When Harold Allen died suddenly in his home in Freetown, Indiana, just a few days before Christmas 2022, Lieutenant Adam Nicholson, an investigator with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, says no one suspected anything out of the ordinary.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: Twenty years on the job, I never thought I would see a case like this.
Harold’s younger brother Matthew Allen and his wife Samantha knew he had been dealing with some serious health issues —
Matthew Allen : He was bigger. … He was diabetic.
— including painful gastrointestinal problems which had sent him to the emergency room on multiple occasions late that year…
Matthew Allen: I think one time they thought it was — what — what was it like?
Samantha Allen: Diverticulitis, they said.
Matthew Allen: Yeah, diverticulitis.
On Thanksgiving 2022, as the family was enjoying their holiday feast, Matthew noticed that Harold all of a sudden looked distressed.
Matthew Allen: We were eating dessert. And, uh, he looked up at me. … like, his — his eyes got wide. Like he was kind of scared. And I was like, “What’s wrong?” … Well, he goes, “The left side of my face just went numb.”
Matthew Allen: I said … “I’m either calling an ambulance, or I’m taking you to the hospital right now.” And he’s like, “Well, just give me a second.”
Despite his family’s urging to get medical help, Harold refused.
Matthew Allen: Marsha was just like standing there. And 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 there.”
Harold’s mystifying health condition worsened in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Doctors struggled to diagnose exactly what was ailing him. Then came Dec. 20, 2022 — when Marsha made a disturbing discovery and placed a 911 call.
MARSHA ALLEN to 911: I work from home. … I went back there to check on him ’cause he’s been sick. … He was just laying on the floor, like he was trying to get up and go to the bathroom or something. And he’s not breathing.
What was making Harold Allen sick?
Harold, 52, the oldest of three brothers, had spent his life in this quiet, rural part of southern Indiana, where everyone knew this imposing man as “Peanut”.
Matthew Allen: I thought his name was Peanut until I was about 6 or 7 years old. That’s — that’s a true story.
Matthew Allen: (chuckles) My brother was born premature … and my grandma … said, “He’s no bigger than a peanut.”
Samantha Allen: I had a close family, but it was nothing like the Allens. … When they were together, all the pieces of the puzzle were there.
Matthew Allen: He self-taught himself, like the guitar and mandolin. And he played harmonicas.
Peter Van Sant: You really looked up to your brother, right?
Matthew Allen: Oh, yeah. Like, uh, he became a controls engineer. Um, super smart. I wish I was as smart as him.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Detective Clint Burcham says Harold worked for a global automotive supply company.
Det. Clint Burcham: A local factory in Seymour, Indiana, Aisin Manufacturing.
Matthew Allen: He liked riding his motorcycles. … He had a Harley motorcycle that he rode for years. … He went deer hunting and … fishing. … We did fish a lot.
Enjoying a full life, Harold became nostalgic about his high school days. In 2019, he decided to attend his 30th reunion.
Matthew Allen: The Austin, Indiana, high school reunion.
It was there that the twice-divorced Harold spotted former classmate Marsha Buxton.
Matthew Allen: They didn’t even really speak in high school, but at this reunion is when they started a conversation. … And just blossomed from there.
Divorced with an adult daughter, Marsha and Harold began dating. About two years later, the couple married in July of 2021.
Peter Van Sant: What kind of life did … they lead together as a married couple?
Lt. Adam Nicholson: They liked to travel. They liked, uh, the Gatlinburg Tennessee, Pigeon Forge area. … Branson, Missouri.
The following year, Marsha’s daughter, Ashley Jones, and her 5-year-old daughter moved in with Harold and Marsha. Samantha says Harold, who had no children of his own, welcomed them with open arms.
Samantha Allen: Peanut always wanted children. He always wanted a family. And he enjoyed being called grandpa.
Ashley was a young widow. Her 33-year-old husband, Ty Jones, had died suddenly three years earlier.
Ashley Jones/Facebook 
Peter Van Sant: What were the circumstances of his death?
Det. Clint Burcham: Ty Jones … died of some heart complications is what the autopsy said.
Peter Van Sant: Describe the relationship between Ashley and her mother, Marsha. Were they close?
Lt. Adam Nicholson: They were very close. … Every day, Marsha Allen would send Ashley Jones a message saying, “Good morning, baby girl.” … Every single morning.
