Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Teen Stabbed Mom to Death, Claimed She Was Kidnapped: Sheriff

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

Mary Collier, 38, was found stabbed to death in a farm field near her home in San Tan Valley, Arizona last week. Collier had gone on a walk with her son, Alan Ashcroft, 18, to work out some issues the two were having. The Pinal County Sheriff says Ashchroft called 911 to report his mother was kidnapped but it was a lie. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the sad case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/CrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Lt. Ross Teeple  https://x.com/RossTeepleCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. It's a tragic situation, and I ask people to pray for the family. But also just remember that if you have any concerns about domestic violence in your own family, there are opportunities for you to reach out. A mother is murdered, and the sheriff says her 18-year-old son is responsible. I have the disturbing details from the murder of Mary Collier and how her family is remembering her. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Manjanette Levy. This story is so incredibly sad and frankly, it's frightening.

Mary Collier was a 38 year old mother she was devoted to her family she loved them so much including her children and they are trying to come to terms with the fact that she's gone and that one of her older sons is accused of murdering her Mary Collier lived in Santan Valley in Pinal County Arizona just outside of Phoenix with her children and her husband it's a pretty nice, quiet place to live. Not a lot goes on there. Last Wednesday, Mary Collier went on a walk with her 18-year-old son, Alan Ashcroft.

Pinal County Sheriff's officials say their investigation has revealed that Alan and his mother hadn't spoken for a few days before this and that the night before, Alan had actually yelled, I hate you, at his mother. For whatever reason, Mary Collier and her 18-year-old son had had those arguments and we don't really know why. So they went on a walk to work out their differences. This is what the sheriff's office is telling us. That morning, a man discovered what he thought

was a scarecrow or a Halloween decoration in a farm field, according to local news reports. This was the day before Halloween, so that wouldn't be unusual. But this was different. The man told local TV stations he quickly discovered this wasn't a Halloween decoration. What he was looking at was a woman's body and there was a lot of blood. About 10 minutes later, Alan Ashcroft called 911, and deputies said he told the call taker someone had kidnapped his mother. But something wasn't adding up.

The story just didn't make sense. Lieutenant Ross Teeple of the Pinal County Sheriff's Office will join me here in a little bit to talk about why. Alan Ashcroft had a knife wound on his neck that deputies would later say was self-inflicted. When deputies searched the family's home, court documents said they found journals in Alan Ashcroft's room. One said, my mother needs to be destroyed for her own good. Do it if you want to save her soul.

Someone wants to take your place. Fight. The time is now. Deputies say when they went to the home, Ashcroft asked them to shoot him in the head and that he said he was not innocent. He also tried to run. Alan Ashcroft is now charged with first degree murder for the death of his mother. Deputies claimed he planned to murder his mother that Wednesday when he was writing in his journal. Meanwhile, Mary Collier is being remembered as a religious

woman who was a loving mother. On a GoFundMe page, Collier's niece wrote, Mary Ashcroft Collier is one of the most amazing people you could meet. To me, she was my aunt by blood but was very much like a mother. She was the person who you would call when she knew you were having a bad day. Mary loved her family more than anything else. She would give when she had nothing and would try her best to uplift others with kind words and truth. Mary was a woman of God and a saint this world had the short pleasure of having. She died, in my opinion, too young for someone with a heart as big as hers at the age of 38. I'll have more on what Collier's niece wrote

later on. The cases I cover for you here each day on Crime Fix show you just how scary the world can be. And one of the scariest things that can happen is if you ever get hurt. But I want you to know if you're ever seriously hurt or in an accident, your case could be worth millions. And that's where our sponsor Morgan & Morgan comes in. The firm has an army of more than 1,000 lawyers who will fight for what you deserve, and they have the track record to prove it. In the past few months, Morgan & Morgan has won some big verdicts like $12 million in Florida, $26 million in Philly, and $6.8 million in New York. All of those were much higher than the highest insurance company offer. Seeing if you have a case can be done in eight clicks or less and you don't even have to

leave your couch to start one. Also, a really great thing. You only pay Morgan and Morgan if you win. There are no upfront fees. So if you're ever hurt, you can easily start a claim at for the people dot com slash crime fix. Lieutenant Ross Teeple is with the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. Lieutenant Teeple, thank you so much for coming on. This is a really terribly sad case. Talk to me a little bit about what happened and how this investigation unfolded. It is true. Thanks for having me on.

I appreciate it. It is truly a tragic case. Domestic violence in all shapes and forms is just tragic because it just tears up the family. And in this case, it leaves two members of the family both affected in different ways. It was about 9 a.m. in the morning. There was a jogger that was running some farm fields that are just east of a housing community. The jogger was out running, and he located what he determined to be a deceased person. He could tell by the numerous knife wounds that the person appeared to be deceased,

so he decided not to touch the body and instead call 911. Our deputies arrived on scene. We had deputies on scene of that call. And then approximately seven minutes later, we received a second phone call from 911 from what turned out to be the suspect, the son of the deceased individual. The son called and claimed that his mother was kidnapped and that he sustained wounds trying to defend her to keep her from being kidnapped. When the other deputies arrived on the second scene, the alleged kidnapping call, they asked for some sort of picture or ID so they could broadcast it out, the attempt to locate, still thinking it was a kidnapping case.

