On the evening of February 15, 2018, a resident in a Burtonsville, Maryland townhome community grew concerned about a car that had been left running for some time in a parking lot on Aldora Circle. Peering inside, the resident made a grim discovery and immediately called 911. First responders arrived to find 34-year-old Ashley Susan Dickinson and a male companion, 29-year-old Joshua Michael Frazier, deceased inside the vehicle. The female victim was in the driver's seat of her white Audi SUV, with Frazier in the front passenger seat.
The investigation that followed, led by the Montgomery County Police Department, quickly determined that this was no accident. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that both Ashley and Joshua had died from gunshot wounds, classifying their deaths as homicides. The nature of their injuries was particularly brutal; both had been shot once in the back of the head from the backseat of the car in what prosecutors would later describe as 'execution-style' killings. Detectives believed from early on that the murders were not random and that the victims had some prior association with their killer.
The motive for the double homicide appeared to be a debt of $900. Investigators learned that Ashley had driven Joshua from Virginia to Burtonsville that day. The purpose of their trip was for Joshua to collect the money owed to him by a man named Gregory Terrell Jones. Text messages revealed that although Frazier wanted to send someone else to pick up the money, Jones insisted on delivering it himself, providing a meeting address on Robey Terrace, not far from where the bodies were ultimately found. It is believed Jones killed Frazier to avoid paying the debt and murdered Ashley simply because she was a witness to the crime.
Evidence gathered by police, including witness interviews, phone records, and two 9mm shell casings found in the car, pointed toward Gregory Jones, a resident of Martinsburg, West Virginia. A search of a West Virginia home in March 2018 uncovered a piece of paper with Frazier's name on it and an unspent 9mm cartridge, further linking Jones to the crime. Following his arrest, Jones was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and firearm use in the commission of a felony.
Gregory Jones's journey through the justice system was lengthy. In December 2021, a Montgomery County jury found him guilty on all charges. In May 2022, he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 30 years. However, this conviction was later overturned on appeal, forcing the victims' families to endure a second trial. In December 2025, a jury once again found Jones guilty of the execution-style murders. He faced a similar sentence of two potential life terms without parole plus 40 years, with his final sentencing scheduled for February 2026.
