Post Mortem | The Root Beer Float Murder

Summary

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48 Hours: Post Mortem | The Root Beer Float Murder

Podcast: 48 Hours
Host: Anne-Marie Green
Guest: Peter Van Sant (CBS News Correspondent)
Date: April 7, 2026

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Episode Overview

This "Post Mortem" episode dives deep into the shocking murder case of Harold Allen—a Freetown, Indiana man who was fatally poisoned with a root beer float by his wife, Marcia Allen, and her adult daughter, Ashley Jones. Despite an initial ruling of death by natural causes, a subsequent burglary, some damning text messages, and tenacious investigation revealed a web of attempted poisonings, financial motives, and chilling conspiracies. Host Anne-Marie Green and correspondent Peter Van Sant break down the complex case, explore details not included in the broadcast, and discuss the broader implications, including comparisons to similar high-profile murders.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Unlikely Crime and Missed Red Flags

• Initial Death Ruling:
  Harold Allen died in December 2022. The autopsy attributed his death to cardiac issues, not poisoning. Harold had preexisting health problems and prior ER visits, so his death was not immediately seen as suspicious.
  • Peter Van Sant: “Routine autopsies... don’t screen for poison unless there’s a specific reason to do so.” (01:56)
  • Indiana law preserves postmortem samples for a year, allowing eventual toxicology testing.
    • Green: “I did not know that they held onto samples that long…” (02:49)

The Plot Unravels After a Burglary

• Burglary Sparks Re-examination:
  Nine months after Harold’s death, Marcia’s house is burgled. Security footage reveals one of the burglars is her daughter Ashley’s best friend, Steven White.

  • Marcia reports the burglary even knowing it could bring police scrutiny—a “vindictive” move that ultimately exposes their crime. (04:48)
  • Van Sant: “Were it not for Marsha’s vindictive nature… Both she and Ashley would likely be free today.” (04:48)

• Key Evidence from Texts:
  Investigators recover almost 7,000 texts between Marcia and Ashley, including detailed poisoning discussions and failed attempts using pong-pong seeds, water hemlock, and ethylene glycol (antifreeze).

  • Marcia tries to delete incriminating texts while at the sheriff’s office. She excuses this as deleting photos:
    • Marcia to investigators: “Just want to make sure you don’t see me in my underwear.” (06:52)
  • Peter Van Sant: “They were so determined to finish this job, they weren’t going to be stopped.” (07:00)

Motives Behind the Murder

• Money, Malice, or Madness?
  The main motive appears to be a $120,000 life insurance policy, but text records reference fears of a “demon” in Harold—a point the prosecutor dismisses as a ruse or deflection.
  • Green: “I’m always surprised at the amount of money that motivates people to murder.” (09:00)
  • Van Sant: “His nickname is Peanut… you know, is a good guy. It’s just so tragic.” (09:32)
  • Lt. Nicholson (Jackson County Sheriff's Dept): Marcia and Ashley “believed there was a demon living inside Harold and they needed to kill him so this demon could be released.” (09:44)
  • Prosecutor Lindsay Fleetwood: “Money, not evil spirits, was driving their motivation.” (10:47)

The Investigation Tightens

• Police Interrogation & Strategy:
  After confronting Marcia and Ashley with evidence, police allow Marcia to leave rather than arrest immediately, aiming to strengthen their case and wait for toxicology confirmation.

  • Van Sant: “It was a strategic choice... authorities need to reach a certain threshold of evidence…” (11:27)

• Ashley Turns on Her Mother:
  Ashley is extradited and quickly lays blame on Marcia—“just being an obedient daughter”—despite thousands of texts showing close cooperation.

