Original subtitles

This is the story of an American family...

I spent ten years living a lie.

Doing its best to hide its secrets.

Say, "hi, mama."

She told me that Max was an abuser,

that he would physically and mentally abuse her.

Behind a facade of weddings, baby showers,

and birthday parties...

Happy birthday to you I was -- I was screaming.

Max? And my mom was screaming.

Max. He's not breathing.

Lurks a monster, caught on video.

I couldn't believe what was happening.

Video that's never been seen in public...

Until now.

It's the fall of 1991

in north port, Florida.

It's hardly a full house at the suncoast worship center,

but it is a happy day

for Max Jones and his bride, janeene.

When my mom

and dad were married, she was very happy,

and she looked -- she looked beautiful.

The camera was always on for special occasions.

They met,

and over the course of a year, they fell in love.

Max is a carpenter, janeene a corrections officer.

It's a typical middle-class American wedding

from the early '90s,

right down to the clothes.

My -- my father, I think he loved to dress to impress,

but seeing him in a white tuxedo is kind of odd.

The newlyweds look over the moon,

and all is well... for now.

Eight months later, it's the summer of 1992.

Heavily pregnant herself, janeene

arrives at a friend's baby shower...

Or so she thinks.

Mom had a surprise baby shower.

Mom showed up at her own baby shower

with a gift thinking it was for somebody else.

She's so happy to have that surprise.

And knowing that,

she welcomes people with open arms.

Janeene is pregnant with the couple's son, zak.

I know she loved being the center of attention.

She would probably get anybody's attention

just by being there.

And in the background, always present,

even at a ladies' baby shower,

husband Max.

He and janeene are facing parenthood together,

every step of the way.

You guys are terrible!

Five weeks later...

My mom loved babies.

If she could have more children, she probably would've.

She was very motherly with all of US.

My happiest memories is with my father's...

Every time he'd have, like, a side job,

I was able to go with him,

and it was always pretty cool to see my dad in action.

I always looked up to my father

and he was such a good man.

I would always go with my dad just so I can be with him.

Max still works with his hands at carpentry.

Hey. Hey.

Hey, mom. Hi.

Hey. Bye.

Janeene has her steady job as a corrections officer.

Make sure you eat something other than cereal today.

Bye.

To friends and family alike,

no red flags,

no sign of impending disaster.

Just an ordinary couple starting a family.

Okay. Let's go.

Two years later, in 1994,

baby Alex arrives, a sister for zak.

The Jones family is complete.

Money is not plentiful, but they are getting by.

Growing up, you know, you see, you know,

a lot of families going out to dinner

or having nice clothes

or having nice vehicles.

With money being tight, you know, we'd probably go out,

you know, twice a month.

But we still had enough money to get through the day.

We lived in a two-bedroom house.

So me and my brother shared a room.

I'm sure mom wanted a bigger house.

But she was quite content with what we had.

I loved where I grew up.

I had a lot of friends.

A lot of neighbors that we knew that we grew up with.

They loved my parents.

No one outside this family has seen these videos

since they were filmed,

nor would anyone find them notable

until a few years later.

Max and janeene Jones

and their kids appear to be an ordinary American family.

But after five years,

the marriage is under strain.

My dad, was a carpenter.

I think he liked working with his hands mostly for,

working with the wood

and making sure every little detail was perfect.

My mom worked in the jail.

She grew up in a military family.

So she was kind of forced to be strong.

She liked to be, like, authority figure.

Money is tight, which adds to the stress.

Dad seemed to, um, kind of stress about money a lot

and he would always be working just to make ends meets.

Max's temper grows worse and worse.

He's finding it harder to make ends meet.

It drives him to the edge.

They started not really having conversations.

They were arguing a lot.

And they just were distant from each other.

My dad raised his voice a lot.

That's how he would show his temper.

Janeene and Max struggled to maintain the image

of a happy couple on the outside.

Max and janeene are popular amongst friends

and very much a part of the local church.

That's where they meet plumber John Chamberlain.

I met them at a church.

Max was a free spirit.

He was, I mean,

he had a very good sense of humor.

And he joked around.

He was a musician.

I'm going to shout a little louder than before

let me sing now, we love

he was -- he was just a fun guy.

I liked janeene.

I'd say her and Max were not your typical church people.

For ten years, the joneses

are tight friends with John Chamberlain.

You ready? He and his

11-year-old daughter are frequent visitors.

