Dateline NBC - The Man Who Loved Christmas

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

A burglary leads investigators to uncover a plot to poison an Indiana man, with a mother and her daughter at the center of the investigation. Blayne Alexander reports. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight on Dateline. I will never again be able to hug my brother. The three of you, the three brothers, against the world. This guy that meant everything to me was worth absolutely nothing to them. He knew that he had been struggling and sick. He was diabetic. He had some cardiovascular issues. The autopsy report says that he died for natural causes. About nine months after Harold dies, you get a phone call.

He said we were looking into a burglary at your brother's home. We know who that individual is. Starts telling his story. This woman's a psychopath. And I'm telling you guys that right now. We started seeing messages by Harold. They had actually done something to make him sick. Putting something in like a margarita, chili, a brownie.

They're upset because he's not dying fast enough. They start talking about making root beer floats. It's just so heartbreaking. This was almost a perfect murder. How in the world can somebody be that evil? Murder by Root Beer Float. You've never seen a case like this. I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.

Here's Blaine Alexander with The Man Who Loved Christmas. There's a saying, it's always darkest before the dawn. And here in this quiet Indiana town, most people were still fast asleep. But inside one home, two men were hard at work, moving through the dark. They had their eye on something and seemed to know exactly where to find it. They're drawn to the safe, and he's opening up the safe. Nothing about this break-in felt random. In fact, it was a clue.

A key to a mystery, investigators didn't even know they needed to solve. We're like, okay, this is weird, right? We're small town kids from Southern Indiana. You see it in the world, these crazy stories, but, you know, it doesn't happen to us. This corner of Southern Indiana is the kind of place where roots run deep. Surrounded by farmland and country roads, it's where the Allen brothers grew up. Matt is the youngest. I grew up with two of the best older brothers that you probably could ask for.

James is the middle brother. You speak about it almost as if you're young. It was a magical childhood. It was. It could not be any better of a childhood. And then there was the oldest, Harold, a big guy in personality and stature, with a nickname that somehow fit him to a tea. Peanut? Right.

Yes. Where did peanut come from? When he was born, he was kind of a preemie. And his first visit to our grandmother's house, she said he looked just like a peanut, and it stuck. Hannah is married to James. What would your kids call him? Uncle peanut. Uncle peanut.

Yeah. Harold worked as a computer programmer and had a passion for music. He taught himself to play. But what you'd notice most, his family says, his endless generosity. He loved through giving. And there wasn't a birthday or a Christmas that he did not make a to-do about. Every year, hey, what you guys want for Christmas? We're like, Bob.

We're 40, okay? We don't need Christmas presents. We're good. But for all his strengths, there was one part of life Harold hadn't quite figured out. You've said that Harold, for all of his successes, wasn't typically successful in relationships. No. Unfortunately, my brother had a fatal flaw. And that is, he somehow equated having a relationship as being successful.

as being happy. Samantha is his other sister-in-law. I think he was just really seeking love. He was just really looking for that connection. And then he found it in perhaps the most unexpected of places, his 30th high school reunion. I thought it was odd that he met somebody because his graduating class, yeah,

was like, at least 70 people. So you're thinking, how did you not already know everybody? How are you just meeting? Her name was Marcia Buxton. She was divorced and worked as an assistant in a medical practice. She did not fit the typical mold of the previous women. She was kinder, more refined, more of someone that I could see him with. I was happy for my brother.

And then the next thing you know, hey, we got married. Was that surprising to you? No, not really. No. He was quick to love, and he was quick to, go all in. Marsh's 27-year-old daughter Ashley, a pharmacy tech, was a young widow,

raising her little girl alone. Soon, they were all under one roof, living at Harold's home in Freetown, Indiana. There's this child's energy in the house. Yes. And I don't know if she called him grandpa, but he very much got to play that, you know, role when she was around, and he loved it.

And so it went for about three years. Then came Thanksgiving 2022. The family was gathered at the table waiting for dessert. And his face got kind of scared in a sense. He goes, my face just went numb. So I jumped up immediately. I helped him take off of the sweatshirt, and he was just soaked in sweat. Marcia rushed him to the hospital.

