Husband died when his root beer was poisoned on fifth try from mom-daughter duo, prosecutors say

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

An Indiana man was allegedly poisoned by his wife and stepdaughter for around two months before dying on the duo’s fifth try, police have claimed.

Harold “Peanut” Allen, 52, died on 22 December 2022 after drinking a root beer laced with ethylene glycol, an unscented, clear but sweet-tasting liquid commonly found in antifreeze.

Although his obituary says he “passed away suddenly,” investigations have revealed his death was long-awaited by his wife, Marsha Allen, 52, and her daughter, Ashley Jones, 30, according to officials.

Prosecutors say that on 14 September 2022, Jones allegedly ordered from eBay pong pong seeds - just one kernel of which can contain a fatal dose of the toxin cerberin, making the plants deadly and earning it the nickname of the “suicide tree.”

The pair allegedly ground the seeds up using a coffee grinder before baking them into a batch of brownies on 26 November 2022.

Court documents reportedly reveal that Allen’s wife sent her daughter a photo of Allen that same day, with a half-eaten brownie on a paper plate sitting on his stomach in the photo.

“Harold became sick after eating the brownie and ended up in the emergency room the next day,” the documents read.

He slowly recovered, spending time in and out of hospital, much to the annoyance of his alleged murderers.

Police claim the pair exchanged text messages on 28 November, with Marsha reportedly saying: “I am irritated and can’t sleep peacefully.

“I need this to be over,” the mother and wife continued. “I wish it would reach its climax and be done lol,” to which Jones allegedly replied that she “agreed.”

Two days later Allen was back in the emergency room, but doctors put his symptoms down to inflammation in his intestines.

Turning to another potent plant, the mother and daughter, according to officials, decided to try hemlock - purchasing it this time via Etsy.

But after allegedly using it three times in December - in a bowl of chili, a glass of soda and a margarita - with no result, Jones supposedly decided to order the ethylene glycol on 13 December, planning to add it to a root beer.

Seven days later, Allen was dead.

But nearly one year afterward Marsha Allen suffered a break-in and burglary at her Freetown home, located around 40 miles outside Bloomington, with police arresting Steven Andrew White, 29, and Nathaniel Kane Napier, 28, on suspicion of committing the burglary.

However, police claim White and Napier were not alone, with Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer saying late last year the two men “committed the burglary at the direction of and with the assistance of Marsha’s daughter Ashley Jones.”

Marsha Allen told police she suspected her daughter from the start because the burglars allegedly had the combination to a gun safe, claiming Jones was the only other person who knew the code.

However, White told an investigator that Jones not only put him and Napier up to the burglary, but he claimed she said her mother had previously poisoned Allen to death.

Her mother denied the allegations and turned her phone over to law enforcement, also turning over what investigators say is telltale evidence of the alleged conspiracy to kill Allen.

It was on her phone where officials discovered the text messages the pair sent each other in December 2022.

According to the sheriff’s office, Jones has admitted to ordering the ethylene glycol that would be used to kill her stepfather but insisted it was her mother who committed the act by lacing his drink with it.

Allen’s wife died of suspected suicide the same day that a search warrant for her home was put into effect in October 2023, following the arrest of Jones for allegedly instigating the burglary of her mother’s house.

Jones now faces an abundance of charges, namely two counts of murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, one count of consumer product tampering, and two counts of attempted murder.

A trial for Jones is scheduled to begin on 7 January 2025.