Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
january ,2013, northland police were stunned by a man who had arrived at the station with some shocking claims,but this was the beginning of a sinister plot they were about to unravel.
it all began with an unexpected tip off to northport police departement, in january,2013.
this is john chamberlain
who’s here to report his longtime friend and current employer, 49 year old janeene jones, but little did john know he was about to throw open te doors to a case full of shocking turns.
this started off as good business ,john thought he had struck a great deal ,janeene , a north port ,florida ,owned 13 vacant houses ,fixing them up and renting them out for a steady income,as a plumber
it was a win ,win for john ,with extra cash and a stable place to live that janeene gave him.
but john couldn’t shake the feeling that something was n’t right and once his suspicion radar went off ,there was no turning back.
janeene, didn’t actually own any of the houses,instead , she was running a carefully crafted scam,renting out properies she didn’t own, tricking unsuspecting tenants and pocketing the profits.
to make it all seem legitimate,she showed fake property documents, claiming tha actual owners had handed over the homes in exchange for her covering their taxes.
to execute this fraud , she even had a perfect scheme that she used.
john had also become a part of this scheme unknowingly while working for her as a plumberuntil he got the to know the truth.
there was a tenant in one of these homes that janeene was renting out, that tenant was at her home that she believed she was lawfully renting, and somebody showed up at her door claiming to own the house,she said i rent this house from janeene jones .
however ,he believed that janeen was incapable of harming those who rrented or owned the houses,that’s why he decided to confront and warn her.
but how did it all begin?
to truly understand john’s claims the officers needed to go back to the very start……..
jones was born in Tawa City , Michigan and later pursued her career as a correction officer at charlotte county jail in florida.
she was already a two time divorcee ,raising a young son when she met max jones ,a carpenter in 1991, she married him the same year in october 12, and it wasn’t long after she became pregnant with their first son , zachary jones better known as zach in 1992.
max tried his best to be a responsible father.
two years later in 1994, they welcomed their daughter alexandria,now their family looked complete and everything seemed perfect,until janeene lost her jog a few years later.
but the reason behind this was enough to raise red flags…..
john had said ” i guess she was fired because she had some affair going with an inmate.
but this was just the begining ,things were about to get darker ,with no income ,bax became the sole breadewinner , leading to stress and fights between the couple.
but what they didn’t know was that their lives were about to take a devastating turn.
on november 27 , 2011,max suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 51 which resulted in his sudden death.
janeene appeared to be a distraught wife who now had sole responsibility for her kids.fortunately, she received a $ 1 million insurance payout for max’s death ,which she invested in a real estate business that ultimately turned into a whole scam.
this makred a turning point as janeene appeared to move on with her life quickly,she decided to make significant changes to her appearance.
jane decided that she needed to get boob surgery.
after max’s death, janeene moved to a new house with her children for a fresh start, but just six month after her husband’s passing ,she began dating several men while also sonsuming drugs and alcohol.
it was then that she met 26 year old matthew smith who was half her age and just two years older than her son , zack.
shortly after max died her response upon seeing him was… how would you like to be my boytoy? and his response was , i’d love to.
he was very much her boytoy,and he liked having a sugar mama.
and yet , that wasn’t even the strangest part,amy wright , janeene’s friend had a front row seat to the bizarre dynamics between them.
jane called me out of the blue and like…it was a late hours a night and asked me if i would be interested in a threesome with her and her new boyfriend and i was like,no ,that is not up my alley.and then she proceeded to ask me if me and her could have a sexual relationship ans matt watch and i was like , yeah,that’s not smething i’m into either”
janeene’s whirlwind romance with matt took a dark turn,leaving her family in shock when they disovered she had married him ,just six months after max’s death ,in july 2012, she stunned everyone by announcing at a gathering that she and matthew had tied the knot during a trip in las vegas
her children were particularly taken aback by the news.
in the following months , janeene and matthew embraced an extravagant lifestyle bolstered by the profits from their new real estate venture.
matthew wasn’t just her husband….he quickly became her business partner as well.
but her haunting past was quickly catching up…
coming back to the scene in the story where john was here to report her now,
this wasn’t the first time he had sensed something was wrong, he recalled incidents where janeene’s requests raised red flags , making him suspect she was hiding something.
there would be a lockbox on the door and she said ,these houses have sat so long they can’t contact anybody that has the key for them and so we’ve got to go in there and draw te locks off, i sis like one or two for her, and then i told her ,i said , i don’t feel comfortable doing this, i don’t do illegal stuff like this and i knew at this time, now , that she was involved in illegal stuff “
with her unusual behavior the police suspected something fishy and they had already begun looking into her possible involvement in her first husband’s death.