What were doctors saying? It had to do some of his blood sugar. He was a type 2 diabetic. He started a new medicine, like maybe it was a reaction. They sent Harold home, but a few days later, he made another visit to the ER. What I remember is him looking very pale and just not steady. Yeah. Then, just five days before Christmas, he got worse.

9-1-1. Much worse. My husband is our begging for him. He's non-responsive and I need to release. Okay. Is he breathing? No, we thought. I held him.

One of James' cousins is on the volunteer fire department down there, and they heard on the radio, Peanuts address, come on. And so they were like, just so you know, they're headed to Peanuts. We had arrived just shortly after the ambulance. Deputy Aaron Wilkins of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office responded to the Allen home. We made our way inside the home, back into the bedroom. Harold was laying on the floor between the bed and a closet. The paramedics did what they could, but it was too late.

And so then they heard over the radio, you know, that the person was deceased. Hannah had to break the news to James. Having to give him, like, the worst news ever was so hard. Yeah, it was pretty, it was pretty bad. It was bad. And you went to tell Matt. And then Matt came home, and that was a very, very hard thing to watch. We didn't know what had happened. We didn't have any idea.

We knew he was gone. A whole family grieving. A wife, now a widow. And then, out of nowhere, something happened. Something that would warp this family tragedy in a way nobody could believe. There's been some developments in your brother's case. Make it look vandalized so I can get the end. insurance money. These text messages are the worst I've ever seen. This guy that meant everything to me

was worth absolutely nothing to them. If we can keep this discreet as possible, I will cooperate in any means necessary. After learning about Harold Allen's death in a roundabout way, through a police dispatch, his family had so many questions. Without more information, his brother Matt was having a hard time believing it was real. I convinced myself that he wasn't gone. Optimistic, I guess. I kept trying to get a hold of Marcia. I sent her a message saying, you know, like, what's going on?

And when I called, she said that she was crying too hard and she couldn't answer. All Harold's wife Marcia could tell them was that she found Harold unresponsive in the bedroom. An autopsy filled in the rest. What did it show? That he had a cardiac issue, that he had a blockage. Heart attack. Yeah. Cardiac arrest.

The news was hard enough, but the timing made it even worse. It was Christmas, but instead of celebrating, they were preparing for Harold's funeral. That's a pain that never goes away. Yeah. And thinking about the fact that this was your brother's favorite holiday. Exactly. That was his jam. We went to his mom's house with our kids and Marcia came over. I think it was Christmas Day. We were over there and she had brought in gifts for our kids that peanut had already purchased for them.

A week after Harold died, his family and friends came together for his funeral. That was the worst moment, you know, like we are literally saying, goodbye to one of the most important people in our life. Harold's family was still hungry for details, anything that would help them process the loss. But they say Marcia and her daughter kept to themselves. They didn't interact with anybody. And then once we were at the gravesite, they left, like, immediately. And we're like, okay, this is weird, right?

Strange, yes, but they understood. Grief can make people do strange things. things. And Marcia was finding her own way through it. She channeled her grief into a self-published book about rebuilding life after losing a spouse. She wrote, he was my world, two peas in a pod, and she described how she overcame chronic and debilitating sadness with therapy. Marcia stayed at the home she and Harold had shared, and the family gave her space. But the brothers did reach out to talk with her about getting some family heirlooms Harold had been storing. My dad was an avid gun collector.

I had a lot of guns. So those were all at my brother, Harold Peanuts, house. When we would contact about getting those items, it was, don't you understand, we're grieving over here? I lost my husband. I was very understanding. He said, okay, just let me know when you're ready. We'll go through the items.

Then, nine months after Harold's death, Marcia was once again calling for help. Marcia Allen had called in, I believe, to our dispatch. Detective Clint Bircham of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department spoke with her. She was on vacation with her mother and father down in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Marcia said she'd been asleep when she received a security alert on her phone. Someone was inside her house. She had set up some security videos in her home, and she ends up realizing that her house had been burglarized.