And when the son produced her driver's license, that's when deputies said, this looks just like our deceased person out in the field just east of here. So the son reports his mom as being kidnapped. How long does it take to kind of realize that maybe this was not a kidnapping? Maybe that the son might be involved? The deputies became quite suspicious right off the bat because of the self-inflicted superficial wounds that the son claimed. A lot of people don't realize this, but the human body with the cartilage and the muscle and sinew is actually difficult to stab. So people, a lot of times when they try to give self-inflicted wounds to

themselves, they won't go as deep as someone that actually clearly has the intent to harm an individual. And so that's the wounds that he was showing as being defensive did not appear to be defensive in nature. They were superficial. And then his story immediately wasn't matching up with the deceased body that was found out in the field. So the bandage we see on his neck, that was a self-inflicted wound. Yes, ma'am. OK, so he is now the son is charged with murder. Alan Ashcroft is facing a first degree murder charge.

It's my understanding that a 911 call had been placed, I think, the day before this homicide occurred. Is that right? No. Well, that may be information that I'm not aware of. But as far as I know from the case, there was a domestic incident the night before, but it was never called into 911. The son admitted that the mom and him argued the night previously. Do we know what that argument was about? No, not real clear on the argument at all, what what the topic was and what the point of contention was between the two of them. Did he make any admissions at all? Did he eventually, you know, come clean or say that he did kill his mom?

He made innuendos, but no declarative statements at this point. It's a really sad case. You know, we were reading, there's a GoFundMe page set up for the family that, you know, the victim, she was a mother. She has four other kids. It's my understanding, a very religious woman. She has a husband at home who doesn't work due to some health issues. So this is a family now who's left without their mom. I mean, it's a really terribly sad case. Yes, ma'am. As a religious person myself and a believer in God, that that really hit home because all indications in the house and as far as what we're receiving from the neighbors and when the detectives were going door to door to see if any of this was captured on ring doorbell camera, it keeps being reported back that she was a salt of the earth, religious, devout Christian. And and for this to happen is really sad, especially leaving behind four other children. Was there any indication from the neighbors that they had ever witnessed any trouble between Alan and his mom, Mary? Not that we've received so far. There was no

early warning indicators that this would have occurred. And did the dad, did the husband offer any indications that there had been anything going on other than this argument the night before this domestic incident? Sadly, this is one of them cases where it just appears that this there was no no warning signs that this would happen that we've discovered so far. There was a neighbor quoted as saying she actually saw them out walking together that day, I think that morning. Do you have any information about that? Well, from one of the neighbors we spoke to, it was quite regular. That's one of the reasons why he's being charged with premeditated murder, combined with the

fact that he tried to cover it up is why we're going to first degree murder, not second degree or, you know, a lesser charge of murder is because from what we're gathering from the neighbors, it was not uncommon for the son and mother to go for a walk in the morning. So on the morning walk is when you all think this happened. Yes, it appears that they went on their normal morning walk to reconcile the argument from the night before. And as the jogger that found him described it, he decided to take a, I think he called it a Friday the 13th butcher knife with him. Oh, so there was, so have you recovered this knife?

Yes, ma'am. Oh my goodness. Well, what a terribly sad case. So where do you go from here with the investigation? I mean, Alan Ashcroft is now in jail facing these charges. Where does the investigation go next? There's going to be a lot of tying up of loose ends just to make sure that it's a rock solid case. Our detectives are unbiased collectors of the facts, so they're going to collect every fact, whether it proves the case to be true or proves the case to be not guilty, but they're going to collect all the facts. But one of the next steps is,

is because an edge weapon was used and we have the probable murder weapon seized as evidences is you're going to have the, our medical examiner in Pinal County is quite astute and just a great guy. But the medical examiner's office, along with our homicide detectives, will do a great job of documenting that this is the actual murder weapon that caused the injuries to the deceased. Will he be in court anytime soon, Alan Ashcroft? I that's really dependent on the courts. Arizona is really dependent on the courts. How soon if his family is going to get him a lawyer, if he's going to have a court appointed lawyer. But he's already had his initial appearance. So he's he's in custody right now and he's already seen one judge.

But as far as the trial, when the trial is going to occur, that's still be supposition on my part. Sure. Totally, totally understand. Well, is there anything you'd like to add? Just it's a tragic situation. And I ask people to pray for the family. But also just remember that if you have any concerns about domestic violence in your own family, there are opportunities to you to reach out. There's organizations that are there to help you. And we want to prevent this at any chance we can get.

And if anybody has any extra information as far as this case goes, if they could just call our non-emergency number and ask for the homicide division of our sheriff's office and report it, we're still looking for video evidence. Any evidence that we can have for this investigation would be greatly helpful. Thank you so much, Lieutenant Ross Teeple. We appreciate it. It's just an awful case.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am, it is. It's heartbreaking. Now, I want to go back to that GoFundMe and the message written by Mary Collier's niece. She also wrote, Mary left this world, her husband and four children behind. Her youngest is 10.

Her husband has health issues and cannot work. I know Mary would never ask for anyone to spend money on her, but she isn't here to stop me from asking. Mary, I hope you can forgive me for soliciting money over the internet because it's for your family. I'm here to ask that you help us

in our time of need by donating to help Mary have a funeral as lovely as she was so her family may not carry that burden when they don't have the means to. The extra funds will go to her children that they may have an ease of burden. Mary Collier's funeral is scheduled for next week. Her family, her husband included, told a local TV station that the loss of Mary Collier is tragic, sudden, and unexplainable, and that Alan Ashcroft had no history of mental illness. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.