The house was now full with three generations, and Harold seemed to enjoy his instant, extended family.
Samantha Allen: He cared about what everybody else was feeling, um, and — and just wanted everyone to be happy.
At the time, Harold’s autopsy concluded his death was caused by multiple, serious cardiac issues including pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac around the heart. Practically still a newlywed, Marsha was now a widow. Heartbroken, she turned to writing about her grief.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: After Harold Allen died, his wife, Marsha Allen, publishes a book.
Self-published, it was intended to be a guide for others going through what she was.
Peter Van Sant: She says that this is an intimate glimpse of what I went through when my husband died. She writes about … survivor’s guilt that she was suffering with that. She says that her book is a beacon of hope, finding the strength and courage to move forward and learning a new way to live.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: How to grieve a loss of a significant other.
Marsha would soon face another challenge. Nine months after Harold’s death, Nicholson was monitoring a call where investigators were dispatched to a break-in at Marsha’s.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: The case to me started like any other case. … A burglary call come over the radio. … Our detectives were going to Marsha’s house.
Security cameras had captured two men breaking into her home.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: We start investigating the burglary. And in the process … we’re told, you know, “Well, there’s a murder involved here.”
Burglary suspect to investigators: “This woman is a f****** murderer!
In September 2023, Marsha Allen was vacationing in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, known for its beautiful fall colors and hiking trails. Little did she know that about 350 miles away, two burglars were exploring the inside of her home.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: The burglary happened, I wanna say like, like 4:30 in the morning. … She had recently put a home security system in her house.
The app for the system notified Marsha that there’d been movement on her home’s cameras while she slept. When she reviewed the video, she could see two men opening her home’s safe and rifling through her bedroom and jewelry.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department 
Lt. Adam Nicholson: She could watch ’em go through the house. … There was a lot of stuff taken … pretty major burglary.
One of the burglars caught Marsha’s eye. Incredibly, he was someone she recognized. His name was Steven White.
Marsha immediately called local police in Indiana to report the break-in.
Det. Clint Burcham: Marsha Allen described Steven White as … her daughter, Ashley Jones’ best friend, really close friend.
Why would her own daughter’s best friend burglarize Marsha’s home? Ashley had moved to Missouri in the months following Harold’s death, so Marsha had been living alone. Reviewing the images, investigators noticed the burglars had come prepared.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: It seemed like they knew right where to go. And the other thing was is that they knew the code to the safe.
Within hours, police found Steven White living at his mother’s home nearby. Investigators quickly made a house call.
LT. NICHOLSON (bodycam): If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be provided for you free of cost if you desire one. So, do you understand your rights?
STEVEN WHITE: Yes, sir.
LT. NICHOLSON: OK. …
LT. NICHOLSON: So, you have any idea of why we’re here today?
STEVEN WHITE: Well, they said that y’all got me on camera last night burglarizing the place …
LT. NICHOLSON: Do you know anything about it?
STEVEN WHITE: No.
But the wonders of technology did not allow White to lie for long.
LT. NICHOLSON: Well, I got a picture here.
STEVEN WHITE: Can I see it?
Nicholson had a security camera screenshot of White committing the burglary on his phone.
LT. NICHOLSON: And that’s just one of the five that they sent us.
OFFICER: And they got video too.
LT. NICHOLSON: And we got video. That’s just a still shot from a video.
STEVEN WHITE: Hold on, let me see here. … I mean I really do not have a hat. I don’t even have a f****** hat.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department 
Unable to deny it, Nicholson says White admitted to burglarizing Marsha’s home.
STEVEN WHITE: This woman has hated me for years, but I’m best friends with her daughter.
LT. NICHOLSON: OK. What’s her daughter’s name?
STEVEN WHITE: Ashley Jones.
Then, stunningly, White said something else based on information he claimed Ashley had told him — that Marsha was responsible for her husband’s death.
STEVEN WHITE: This woman is a f****** murderer. OK. And I know that. I’ve not gone to nobody and said anything because I don’t have no f ****** proof on it. This woman’s a psychopath. And I’m telling you guys that right now. Harold Allen was her husband. She’s got a life insurance policy for him, went and married him.
White then revealed how Marsha allegedly cashed in on the policy.
LT. NICHOLSON: Steven White told me that Marsha Allen had killed her husband, Harold, by poisoning a root beer float.