And in fact, while she's coming back from Tennessee, she is emailing me videos of these two individuals in her house. Does it look like they're looking for anything specific? They're drawn to the safe. At one point, you can see an individual. The peers to be holding a phone, and he's opening up the safe as if he's looking at the combination to the safe on a cell phone. And they end up taking 40 to 50 guns. The family heirlooms that were also worth a lot of money. tens of thousands of dollars. What else are they looking for in this house?

They take jewelry. A class ring is taken from the safe. One of the burglars was wearing a mask, but the other? Well, look at this. One of our suspects' faces exposed, looking directly at the camera at one point. Marcia saw that on the security camera videos. She lets you know that she recognizes one of the guys in this video. Yes. What does she tell you about this person? She tells us that she recognized individual to be Stephen White. With a name and video in hand, detectives had

no trouble finding Stephen White. I'm a felon, I cannot have guns. But following what he had to say, well, that was a different story. I didn't smoke another cigarette. I'll explain the whole thing, but it's ugly. Less than a year after Harold Allen died, his home

was a crime scene, the site of a burglary. This seemed to be an easy solve. Detectives had video and a clear look at one of the perps, recognized by Marcia as Stephen White, a 29-year-old father with a prior criminal record. Wanted on? Detectives found him at his parents' home. So you have any idea why we're here today? Well, they said that y'all got me on camera last night, burglarized in the place. Just right off the bat, what kind of impression is he making? He, of course, he denies it.

Do you know anything about it? No. Okay. My husband. My husband. husband and I set up last night until about 4 o'clock in the morning watching nope. I personally think I have strep or something. I've been running a fever. My tongue is all swollen and sore and my mouth is red and white, so just letting y'all know that. If he was trying to scare the cops off, it didn't work. The homeowner has the video. We've got three detectives out on the house right now that was burglarized.

Well, I don't even know anybody in Jackson County aside from my aunt. Then he's confronted with a screenshot. Yes. There's the picture. And we got a video. I mean, I really do not have a hat. I don't even have a... Well, hat or no hat.

The cops knew they had him dead to rights. We either get the stuff back, or I think you know probably what's coming. He just got to the jail and set and rock. But eventually, he's like, yeah, you know, it was me. I don't smoke another cigarette. I'll explain the whole thing, but it's ugly. The story began with Stephen admitting he did know more.

Marcia and her daughter. I'm best friends with her daughter. Okay. What's the daughter's name? Ashley Jones. And then came Stephen's plot twist. He said Marcia was no victim here. She was the one pulling the strings.

To say, I'll give you $3,000. If you can go to my house, gave me the safe code. Marcia did or after you did? Yes, Marcia did. She said, you can go down there, you can get this. And I need it all taken somewhere.

You need to make it look like you've broken in there and make it look vandalized so I can get the insurance money. And I said, Marsha, I'm a felon. I cannot have guns. My dad is running from there. We got a lot of shit going on. I am not about to drive guns across this town. And you don't have any text messages? No, because I deleted the messages. She told me, oh, we'll make sure you delete all this stuff. What are you guys thinking as you listen to this story?

I think he was telling us at best half-truse. Do you have all the guns and everything here, you said? Yes. Stephen had told police what they came to find out and then some. But still, it seemed he just couldn't stop talking. Sorry, Mom. Mars has set me up. My mother's pissed. She's going to disown me forever now.

No, she won't. Yes, she will. Nah. You said your dad's running for mayor? Yeah. You just cannot go on no media release. If we can keep this discreet as possible, I will cooperate in any means necessary. Yeah, put your hands on your back.

Police recovered the stolen items, and Stephen was arrested. The next day, Marcia was back from vacation and came to the station to talk with Detective Bircham. Did you get all the videos? I see you 22. I'm not sure if I got 22, but I got a lot of them. And she's coming in as the burglary victim. Yes. We're talking about, like, what kind of items could possibly be missing. It's a very friendly conversation.