John Chamberlain is a long-time family friend

that we kind of grew up with,

spending time with him at church

and his daughter.

They with really the closest thing

that I had to family down here in Florida.

John and Max have a lot in common,

and they spend more time together.

Max had a -- a nice setup in the backyard.

We'd be out there till 1:00, 2:00 in the morning.

And Max being a carpenter,

we had endless supply of wood to burn.

I'm going to get my head down.

On the outside, all looks well,

but Max's temper fuels a downward spiral

in the 20-year-old marriage.

19-year-old zak

is old enough to pick up on the tension.

My mom and dad, they were trying to keep everything,

all their marriage problems,

a secret and keep 'em away from,

their kids.

Max and janeene's relationship

just leave it! Is out of control.

And Max is beginning to lose his temper.

The marriage that began with such promises

of love and fidelity is already in trouble

when janeene does something that shatters it.

She lost her job

after she had an affair with one of the inmates.

Janeene's betrayal sends their relationship

into meltdown.

My mom seemed very vulnerable.

She was, I guess going to any kind of men

that could... showed her some kind of affection.

The affair pushes Max over the edge.

It's Thanksgiving, 2011, in north port, Florida.

Outside, the community's parade kicks off the holiday season,

but inside the Jones household,

it's a season of tension.

Thanksgiving was --

wasn't really all that great.

My mom and dad, they didn't really talk.

It didn't really seem like they loved each other

that much.

Having to spend the Thanksgiving holiday

with his cheating wife

is just too much for Max to handle.

He hated her, so to speak,

had some kind of resentment toward her for all that.

Bob Glasgow is a family friend.

Later, janeene would tell him her side.

After I got to know janeene,

she told me that Max was an abuser,

that --

that he would physically and mentally abuse her.

You betrayed me. Just leave it!

Janeene and Max argued a lot.

And the conversations

between them would escalate the verbal yelling

back and forth.

If I ever talked to my wife like that,

I would have probably been pulling a frying pan

out of my face.

No one in this tense household

is prepared

for what would happen on November 27th, 2011.

I was on the computer.

My mom came in.

That sounds like your father.

Max? Max?

He was very clammy.

Max. He's not breathing.

I noticed that his color was not normal.

Ambulance, please. Like, he looked very pale.

My husband's not breathing.

So the operator was like, "okay.

You need to get him on the floor

and you you need to start cpr."

Okay.

You're doing great. The paramedics arrived

and they took over.

His name is Max.

One of the paramedics had come out

and said, "I'm sorry.

There was nothing we could do."

He had a heart attack.

And I lost it.

Janeene Jones' husband, Max,

has died of a heart attack just before Christmas.

And janeene and her two children, zak,

now age 19, and Alex,

age 17, must pick up the pieces

and carry on.

Three months after my dad passed, my mom,

she was trying to fill a void

that he had left.

Money is tighter than ever

and janeene has lost her job.

The time is right for her to start her own venture.

My mom, she started a new, real estate business.

She bought foreclosed houses,

would fix 'em up, and then would rent 'em out.

I was pretty proud of her for starting her own business

and going out on her own

and doing what she wanted to do.

Amazingly, by early summer,

janeene's a successful businesswoman,

buying and renting out foreclosed homes.

Being a realtor is something she's good at.

Janeene has found her vocation.

Hi, I'm janeene Jones, and welcome to my company,

my retirement, llc.

I have lots of beautiful and affordable homes

on my website.

I'd love to show you around.

Within six months of Max's death,

janeene is finally in a decent financial position.

With her business proving more profitable every day,

she moves her family into a new home.

So it's moving day.

Coming through the hallway

and into our beautiful family lounge area.

Hello, Alex. Great, she's getting that.

And look at that gorgeous television.

We moved out of the house

to get away from the discomfort

and the bad memories that were living there.

That's so nice. Thank you.

And having money

isn't the only big change in janeene's life.

She also has a new love interest --

cable TV installer Matt Smith.

At 26, Matt is barely half her age.

Some of janeene's friends

think Matt looks suspiciously like a freeloader.

Hey, dude. But janeene

sees him as simply the reward for her newfound success.

Janeene looked at him as a boy toy in the beginning.

I know that's what it was.

How could you fall in love with somebody

who's 26 years old and you're 49?

But for janeene, liberated suddenly from Max,

life is good.

In July of 2012, she invites friend Bob Glasgow

and his wife over to the new place.

Hi.

They invite US over for a few drinks

to get to know the family.