now, with a possible murder investigation of her husband on one side and fraud allegations on the other , janeene was running out of places to hide.
but that left one central question unanswered;was matt entirely in the dark, or was he the second mastermind in this case?
john was the only one who knew the full extent of her fraud, therefore janeene considered him a threat and wanted him out.
realizing he was in danger,john wasted no time reporting janeene’s fraudulent activities to the authorities.
the detectives had enough to push forward with the investigation,they were certain janeene was keeping more secrets,now it was only a matter of time before they brought everything to light.
the officers geared up for a daunting investigation against her for fraud but nothing could have prepared them for what was coming next…….
janeene’s friend becky made a call to the police station to report something that would horrify even the officers.
a phone call from a confidential informant, they said somebody wants to have somebody murdered,the case witness said that she is friend with a lady named jan and she wanted to have somebody murdered or that knew a lot about her , knew too much about her life
the target on janeene’s hit list was none other than john chamberlain, the man who had reported her real estate fraud earlier.
john had reported her alleged fraudulent activities with integrity, but that act made him the target of her dangerous scheme, now his life was in grave danger,but even more alarming was her plot to kill him .
a scheme that would haunt everyone involved…..
informant ” she says i wich i could get rid of him for good. i turned to i was like , what do you mean?she’s like , for good. then she called me the next day on the phone she ‘s like hey do you think you could find somebody that could help me with a job issue?like i didn’t really know how to respond to it, it was a little bit more pushy with the second phone call .”hey , did you check on that favor for me? and i was like , ” yeah , i spoke to a guy . i was like , i get back to you on that.”
both becky and janeene met at a resturant called sweet tomatoes for lunch to discuss their plan.
janeene knew the walls were closing in , but she wasn’t going down without a fight and came prepared. she doubled down, plotting a plan so solid ,it could outsmart even the sharpest detectives.
still in shock ,becky asked janeene again if she was sure about wanting john dead or if she had considered just scaring him instead,with janeene’s unwavering determination now confirmed , becky asked her how she wanted john to be killed.
janeene had planned it all,she was already beginning to create an alibi for her,by selecting a moment that would be most convenient and would be least likely to draw attention from investigators, after hearing janeene’s entire plan laid out so confidently, becky warned her about the risks involved the price that came with taking someone’s life.
becky made it clear that she had no interest in getting into trouble,but she knew someone who could carry out her plan perfectly.
a few days later , becky reached out to janeene,instructing her on something she would need to set the plan in motion .
janeene then finally received the call she had been waiting for , the call from the person who would help her carry out her plan.
now the time hadcome that janeene was eagerly waiting for and she, along with becky,then decided to meet the hitman to discuss the execution of their plan, however , just as janeene sat in the car,she exhibited some strange, almost absurd behavior.
the hitman however come prepared, wasted no time getting straight to the point but what he was going to hear from janeene would shock him to the core.
after brief pleasantries, janeene wasted no time and got straight to business but as the hitman began asking her for information about the plot,it revealed a cold ,sinister side of her that no one had ever seen before
as if plotting john’s death wasn’t enough,janeene also didn’ want his daughter interfering with her plan.
her calm and emotionless demeanor depicted a far sinister picture of her casting doubt that it wasn’t her first time orchestrating such a crime
determined, she took the hitman to john’s house, pointing out exactly where he needed to strike
when he asked her how she wanted it done, she replied in a calm and stoic tone ,detailing every step with chilling precision.
she even handed the hitman a blueprint of john’s house,making sure he could navigate without any trouble.
just when it seemed like this was the final step in her twisted plan ,janeene took it even further as she revealed yet another target she wanted gone.
it seemed like her hunger for money was far from satisfied, and now she wanted her current husband ,matt gone too.
after all , he was more valuable to her dead than alive as she planned to collect his hefty insurance payout
with her previous husband gone under suspicious circumstances she now plotted his removal ,showing no sign of remorse.
the hitman and janeene both agreed to a standard amount of money for both murders,and janeene handed the hitman the money without hesitation.
janeene’s act of plotting the murder of her current husband casts a dark shadow over her character ,cementing her reputation as a rising black widow.
she stepped out of the car to encash the rest of the amount but there a bombshell dropped on her.
janeene had unknowingly walked right into a meticulously planned trap one that would soon unravel everything she thought was under her control.
this was just the beginning of a series of bombshell revelations that would shatter her world.