The detective showed Marsha photos of everything they'd recovered. You recognize that ring? Yes, that is his dad's ring. Whose dad's ring? My husband's dad's ring, Harold Allen. My husband died in December. The detective then turned the conversation to Stephen White and his version of events. Well, what he's saying is basically that you said that you would give him $3,000 to go in the house and take the guns,

have him take the guns and take them back to his place. He's a liar. I did not do that. Okay. I don't have his number. I don't have his cell phone number. He's lying. Marsha did agree with police on one point.

It looked like an inside job. And she had a good idea who was behind it. So almost immediately she's pointing the finger at her daughter. Yes. Marsha was confident that Ashley had had to have given Stephen White the combination to the safe. Because there are only three people in the world that know it is me, my husband, and her. Mm-hmm. I didn't do it. I don't get it out.

He died, so he can't get it up. There's one person. Process of elimination. Marcia and her daughter had been close, but recently they'd had a falling out. The last I heard, she said she was in Branson, Missouri, but I don't know where she's at right now. Because she was supposed to come to stay with me for a while, which I guarantee she won't. Now. The detective still didn't know what to make of the burglary, but with every new deed, detail, there seemed to be another finger-pointing accusation and another layer to unpack.

Because what exactly did Stephen White mean by this? This woman's a psychopath, and I'm telling you guys that right now. Marcia Allen walked into the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, a burglary victim. Now, officers were pressing her about what Stephen White claimed was her role in a possible insurance scam. Make it look vandalized so I can get the insurance money. But Stephen White had told them a lot of things. My dad is running for there. We got a lot of shit going on.

And he'd made some even more dramatic accusations about Marcia. This woman's a psychopath. And I'm telling you guys that right now. But this one? This woman is a murderer. Okay. I know that. I have not gone to nobody inside anything because I don't have no proof on it.

Was he really accusing Marcia of murder? Murder? This woman's murder to her husband, and if you go into her computer files. So what did the deputies think when they heard that? I think we all knew it was something we needed to look into. Mm-hmm. But at the same time, I think, is he just trying to deflect from what he just got caught doing? So detectives had reason to be skeptical.

Still, as Marcia sat before them at the station, you let her know that Stephen is pointing the finger at her for her husband's death. Yes. I'll tell you what else he said. He accused you of murdering your husband I did not murder my husband Something to the effect of some kind of I don't know basically poisoning

Poisoning his drink That would show me in toxicology Port if that happened Was there an autopsy done? Yes There was an autopsy Antoxychology He died because he had period

Perigaudet that was undetected What are you watching for in her response? Well obviously we're watching how she reacts to it you can't bank too much on the fact that she was somewhat defensive because if she didn't have anything to do with it, she's going to deny it. I cannot believe you say I'd try to kill my husband. The detective didn't know who to believe,

but he did know if you want to find out what a person's really been up to, there's one pretty good place to start. Would you be willing to consent to download your cell phone? Yeah. Were you surprised by how willing she was to hand over her phone? I think my initial thought was like, well, maybe there's nothing on there. He left the room and briefed Detective J.L. McEl. McEl. McEl. Fresh, the department's digital forensic examiner. He, too, was skeptical about accusations from Stephen White, a felon caught red-handed.

It's normal for a suspect in a crime to start talking about other crimes that they were not involved in, to try to get themselves out of the trouble that they're in now. While the detective was out of the room, it appeared Marcia was deleting something from her phone. But she didn't try to hide it when the detective. came back. She told me basically she didn't want us when we went into her phone to see her walking around in her underwear. I should make sure you don't see me in my underwear.

Oh, the videos of your... Yeah. I went through and deleted some of them while you're out, so, well, just at me. They let Marcia go home and got to work analyzing her phone. We needed to look and see what things had been deleted and at what time stamp. And that's when we found that she had deleted the entire text conversation with Ashley. I would imagine that that then becomes a pretty good place for you to start. Oh, it does, because why delete the entire conversation?

Of course, deleting something doesn't mean it's gone. It was easy enough for Detective McElfresh to restore the messages, but sorting through them would take weeks. There were 24,000 deleted text messages between mother and daughter going back more than a year. What do you see? You know, we see conversations farther back just about things going on in life. No talk of a burglary or an insurance scam, but you keep looking. We do.