White even knew the details of how the float was made.
STEVEN WHITE: Marsha went into the kitchen and made a root beer float, with whipped cream and sprinkles on top of it. And poured something out of a bottle into there.
Police placed White under arrest. But as they did, he had one more surprise about the burglary. He claimed Marsha’s daughter was the mastermind.
STEVEN WHITE: Ashley’s the one who set this s*** up.
White told police Ashley had mailed him a key to Marsha’s house and given him the combination to the safe, unaware her mother had installed those home security cameras. He also told investigators where they could recover everything stolen the night before, including guns and jewelry.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: We found the guns where he told us they were. … He told me who the other suspect was … and found that suspect wearing Harold Allen’s jewelry.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: And I told Detective Burcham, I said, “You know, everything that Steven’s told us up to this point has been true.”
Lt. Adam Nicholson: I said I feel like we at least have to ask her about Harold and Harold’s death.
After notifying police, Marsha had driven home from her vacation. The next morning, she arrived at the sheriff’s department to discuss the burglary.
DET. BURCHAM: So, that’s your husband’s ring or your husband’s — ?
MARSHA ALLEN: That’s my husband’s ring. … They got his mandolin. They got, uh, a bunch of his collectible Star Wars stuff.
Investigators at first made no mention of Steven White’s murder allegation, instead treating the interview as part of the burglary investigation, asking Marsha what was missing.
MARSHA ALLEN: I have a picture of me wearing the, uh, sapphire earrings and necklace at our wedding. …
DET. BURCHAM: Yeah, if you think it will help identify anything when we start going through stuff.
They also discussed Ashley’s potential involvement.
DET. BURCHAM: You said you talked to your daughter? What —what is she saying?
MARSHA ALLEN: She’s denying it. She goes, “He’s trying to drag me down.” I’m like, “Ashley,” I said, “I have proof.”
Marsha said the proof was that Steven White knew her safe’s combination.
MARSHA ALLEN: She’s the only one, other than me, who knew — knew the combination, and I would never give it out to anybody. Ever.
Peter Van Sant: Did you already have a plan to ask her about this murder allegation?
Det. Clint Burcham: Yes. … Then after talking about the burglary … basically I end up telling her, you know, “This has been brought to our attention.”
Detective Burcham told Marsha what Steven had claimed.
DET. BURCHAM: He — he accused you of murdering your husband.
MARSHA ALLEN: I did not murder my husband.
DET. BURCHAM: … poisoning his drink.
Marsha was defiant and seemed to have an answer for everything.
MARSHA ALLEN: That would show up in the toxicology report if that happened.
DET. BURCHAM: Was there an autopsy done?
MARSHA ALLEN: Yes.
DET. BURCHAM: OK. There was an autopsy done.
MARSHA ALLEN: Autopsy and toxicology.
DET. BURCHAM: OK.
MARSHA ALLEN: He died because he had pericarditis that was undetected. …
DET. BURCHAM: I’m just telling you what he said.
MARSHA ALLEN: He’s lying.
DET. BURCHAM: OK.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: No emotion, no anything. Didn’t even catch her off guard.
Marsha denied any involvement. But Steven White had given other details to police, things he said he’d heard from Ashley, telling investigators that Marsha’s text messages would contain incriminating evidence.
Det. Clint Burcham: We wanted to see if she would have any text messages that possibly said anything about a murder of her husband.
DET. BURCHAM: Would you be willing to consent to a download of your cell phone?
MARSHA ALLEN: Yeah.
Burcham left Marsha alone to get the paperwork for the download.
Det. Clint Burcham: And while I’m gone from the interview room, Marsha ends up deleting items off of her phone.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department 
Marsha didn’t realize that what she deleted could easily be recovered — and those texts revealed a sinister plot.
Det. Clint Burcham: There are numerous text messages between her and Ashley and … it starts to become evident that there’s something going on, that they were indeed trying to poison Harold Allen.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: I mean, I’m seeing the same thing he’s seeing, you know, he’s calling me, I’m calling him like, “Did you read page 10,578?” And he’s like, “No, I haven’t got that far yet.”
For mother and daughter, it seemed Harold’s death couldn’t come soon enough, with Marsha texting Ashley: “… He just needs to let go”
Det. Clint Burcham: Ultimately we all agreed that yes, we’ve got a murder here.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: She gave him a root beer float with poison in it.