  • Van Sant: “That flatline emotion... She just doesn’t react as you would expect…” (12:43)

Chilling Morality and Further Murder Plots

• Ashley’s Kill List:
  After her arrest, Ashley allegedly creates a “kill list” of people she wants murdered, including her best friend Steven White and his mother. She enlists the help of a cellmate (the “Bunky”) who reports this to police and wears a wire.
  • Jailhouse confidante: “She said, since she was 7, her mom has trained her… it’s f’ed up.” (14:28)
  • Van Sant: “This poisonous game still had some moves to be made... this desire to create even more victims.” (14:53)
  • Ashley was not charged regarding the kill list for legal reasons, but police took it seriously. (15:10)

A Stunning Turn: Marcia’s Suicide

• Marcia’s Suicide:
  Hours after being questioned, Marcia is found dead by suicide. She leaves a note—“I did not kill my husband. You win, Ashley.”
  • Lt. Nicholson: “I think she just didn’t want to stick around and wait and find out what those results were, when she knew what the results were.” (15:47)
  • Prosecutor: Believes the note was a final bid to blame Ashley and deny responsibility.
    • Van Sant: “There is another layer... the note reads like a mother trying to implicate the daughter she supposedly loved.” (16:29)

Evidence, Justice, and Lingering Questions

• Forensic Breakthrough:
  Harold’s blood tests positive for ethylene glycol. Texts show Marcia and Ashley discussing disguising it with root beer floats.

  • Green: “Who is the mastermind behind this plot?... Who do prosecutors believe was really behind this?” (16:43)
  • Van Sant: “At the end of the day... this was really a team effort. And I think they both shared equal responsibility.” (17:20)

• Legal Outcome:
  Ashley takes a plea deal for attempted murder and conspiracy, receiving 50 years in prison. (18:13)

Possible Earlier Victim: Ty Jones

• Suspicious Prior Death:
  Ashley’s husband, Ty Jones, died in 2019—purportedly from a heart attack at age 33, with circumstances raising suspicions after the Allen case breaks.
  • Ashley reportedly showed no grief, was eager about Ty’s life insurance, and urged cremation, nullifying potential forensic evidence.
  • Van Sant: “We do know there's one text exchanged between Ashley and Marsha after Marcia complained that the pong pong seeds were failing to kill Harold. Ashley texted that Ty had weighed much less than Harold, writing, ‘Ty was only 120 lol.’” (19:02)
  • Family response to text revelation:
    • William Jones (Ty’s uncle): “It's painful to hear.” (20:38)
    • Areta Stivers (cousin): “To have that kind of evidence presented verbally for the first time is gut wrenching.” (20:41)
  • Authorities continue to investigate, but Ashley maintains Ty died naturally. (21:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Autopsy Procedures:
  Peter Van Sant: “Routine autopsies... don’t screen for poison unless there’s a specific reason to do so.” (01:56)

• On Marcia’s “Book About Grief”:
  Van Sant: “It’s not going to make a bestseller list... It ends up being a bunch of hooey.” (03:24)

• Ashley’s Malice in Jail:
  Anonymous Bunky: “She said, since she was 7, her mom has trained her… it’s f’ed up.” (14:28)

• On the Motive Debate:
  Anne-Marie Green: “I'm with the prosecutor, Peter. I call BS on that (demon motive).” (10:47)

• On Family’s Realization:
  Areta Stivers: “To have that kind of evidence presented... is gut wrenching.” (20:41)

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Important Timestamps

• Autopsy, Evidence, and Law: 01:56 – 02:49
• Comparison to Corey Richens case: 02:49 – 03:24
• Burglary and Break in Case: 04:05 – 05:47
• Digital Evidence/Texts: 06:20 – 07:00
• Discussion of Exotic Poisons: 07:00 – 08:32
• Financial Motive / Occult Excuses: 09:00 – 10:47
• Police Approach / Ashley Turns on Marcia: 11:27 – 12:43
• Ashley’s “Kill List”: 13:19 – 15:12
• Marcia’s Suicide and Aftermath: 15:29 – 16:43
• Prosecutors on Mastermind: 17:20 – 18:13
• Ashley’s Suspicious Past (Ty Jones Death): 18:13 – 21:41

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Conclusion

This episode highlights the bizarre intersection of malice, greed, and calculated violence within a seemingly ordinary family, as well as the tireless work required to uncover the truth behind “The Root Beer Float Murder.” It illuminates how little things—vindictiveness, digital footprints, and accidental revelations—can upend even the most meticulously plotted crimes. The ongoing investigation into possible past victims keeps the case chillingly open-ended.

