's house and given him the combination to the safe,
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: unaware her mother had installed those home security cameras. He
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: also told investigators where they could recover everything stolen the
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: night before, including guns and jewelry.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: We found the guns where he told us they were.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: He told me who the other suspect was, and found
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: that suspect wearing Harold Allen's jewelry. And I told Detective Bertram,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: I said, you know, everything that Stevens told us up
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: to this point has been true. I said, I feel
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: like we at least have to ask her about Harold.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Harold's death.
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: After notifying police, Marcia had driven home from her vacation.
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: The next morning, she arrived at the Sheriff's department to
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: discuss the burglary.
• 16:11
  Speaker 9: So that's your husband's ring as my husbands, they got
• 16:14
  Speaker 9: his manline, they got a bunch of his collectible Star
• 16:18
  Speaker 9: Wars stuff.
• 16:19
  Speaker 6: Investigators at first made no mention of Stephen White's murder allegation,
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: instead treating the interview as part of the burglary investigation,
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: asking Marcia what was missing.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: I had a picture of me wearing the Sagar earrings
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: and Nicholas and our wedding.
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 16:36
  Speaker 13: If you think I'll help identify anything, then we start
• 16:38
  Speaker 13: going through stuff.
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: They also discussed Ashley's potential involvement.
• 16:43
  Speaker 13: He said, you talk to your daughter, what is she saying?
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: She's denied. She goes, he's trying to drag me down.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: I'm Ashley, as I had proof.
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: Marcia said. The proof was that White knew her Safes combination.
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: She's only other than me new combination I would never
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: given to you ever.
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: Did you already have a plan to ask her about
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: this murder allegation?
• 17:07
  Speaker 7: Yes, Then after talking about the burglary, basically I end
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: up telling her, you know this has been brought to
• 17:12
  Speaker 7: our attention.
• 17:13
  Speaker 13: I can tell you.
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: We Detective Bertram told Marcia what Stephen had claimed.
• 17:18
  Speaker 13: He accused you of murdering your husband.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I did not murder my husband poisoning his drink.
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: Marcia was defiant and seemed to have an answer for everything.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: As college report. If that happened. Was there an autopsy done? Yes, antoscology.
• 17:35
  Speaker 8: He died because he appearing on as that was unattended.
• 17:39
  Speaker 13: I'm just telling you what he said.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: He's fine, Okay, no emotion, no anything, didn't even catch
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: her off guard.
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: Marcia denied any involvement, but Stephen White had given other
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: details to police, things he said he'd heard from Ashley
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: telling investigators that Marcia's text messages would contain incriminating evidence.
• 18:03
  Speaker 7: But we wanted to see if she would have any
• 18:04
  Speaker 7: text messages that possibly said anything about a murder of
• 18:09
  Speaker 7: her husband.
• 18:10
  Speaker 13: Would you be willing to consent to download your cell phone?
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: Bertram left Marcia alone to get the paperwork for the download.
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: And while I'm gone from the interview room, Marsh ends
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: up deleting items off of her phone.
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: Marcia didn't realize that what she deleted could easily be recovered,
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: and those texts revealed a sinister plot.
• 18:35
  Speaker 7: There are numerous text messages between her and Ashley, and
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: it starts to become evident that there's something going on
• 18:45
  Speaker 7: that they were indeed trying to poison Harold Allen.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm saying the same thing he's saying. You know,
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: he's calling me. I'm calling him like, did you read
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: page ten, five hundred and seventy eight. He's like, no,
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: I haven't got that far yet.
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: For mother and daughter, it seemed Harold's death couldn't come
• 19:04
  Speaker 6: soon enough, with Marcia texting Ashley, he just needs to
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: let go.
• 19:10
  Speaker 7: Ultimately, we all agreed that yes, we've got.
• 19:13
  Speaker 14: A murder here.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: She gave him a root beer flight with poison.
• 19:28
  Speaker 14: This one.