Damning texts reveal plot to kill Harold Allen
With Steven White’s accusation that Marsha Allen poisoned her husband with a root beer float —
and her devious behavior deleting texts with her daughter Ashley — investigators zeroed in on those messages. Some disparaged Harold.
Ashley complained: “He’s a waste of space”
Others celebrated the delivery of poisons.
Ashley wrote: “… 🙂 I’m ready for that to arrive …”
Marsha replied: “Me too“
Lynsey Fleetwood: They texted about everything.
Jackson County Prosecutor Lynsey Fleetwood.
Lynsey Fleetwood: There were thousands upon thousands …
Peter Van Sant: Did you just say thousands of messages?
Lynsey Fleetwood: There were thousands of messages.
Investigators would spend weeks building their case, combing through nearly 7,000 texts exchanged over the three months before Harold died. The more they read, the more they learned of a diabolical plot to kill Harold.
Peter Van Sant: Why would they want him dead?
Det. Clint Burcham: Greed. … it was all for financial gain.
Police learned Harold had a $120,000 life insurance policy through his job. He also had those guns and several guitars.
Lynsey Fleetwood: I think money … was a very big motive in this case.
Investigators say those thousands of texts revealed Marsha and Ashley tried to kill Harold over and over again with a variety of exotic poisons. Police found an order Ashley made on eBay for Pong Pong seeds—a powerful toxin.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: Pong Pong is a seed from a tree that grows in … Southeast Asia.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: … they actually refer to this tree— it’s called the suicide tree. … it’s not a native plant to the United States. … so it’d have to be ordered online somewhere …
As Thanksgiving approached, police believe mother and daughter put a new dessert on the menu—poisoned brownies. They texted about grinding up the Pong Pong seeds, adding walnuts to hide the poison’s bitter taste. What wasn’t hidden was their apparent glee.
Peter Van Sant: Ashley writes, “How’s it going lol“. And Marsha sends back a picture of a half-eaten brownie. Ashley: “Ooo let me know when it’s gone lol”
Det. Clint Burcham: They’re basically making a joke out of the fact that they’re gonna try to murder him.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: The smiley faces, the LOLs … when someone’s in — in excruciating pain, I mean, this shows you how evil that these people actually are.
As Harold made repeated trips to the ER suffering all those GI symptoms, police say a new level of depravity emerged in a text from Marsha to Ashley: “l am irritated and can’t sleep peacefully. I need this to be over …”
Lynsey Fleetwood: He’s not dying fast enough.
In another instance, after Marsha texted Ashley that Harold was attending a family funeral.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: Ashley Jones messages Marsha … and says, “He needs to go and drop in the hole too.” …
After the Pong Pong seeds failed to kill Harold, police learned they ordered another lethal plant—water hemlock. Investigators say on several days in December, they served him tainted chili, Sprite, and a margarita.
Matthew Allen: He surrounded himself with people he thought loved him, and to be poisoned on a nightly basis, basically … infuriates me … they poisoned him, and they waited for, um, him to die. …
Harold Allen obituary 
But somehow, Harold survived all those attempts. Police believe Marsha and Ashley then shifted from plants to a chemical called ethylene glycol, which is used in antifreeze. They ordered it online.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: If you’re consuming ethylene glycol … you’re not gonna know. … You’re not gonna smell it … it doesn’t have any color to it. … it’s described as maybe a slight sweet taste.
Investigators believe because of its sweet taste, Marsha and Ashley came up with the plan of a poisoned root beer float.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: If you put it in a root beer float with ice cream and root beer … you’re not gonna know until it’s too late.
Marsha texted Ashley: “Hes all in for rootbeer floats”
Ashley replied: “Okie dokie I’ll tell the kids that’s what we are doing tonight for dessert 🙂 root beer floats”
Lt. Adam Nicholson: They probably had this so well planned out that they knew exactly what he would eat and what he wouldn’t.
Marsha purchased the ingredients for this poisonous beverage at a local store. She texted Ashley a photo of small soda cans. Ashley encouraged her to buy large bottles. Investigators believe Marsha served Harold the fatal potion on the night of Dec.19, 2022.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: I think they knew that this was a hundred percent gonna be successful.
Peter Van Sant: This ethylene glycol, when it gets into your body, what does it attack?
