The gray Nissan, slightly rusted at the edges, still sits in the driveway of a suburban neighborhood.
There, last Thursday night, Martha White Jones, 66, was shot and killed by her soon-to-be stepson, according to an affidavit.
The Nissan, neighbors said, belonged to Jones.
Ross Jonathan McFarland was the teenager arrested on murder charges, according to police. Since that night on Burke Place, a neighborhood off Annalue Drive, where flowers haven’t withered and lawns look as clean as the cookie-cutter homes, residents are wondering what could have led to the kid that grew up on the block to allegedly commit murder.
According to an affidavit obtained by The Plainsman, a witness who was in the house saw how when Jones turned her head away from Ross, Ross took that moment to shoot Jones. She lay on the floor, suffering from “a gunshot wound to the face,” the affidavit states.
“I never heard any gunshots,” said Gary Branch, who lives right across the street where the alleged murder took place. “Never heard a thing.”
No yelling from inside the house, no bang, no scream — nothing, he said.
The affidavit details how according to the witness, Ross picked up the shell casing and left the scene in a truck.
When officials arrived at the residence, they pronounced Jones dead at the scene, according to the affidavit.
Ross’s father, John McFarland, who neighbors said works at East Alabama Medical Center, was engaged to Jones, and while being interviewed by officials, he realized his Smith & Wesson .40 caliber handgun was missing, according to the affidavit.
Liz Diorio, a resident of Burke Place for over 20 years, said John and Jones were going to marry later this year. On the night of the alleged murder, Diorio said she was driving back from dinner and saw the narrow street packed with police vehicles and crime tape.
“We didn’t know what in the world was going on,” she said.
Around 15 to 20 neighbors lined the street, each peeking their eyes through the bright red and blue lights that they had not seen in “Lord knows how many years,” Diorio said.
“I asked myself, ‘What happened?’” she said.
That question still lingers for many neighbors.
A witness told officials that Ross “harbored animosity towards Jones for being engaged to his father in such a short time after his mother’s death.”
Ross’s mother, Donna McFarland, died on Nov. 1, 2018, at the age of 45, according to her obituary published by JeffCoat-Trant Funeral Home in Opelika.
Diorio said she’s known Ross since he was little.
“The kid was really sweet,” she said. “Just a sweet, simple kid.”
The last time she saw Ross, he was driving down the road with the same truck he would eventually flee the alleged murder scene in.
“He pulled over, and we made small talk for a bit,” Diorio said. “That was the last time.”
On Tuesday, she was walking her dog around sundown.
Jones’ funeral would be starting at 5 p.m., but she didn’t want to go, she said. It’s hard to face these types of things, she said, to lose one neighbor to a gun and the other to a cell.
Diorio said she last saw Jones at church a few weeks before the incident, but she doesn’t recall any specific interactions.
“Why would I have?” she said. “You never think this could ever happen.”
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Eduardo Medina, senior in journalism, is the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman.