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: With Stephen White's accusation that Marcia Allen poisoned her husband
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: with a root beer float.
• 19:36
  Speaker 9: This woman's a psychopath.
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: And her devious behavior deleting texts with her daughter Ashley.
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: Investigators zeroed in on those messages. Some disparaged Harold. Ashley
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: complained He's a waste of space. Others celebrated the delivery
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: of poisons. Ashley wrote, smiley face, I'm ready for that
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: to arrive. Marsha replied me too.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: They texted about everything.
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: Jackson County Prosecutor Lindsay Fleetwood.
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: There were thousands upon thousands, you.
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: Just say thousands of messages.
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: There were thousands of messages.
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: Investigators would spend weeks building their case, combing through nearly
• 20:19
  Speaker 6: seven thousand texts exchanged over the three months before Harold died.
• 20:25
  Speaker 15: Yeah, this is gonna be very helpful.
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: The more they read, the more they learned of a
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: diabolical plot to kill Harold. Why would they want him dead?
• 20:35
  Speaker 7: Agreed it was all for financial gang.
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: Police learned Harold had a one hundred twenty thousand dollars
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: life insurance policy through his job. He also had those
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: guns and several guitars.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: I think money was a very big motive in this case.
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: Investigators say those thousands of texts revealed Marsha and Ashley
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: tried to kill Harold over and over again with a
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: variety of exotic poisons. Police found in order actually made
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: on eBay for pong pong seeds, a powerful toxin.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: Pongbong is a seed from a tree that grows in
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Southeast Asia. They actually refer to this tree. It's called
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: the suicide tree. It's not a native plant to the
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: United States, so it'd have to be ordered online somewhere.
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: As Thanksgiving approached, police believe mother and daughter put a
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: new dessert on the menu, poisoned brownies. They texted about
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: grinding up the pong pong seeds, adding walnuts to hide
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: the poison's bitter taste. What wasn't hidden was their apparent glee.
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: Ashley writes, how's it going laugh out loud? And Marcius
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: sends back a picture of a half eaten brownie. Ashley, Ooh,
• 21:57
  Speaker 6: let me know when it's gone laugh out loud.
• 22:00
  Speaker 7: They're basically making a joke out of the fact that
• 22:02
  Speaker 7: they're gonna try to murder him.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: The smiley faces the lols when someone's an excruciating pain.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I mean this shows you how evil that these people
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: actually are.
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: As Harold made repeated trips to the er suffering all
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: those GI symptoms, Police say a new level of depravity
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: emerged in a text from Marsha to Ashley. I am
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: irritated and can't sleep peacefully. I need this to be over.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: He's not dying fast enough.
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: In another instance, after Marsha texted Ashley that Harold was
• 22:41
  Speaker 6: attending a family funeral.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: Ashley Jones' messages marshap and says he just needs to
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: go and drop in the hole too.
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: After the pong pong seeds failed to kill Harold, police
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: learned they ordered another lethal plant, water hemlock. Investigators on
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: several days in December they served him tainted chili sprite
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: and a margarita.
• 23:07
  Speaker 11: He surrounded himself with people he thought loved him, and
• 23:10
  Speaker 11: to be poisoned on a nightly basis basically infuriates me.
• 23:17
  Speaker 11: They poisoned it, and they waited for him to die.
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: But somehow Harold survived all those attempts. Police believe Marcia
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: and Ashley then shifted from plants to a chemical called
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: ethylene glycol, which is used in anti freeze. They ordered
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: it online.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: If you're consuming ethylene glycol, you're not gonna know. You're
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: not gonna smell it. It doesn't have any color to it.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: It's described as maybe a slight sweet taste.
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: Investigators believe because of its sweet taste, Marcia and Ashley
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: came up with the plan of a poisoned root beer float.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: If you put it in root beer float with ice
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: cream and root beer You're not going to know until
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: it's too late.