Lt. Adam Nicholson: It starts attacking like some of the organs … you know like the heart, liver, kidneys … your stomach, you know, you’re sick, nauseated. I believe it even starts … to affect the brain some.
Peter Van Sant: They — they not only wanted to kill him, but it seems like they wanted to profoundly make him suffer … What’s the source of that kind of hatred?
Lynsey Fleetwood: I don’t know where a hatred that deep can even stem from.
The next afternoon, just five days before Christmas 2022, an ambulance rushed to the Allen home. Harold could not be saved. After reading the blow-by-blow account spelled out in those texts, on October 16, 2023, investigators took action.
LT. NICHOLSON (bodycam outside Marsha’s home): Hi, Marsha. …
INVESTIGATOR: Here, step out here for us real quick.
MARSHA ALLEN: Sure. …
LT. NICHOLSON: We’re here today cause we got a search warrant for your house, OK?
Officers served a pre-dawn warrant at Marsha’s home.
MARSHA ALLEN (bodycam inside Marsha’s home): Who are they accusing me of murdering? …
DET. BURCHAM: There’s text messages about ordering ethylene glycol.
MARSHA ALLEN: Huh? …
MARSHA ALLEN: I did not kill my husband. …
DET. BURCHAM: The ethylene glycol shows up at your house on December 19, and Harold passed away on December 20.
MARSHA ALLEN: Yeah?
DET. BURCHAM: So, and we’re also being told that the way he was poisoned, that it was through a root beer float.
MARSHA ALLEN: No.
Surprising news for Ashley Jones
After serving the warrant to search her house, Marsha was asked if she’d voluntarily come to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department for questioning.
DET. BURCHAM: We can show you some of these messages and you can explain to them.
MARSHA ALLEN: I don’t have a choice.
LT. NICHOLSON: I mean, you — you have a choice. You don’t have to go.
What followed was a four-and-a-half-hour interview in which Marsha, largely, said nothing.
DET. BURCHAM: The root beer floats is confirmed in your text messages.
MARSHA ALLEN (nodding): Mm-hmm.
DET. BURCHAM: And then there’s the ethylene glycol that was ordered and sent to your house. And you say you don’t know anything about that?
MARSHA ALLEN: No.
Marsha was moved to a different room to show her some of those recovered text messages on a computer screen. Undaunted, she continued her claims of ignorance
DET. BURCHAM: Is there any reason that there would be any ethylene glycol found in Harold’s body?
MARSHA ALLEN: No.
DET. BURCHAM: Anywhere?
Harold Allen obituary 
When Harold died, his autopsy cited cardiac issues. But the coroner did not screen Harold’s blood for poisons at the time because his death was not suspicious.
LT. NICHOLSON: Luckily for us, they keep that blood for a year.
MARSHA ALLEN: Mm-hmm.
LT. NICHOLSON: So, we — we, you know, had put a hold on that blood, and it’s going to be retested for all kinds of other stuff. …
DET. BURCHAM: Right now, the way this is going, I have a bad feeling that when we get these results back that it’s gonna show ethylene glycol in his system.
MARSHA ALLEN: Well, if it does, it’s gonna shock me.
When the interview ended, Marsha wasn’t arrested. She was allowed to return home as the wait began for Harold’s blood test results. That same day, her daughter, Ashley, who’d been living in Missouri, was extradited to Indiana, under arrest for the burglary of her mother’s house. The next morning, at the station, Ashley was about to be surprised.
DET. BURCHAM: We’re not going to talk to you about the burglary. OK? That’s not what we’re here to talk about.
Investigators got right to the point.
DET. BURCHAM: We have some text messages from your mom’s phone. … Do you know anything about the ethylene glycol?
ASHLEY JONES: No, sir. …
DET. BURCHAM: The information we got was, Harold did not die of natural causes, basically that he was poisoned.
ASHLEY JONES: Really?
They told Ashley they’d already talked to her mother.
DET. BURCHAM: If you know something, if you know something, now is the time to tell us. So, we can —
ASHLEY JONES: I know she said she wanted out. But that’s all.
But that wasn’t all. Just 10 minutes later, Ashley, in a complete change of direction, named her own mother as Harold’s killer.
ASHLEY JONES: She didn’t want to divorce him. I said divorce. She wanted to be free of him completely. 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 hell.”
Ashley continued giving her mother hell, admitting she helped Marsha purchase ethylene glycol and other poisons online but claimed she was just being an obedient daughter.