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For further developments and more classic true crime coverage, subscribe to 48 Hours+ and listen every Monday for fresh cases and deep-dives.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to postmortem. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Ann Marie Green. And today we're discussing the murder of Harold Allen in Freetown, Indiana. Now, In December of 2022, Harold was poisoned with a root beer float made by his wife, Marcia Allen, and Marsha's adult daughter, Ashley Jones. His death was originally determined to be from natural causes, but then after a burglary at Marsha's home nine months later, police discovered a string of damning text messages between Marsha and Ashley that prompted them to investigate Harold's death as a possible murder. So Peter Van Sant is joining us. He was the correspondent on that hour. Peter, thanks again for joining us.

[A]

Hey, great to be here, Anne Marie. And folks, you heard it right. Murder by root beer float.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

And the maliciousness of this case really struck me. Marsha and Ashley attempted to kill Harold multiple times during a three month period leading up to his death with a variety of exotic poisons. And something we didn't share in the hour, investigators said that there was evidence that Ashley was plotting other murders.

[B]

Okay, so we definitely are going to get into that. But first, a quick reminder for everyone, if you haven't watched or listened to this episode, the root beer float murder, go check it out right now and then come back for this conversation. All right, Peter, Getting into it. There are a lot of really strange elements in this case. And one that really stands out right away is Harold Allen's original autopsy. It concluded that his death was caused by cardiac issues. The coroner did not screen for poisons in his blood. Why wasn't his blood screened?

[A]

Well, Harold had a history of genuine health issues. And also remember he'd been to the emergency room a couple of times when these attempted poisonings didn't work out. So his death was not considered suspicious. And routine autopsies, they don't screen for poison because there's simply not enough hours in the day to screen for every poison out there unless there's a specific reason to do so. And they didn't have one in this case. Routine autopsies do involve a toxicology screening that looks for things like alcohol and medication overdoses. And Harold had been on prescription meds and they were found at therapeutic levels. Now, every state has different laws about keeping blood and tissue samples postmortem. In Indiana, they hold onto samples for a year. So when suspicion was finally raised in Harold's case, they could still send that out for testing.

[B]

Yeah, that was really fortuitous. I did not know that they held onto samples that long, especially when initially There doesn't seem to be a suspicious death. The case really reminded me though of another poisoning case that's getting a lot of attention. The Corey Richens case. She was a Utah author and mother who in 2026 was found guilty of murdering her husband with a fentanyl laced Moscow mule. Also a pretty sweet drink, I think. Like Richins, Marcia wrote a book about grief after Harold's death. Did you read the book?

[A]

I did. It's not going to make a bestseller list, but the name of the book was from surviving to thriving, rebuilding your life after the loss of a spouse. And she self published this book about six months after Harold died. It has just 29 pages, some that reads like Hallmark card stuff. And yet as we as we know it, it ends up being a bunch of hooey. Investigators believe that she wanted people to feel sorry for her or she wanted to convince others that she was mourning for Harold when she knew she had inflicted all this pain and, and torment on this man, and yet was trying to cover that horrible deed with this book.

[B]

So then, over nine months after Harold's death, Marsha's home security system alerted her to a burglary while she was away on vacation. When she reviewed the video, she could see two men opening her home safe and then rifling through her bedroom and looking for jewelry. Marsha immediately identifies one of the burglars captured on this camera. It's her daughter Ashley's best friend. His name is Steven White. She reports this burglary to police, but I gotta wonder, why would she do that? She knows that she's involved in this other crime. You would think the last thing she would want to do is bring authorities to her house.