first , the friend she trusted, becky was actually was actually amy wright,the confidante who knew nearly every secret about her life
then she was confronted with the most staggering shocker for her her,the hitman she had arranged to kill john wasn’t a criminal at all , but an undercover officer, dominic harris.
her own friend, amy , had been working with the police from the moment janeene expressed her desire to have john killed.
every moment of the set up to get the truth from the staged meeting, to the conversation with janeene was recorded on camera , leaving her with no escape from the overwhelming evidence against her.
with undeniable evidence against her there was no way out.
on february 25, 2013, janeene was arrested and taken into custody.
the investigators believed she supposedly targeted matt, because of the payout she was supposed to receive from his insurance policy
they then turned to her supposed arget , matt,her husband, and informed him about her plot, he was shocked upon learning the truth, but investigators had reasons to believe he was an ally to her forher real estate fraud.
however , after a few weeks of investigatuib,the police gathered enough evidence to arrest him for realestate fraud.
on march 15, 2013, matt was taken into custody and charged with multiple counts of burglary and real estate fraud.
returning to janeene’s sinister plots, they had already arrested her for plotting to murder not one but two people but what was to come was even more terrifying, after realising her evil actions, the people became suspicious of her actions involving someone else’s life.
max’s family wass really concerned about having an autopsy done.they wanted to know what happened to him,once she said , no, she’sgoing to get a cremation.she cut off all ties with max family
so that put in some leery vibes in the air and rumors started to spread quickly
there was even people posted on her social media about her killing her husband she would then quick delete it.
allthough they had never thought janeene to be this evil, but with her sadistic plot unraveling now,it was becoming more evident to everyone about what she was capable of doing.
janeene jones has potentially been involved in the murder of her previous husband, max.now she wants to have other people killed for money. it wasn’t totally a shock because authorities knew that she had had likely killed her former husband , max jones.
these suspicions were further corroborated by the doubts by her owns family had against her after max’s death.
it was revealed that max died suddenly,but what led to his death was severe stomach problems,resulting in substantial wight loss and multiple hospitalizations.
even the doctors were unable to diagnose what was wrong with him.but it wasn’t always this way, in the days shortly after max’s death, the north port police did try to investigate his cremated remains ,hoping for answers.
but they hit a dead end as no test could prove that his death was anything other than natural.
so there was no indication that his death was a result of homicide. you can’t determine homicide based on cremains”
finally , janeene jones was avvused of serious criminal charges, including a murder plot and occupational license fraud for a real estate scheme after being arrested in february ,2013.
in january 2014, matt smith was sentenced to six months in county jail with evidence linking him to forgery and he was also given four years of probation and ordered to pay$ 17, 500 in restitution, he has now completed his probation.
eventually , matt smith communicated through his attorney that he would be willing to engage in a plea deal in which he would testify against janeene in the solicitation to commit murder trial
in exchange for a more lenient sentence for him, that offer was immediately rejected, further more . the prosecutor did not feel it was appropriate to call him as a witness.
the sting operation wa proven to be significant evidence against janeene in court.
2014
she pleaded no contest to the solicitation charges, meaning she accepted the punishment but did not plead guilty.
as a result , janeene was sentenced to two life sentences in prison without the possibility of probation.
this was a significant growth from her previous scams that included murder attempts,officials also investigated the suspected death of her ex-husband.
before his death,janeene assured him for $ 1 million , allthough there was no direct evidence to connect her to his death.
the circumstances raised serious questions but due to no evicene, no charges had ever been made.
janeene’s judgement emphasizea the serious legal consequences of solidarity crimes.
she is currently serving to life sentences in prison with the possibility of probation, a simple report of fraud led the cops down a twisted path and , fortunately, resulted in janeene’s arrest before she could claim any more lives
the detectives successfully sovled the case and brought justice to the homeowners and te victims,including john chamberlain ,hwo was betrayed by his longtime friend.
while they were reading the sentencing after jan,and when they weere reading the sentencing, his father turned to my side and grabbed my arm and said, “thank you for getting justice fo my boy.”
–john chamberlain.
she deserved what she got, somehow max get justice.
–donald jones
this case became notorious, dubbed as ” black widow scam”
however ,the tragedy also left a long lasting impact on alexandria and zak,who not only lost their father under suspicious circumstances,but also janeene’s action had already destroyed the trust of those around her.
this closure brought some relief, but the scars of deception and betrayal will take time to heal.
allthough the detectives were unable to determine the real cause of max’s death, what do you think was the actual cause of his death ?
was janeene actually responsible , or it was just natural…..?