What else do you find? We start seeing, like, really horrible conversations between Ashley and Marcia about Harold Allen, talking about him being sick, going to the hospital, you know, kind of laughing about it. What was the tone between the two? The tone was lack of respect for him. human life. The detectives also found messages about what Harold was eating and drinking. There was this picture of a brownie. Marcia took a picture. Harold is eating a brownie, and he's sitting there, and they're talking about the brownie. They're, you know, talking about how much of the brownies

been eaten and that it's almost gone. Maybe their chatty perp wasn't so crazy after all. The messages got more specific. There was something that shifted from their time. talking pretty badly about this guy to, you can tell that they're actually doing something to him. Yeah, they're talking openly about, you know, putting something in like a sprite or a margarita or chili. You now have a murder investigation on your hands. Correct. Yes. But the autopsy had already pointed to heart issues with no indication of foul play. If Harold was indeed poisoned, detectives needed to find a way to prove.

it. But as they searched, they stumbled on something else. Could there be yet another crime in play? Her previous husband died under strange circumstances. It was taking weeks for detectives to sort through the thousands of text messages on Marsha's phone. All the while, Harold's family knew nothing about the burglary or a possible murder investigation. It had been months since they'd spoken to Marsha about the family's guns. Don't contact me. Don't want to talk about this. Yeah, it was a complete shutdown. Shutdown of the conversation. We're not having this conversation. That had left them with questions about Marcia, things that never sat quite right. She'd written that book about grief, but the family says she didn't appear to be doing much grieving when they saw her at Christmas and the funeral.

I'm seeing these raw emotions with James, and I'm not seeing any emotion. from her. Now, almost a year after Harold Allen's death, a detective was calling his family. He said we found out some more information and we're opening your brother's death up as a potential homicide. Was there a part of you that had almost always been waiting

for this? Yeah, I wasn't really surprised. Are you then thinking back to every interaction you had with Marcia, every conversation you had with her? Yes, absolutely. They remembered Marcia telling them that her daughter Ashley collected life insurance when her husband died. Then you heard a rumor about Ashley and her previous husband.

Yeah, I think it was at a family get together and they were like, well, you know that her previous husband died under strange circumstances and that she took the life insurance and basically ran. Ty Jones was only 33 when he died suddenly of a heart attack. Was there ever an investigation into his death? No. We found out later that his family was always suspicious, I guess. Now, detectives were too. Like Ty, Harold had seemingly died of a heart attack. And like Ashley, Marcia collected life insurance money after his death.

And there was something else buried in those thousands of texts. Remember the messages about that half-eaten brownie? In that back-and-forth was a reference to Ashley's dead husband, Ty. At one point, Ashley writes, it's slow, followed by, and previously, Ty, was only 120, L-O-L-L. What did you take that to mean? Whatever they had tried at that point on Harold Allen was working slower and not as well as something that may have happened

with her deceased husband, Ty. Three weeks after the burglary, detectives were at Marsh's door. Hi, I'm Lieutenant Nicholson with the Sheriff's Department. We're here today because we got a search warrant for your house, okay, to go through some stuff. Okay. Is there anyone else here? No, just me and my cats. Okay.

Was she surprised to see you show up at the house that morning? I believe she was, yes. And were you searching for? They went through the house, looking for something, anything that might link her to Harold's death, computers, receipts, maybe even the poison itself. I did not kill my husband. And we end up asking her to go to the sheriff's department to sit down and do an interview with us. She went with them, and at the station, Detective sat Marcia in front of a computer and asked her to explain that exchange about the half-eaten brownie. She says, how's it going, LOL? And you send that picture. Then she says, oh, let me know when it's

gone, L-O-L. Probably a food. What are you talking about it going faster? his sickness, the flu. You said, like, what's taking so long? She said the wait. It takes 12 hours for a woman at 180 to fill anything. You do the math. Life out loud. It's slow.