[A]

Absolutely. Especially since she, she knows she had committed a murder. Were it not for Marsha's vindictive nature of reporting a burglary that she knew her own daughter was responsible for. Both she and Ashley would likely be free today. And Ashley was the only other person who knew the combination to the safe. So Marsha knew Ashley was behind this burglary. And Harold, he had a life insurance policy of $120,000. Marsha had been paying Ashley about $1,000 each month since Harold died, but had stopped making those payments two months before the burglary. So she, Ashley was upset with her mother because she felt she wasn't getting enough money. When police spoke to Stephen White, he's one of the guys, one of the burglars seen on that tape, he told them that Marcia killed her husband by poisoning a root beer float. And that's when investigators decided they needed at least to ask Marcia about Harold's death.

[B]

So Marsha returns from vacation. She goes to the sheriff's office to discuss. She thinks she's going to be discussing this burglary. But then investigators. Investigators also raise the accusation that Steven made about her killing her husband Harold. And they ask to download the contents of her cell phone. And she agrees. But then when the detective leaves, she starts frantically deleting text messages. Right. It's like people don't watch 48 Hours, Peter, because they would know. I mean, you can never delete a message.

[A]

Yeah, I know everyone watching and listening to this who watches 48 Hours. They all know there is digital evidence out there, and you can't just erase it. So nearly 7,000 texts were exchanged between Marsha and Ashley in the months leading up to Harold's death. And they were easily recovered. Right. She thought she deleted them, but she hadn't. Marcia even told investigators that all she deleted from her phone were some photos. And this is what she said, just want to make sure you don't see me in my underwear.

[B]

So she was suggesting there were some risque photos on there that she didn't want investigators.

[A]

That's what she was deleting, when, in fact, what she was deleting were these incriminating text messages. And investigators say those texts revealed Marsha and Ashley had tried to kill Harold over and over again with a variety of exotic poisons, including a lot of this I hadn't heard of before. But pong, pong seeds, which can cause cardiac arrest. Water hemlock, which attacks the nervous system and can cause grand mal seizures. And ethylene glycol, which affects the nervous system. That's that chemical that goes into antifreeze. We didn't include this in the Hour, but there is one exchange where Marcia texts Ashley. This is what Marcia said to Ashley. His exact words. I am feeling a lot better since drinking Gatorade. Now, this is bad news, right? To the two women, because they're trying to kill him. And Ashley replies to her mother, well, we need to reorder. And Marcia texts, wtf? What the. You know what? They were so determined to finish this job, they weren't going to be stopped. And they carried on until they killed him.

[B]

So when I heard pong, pong seeds, I immediately thought of the TV show the White Lotus. On HBO in the third season, there's a character that nearly dies after accidentally drinking pong, pong seeds in a protein shake. But my question that I kept on asking Myself. How on earth was it possible that Marsha and Ashley could buy these exotic poisons online? You would think there would be some sort of restriction on that.

[A]

The poisons they purchased are not illegal. They have legitimate uses. Pong. Pong seeds and water hemlock are used in gardens. And ethylene glycol is a component in antifreeze and can be used as a solvent. What's interesting, too, a quick aside, is that each of these have a unique taste or a smell to them. Some are sweet, and that's why if you mix it with something like a root beer float, you have no idea that you're drinking this antifreeze chemical.

[B]

So investigators believe that the motive here for Marcia and Ashley was money. And I'm always surprised at the amount of money that motivates people to murder. $120,000 life insurance policy. It's not a little bit of money, but to kill someone? Come on. Everyone you spoke to said that he was a great guy. He had a big heart. He welcomes, like, Marsha and Ashley and their. Like, the family into his family. To me, they had it good.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, his nickname is Peanut. I mean, a guy nicknamed Peanut, you know, is a good guy. It's just so tragic.

[B]

So was it really about money?

[A]

Well, look, investigators believe that these two were evil personified. And there was a conversation going on in those texts about that money. But Lieutenant Nicholson, an investigator with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, told us that Marsha and Ashley believed something else, something that could have been another motive for murder, that there was a demon living inside Harold and they needed to kill him so this demon could be released. They thought that the demon inside of Harold was going to escape and attach to other people living in the house. No one we spoke with could tell us whether Marsha and Ashley genuinely believed that Harold was a demon or if it was just a way of amusing themselves as they plotted a real murder. And the prosecutor, Lindsay Fleetwood, believes that money, not evil spirits, was driving their motivation.