• 24:05
  Speaker 6: Marcia texted Ashley, he's all in for root beer floats.
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: Ashley replied, Oki dokie. I'll tell the kids that's what
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: we are doing tonight for dessert. Smiley face root beer floats.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: They probably had this so well planned out that they
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: knew exactly what he would eat and what he wouldn't.
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: Marsha purchased the ingredients for this poisonous beverage at a
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: local store. She texted Ashley this photo of small soda cans.
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: Ashley encouraged her to buy large bottles. Investigators believe Marcia
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: served Herald the fatal potion on the night of December nineteenth,
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: twenty twenty two.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: I think they knew that this was one hundred percent
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: is going to be successful.
• 24:50
  Speaker 6: This ethelene GLYCLL. When it gets into your body, what
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: does it attack.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: It starts attacking like some of the organs, you know,
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: like the art liver, kidney's stomach. You know you're sick, nauseated.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: I believe it even starts to affect the brains.
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: They not only wanted to kill him, but it seems
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: like they wanted to profoundly make him suffer. What's the
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: source of that kind of hatred?
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: I don't know where a hatred that deep can even
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: stem from.
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: The Next afternoon, just five days before Christmas twenty twenty two,
• 25:27
  Speaker 6: an ambulance rushed to the Allen home Harold could not
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: be saved.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Ready.
• 25:36
  Speaker 6: After reading the blow by blow account spelled out in
• 25:39
  Speaker 6: those texts, on October sixteenth, twenty twenty three, investigators took action.
• 25:49
  Speaker 15: Hi, Marsha, here, step out here for us real quick.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: We're here today because we got a search warrant for
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: your house.
• 25:55
  Speaker 6: Okay, Officers served a pre dawn warrant at Marsha's home.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Here you keeps me a murdered.
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: There's text messages about ordering Ethlen blackhole.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: I did not kill my husband.
• 26:08
  Speaker 13: The Ethlyn blackhole shows up at your house on December nineteenth,
• 26:15
  Speaker 13: and Harold passed away on December twentieth. Yeah so, and
• 26:20
  Speaker 13: we're also being told that the way he was poisoned,
• 26:22
  Speaker 13: that it was through a rubber float.
• 26:24
  Speaker 6: Now, after serving the warrant to search your house, Marcia
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: was asked if she'd voluntarily come to the Jackson County
• 26:48
  Speaker 6: Sheriff's Department for questioning.
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: We can show you some of these messages and you
• 26:52
  Speaker 7: can explain to him.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: I don't have a choice.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, you have a you don't have to go.
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: What followed was a four and a half hour interview
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: in which Marcia said largely nothing.
• 27:05
  Speaker 13: The ruber phlobs is confirmed in your text messages, and
• 27:09
  Speaker 13: then there's an ethylene glycole that was ordered and sent
• 27:12
  Speaker 13: to your house and you say you don't know anything
• 27:15
  Speaker 13: about that.
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: Marcia was moved to a different room to show her
• 27:21
  Speaker 6: some of those recovered text messages on a computer screen. Undaunted,
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: she continued her claims of ignorance.
• 27:29
  Speaker 13: Is there any reason that there would be any ethylene
• 27:33
  Speaker 13: glycoli found in Harold's body anywhere?
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: When Harold died, his autopsy sided cardiac issues, but the
• 27:44
  Speaker 6: coroner did not screen Harold's blood for poisons at the
• 27:47
  Speaker 6: time because his death was not suspicious.
• 27:51
  Speaker 15: Luckily for us, they keep that blood for a year,
• 27:56
  Speaker 15: so we have put a hold on that blood and
• 27:59
  Speaker 15: it's going to be retested for all kinds of other stuff.
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: Right now.
• 28:04
  Speaker 13: The way this is going, I have a bad feeling
• 28:06
  Speaker 13: that when we get these results back that it's going
• 28:09
  Speaker 13: to show it Flane gleckole in his system.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: It is going to shock me.
