Mom Killed in Triple Murder Rampage After 14 Calls to 911

[MUSIC] This is a story not only about what happened but how it was allowed to happen. The warning signs were there. Hi, this has been Mrs. Erie Guy, so I just want to make sure it was not going to be there. The fear was reported to police over and over. I got a lot. The tension, the anger, the resentment, has been building. I can't wait with the restraining order saying there's a last restraining order. There we go. There are other side tags. Until it escalated to murder. [MUSIC] Not just of one person, but three. [MUSIC] I'm Kristen Thorn and this is Law and Crime Investigates. [MUSIC] Mary Ponser and Nathan Jingles met during their time in the Army. Mary was in her mid-20s, Nathan, in his 30s. They both were captains, and Nathan, in fact, was a decorated one. And was one of several soldiers awarded a Maritorious Unit Award for his service and operation enduring freedom in Afghanistan in 2013 and 2014. In 2018, the two get married. At first, they lived together in Germany. In 2020, Mary gives birth to a little girl. And in 2022, they settle down in Tamarack, Florida, which is near Fort Lauderdale. Neighbors say they would try to interact with the couple, but they really kept to themselves not even returning a friendly wave hello. Neighbors think they're just incredibly private, but unbeknownst to them, terror inside the home is unfolding. Law enforcement was made aware. We can see it in a February 2024 restraining order Mary files against Nathan. 33-year-old Mary writes, quote, "He's saying that he was going to shoot me and there was nothing I could do about it. I'm afraid Nathan will kill me and my daughter." She tells the court about the 20 or so guns Nathan has in the house, some with silencers, police seized the weapons. Nathan moves out of the house and into an apartment. A week and a half later, Mary files for divorce and seeks full custody of their daughter. Nathan fires back, saying he should have full custody of their daughter, alleging that Mary has a history of mental illness and exhibits erratic, harmful and violent behavior. He calls the restraining order against him frivolous. In July 2024, Mary makes a surprising decision. She rescinds the restraining order and negotiates a no-harmful contact order with Nathan, meaning he can't stalk, harass or threaten Mary. But that also means Nathan is allowed to have all his guns back. In September, police records show that Nathan contacted police, saying that he was missing three silencers and he believed Mary had them. Under the no-harmful contact order, Mary is given sole possession of the home, meaning Nathan can't come into and out of the house as he pleases without Mary's permission. Well, that doesn't sit well with Nathan and he proceeds to fight in court to get access to the house in an effort to retrieve all his stuff. He doesn't, though, want Mary at the house when that happens. In November 2024, a judge denies that request. As for their daughter, Mary and Nathan are sharing custody at this point. That's also not going smoothly. Mary alleges in court documents that when her daughter returns from spending time with Nathan, her daughter tells her that Nathan keeps saying he's going to kill mommy. And then in October, Mary is reviewing some of Nathan's financial receipts and she notices a strange purchase. She Googles the name of the company and discovers that it's a tracking company. Her attorney advises her to check her car for a tracker and she finds one. She notifies the Broward Sheriff's Office repeatedly informing them that she has a court order that says Nathan isn't supposed to stalk or harass her. Certainly having a tracker on a car would amount to harassment, but police never take action against Nathan. On December 27th, Mary is away from her house when she gets a notification from a security camera inside her home. She calls police. Hi. Hi. We're at your residence. There's nobody here. What was going on? My husband into the home all the way up like a court, like a heated agreement saying that I assault possession and using the home. And then I had called in like a month and a half ago, a report about finding a tracker on my car because I found a GPS tracker on a car that I bought like post divorce solely my family. That you could pretty well assess that he placed it on there. Imagine setting your makeup. Then forgetting it's even there. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Jelly mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewey hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Maybelline. Because I have a financial transaction from him in his financial disclosure. That's from a company called happen, which is like an asset tracking company. Anyway, I assume that he stole that back, but I don't know. So I don't know, but he knows where it is and he's like. When in the home and I don't know, he's scary guy. So I just want to make sure it was not going to be there while I was right there. Do you have a restraining order against him? I did and then I dropped it for immediate agreement like an idea. Yeah, I recommend if you're, you know, scared of him to get that restrict busy as he has the longing. So it's not like he's breaking into the home and taking things you know what I mean. I don't know what else to do. If you're scared, I recommend, you know, getting a restraining order once everything's completely done. Like he has all of his belongings out of the house, the house is yours. He doesn't, he has no money to come back. He has that reasoning order and don't drop it. Okay. Yeah, you got to make sure you finish that that way. He can't come back here and you don't have to worry about him at all. Okay? Yeah, that's right. Do you have any other questions? No, thank you so much for calling in for checking. All right, no problem. Have a great day. All right, you too, Linda. When Mary gets home, she finds several upstairs windows open and a ladder behind some bushes. She then reviews the footage from the surveillance camera and it looks as if Nathan came to the home with a backpack but left without it. She calls 911. Hi, my name is Mary Jingles. I call it on Friday. This is not an emergency, so I want to make sure I'm not taking up phone time. I think I need to make an informational report. I call it on Friday because my ex-husband entered a home that we have a court order saying that I have small use and possession of. And he was wearing like a backpack. I had security cameras and he was carrying something and I was looking through the footage and I noticed he left something in the house. I report every time I find something, so he let me know what I should do. I don't know what else to do because I just got a lot. And obviously the current court order is not doing anything. All right, I entered a call to do so. Mary finds the backpack in her garage. It's filled with tons of suspicious items like zip ties, garbage bags, gloves and rags. She calls police again. They respond and take a report documenting everything in the backpack. On December 30, Mary seeks another restraining order against Nathan and writes in her petition, quote, "He has already taken steps to prepare to murder me. He will attempt this before the leases up at the end of February." On January 6, 2025, an officer goes to Nathan's apartment to execute the restraining order. So anyways, a person, you got your pen and everything ready? Oh my goodness. You've done this before. Once, it's enough, but here I get. So a person named Mary, same last name as you, district court, got a temporary restraining order. So it's the same, I can't wait with the restraining order. Same as the last restraining order. So you already know it's going to go real quick with you. You get the nail that no one has done. Do you have any children? She can after the first time and then vol. Paul's TV and then had to drop a receipt. She couldn't hurt herself. Oh my goodness, so another one. Okay, I just got to go over it. Okay, that's it. So just make sure you attend the hearing. Okay, that's it. Okay. All right, thanks so much. All right, you don't need to sign or nothing. Okay, all right. Well, best of luck. Okay, sir. Thank you. On January 10, 2025, Mary makes what would be her final phone call to police. She calls to check on whether they're going to follow up on the tracker she found on her car or the fact that she believed Nathan broke into her house through an upstairs window. Both violations of the court's no harmful contact order. Good afternoon. My name is Mary Jingleby. I was just calling to check on the status of a few open cases where we think they're open. Is the care do that? Okay, this is a reference to your husband coming onto your property while you're here. you're having a restraining order? >> Well, so two things. One is that I have a case number on. That was in October. >> Are you requesting for officers to call you or meet with you in person for an update? >> A phone call is fine. But then also, okay, check the status from the other one with the entering the home. Are you still just because I want to know? Because they said they may be back. And I -- I don't know if they can -- is there any charge of what it could be associated with that? But I would like to know. >> Yeah, I want to head in place to call in for service our reference in both cases. >> It's unclear if police ever followed up with Mary Jingles. But we know between February 2024 and January 2025, Mary called the Broward Sheriff's Office 14 times about Nathan's behavior. Even Nathan's colleagues are growing concerned about him. He's got a good-paying job as an IT defense contractor. But his co-workers say Nathan is taking a lot of time off from work to deal with his divorce. And the bosses aren't happy. And they think Nathan was aware he was probably about to get fired. While they are just concerned about Nathan, Mary is downright scared. She starts telling her friends that one day Nathan is going to kill her. And they're going to be doing interviews with the news about how Mary knew it was going to happen. She started carrying a gun in her purse. She also starts staying up late at night, keeping watch over her driveway and her house, making