[B]

I'm with the prosecutor, Peter. I call BS on that. In fact, when you were talking about it, I thought, this seems like another attempt to distract and cover their bases. So as the investigation unfolds. It's October 16, 2023. Investigators serve Marcia with a search warrant for her home, and she voluntarily returns to the sheriff's department, and she's questioned. But then, even after investigators confronted her about the text messages, she continues to, you know, say that she had nothing to do with Harold's death. And then she's allowed to return home. I was kind of surprised. Why did they let her go?

[A]

You know, I've had the exact same reaction you just had. I'm going, what? You let them go? But it was a strategic choice. And as you know, Ann Marie, authorities need to reach a certain threshold of evidence in order to make an arrest, and they wanted to build out a strong case first. So Marsha was warned by detectives that they were sending the blood out for testing and expected the results to show that Harold was poisoned. Foreign.

[B]

So the same day that Marsha returned home from questioning at the police station, Ashley, who'd been living in Missouri, was extradited back to Indiana on that burglary charge. We see footage of her interview with investigators, and as soon as they confront her about Harold's murder, she seems to turn on her mother. She tells them the whole thing was Marsha's idea, that she was just being an obedient daughter. I have to say, you know, Marsha and Ashley seemed really close when they were plotting Harold's murder. I mean, thousands of text messages between them. I was really surprised that Ashley was so quick to point the finger at her mother.

[A]

It's chilling in a way, too. It is that that flatline emotion. No matter what she's told, she just doesn't react as you would expect a normal person would react, like any of us would react.

[B]

It was just very casual.

[A]

Yeah. And it just goes back to the heartless nature of these two people.

[B]

Right. Which brings me to this, something you brought up earlier in this podcast. Police discovered that there's evidence that Ashley had actually been plotting more murders after Harold died. What. What do we know about that?

[A]

We didn't have time to include this in the hour. The police discovered that Ashley was plotting to kill several other people while she was in custody. She stayed at the local jail in Indiana for several months, and she had a Bunky, as they call it, a cellmate friend who was going to be released soon. They became close, and as they approached bunky's release date, Ashley gave her what police called a kill list with names of people she wanted assassinated. Now, there were several names on the list, all people she had some relationship with while she and Marsha were plotting this murder. It included her best friend, Stephen White. Remember, one of the burglars?

[B]

Right. No surprise that started this whole investigation.

[A]

But also, Stephen White's mother was on the list. The cellmate went to authorities and agreed to wear a concealed recording device in her cell. She drew Ashley out in conversation about this kill list, and the detectives interviewed the cellmate right after. And let's listen to a portion of that interview where the cellmate is talking about her reaction to Ashley approaching her with this kill list.

[C]

She said, we're going to win this game of chess. And she said, you know, since she was 7, her mom has trained her. You know, that's f ed up.

[A]

What guys?

[C]

I mean, you hear me saying, you're shark eyed people's man. They go big when she starts talking about killing people, and then they go pinned up and then they go big. And she just. I mean, it's f ed up.

[A]

She basically is saying that they're going to win this game of chess. And apparently this game, this poisonous game, still had some moves to be made. And among them was this desire to create even more victims.

[B]

I mean, was Ashley ever charged for that?

[A]

No, she wasn't. I asked the prosecutor about it, and she said Ashley is not currently being charged for anything to do with that kill list for certain legal reasons, but that investigators did take it seriously, and they followed through with their investigation on it.

[B]

Let's go back to Harold's case. Now there is a shocking turn of events. Hours after Marcia returned From questioning on October 16, 2023, police were dispatched to the house for a welfare check, and they discover that she has died by suicide.

[A]

I asked Lt. Nicholson about Marsha's suicide, and he said, I think she didn't want to have to spend the rest of her life in prison. You know, I told her that we were going to send the blood off. I think she. She just didn't want to stick around and wait and find out what those results were. When she knew what the results were.