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: When the interview ended, Marsha wasn't arrested. She was allowed
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: to return home as the weight began for Harold's blood
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: test results. That same day, her daughter Ashley, who'd been
• 28:26
  Speaker 6: living in Missouri, was extradided to Indiana under arrest for
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: the burglary of her mother's house. The next morning at
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: the station, Ashley was about to be surprised.
• 28:40
  Speaker 13: We're not going to talk to you about burglars. Okay,
• 28:43
  Speaker 13: that's what I'm what we're here to talk about.
• 28:45
  Speaker 6: Investigators got right to the point, we.
• 28:48
  Speaker 13: Have some text messages from your mom's phone. Do you
• 28:53
  Speaker 13: know anything about Dethleine Glyckhole, No, Sarah. The information we
• 28:57
  Speaker 13: got was Harold did not die in natural causes, basically
• 29:00
  Speaker 13: that he was poisoned.
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: Really, they told Ashley they'd already talked to her mother.
• 29:08
  Speaker 13: If you know something, if you know something else, that's
• 29:11
  Speaker 13: time to tell us so.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: We can I know. She said, she wanted out.
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: That's all. But that wasn't all. Just ten minutes later, Ashley,
• 29:24
  Speaker 6: in a complete change of direction, named her own mother
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: as Harold's killer.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: She didn't want a divorce, and I said divorce. She
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: wanted to be free of him completely. She wanted him dead,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: and I said, you're going to go to hell for
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: that month. No matter what happens, you're going to now.
• 29:44
  Speaker 6: Ashley continued giving her mother hell, admitting she helped Marsha
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: purchase ethelene glycol and other poisons online, but claimed she
• 29:53
  Speaker 6: was just being an obedient daughter.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: I really didn't know ask many questions, which I guess should.
• 30:02
  Speaker 11: For that woman.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: I just do what she asks and always have since I.
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: Was a child. Remember, Ashley was in the house as
• 30:10
  Speaker 6: Harold was in agony during his final hours of life.
• 30:15
  Speaker 6: She was asked why she didn't do more for Harold
• 30:18
  Speaker 6: when he still might have been saved. Did you ever.
• 30:21
  Speaker 13: Mention anything to her that maybe you should call an ambulance.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: I did. I said, are you sure you want to
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: do now?
• 30:27
  Speaker 6: He asked sure?
• 30:27
  Speaker 13: If she was sure she wanted.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: To do this awful okay, I mean just doing that
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: to anybody, regardless of any which way or forward. I
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: didn't agree, but loyalty to the mother's the hell of
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: the bank.
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: Unexpected news about her mother would punctuate the end of
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: Ashley's police interview. When another officer entered the room.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: My name's Jesse and I sorry to hear defective office.
• 30:54
  Speaker 13: Okay, So I'm here to talk to you about something
• 30:57
  Speaker 13: completely different.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: The night before, hours after Marcia's own interview ended and
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: she'd returned home, Marcia's parents had been unable to reach
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: her on the phone.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: They had also been to the house knocking on the door,
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: and her car was home, but she wasn't answering the door.
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: They notified police that's the new key.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: Then it was dispatched for our officers to go for
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: a welfare check.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: It's not only an easy conversation. Okay.
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: After your mom was here yesterday and spoke with us,
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: we got a call to go check on her welfare
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: at her home and she's passed away.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: What she passed away? What happened?
• 31:47
  Speaker 14: Without going into a lot of detail, it appeared that
• 31:50
  Speaker 14: there was something ingested possibly and passed away on her bed.
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: Marcia Allen was discover deceased and it was ruled a suicide.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: She killed her, that.
• 32:05
  Speaker 6: Is what That's what we believe that been. Yes, why
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: do you think she took her life at that moment?
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: I think she didn't want to have to spend the
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: rest of her life in prison, you know, I told
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: her that we were going to send the blood off.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: I think she didn't want to stick around and wait
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: and find out what those results were.