sure Nathan doesn't show up. She decides to enlist the help of her father, David Ponzer. Ponzer agrees to stay at Mary's house to help protect her and his granddaughter. On February 16th, 2025, just as Mary Jingles predicted before the end of their lease in February, all hell broke loose. According to investigators at 5.40 a.m., Nathan arrives to the neighborhood on this scooter. He locks it up and then waits for about 20 minutes outside Mary's home. Around 6 a.m. Ponzer is sitting on Mary's back patio, having his morning cigarette and a cup of coffee when according to police Nathan shoots him in the head. The first 911 call comes from a neighbor who comes in around 6.01 a.m. There's one shot when we've done the next street. I'm going to call my god. How many times will it just say? I've probably heard it like four rounds. Who left in a minute ago? Mary and Nathan's four-year-old daughter is sitting just inside the house on the couch watching the entire thing unfold. Investigators say that an armed Nathan then goes into the house looking for Mary. He finds her, they struggle inside the house, Mary runs outside. Police say Nathan tases her and drags her back inside the house. Mary is able to escape and runs outside again. Surveillance footage shows Mary running to find help. Nathan investigators say it's close behind with a pistol in his left hand and then running, screaming. Their barefoot four-year-old daughter pleading for her father to stop. Mary is banging on her neighbor's doors. Neighbors are calling 911, reporting hearing gunshots and a woman screaming for help. You see anybody outside shooting her gun down? And I had to shoot and do all my eyes. I was almost certain that there was screaming in there. For the top of your life, it could have been shooting. We are now receiving a second plan. It has been a moment of screaming and possible time shots as well. Finally, a door opens. It's to her neighbor Andrew Ferrin's house. Andrew's relative lets her in. Mary bolts up the stairs seeking shelter and ends up in Ferrin's bedroom. He's fast asleep in bed. Prosecutors say Nathan jingles immediately starts shooting, blasting at least 10 bullets. He shoots Andrew in the neck and then Mary several times in the head, killing both of them, all in front of their little four-year-old girl. Police say Nathan then walked around the neighborhood with his daughter running behind him. Officers with the Broward Sheriff's Office, even after receiving reports of gunfire, do not rush to the scene. Instead, they staged together just outside the neighborhood, which is in direct violation of the department's training and policy. Investigators say Nathan then kidnapped his child, put her in his car, and drove away. Police put out an amber alert. Initially, Mary is listed as missing as well, because police don't know where she is. They bring in a canine, which tracks Mary's scent to Andrew Ferrin's front door. Officers enter and find Mary and Andrew shot to death. Now the hunt is really on for Nathan jingles. They pay Nathan's phone. It's coming from a nearby apartment building. Police race there, locate the apartment and break through the front door. Nathan's phone is on the kitchen counter. The apartment eerily is empty. No furniture, nothing in the refrigerator or the cabinets. But what they do find is chilling, bags packed, camping equipment, little girls clothes and shoes, and a ton of cash. They also find a calendar, which seems to count down the days to February 16th, the day of the murders. Police start looking for Nathan's silver BMW, and within hours, they find it in a local Walmart parking lot. They wait for Nathan to come out of the store, and then they pounce. Police find Mary and Nathan's daughter in the car. Thankfully, she isn't harmed. Officers on scene at that point still don't know where Mary is. According to police records, they ask the little girl, "Where is your mommy?" She responds, "Daddy killed mommy. Mommy is laying in blood." She later tells investigators that her father told her she would never see her mother or grandfather again, and they were going to visit her cousin in Texas. While Nathan is on his way to the police precinct, detectives are processing the bloody crime scene spread out over the neighborhood. They're also looking for evidence, mainly discarded weapons. They use drones to survey the shallow lakes in the neighborhood. Divers are called into search. They use metal detectors and locate two sets of handcuffs. They also find a gun holster. Then they find a handgun, with the silencer still attached about seven feet down in one of the lakes. Nathan is brought to the precinct for questioning. Basically, we want to talk about what's going on this morning. We want to hear your side of the story. Basically, you explain your thought process and what happened. We're not here to judge. We're only seeing one side and we want to hear from you. Basically. You've been respectful. I hope I've been respectful. We're having a conversation. That's what we're going to do. We're here to ask questions, but we also are going to answer questions if you have them as well. We're hoping for an open dialogue. But before you do that, you are here in the Cups. Before we can talk and have that conversation, we've got to read you. And knowing and understanding your rights, are you willing to speak to us? I'd like to request a turn. Officers return hours later to take a DNA swab from him. Nathan Jingles is charged with three counts of first-degree murder as well as child abuse and kidnapping. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Police begin to dig deeper into Nathan's life. They find a storage unit filled with guns. They also learned that Nathan wasn't living at this apartment at all. He was staying in a hotel. Simultaneously, there's a whole other investigation happening which has nothing to do with Nathan Jingles. It's the Broward Sheriff's Office investigating itself for its failure to address marriage Jingles repeated calls for help in the year leading up to her murder. Sheriff Gregory Tony had some choice words for his department just three days after the murder. This is just a matter of what I've seen of piss-pour performance, complacency. We felt short in a response in terms of how some of the patrol personnel had documented certain facts related to calls going back to December. It's clear that some of the investigative practices conducted by detectives was also a shortfall. There will be people that will lose their job over this. The sheriff initially suspends seven deputies and then takes a closer look at what happened that day. Why did his officer stage a meeting place just outside the neighborhood instead of rushing into help as they're trained and required to do? It's an issue that has haunted the department for years. During the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018, deputies with the Broward Sheriff's Office stalled before entering the building. 19-year-old Nicholas Cruz killed 17 people and injured 17 others. Several deputies were fired for neglect of duty. One of them, Scott Peterson, faced criminal charges, including child neglect for not running work. into the building. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency tasked to investigate Peterson's actions. Peterson's inaction that day cost people their lives. A jury later acquitted Peterson on all criminal charges, but he as well as the Broward Sheriff's Office is still facing civil action from the victim's families for their response that day. The year prior in 2017, the department was heavily criticized for not coordinating and communicating effectively after a mass shooting at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, which left 5 dead. After those two incidents, the Broward Sheriff's Office lost its accreditation. The department refined its policies, improved and increased its training, and yet some officers still failed to respond correctly to the scene in Tamarack in 2024. The sheriff wasn't shy about calling out his officers' missteps in a play-by-play press conference held after the department's own seven-month-long internal affairs investigation. But as you can see, a couple units bypassed the residency and took a staging position, a predissage instruction and decided to rally out there. That's not within policy, that's not within procedures, that's not what we train. They should have went straight to the house. At this point in time, what you're going to see in the upper right screen is video footage of Sergeant Alan arriving on scene, turning his lights off, at which point both the suspect and the daughter passes his vehicle. It's even cold in. Nathan and his daughter walking around the neighborhood, Nathan in all black and his daughter, without any shoes on. A strange sight at six in the morning, yet no officer stops them. The sheriff explains that the first officer to arrive on scene was an officer who was not even from Tamarack. We have a deputy K9 officer who is coming from outside of the city who heard this call. I believe he was in Deerfield Beach and he ran cold three across four different cities to arrive on this scene and that is him running lead or point as he passed the sergeant with an additional backup unit. We recognize this is an staging incident. This is something where no one should be sitting around. You can hear the frustration in a K9 officers voice as well as his colleague out there, not understanding while these deputies are standing around and not pushing the contact. And he's 100% right. I can train you. I can supply you. I can give you all the tools to be successful. What I can't coach is courage and effort. And if you're going to sign up for this profession, you better make sure you have both of those first. Or don't join this profession. The department fired eight deputies and disciplined 21 others for the way they handled Mary's case and the murders that day. The union representing the terminated deputies is fighting to get their jobs back with back pay. Meanwhile, Nathan Jingles remains in jail. We obtained some of his many jail calls. He appears to be speaking with a friend or family member in Texas. Initially, Nathan appears to be pretty calm and unbothered, more annoyed by the charges. He's facing. Don't isolation. I'm just planning to suicide watch. Hopefully next week should be off out of the isolation. Get blessed with media people and stuff. No, I got an email this morning, which was weird because it was to my hotmail, which I never use. And it was someone from the Miami Harrel. I was like, Oh, you're on the witness list. And I was like, what? I was like, witness list. I'm like, I'm, I was in Texas, and I didn't witness anything. Oh, yeah, basically ignore any null. Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't, I don't plan on talking to anybody. Yeah. Good plan. Good plan. But as time goes on, Nathan's tone changes. He believes that everyone is against him, including Nathan's tone changes. He believes that everyone is against him, including his own attorneys. I'll be talking to my attorneys again Tuesday, but basically math, basically, basically, or everything. They're basically working with an officer again. So that's that mission will be addressed next week. Nathan's attorneys recently asked a judge to be removed from his case, citing irreconcilable differences to an extreme degree. Nathan was essentially accusing his attorneys of being in cahoots with prosecutors. The judge granted the request and appointed a new attorney. We reached out to that attorney, but didn't hear back. New York based criminal defense attorney James Pascarella, who is not involved in this case, says whoever represents Nathan Jingles is going to face an uphill battle. I think that the evidence in this case is overwhelming from what I see. You have witnesses who see him running and chasing. You have video surveillance. That starts to really build a case against him. Do you have a lot of evidence that leads to premeditation? You have the threats ahead of time. You have a bag that was found that had zip ties and things like that. You have him chasing them down. Those all show premeditation. Because premeditation doesn't have to be some elaborate scheme. Premeditation can be within moments before you decide to do it. But I do think there's the possibility of other defenses such as not responsible by reason of insanity. Florida has a pretty strict standard. Their standard is beyond extreme emotional distress and things of that nature. You have to show real mental illness, schizophrenia, delusion, things like that. How does a plea deal play into this? A plea deal is a possibility. And the fact that a defendant may want to avoid the death penalty may be a reason and incentive to take some sort of a plea. As of this recording, the death penalty is still on the table for Nathan Jingles. While the Tamarack community continues to mourn the incredible loss and trauma that happened here, some legislators are taking action. Florida representative Robin Barrowman recently introduced a bill that would have forced police to seize Nathan Jingles guns when they went to tell him only a few weeks before the shooting that Mary was filing a restraining order against him. The bill says if someone like Nathan Jingles has an injunction, a protective order filed against them, police are now forced to seize their weapons. They can't just remind people of the policy. Andrew Farron's family is supporting the bill. This bill says no more loopholes and no more taking chances with the lives of our survivors. And then in March 2026, the Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would force people who violate a protective order to be on GPS monitoring. It means that when Nathan had allegedly broken into Mary's house through an upstairs window and on a separate occasion, allegedly placed a tracker on her car, her complaints to police could have resulted in police putting Nathan on a GPS monitor. Florida representative Deborah Tendrich, a domestic violence survivor herself, is behind the bill. And this year, members, I will reflect on how my survivor story led me to bring forward a bill designed to help save lives across our state for those who are walking in the same shoes that I once wore. Representative Bartleman spoke during the House vote and reiterated not only her support for the bill, but Andrew Farron's family's support for it as well. Andrew's uncle, George David, came to me and said why didn't that animal have a GPS monitoring? Why aren't we doing something? And then I read your bill and I said guess what? Somebody's already taken care of this because this was a repeat offender. This is someone who should have had his guns taken away. And if he was on a GPS monitor, it would have made a difference. So on behalf of that family, this was something very important to them to change this. Thank you and I totally support this amendment. The bill is heading to the Florida Senate. Both pieces of legislation aimed to make sure that what happened to Mary Jingles, David Ponser and Andrew Farron never happens again. It never should have happened in the first place. For Long Crime Investigates, I'm Kristen Thorn. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all day comfy grip. 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