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Aline Jones, 44, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Susan M. Ferrel, 65, and was sentenced to 20 years and 4 months in prison for the October 26, 2023, killing at a Diamond Point residence in Clallam County, Washington.

Jones, also known as Aline Wittekind, was the live-in caregiver for Raymond Rhodes, 93, at his home near Sequim. Rhodes died on October 14, 2023. On September 28, he had filed a quitclaim deed transferring the house at 300 North Street to Jones and her former boyfriend, Clinton Jones, who lives in Florida and shares children with her. Ferrel, also spelled Ferrell in some reports, was Rhodes's daughter and lived in Nevada. She traveled to Washington after his death to handle estate matters and was staying nearby while visiting and cleaning the home. Jones continued living there, and investigators and court proceedings treated the property interest as central to the case.

Jones admitted striking Ferrel three times in the head with a hammer, causing her death. References to a screwdriver also appeared in charging documents. Jones claimed Ferrel found the quitclaim deed and living will among Rhodes's belongings while cleaning upstairs, became enraged and attacked her with the hammer. Jones described it as self-defense in a "kill or be killed" situation.

Afterward, Jones cut out a bloodstained section of carpet and used stain remover. She bagged the bloody hammer, screwdriver and Ferrel's possessions, shredded the blood-spotted quitclaim deed and living will, and threw items from a vehicle along Highway 101. She took and later abandoned Ferrel's rental car, discarded Ferrel's purse in a ditch to suggest robbery, dragged the body and rolled it off an elevated patio, then placed a concrete block near Ferrel's head to stage a fall. Jones went to a casino, ate and gambled, then returned later and cleaned a car floor mat with blood on it at a gas station.

Clallam County deputies conducting a welfare check on the evening of October 26 found Ferrel's body in the yard between the house and a motorhome in the 300 block of North Street. The death was treated as suspicious, and the Washington State Patrol Crime Scene Response Team assisted. Investigators found drag marks on the upstairs patio above the body, blood beneath the cut-out carpet and stain remover nearby. They also recovered Ferrel's purse from a ditch and obtained security video showing Jones cleaning the bloody car mat. The rental car was missing.

Jones initially told detectives she had cleaned at the house earlier and then left for work. On October 28, after Clinton Jones contacted authorities to report her admission, she contacted detectives, acknowledged lying in her first statement and confessed to the killing while claiming self-defense. She gave detailed admissions about tampering with evidence and concealing the body. A physical examination found no defensive wounds consistent with a mutual fight, undermining her account.

Charges filed November 1, 2023, in Clallam County Superior Court included second-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement and motor vehicle theft. Gross misdemeanor charges covered false or misleading statements to a public servant, multiple counts of tampering with physical evidence involving the weapon, documents and clothing, and removal or concealment of a body. Bail was set at $500,000. Jones pleaded not guilty in November 2023, and a tentative trial date was set, but the case did not proceed to a full trial. She pleaded guilty on March 26, 2024, to second-degree murder of Susan M. Ferrel with a deadly weapon enhancement. On or about May 7, 2024, with the sentence reported May 8, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Simon Barnhart imposed the maximum under the state's Sentencing Reform Act range, 20 years and 4 months in prison plus 3 years of community custody. After hearing victim impact statements, he rejected a negotiated 20-year deal with credit for time served, citing the callousness of the acts and cover-up.

The video is about 62 minutes of police interview-room footage. It presents the interview itself, without narration or a presenter.