And previously, Ty was only 120, L.O.L. Yeah, she made brownies. Marcia said there was no poison in that brownie, just marijuana. To help Harold with pain he was feeling from his illness. She made brownies, and you had, depending upon how. much of the butter you use. You have to go by the way the person, how it affects them. She came up with some kind of excuse for everyone. I'm just going to be straightforward what we were concerned with is that maybe Ty was poisoned too. Oh, no. No. I'd forgotten about the brownies.

Maybe she would remember this. They showed her a text from Ashley that read, the mail is here. It was sent the day before Harold died. Marcia said that mail was a package for Ashley. She said, yeah, we're expecting a shipment, but she did that all the time. But this wasn't just any delivery. Detectives had traced the package back to the shipper and learned it was a $32 order for ethylene glycol, a clear and sweet-tasting toxic liquid found in antifreeze. You see how it looks like you're connected to this ethylene glycol? Yeah, but I'm not.

Okay. But, I mean, you see why? It looks that way, yes. It looks very suspicious. I get it. Because I didn't know what was going on. The detectives kept coming back to Ashley's late husband, Ty. Did Harold die of the exact same thing you Ty did?

No. What they told me is that he had pericarditis, and it stopped his heart. That's pretty much what this stuff does, if you drank it. And that's why I think that you probably know it a little bit. Actually, no, I don't. And that's the truth. Was it? Because investigators had one more thing to confront Marsha with, a text about a special kind of drink. They start talking about dinner one night and after dinner making root beer floats.

And that matched with one of the more specific things they heard before from who else, Stephen White. I called her daughter, who explains to me, Mom has gone crazy. Marsha went into the kitchen and made a root beer float with whipped cream. and sprinkles on top of it. And she poured something out of a bottle into there. And she told Ashley that that was his little extra shock because he, like, spiked root beer floats. What is being claimed is that you guys poisoning him.

Which is not true. It looks good at you, I know. And she just continued to deny and deny and deny. We both made the root beer floats. So I did not put anything in anyone's drink. I didn't even know we had anything like that there. The texts told a different story. Now detectives needed science to prove it.

As standard procedure, a vial of Harold's blood was being held for a year after the autopsy. It had been untouched for nine months, and now detectives sent it off for testing. For prosecutors, that was the missing piece. It was. In the meantime, they let Marcia go again. Detective Bircham drove her home, certain he'd be back soon with an arrest warrant for murder. It was a very quiet ride back. Marcia may have said little on the ride home,

but detectives were about to hear plenty from her daughter, Ashley. While detectives waited on Harold Allen's toxicology results, they turned their attention to Ashley. By now they knew it was Ashley, not Marcia, who had enlisted Stephen White in the burglary. And it ends up telling us like, yeah, And Ashley is the one who planned the burglary. White pleaded guilty to those burglary charges.

And Ashley was arrested and extradited back to Indiana on charges related to the break-in. Investigators cut right to the chase. All right, Ashley, I'm Detective Bertram with the Sheriff's Department here. We're not going to talk to you about the burglary. Okay? We know what happened to Harold. At first, Ashley denied everything.

Do you know anything about the ethylene glycol? No, sir. Okay. What was your relationship like with Harold? He was nice. He said, I never had a chance to be a dad or a grandpa hanging, and we were eating that up. But once confronted with those text messages with her mother,

Ashley knew she had some explaining to do. She took a page from her mother's playbook and pointed the finger away from herself and right at her mom. If you know something, now's the time to tell us. so we can. I know she said she wanted out. She wanted to be free of him completely. She wanted him dead.

And I said, you're going to go to hell for that month. No matter what happens, you're going to hell. She was essentially telling you that she was trying to be the voice of reason. Yes. Kind of the moral compass in all of this. It was a few months before Harold died. That's when Ashley says Marcia started asking for help. I guess because I used to be a pharmacy type, she wanted to,

She was asking me, like, well, what is the adverse effects to insulin? What's the adverse effects to this? You know, things like that. Ashley said they bought foxglove seeds, a natural toxin. Is that what put him in the hospital that first time? I think so, yeah. What other foods did she put that foxglove in? I think she tried chili once.

