Evil Lives Here is an American documentary television series started on January 17, 2016, on Investigation Discovery. In every episode of this 60-minute true crime program, a family member related to the case is interviewed.

The documentary has a wide array of cases that they discuss. However, one of the most chilling cases is the murder of Aleta Diane Ray.

Ray was discovered dead inside her Twin Falls County, Idaho, home in September 1999. At first, the death was ruled natural, but the authorities quickly discovered methamphetamine and insulin traces inside of her, which strongly suggested that it was murder. 

To make matters worse, her murder was witnessed by her infant daughter, Jade Scotton. Here is all we know about it.

Background of the case

As said before, Ray was murdered by forceful injection of methamphetamine and insulin. She was killed by her partner Verne Jesen’s former wife, Vicki.

However, before diving into the case of Ray’s murder, a back story is required. 

When Jensen was twenty years old and pursuing his respiratory therapy degree, he became acquainted with a registered nurse at the hospital where he worked. Jensen was married but separated from his first wife.

Vicki, a divorced mother of a four-year-old boy, and Jensen worked together for a while before the latter made the decision to take her out on a few casual dates. 

He admitted that he found her funny and that she was “extremely friendly.”

He said, “When she knew I was separated from my wife, she handed me a note asking if I wanted to meet up for drinks and talk. We hung out. But she became very possessive right off the bat. It was very clear she wanted something much more.”

However, Jensen didn’t think their relationship was serious. So, he was taken aback when, following an extended weekend spent with friends, Vicki was able to get on the phone and talk to his mother. 

Afterward, she acknowledged that she had called every Jensen listed in the phone book until she found the correct home. She announced her relationship with Jensen shortly after.

Unsure of how to respond to the circumstances, Jensen lost himself in his job. He was able to secure a full-time job in Twin Falls, which is over two hours distant from Boise. 

Vicki had stated she would accompany him, he said. Vicki also declared that the two would be married when his first marriage ended in 1991, and they actually did.

Soon after, Vicki started abusing him, both physically and verbally. She even tried to kill Jensen’s first wife. 

“The one thing that truly made me realize there was something wrong with her was when she brought insulin home to try to kill my first wife, my kids’ mother, because she had raised my child support a couple of years after she found out I’d gotten a different job,” Jensen claimed. 

Vicki said, “I’m gonna kill that witch,” but Jensen did not take it seriously. This was because he thought that it was just a phrase, not a serious statement.

But one day, he saw the insulin and questioned Vicki. She said that she was going to take care of it.

Soon, Jensen got worried, grabbed the insulin and syringes, and threw them in a dumpster somewhere. He tried to convince himself that she was simply overreacting.

“I thought I could control this, I could handle this. I told her if she tried this again, I would call the police, and I wasn’t screwing around here. I thought about going to the police anyway, but I said to myself, ‘What could they really do?” he thought.

But at that time, Vicki had not committed any crime. However, she was physically and verbally abusive to Jensen, and the latter was afraid of her.

According to him, she would punch him, hit him, and throw things at me. Jensen never retaliated, and soon, it started getting worse.

He finally moved out and started working additional jobs to help pay for a divorce attorney, even though he didn’t call the police. Around that time, he started dating Ray, a nurse’s assistant. 

He was infatuated with how kind and caring Ray was to her patients. Jensen gushed about her, “She never got short with anyone or impatient, even if someone was being really ugly towards her. She always had a smile on her face. I fell in love with her smile. She had a very soothing voice. She put others before herself. It was such a breath of fresh air.”

They had a natural connection, and Jensen soon fell for her. In 1999, Ray and Jensen moved into an apartment together with Ray’s daughter as their love grew.

Vicki learned the truth quite quickly. Jensen said that he and Ray had made arrangements to move away and start over in a distant place when Vicki started following them.

Soon, they started seeing Vicki following them around. Jensen wanted to send Ray “somewhere 200 miles away so she could feel safe.”

Unfortunately, he was too late for it.

The murder of Aleta Diane Ray

After Jensen left for work on September 9, 1999, Vicki and her two accomplices, who were dressed in disguise, tricked Ray into allowing them entry into her home. It was there that Vicki fatally injected the 33-year-old with methamphetamine and insulin while holding a pistol to her head. 

Prosecutors claim that Vicki watched Ray suffer for over one hour after ignoring her cries for forgiveness. Ray’s 3-year-old daughter, who was left alone with her dying mother, saw the crime.

Reports state that Vicki enlisted the assistance of her 14-year-old niece Autumn Pauls and her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend Matthew W. Pearson to carry out the murder. 

Initially, the Ray’s death was said to be natural. Vicki was a major suspect in the murder, of course, given her past actions, and that’s why the police concentrated their investigation on her.

Jensen was certain that his divorced wife was involved, but he had no evidence to show the authorities. Nevertheless, Pauls gave a friend at school the information that they could care for people without being discovered, which gave the authorities a significant lead.

When Pauls was questioned about Ray’s death, she broke down and admitted to everything. When Vicki was eventually taken into custody for her involvement in the murder in February 2000, everything finally came to light. 

Subsequently, the police said that on September 9, 1999, Ray was home alone when Vicki came up to her and asked to use her phone. Pauls and Pearson were also there, albeit disguised.

Vicki, then 39, entered a guilty plea to Ray’s 1999 murder, which has been described by judges and prosecutors as one of the most horrifying killings in Twin Falls County. She received a life sentence in jail. 

The judge referred to Vicki as the diabolical mastermind behind a heinous and perverted crime at the sentencing hearing. Pauls and Pearson were tried as adults as well for the murder of Ray.

According to recent prison records, Pauls was granted release in 2015 and has been residing in Idaho Falls ever since. However, Vicki is detained at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Centre in Pocatello, Idaho, while Pearson is still housed at the Idaho State Correctional Institution in Ada County, Idaho.

The case discussed on Investigation Discovery

Evil Lives Here has featured Ray’s murder and death in two episodes —  Season 11’s ‘Divorce? Never. Murder? Maybe.’ and Season 3 of Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death’s ‘They Killed My Mom.’

Evil Lives Here’s premise tells the experiences of those who lived with a loved one who would turn into a killer—a parent, brother, member of the extended family, or even a child. Their perspective of the killer is provided by reenactments mixed with police film, family photos, videos, and interviews.

Though there are a handful where two persons are included, most episodes are done alone with only one close friend or relative of the suspect who did horrible deeds relaying the tale.  In each episode, the subject looks at photos of themselves or the suspect to remember specific events from their past, both happy and unhappy.

Jenson was featured in this episode, where he talked about his former wife, Vicki, and how terrified he was of her.

In the show, he said, “It’s been 23 years since everything happened,” Jensen told Fox News Digital. “I truthfully didn’t know if I could revisit this or not. But I wanted to share my side of the story. Things have been said over the years – different things. So I just wanted people to finally understand what happened and how things went down.”

Evil Lives Here: Shadows of Death primarily consists of interviews with the victims’ relatives and law enforcement personnel about how they were impacted by the perpetrator(s), if there were multiple culprits, as opposed to the parent program Evil Lives Here, which features an individual being interviewed about a family member who is a murderer and how the situation has affected them.

Ray’s daughter Scotton was featured on ‘They Killed My Mom’, where she talked about how she witnessed the murder and how it affected her. She also reconnected with Jensen at the end since the two had not seen each other since she was three years old.