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: Forty eight hours obtained this photograph of the note Marcia
• 32:31
  Speaker 6: left behind, and she wrote, I did not kill my husband.
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: You win, Ashley, with an exclamation point. How do you
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: interpret that?
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: I interpret that. I don't really give it much weight.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: I think it's her way of trying to leave some
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: message and trying to get out of the fact that
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: she killed her husband.
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: Now investigators would start building their case against the last
• 32:59
  Speaker 6: survivor in this peculiar crime, Ashley, for her role in
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: Harold's death.
• 33:19
  Speaker 13: I am going to read you your right.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: You're in custody.
• 33:22
  Speaker 13: Make sure you understand that.
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: Just one day after her police interview and learning her
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: mother had taken her own life, she's gone correct, Ashley
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: Jones received more startling news.
• 33:36
  Speaker 13: You are under the arrest for the murder of Harold
• 33:39
  Speaker 13: Okay and conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder.
• 33:43
  Speaker 6: Ashley responded with just five words. Still on the table
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: was that burglary charge against Ashley. Police were certain they
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: knew exactly how it was connected to Harold's death.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Marsh Allen paid to Ashley about one thousand dollars a
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: month from the time of Harold's death in December of
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty two till like July of twenty twenty three.
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: The burglary occurred just two months after the payment stopped.
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: She was going after money that she thought belonged to
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: her from the murder of Harold Allen. Ashley Jones didn't
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: feel like she received her compensation for that.
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: The prosecution said it had a strong case against Ashley,
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: especially when toxicology results confirmed exactly what police suspected. Harold
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: had been given a root beer float poisoned with ethelene
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: glycol purchased by Ashley. As those damning text messages showed.
• 34:45
  Speaker 12: What Ashley said, those texts hurt her. I mean, there's
• 34:49
  Speaker 12: just no way around it.
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: Ashley's attorney, Public defender Joseph Robertson, knew it was going
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: to be a difficult case. There was a legal freight
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: train headed towards your client. I mean, this was an
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: impossible case.
• 35:03
  Speaker 12: Yes, by the time that all this evidence came out,
• 35:06
  Speaker 12: we just told her said, you know, we're in the
• 35:08
  Speaker 12: tunnel and the white light at the other end is
• 35:11
  Speaker 12: the legal system coming after you.
• 35:14
  Speaker 6: But Ashley would never have to defend her text or
• 35:17
  Speaker 6: murderous actions in court. In August twenty twenty five, she
• 35:22
  Speaker 6: took a plea deal, pleading guilty to attempted murder and
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: conspiracy to commit murder.
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: I don't think I can ever say that I saw
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: remorse on Ashley Jones's face.
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: Harold's brother Matthew and his wife Samantha were in the
• 35:41
  Speaker 6: court room for the sentence.
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: See the judge said, there's no other word but evil.
• 35:49
  Speaker 8: There's no forgiveness from this court, and I have no
• 35:53
  Speaker 8: choice but to give you the full time.
• 35:56
  Speaker 6: Ashley was sentenced to fifty years in prison.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: It was just the sigh of relief.
• 36:03
  Speaker 11: We finally felt like we got a little bit of
• 36:06
  Speaker 11: justice that my brother deserved.
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: In the end, these two women who would chuckle over
• 36:13
  Speaker 6: their plans with one another, they didn't get away with this.
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: One took her own life when confronted with her deeds,
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: and the other one is gone for decades.
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, I truly think they thought they were smarter than
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: the system.
• 36:30
  Speaker 6: But Ashley's legal woes may not be over. There is
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: another death in her past, her late husband Ty Jones,
• 36:37
  Speaker 6: who died when he was just thirty three. His autopsy
• 36:42
  Speaker 6: said the cause of death was heart issues, but two
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: of his family members suspected foul play from the beginning.