ASHLEY JONES: I really didn’t — don’t ask many questions which I — I guess I should.
DET. BURCHAM: Mm-hmm.
ASHLEY JONES: I — for that woman, I just do what she asks. And always have since I was a child.
Remember, Ashley was in the house as Harold was in agony during his final hours of life. She was asked why she didn’t do more for Harold when he still might have been saved.
DET. BURCHAM: Did you ever mention anything to her that maybe you should call an ambulance?
ASHLEY JONES: I did. I said, “Are you sure you want do this?”
LT. NICHOLSON: Yeah.
DET. BURCHAM: You asked her if she was sure she wanted to do this?
ASHLEY JONES: Just because this is awful.
DET. BURCHAM: OK …
ASHLEY JONES: I mean, just doing that to anybody regardless of any which way or form, I didn’t agree. But loyalty to the mother is a hell of a thing.
Unexpected news about her mother would punctuate the end of Ashley’s police interview when another officer entered the room.
SGT. JESSE HUTCHINSON: My name’s Jesse, and I’m a sergeant here at the detective’s office. OK? So, I’m here to talk to you about something completely different.
ASHLEY JONES: OK.
The night before, hours after Marsha’s own interview ended and she’d returned home, Marsha’s parents had been unable to reach her on the phone.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: They had also been to the house knocking on the door and her car was home, but she wasn’t answering the door.
They notified police.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: Then it was dispatched for our officers to go for a welfare check.
SGT. JESSE HUTCHINSON: It’s not going to be an easy conversation. OK? Um, after your mom was here yesterday and spoke with us, we got a call to go check on her welfare, um, at her home. And she’s passed away.
ASHLEY JONES: What?
SGT. HUTCHINSON: She’s — she passed away.
ASHLEY JONES: What happened?
SGT. HUTCHINSON: Without going into a lot of detail … it appeared that there was something ingested possibly, um, and passed away on her bed.
Lynsey Fleetwood: Marsha Allen was discovered deceased, and it was ruled a suicide.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department 
ASHLEY JONES: She killed herself?
SGT. HUTCHINSON: That is what we… That’s what we believe happened, yes.
Peter Van Sant: Why do you think she took her life at that moment?
Lt. Adam Nicholson: I think … she didn’t wanna have to spend the rest of her life in prison. … You know, I told her that we were gonna send the blood off. … I think she didn’t — she didn’t wanna stick around and wait and find out what those results were.
“48 Hours” obtained a photograph of the note Marsha left behind.
Joseph Robertson 
Peter Van Sant: And she wrote, “I did not kill my husband. You win Ashley!” with an exclamation point. How do you interpret that?
Lynsey Fleetwood: I interpret that I — I don’t really give it much weight. … I think it’s her way of trying to leave some message and trying to get out of the fact that she killed her husband.
Now investigators would start building their case against Ashley, the last survivor in this peculiar crime, for her role in Harold’s death.
More bad news for Ashley Jones
Just one day after her police interview and learning her mother had taken her own life, Ashley Jones received more startling news.
DET. BURCHAM (to Ashley Jones): You are under the — arrest for the murder of Harold. OK? And conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder.
Ashley responded with just five words: “Can I get a lawyer?”
Still on the table was that burglary charge against Ashley. Police were certain they knew exactly how it was connected to Harold’s death.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: Marsha Allen paid Ashley about $1,000 a month from the time of Harold’s death in December of 2022, ’til like July of 2023.
The burglary occurred just two months after the payments stopped.
Lynsey Fleetwood: She was going after money that she thought belonged to her … from the murder of Harold Allen. … Ashley Jones didn’t feel like she received her compensation for that.
The prosecution said it had a strong case against Ashley, especially when toxicology results confirmed exactly what police suspected. Harold had been given a root beer float, poisoned with ethylene glycol purchased by Ashley, as those damning text messages showed.
Joseph Robertson: What Ashley said in those texts hurt her. I mean, there’s just no way around it.
Ashley’s attorney, public defender Joseph Robertson, knew it was going to be a difficult case.
Peter Van Sant: There was a legal freight train headed toward your client.
Joseph Robertson: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: I mean, this was an impossible case.
Joseph Robertson: 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 light at the other end is the legal system coming after you …”
But Ashley would never have to defend her texts or murderous actions in court. In August 2025, she took a plea deal — pleading guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The prosecution agreed to dismiss the other charges.