Hi. It is then,

in front of her friends and children,

that janeene will drop a bombshell.

He's like, "you know,

there's something we're going to tell Alex.

She doesn't know yet,

and, you know, we don't want to shock her.

We're glad you're here."

Hey, everybody. We're very excited.

Matt and I have some news.

They just came right out there and said,

"we got married in Vegas."

My wife and I,

we glanced at each other, stared and said, "what is going on?"

Janeene's children, Alex and zak, are flabbergasted.

Their dad, Max, has only been dead for six months.

I didn't really like him.

I never really...

I never liked him. I --

I don't know why she decided to have this guy so soon

after my dad's passing in her life.

It was very heartbreaking.

I felt angry at her for doing that.

Still grieving, awash in happy memories

of their dead dad, zak

and Alex cannot accept the strange new world

their mother has created with Matt.

It was very odd.

And I tried to distance myself from my mom and Matt.

It was uncomfortable to be home.

And I was... I thought it was not right.

He was trying to be a father to me,

even though I'm basically the same age as him.

I was, like, "I don't really like it."

I don't want him to be my father.

I don't need a father.

Hey, dude. I have one.

Matt has gone from cable guy

to husband to business partner.

He and janeene run the business together,

buying and renting out houses faster than ever.

Soon they have more work than they can handle.

They turn to janeene's long-time friend,

John Chamberlain.

Janeene knew that I was a plumber.

And so she asked me if I would be interested

in doing the work on these -- these homes.

She told me that she would actually rent me

one of these houses.

In exchange for rent money,

I would perform plumbing services for her

on these rental properties.

But the more John

works inside janeene's rapidly expanding real estate empire,

the less sense it all makes.

Until one day, a bombshell.

There was the one tenant.

She called me up one day

and she said, "you're not going to believe this."

Okay, 'Kay, 'Kay. She answered the door

and that the people on the other side of the door

wanted to know who she was

and what she was doing in their house.

Okay, 'Kay, 'Kay. Just,

hang on for an hour or so. Yeah.

Let me see what I can find out from jan.

Okay.

John has worked out that janeene, with Matt,

is simply breaking into unoccupied houses

she doesn't own

and renting them out as if she did.

The entire business is a fraud,

with John the unsuspecting accomplice.

What have you gotten me into?

Just calm yourself down, John.

Everything's fine.

Something strange is going on here.

And I said, "it's something that I don't want to

have my name on or be any part of."

With that, John quits,

his next stop, north port police department.

John's been drilling locks

to gain access to empty houses.

Now it all makes sense why.

I mean, I understand keys get lost,

maybe -- maybe on one house,

but to have two and three in a row,

that -- that was -- that was definitely a red flag.

For John, it's a bitter betrayal.

Smile, you're on candid camera.

Investigators set to work unraveling the fraud.

North port police department

began pulling all of the deeds from those homes

that were suspected to be rented out fraudulently.

And what he learned was that there was --

there were deeds that were forged.

Without John Chamberlain's tip, I don't know

if north port pd would have ever learned of this scheme.

Janeene Jones is now under police investigation,

and John Chamberlain is the one who turned her in.

But what he's about to tell police next

could mean he's in danger.

John Chamberlain has told police

that janeene Jones

and husband Matt's real estate business is a fraud.

And there's something else that doesn't make sense to John --

the death of janeene's husband, Max.

My mom had my father cremated,

um, a couple of days since his passing.

There actually was not any exam done.

After Max died, janeene came to my house.

She asked me

if I would hold on to Max's ashes

because she just didn't feel like dealing with them

and she thought it would be better

if I held on to them.

And I just thought that that was very odd.

Max's death and hasty cremation

is most suspicious,

especially because it seems janeene wasted little time

in mourning.

The information that I had is after his death,

janeene Jones' behavior was unusual.

She did receive $1 million of a life insurance policy

after Max died.

And right after he died, she started getting things

like plastic surgery, breast augmentation.

She had young boyfriends.

She was buying things.

She was spending money.

I think her own behavior made people start to wonder

what really happened to Max

and -- and why, you know, she was behaving like that

and not behaving like a -- a grieving widow.

It seems janeene wanted to

dispose of Max's body quickly.

You know, once he's cremated,

the case is significantly lost.

There's a lot of evidence that's been lost.

Aaah! Aaah!

To prove a crime without a body is extremely difficult.

I believe that janeene killed Max Jones

and I believe that that is an unsolved homicide.