• 36:49
  Speaker 6: You believe that Ty Jones, your nephew, was murdered, Yes,
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: I do. William Jones and Aretta Stivers are Taie's uncle
• 36:58
  Speaker 6: and cousin. What do you believe happened to him? I
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: believe that he was poisoned. Ty's body was not tested
• 37:06
  Speaker 6: for poison in twenty nineteen, and he was cremated at
• 37:10
  Speaker 6: Ashley's request. But his family says Tye was perfectly healthy
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: before suddenly dying, and after his death, they say Ashley's
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: strange behavior raised red flags.
• 37:23
  Speaker 14: During Ty's funeral service, Ashley Jones did not shed any tears.
• 37:28
  Speaker 14: The next day, she showed up at Tie's place of
• 37:30
  Speaker 14: employment to inquire about his insurance policy.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: She expected a check that very next day.
• 37:36
  Speaker 14: All of it to me said, there is something going
• 37:38
  Speaker 14: on here that needs to be investigated.
• 37:42
  Speaker 6: After William Terretta heard how Harold died on the news,
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: they contacted police, sharing their suspicions that Ashley murdered Tie.
• 37:51
  Speaker 6: Her eye on an inheritance he had just received from
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: his great grandfather.
• 37:57
  Speaker 14: I do believe that there was a large enough some
• 38:00
  Speaker 14: money and a property that Ashley likely thought she would inherit,
• 38:05
  Speaker 14: and that that could have been a motivator for her.
• 38:08
  Speaker 6: And in Ashley and Marsha's text about murdering Harold, there
• 38:12
  Speaker 6: was a reference to Tye. After Marsha complained the deadly
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: pong pong seeds were failing to kill Harold, Ashley, out
• 38:22
  Speaker 6: of the blue said Tye had weighed much less than Harold,
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: writing and previously ty was only one hundred and twenty lol.
• 38:32
  Speaker 6: During their forty eight hours interview, William and Noretta heard
• 38:36
  Speaker 6: about that text for the first time. They reference Ashley's
• 38:41
  Speaker 6: late husband Tye. There, it is there, It is right there.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: It's painful to hear, Yeah, it is.
• 38:50
  Speaker 14: Because it's one thing to suspect and to feel like,
• 38:53
  Speaker 14: you know, but to have that kind of evidence presented
• 38:58
  Speaker 14: verbally for the first time is gut wrenching.
• 39:02
  Speaker 6: It means what you have suspected all along, it is true.
• 39:05
  Speaker 15: All the time, all the time.
• 39:09
  Speaker 6: Ashley maintains that Tye died of a heart attack, but
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: Indiana State Police opened an investigation into his death. Nicholson
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: says he's struck by the similarities between Harold and Ty's deaths.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: I believe it's way more than a coincidence. Personally, I
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: think that she probably killed him. But that's my opinion.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: There's very few probably as evil as Marsha Allen and
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: Asley Jones.
• 39:38
  Speaker 11: They're the same person, I mean, just.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Carbon copy evil.
• 39:47
  Speaker 6: Looking back, Harold's family doesn't think Marcia ever really loved him.
• 39:53
  Speaker 11: I think she chose the person that she can manipulate.
• 40:00
  Speaker 6: Their memories are all that remain to fill the void
• 40:03
  Speaker 6: left by the man they called Peanut, who had a
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: big personality and an even greater heart.
• 40:11
  Speaker 11: I'll see something and I'll be think, oh, man, that's
• 40:15
  Speaker 11: something Peanut would love to know about, and I like,
• 40:17
  Speaker 11: I go to like actually call him, and I'm like, oh,
• 40:20
  Speaker 11: I can't. So it is something that I would give
• 40:25
  Speaker 11: anything to get back.
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: Honestly, my goodness, how much you miss him?
• 40:30
  Speaker 11: Huh yeah, Yes, it's crazy.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Every day the book anything