Lynsey Fleetwood: I don’t think I can ever say that I saw remorse on Ashley Jones’s face.
Harold’s brother Matthew and his wife Samantha were in the courtroom for the sentencing.
SAMANTHA ALLEN: The judge … said, there’s no other word, but evil … there’s no forgiveness from this court, and I have no choice, but to give you the full time.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department 
Ashley was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Matthew Allen: It was just … the sigh of relief … we finally felt like we got a little bit of justice that my brother deserved.
Peter Van Sant: In the end, these two women who would chuckle over their plans with one another … They didn’t get away with this. One took her own life when confronted with her deeds and the other one is gone for decades.
Lynsey Fleetwood: Absolutely. … I truly think they thought they were smarter than the system.
But Ashley’s legal woes may not be over. There is another death in her past — her late husband, Ty Jones, who died when he was just 33. His autopsy said the cause of death was heart issues. But two of his family members suspected foul play from the beginning.
Peter Van Sant: You believe that Ty Jones, your nephew, was murdered?
William Jones: Yes, I do.
William Jones and Arretta Stivers are Ty’s uncle and cousin.
Peter Van Sant: What do you believe happened to him?
Arretta Stivers: I believe that he was poisoned.
Ty Jones/Facebook 
Ty’s body was not tested for poison in 2019, and he was cremated at Ashley’s request. But his family says Ty was perfectly healthy before suddenly dying. And after his death, they say Ashley’s strange behavior raised red flags.
Arretta Stivers: During Ty’s funeral service, Ashley Jones did not shed any tears. …
Arretta Stivers: The next day, she showed up at Ty’s place of employment … to inquire about his insurance policy. … She expected a check that very next day.
Arretta Stivers: All of it to me said there … is something going on here that needs to be investigated.
After William and Arretta heard how Harold died on the news, they contacted police, sharing their suspicions that Ashley murdered Ty, her eye on an inheritance he had just received from his great-grandfather.
Arretta Stivers: I do believe that there was a large enough sum of money and a property that Ashley likely thought she would inherit … and that that could have been a motivator for her.
And in Ashley and Marsha’s texts about murdering Harold, there was a reference to Ty. After Marsha complained the deadly Pong Pong seeds were failing to kill Harold — “Like what’s taking so long” —Ashley, out of the blue, said Ty had weighed much less than Harold writing: “And previously ty was only 120 lol.”
During their “48 Hours” interview, William and Arretta heard about that text for the first time.
Peter Van Sant: They reference Ashley’s late husband Ty …
William Jones: There it is. … There it is. Right there.
Arretta Stivers: It’s painful to hear.
William Jones: Yeah, it is.
Arretta Stivers: Because it’s one thing to suspect and to feel like you know, but to have that kind of evidence presented verbally for the first time is gut-wrenching.
Peter Van Sant: It means what you have suspected all along is true.
William Jones: All the time. All the time.
Ashley maintains that Ty died of a heart attack. But Indiana State Police opened an investigation into his death. Nicholson says he’s struck by the similarities between Harold and Ty’s deaths.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: I believe it’s way more than a coincidence. … Personally … I think that she probably killed him, but … that’s my opinion.
Lt. Adam Nicholson: There’s very few probably as evil as Marsha Allen and Ashley Jones.
Matthew Allen: They’re the same person. I mean, just carbon copy evil.
Looking back, Harold’s family doesn’t think Marsha ever really loved him.
Matthew Allen: I think she chose the person that she could manipulate.
Their memories are all that remain to fill the void left by the man they called Peanut — who had a big personality and an even greater heart.
Matthew Allen: I’ll see something and … I’ll be like, “oh man, that’s something Peanut would love to know about.” And I like, I go to like actually call him I — and I’m like, “Oh, I can’t.” So … It is something that … I would give anything to get back, honestly. …
Peter Van Sant: My goodness, how much you miss him, huh?
Matthew Allen: Yeah, yes, it’s crazy.
Samantha Allen: Every day.
Matthew Allen: Every day.
Steven White was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for his role in the burglary.
Produced by Susan Mallie and Kat Teurfs. Rebecca Laflam is the associate producer. Elena DiFiore and David Dow are the development producers. Joan Adelman and Grayce Arlotta-Berner are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.