There's more to janeene's behavior

to raise suspicions.

She's got a new friend named Becky.

Becky is a hard-partying girl with a past.

Janeene falls in with Becky fast,

experimenting with cocaine and partying till all hours.

New husband Matt has already taken a back seat in her life.

The police have no physical evidence

linking janeene to her late husband Max's death,

but what they do have

is John's tip-off about her fraudulent business.

Police put janeene under surveillance.

February 20th, 2013.

At the sweet tomatoes restaurant, north port,

janeene and her friend Becky go to lunch.

That's when police get the full picture

of why janeene is so taken with Becky.

Like John Chamberlain,

Becky can do some handiwork for janeene.

But she's no plumber.

Instead, she's told janeene

she can put her in touch with a hitman.

But Becky is actually working with police,

who are suspicious of the death of janeene's husband, Max.

And today, Becky is wearing a hidden camera,

trying to learn the identity

of janeene's intended target.

It was at a sweet tomatoes restaurant.

I was in the car.

So during the meeting,

while Becky and janeene are inside the restaurant,

I can hear the audio.

Then, between bites of salad,

janeene announces the target for the hit.

Her long-time friend John,

who knows all about her scam,

is top of the hit list.

She gave Becky a physical description of John Chamberlain.

She gave the address.

And she wrote the, um,

a diagram of his actual house.

And she even wrote on the side

about pets in the house and the 11-year-old daughter.

And she wrote some details out on that napkin for Becky.

The further this case went

and the more that janeene Jones talked

and the more evidence we had,

and especially if she wanted John Chamberlain murdered...

Janeene wants the hit to take place

while she's out of town.

The wheels are in motion.

Now, all janeene needs to do

is make sure her alibi is airtight.

There's no room for mistakes.

Janeene talked to Becky about,

that she would be going on a cruise in the future

and that it would be great if this could be accomplished

while she was on this cruise to establish her alibi.

So she would be out of town.

I think she's actually very intelligent.

I think she's calculated.

I just think she thought she was going to get away with it.

The police investigation has suddenly gone from fraud

to a potential murder.

But talking about hiring a hitman isn't enough.

Police need more evidence,

and are about to get it.

Businesswoman and mother janeene Jones

is hiring a hitman

to kill her one-time friend, John Chamberlain,

who told police

about her real estate fraud.

The police have janeene under surveillance,

first while friend Becky is waiting for her

in a car with the hitman.

Becky has arranged

for janeene to meet the hitman face-to-face.

But what janeene doesn't know

is that Becky is setting her up

and the hitman she's about to meet is, in fact,

an undercover officer,

officer Harris of north port police.

When I first saw janeene,

I was like, "my god."

She looks just like a normal person.

A normal person.

Until she started talking.

But normal appearance, she looked

like she wouldn't hurt a -- hurt a fly.

Okay.

Okay, and so I won't...

Janeene shows a picture of her target,

John Chamberlain, and announces that if

John's daughter is hurt in the process,

that's fine with her.

Janeene, um, talked about the 11-year-old

daughter of the victim.

And she straight-up said

that she didn't care or anything about the -- the victim.

That if she got in the way,

she wanted me to kill an 11-year-old girl.

Janeene wants to make sure

the hitman knows everything about John Chamberlain,

including where he lives.

Okay.

That's when janeene ups the ante

and asks for a two-for-one deal.

She wants a second hit,

someone named Matt.

She's ordered a second hit on her new husband,

Matt Smith.

She had an insurance policy on Matt.

So she wanted to do the two-for-one.

It was financially based.

For now, it's all talk.

It will become a murder solicitation

when she hands over money.

Police! On the ground!

Now!

On your knees!

She looked really mad.

Um, she had a very mean look on her face.

She was not happy.

She, you know, urinated in her shorts.

She was still wearing sunglasses.

Um, but she looked very mad.

It made me think that she was living a double life.

From, you know, the mother that I knew

to this person that I was seeing.

I had no clue what was going on.

It just didn't hit me that jan could do this kind of stuff.

I actually confronted her about my dad's death.

And I had asked her,

"did you have anything to do with dad's death?"

And she looked at me

and she said, "I can't tell you that."

And when she said that, I just cried.

I didn't want to believe it.

Janeene Jones is sentenced to life in prison

for solicitation to murder Matthew Smith

and John Chamberlain.

Max Jones' death remains unsolved.

Hey, mama.