Indiana Woman's Home Burglarized, Daughter Allegedly Behind the Plot

What began as a routine burglary report at a rural Indiana home quickly spiraled into a murder investigation that exposed a web of poison, conspiracy, and betrayal inside a single family.

Marsha Allen called the Jackson County Sheriff's Department on September 19, 2023, to report that her home on North State Road 135 in Freetown had been broken into. Firearms and jewelry were stolen. Reviewing footage from her home security cameras, Marsha recognized one of the intruders: Steven White, a close friend of her daughter, Ashley Jones. Detective Clint Burcham later described White and Jones as "actually best friends."

White and a second man, Nathaniel Kane Napier, 28, were located within hours of the report. White confessed to the burglary, but investigators say he then delivered a far more startling claim: that Marsha Allen herself was a murderer. That allegation set off a chain of events that would consume the entire case.

Investigators obtained access to Marsha Allen's cell phone and found thousands of text messages between her and Ashley Jones detailing a conspiracy to poison Harold Allen, Marsha's husband and Ashley's stepfather. Harold, 52, had been found unresponsive at the same North State Road 135 address on December 20, 2022. He died that day. At the time, Jackson County investigators found no signs of violence and did not pursue the death as suspicious.

According to court documents, Ashley Jones later told authorities that the pair had made multiple attempts on Harold's life using at least three substances, including foxglove root placed into his food and ethylene glycol, an ingredient found in antifreeze, slipped into a root beer float on the evening of December 19, 2022. Harold drank the float and was dead by the following day. Jones said her mother had ordered the foxglove from the internet, and Jones acknowledged ordering the ethylene glycol herself.

Marsha Allen had initially suspected her daughter's involvement in the burglary for a specific reason: Ashley was the only other person who knew the combination to the gun safe that was broken into. When police questioned Marsha about her husband's death a month after the burglary, she denied any involvement. She returned home and took her own life hours later.

Ashley Jones was arrested on October 18, 2023. The Jackson County Sheriff's Department charged her with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and burglary. While awaiting trial, investigators say Jones passed a "kill list" to a fellow inmate, containing the names of witnesses she allegedly wanted eliminated.

Jones ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. Jackson County Prosecutor Lynsey N. Fleetwood announced that Jones was sentenced to 50 years in prison, 25 years on each count, for her role in Harold Allen's death. The burglary that Marsha Allen reported, the one her own daughter allegedly engineered, proved to be the thread that unraveled everything.