Was she concerned that it wasn't working? Yeah. She said, I'm never going to be free. Whose idea was it to use the Ethlyn Zygol? Hers. She asked you to help by placing the order for her. She asked me to place order for her. I really don't ask many questions, which I guess I should.

She definitely tried to minimize her role in it. I mean, just doing it to anybody, regardless of any which way or form. I didn't agree. But loyalty to the mother is a hell of a thing. A loyal and otherwise innocent daughter? Detectives weren't buying it. As Ashley was led off to wait in jail, still held on the burglary charges.

They did some digging into Marcia's finances. We found that there was ultimately the motive of money. Lindsay Fleetwood is the Jackson County prosecutor. Marsha Allen did receive some of the life insurance money. And then additionally, you see that Marshall Allen was paying Ashley Jones monthly some of this payment. and then she stopped. And that's when Ashley got mad. How did they know that?

She complained about not getting enough of Harold's money in a text to her good friend Stephen White, writing, she couldn't get into a dead man's phone without me to get all his retirements and savings he had hidden. She didn't give me out of that. Now, detectives connected the dots. That burglary and Harold Allen's murder weren't separate crimes.

They were tied together, bound by one thing. Greed. She mails Stephen White a key to her mother's house, and she knows the code to the safe, she wants the valuables. In more messages found on Stephen White's phone, Ashley exposed herself as much more than a misguided, loyal daughter. She boasted about the murder. Saying, I planned this all.

Basically, my mom couldn't have done this without me. She wanted to do this way. I told her to do this way. She was proud of it. When Harold's toxicology results came back, they confirmed what detective had suspected. We were notified that, yes, Ethlyn Glycol was in a system.

We know, without a doubt, this is how we died. So you can't plan a case better than what was thrown in our laps, right? Because not only did Stephen White be the one to break this case open, but it's through Ashley Jones' actions of her greed that got us here.

Ashley's charges were up to murder. You are under the arrest for the murder of Harold, okay? But Marsh's story, would end differently. It was just hours after she left that interrogation room, after that quiet ride home with Detective Bircham. There's something wrong. Marcia's parents called the sheriff's office, asking officers to do a welfare check on their daughter. We knocked on the door. Deputy Wilkins, who'd responded to the Allen House the day Harold died, was there again. We went ahead and made entry, and we come to a closed bedroom door, open the door,

and we locate Marcia laying there in her bed. Marcia had died by suicide. She left a note, I did not kill my husband. You win, Ashley. What did you take that to mean? I think it was one last attempt at denial, even though she thought she knew she was caught.

Ashley pleaded guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The burglary charges were done. dropped, she was sentenced to 50 years in prison. And detective's questions about Ashley's late husband have not gone away. The information that we obtained during our investigation was turned over to state police. Prosecutor Fleetwood tells Dateline that Ty Jones's death is being investigated as a possible homicide. Ashley maintained in her initial police interview that her late husband died of a heart attack.

It's not even coincidental anymore. It's just, heartbreaking that the circumstances I feel like were very, very similar. Do you hold Marsha and Ashley equally responsible here for your brother's death? Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. This doesn't happen without Ashley and just like I don't, you know, just like it doesn't happen without Marsha. So in my mind, they're both as responsible for what happened. And she says equally responsible for getting caught. It took them being greedy to essentially shine the light. You don't always get to see karma, but sometimes. You did here. I did here. For Harold's family, this story doesn't end with Marcia or Ashley. It ends with Harold, Peanut, a man who loved Christmas, loved giving,

and above all loved his family. This guy that meant everything to me was worth absolutely nothing to them. Like I said, the rest of my life will be missing in peace without him because I know he's not here. What I refused to allow happen to him is to be forgotten in this story.

He was just a simple guy that goes to work, pays his bills, and wanted to be loved. That's peanut. That's all for this edition of Dateline. And don't forget to check out our Talking Dateline podcast, in which we'll go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the Dateline feed,

wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday for our 35th season premiere at 9-8 Central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night.