[B]

She leaves a note and it reads, I did not kill my husband. You win, Ashley. So the prosecutor said in the hour that she believed that the message was Marcia's way of trying to get out of the fact that she killed her husband. I guess even in death, she didn't want people to think that she was a murderer. But what do you make of it?

[A]

We talked about this a lot as a team, and based on all of our interviews and research, we believe there. There is another layer that the note reads like a mother trying to implicate the daughter she supposedly loved.

[B]

So indeed, when the toxicology report on Harold's blood comes back, it. It is confirmed that ethylene glycol was in his system. And there were text messages from before Harold died that actually discussed preparing this. These root beer floats, which would mask the sweet taste of the ethylene. Now, here's the question, who is the mastermind behind this plot? Both women benefited. Both women are pointing the finger at each other. Who do prosecutors believe was really behind this?

[A]

I asked the lead prosecutor about this, and she said she doesn't believe we'll ever know who pushed harder to murder Harold. They were both so enthusiastic, both so willing to discuss strategy of what kind of foods and beverages we can put this into. The prosecutor points out that, that Marsha was married to him. She was the one that laid beside him at night, and she was the one who ultimately put the poison in the root beer that killed him. But she also said that Ashley was on her side, constantly in her ear, helping her every step of the way, encouraging her mother every step of the way, being a facilitator for her mother. At the end of the day, after we sorted through all of it, this was really a team effort. And I think they both shared equal responsibility for this, this brutal murder.

[B]

So In August of 2025, Ashley took a plea deal, pleading guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. I was sort of surprised. She was sentenced to 50 years in prison. That's not the best deal on her end, but we have to talk about Ashley's late husband, Ty Jones. He died in 2019. He was just 33 years old. The autopsy listed as his death is related to heart issues, which is kind of surprising for a 33 year old. Ty's family went to the police as soon as they saw Harold's case on the local news. They raised their suspicions that Ashley really may have had something to do with Ty's death. Death as well. Do police believe that they have evidence tying Ashley to Ty's possible murder?

[A]

Well, it is an ongoing investigation and we're not told all the evidence that authorities have. Ashley maintains that Tai died of a heart attack and has not been charged. According to Ty's family, Ashley didn't shed any tears during Ty's funeral service. And the next day she shows up at Ty's place of employment asking about his life insurance policy. No one reported his death as suspicious at that time. And heart attacks can happen to otherwise healthy people. And then he was cremated shortly after his death at Ashley's urging to have him cremated. The suspicion also came into play well after his tissue and blood samples would have been disposed of. So there was nothing to go back? No, no tissue, no blood to be able to examine to see if there were poisons in there. We do know there's one text exchanged between Ashley and Marsha after Marcia complained that the pong Pong seeds were failing to kill Harold. Ashley texted that Ty had weighed much less than Harold writing. And previously, ty was only 120 lol. During our interview, Ty's uncle William Jones and cousin Areta Stivers heard about that text for the very first time. And we want to play a clip from the moment that they learned this information. There it is. There it is right there.

[C]

It's painful to hear.

[A]

Yeah, it is.

[C]

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.

[A]

It means what you have suspected all along is true all the time. All the time. And that suspicion is, is that Ty was poisoned. Both of them cried. There was a sense of relief to get this news. It was really profound for them and for me sitting across from them, it closed a circle of pain and injustice. When you heard that sound, you know,

[B]

it was like, yes, yes, we've got it. We felt slam on the table. Yes.

[A]

And it was an incredible moment, not just for me, but for all the crew to break that news to them and sit across from them.

[B]

It must have meant so much for them to understand that indeed, they might be on the right track and, you know, push, push more.

[A]

Absolutely. And we'll see where this goes. I mean, it is still under investigation.

[B]

We will reiterate that Ashley says that her husband Ty died of natural causes. Peter, another great hour. Thank you so much for joining us today.

[A]

Hey, thank you, Anne Marie.

[B]

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