Docs: Mother, daughter poisoned man 4 times before causing death

JACKSON COUNTY, Ind. — A mother and daughter reportedly attempted four times to kill the mother’s husband by placing various substances in food and drink before they were ultimately successful in December 2022.

According to court documents recently filed in Jackson County, officials with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department have added two attempted murder charges against 30-year-old Ashley Jones after emails uncovered further attempts by Jones and her mother Marsha Allen to kill 52-year-old Harold Allen — Marsha Allen’s husband.

As of Friday, Jones is facing official charges of

• Two counts of murder
• One count of conspiracy to commit murder, a Level 1 felony
• One count of consumer product tampering, a Level 4 felony
• Two counts of attempted murder, a Level 1 felony

According to previous reports , Harold Allen died in December 2022 after Marsha Allen and Jones reportedly ordered ethylene glycol off the internet and placed the substance into Harold Allen’s root beer float.

On Dec. 20, 2022, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department received a call of an unconscious person in Freetown. Officials said at the time that they believed that Harold Allen was dead before the emergency call was placed. At the time of his death, no foul play was suspected.

On Oct. 16, 2023, Marsha Allen was reportedly found dead at her home in Freetown because of a suspected suicide. The day after the death, Jones, who was in custody after a burglary, reportedly told police that Marsha Allen put the ethylene glycol into the root beer float after Jones purchased the substance.

What do the new court documents say?

As detectives continued their investigation into the death of Harold Allen, emails from an account linked to Jones, as well as additional communications between Marsha Allen and Jones, uncovered four additional attempts where the two attempted to poison him.

In late July 2024, detectives received the contents of two email accounts that were linked to Jones. Officials said that the ethylene glycol was ordered through one email, with the address of “topazmoonchild1793”, but was masked by an additional email using Apple’s “Hide My Email” feature. This hidden email had the address of “mouths-sloop.0o.”

After reviewing both email accounts, detectives said that more evidence was located pertaining to attempts to poison Harold Allen.

According to previous reports, the initial documents in this case provided some attempts of poisoning Harold Allen by placing substances into his chili and a brownie, resulting in numerous emergency room visits in November 2022.

On Sept. 14, 2022, Jones reportedly ordered pong pong seeds from an eBay seller. Pong pong seeds are a brown, oval seed that yield Cerberin, a substance that causes the “disruption of cardiac electrical activity” and has been used in suicides and homicides in places like India, southeast Asia and east Africa.

The documents said that the bitter taste of the seeds can be masked with spices and may be added to food. Ingesting the seeds causes nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea, followed by heart-related symptoms.

The seeds arrived at Marsha Allen’s Freetown home in mid-October 2022. The documents said that the two waited to use the seeds until they put them in a batch of brownies on Nov. 26, 2022. The seeds were ground up by a coffee grinder and were reportedly placed into the dessert.

“It should be noted that Marsha (Allen) sends (Jones) a photo message of what appears to be Harold (Allen) on November 26th. In the photo, there is a half-eaten brownie on a paper plate sitting on Harold’s stomach,” the documents read. “Harold became sick after eating the brownie and ended up in the emergency room the next day.”

After Harold Allen ate the brownie, conversations between Marsha Allen and Jones that evening and into the next day show that they spoke about how he was reacting to the seeds in the brownie. The two spoke on how long the process was taking.

“I am irritated and can’t sleep peacefully,” Marsha Allen reportedly said to Jones in a message on Nov. 28, 2022. “I need this to be over… I wish it would reach its climax and be done lol.”

“Agreed,” Jones reportedly responded to Marsha Allen.

Harold Allen reportedly continued to show symptoms and had to return to the emergency room on Nov. 30. Harold Allen was eventually dismissed from the hospital after doctors said it was an inflammatory intestines-related condition.

After this unsuccessful attempt, Jones reportedly placed an order on Etsy for water hemlock on Dec. 1, 2022. According to the documents, water hemlock is “the most violently toxic plant that grows in North America and only a small amount of the toxic substance in the plant is needed to produce poisoning in livestock or humans.

Symptoms in water hemlock poisoning include:

• Nausea
• Abdominal pain
• Epigastric distress
• Flushing
• Dizziness
• Death

On Dec. 8, 2022, the substance was delivered to the Freetown home. Texts over the next few days show that Jones and Marsha Allen attempted to poison Harold Allen by placing water hemlock poison into a bowl of chili on Dec. 9, 2022, a glass of soda on Dec. 10, 2022, and a margarita on Dec. 12, 2022.

After the unsuccessful attempts, Jones reportedly ordered the ethylene glycol on Dec. 13, 2022, the substance which ultimately killed Harold Allen on Dec. 20, 2022.

What’s next?

Jeffrey Chalfant, Jackson County’s prosecuting attorney, said in court documents that they are requesting a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. This is based on two aggravating circumstances:

• Jones reportedly killing Harold Allen
• Jones torturing Harold Allen while he was alive.

Jones’ jury trial is scheduled for Jan. 7, 2025, according to court documents.

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