A Michigan basement ceiling that seemed too low for a hanging. An extension cord that should have stretched under a body’s weight but didn’t. A husband’s frantic 911 call that fell apart under scientific scrutiny. Dateline returned to the case of Amy Allan, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mother found hanging in her Tecumseh, Michigan, home on September 14, 2018, with a focus on the single piece of physical evidence that turned a reported suicide into a murder investigation. The episode, titled “What Happened in the Basement,” lays out how a forensic engineering test and a detective’s refusal to accept a story that “just didn’t add up” led to the conviction of Jimmy Allan for his wife’s murder.
The Night Amy Allan Died
The evening began like any other for the Allan family. Jimmy and Amy dropped their teenage daughter Ashley and a friend at a high school football game around 6:30 p.m. and then headed to a local bar for a drink. At the bar, the conversation turned tense. Jimmy told investigators he suggested another move, possibly to North Carolina, and Amy pushed back. “She said a couple of times, ‘Oh, that’s not going to work,’” Jimmy recalled to police.
Amy walked home alone while Jimmy drove. He arrived first. According to Jimmy’s account, Amy went down to the basement, swore at him when he checked on her, and he went upstairs to watch television. At 8:40 p.m., Jimmy said he went back downstairs and found his wife hanging from an extension cord attached to a hook in the basement ceiling.
The 911 call that followed was chaotic. “My wife tried to kill herself. She’s in the (expletive) basement,” Jimmy shouted at the dispatcher. Tecumseh Police Officer BJ Horn arrived minutes later and found the house eerily quiet. “It wasn’t until I yelled a couple times, you know, ‘police, police,’ that I heard somebody,” Horn later said. He found Jimmy in the basement performing CPR on Amy.
When paramedics took over, Jimmy became hysterical, loudly moaning and wailing. But Horn noticed something strange: there were no actual tears. A paramedic ran through the kitchen and told Jimmy that Amy was still “fighting,” meaning she was alive. Jimmy’s response stunned the officer. “Huh? What?” he said. “Dude, what in the (expletive) hell?”
Amy was rushed to the hospital. Her family was not told for 14 hours—and when Jimmy’s father finally called, he told them Amy was already dead. She was still on life support at that moment. The family rushed to her side and had only minutes to say goodbye before she died on September 17, 2018.
The Clue in the Ceiling
From the start, Michigan State Police Detective Larry Rothman and first responders were troubled by the physical scene. The basement ceiling was unusually low. Jimmy claimed Amy had been hanging from the extension cord when he found her, but the height of the hook made that story hard to believe.
Rothman reached out to a forensic engineering lab to test whether someone of Amy’s height and weight could hang herself in the way Jimmy described. The results were decisive. The extension cord would have stretched under Amy’s weight, and her feet would have touched the ground.
“This was physical evidence, scientific physical evidence that proved that Jimmy’s story just didn’t add up,” Rothman said.
The autopsy added another layer. There were no notable external injuries to Amy’s neck, the kind usually seen in a hanging. But the interior of her neck showed injuries consistent with a chokehold. Prosecutors later argued that Jimmy put Amy in a chokehold, causing her to lose consciousness, and then used the extension cord to stage a hanging.
The extension cord itself told a story, too. First responders noted that the knots were not as tight as they should have been for a true hanging. A materials scientist testified that similar cords under Amy’s weight would have tightened considerably or elongated, but testing showed the original knots had not been subjected to that kind of tension.
A Family’s Suspicions and a Secret Life
Amy’s family never believed the suicide story. Her sister, Heather Krug, and her parents, Jeanne and Jules Winchester, traveled to Michigan and went straight to police with their doubts. They described Jimmy as controlling. Prosecutors said he tracked Amy’s location and isolated her from her family. Amy’s son, Caleb, told Dateline that the household had “little rules” for everything. “We couldn’t eat without asking. We basically had to ask to do anything,” he said.
Investigators also learned that Amy had been involved in an online relationship with a man named George for nearly three years. They had met in person a few times and talked almost daily. Prosecutors initially explored it as a possible motive, but Jimmy seemed genuinely shocked when told about the affair and insisted his wife didn’t have “the capacity to do that”.
Caleb offered his own theory about what happened in the basement. “I think when she got in that house, she raised h*ll and I think it pushed him to a point where he hadn’t ever been to before and I think he went a little too far and then just kept going,” he said on Dateline.
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The Trial and the Verdict
Jimmy Allan was arrested in November 2020 after a two-year investigation. His trial in Lenawee County Circuit Court lasted nearly two weeks. Jurors heard from first responders, forensic pathologists, a materials scientist, Amy’s son Caleb, and the man with whom Amy had the online relationship. Jimmy did not testify.
The jury deliberated for about six hours before returning a verdict on September 24, 2021: guilty of second-degree murder. Second-degree murder does not require premeditation, and the sentence allowed for the possibility of parole.
On October 21, 2021, Jimmy Allan was sentenced to 20 to 45 years in prison. He is incarcerated at Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee, Michigan.
Jimmy appealed his conviction, arguing ineffective assistance of counsel and that evidence of past domestic violence should not have been allowed at trial. In 2024, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, rejecting his claims.
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The Basement Episode and Where to Watch
“What Happened in the Basement” first aired as part of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Oxygen on January 29, 2025. The case was previously covered in a 2022 episode of Dateline: The Last Day titled “The Case of Amy Allan”. The episode is available to stream on Peacock and airs in rotation on Oxygen True Crime.
For global audiences, Dateline episodes are typically available on Peacock in the United States and through NBC’s international distribution partners. Viewers in the UK, Canada, and Australia can check local true-crime streaming platforms and Oxygen’s international feeds for availability. The episode runs approximately 43 minutes.
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The case remains a stark example of how physical evidence can overturn a narrative. A ceiling that was too low, a cord that should have stretched, and a story that never fit the facts brought Amy Allan’s killer to justice.
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