00:00:01
we had to take everything every scenario into play that's our responsibility after spending the whole
00:00:09
evening coming for Clues at the haran house homicide detective Brian byerson of the Fairfax County Police knew
00:00:17
something was off the rifle leaning against Helen's dead body wasn't covered in blood both Helen and Pamela's cell
00:00:25
phones had been wiped clean and then later into the day the detective learned what Helen's boyfriend Carlos Gutierrez
00:00:35
had told 911 dispatchers my girlfriend told me that her sister killed her mom and now my girlfriend won't answer
00:00:45
her phone Carlos had said that Helen's sister Megan had killed Pamela we knew that Megan haran was at her father's
00:00:54
home I had a conversation with that detective and I asked him to get a good statement from her as far as where she
00:01:00
was and GSR her hands uh G gunshot residue gunshot residue yes the police took photos of Megan and gather evidence
00:01:11
that evening and Fairfax County Police used one of their gunshot residue kits to test Megan's hands and the result
00:01:20
revealed something both suspicious and disturbing Megan haran had gunshot residue on her hands there is no reason
00:01:31
that she should have that by Nightfall The Day of the shootings detectives knew Megan had
00:01:38
recently fired a weapon remember both victims had been shot to death the next day another crucial piece of evidence
00:01:48
came to light in these kind of cases we don't really know anything until other things happen meaning the autopsy is
00:01:55
extremely important in these cases authorities examined Pamela and Helen's bodies and at the
00:02:02
autopsy we realized that the gunshot wound on Helen haran was in the top of her head the entrance and exit wounds
00:02:13
didn't make sense to berson we don't see a a way that she could have made that or
00:02:18
she could have shot herself with the trajectory that we were seeing in the x-rays we were face to
00:02:25
face when detective byerson told me this he then demonstrated what happened happened to Helen according to the
00:02:32
autopsy he lifted up his arm and pointed straight down at the top of his head that's the angle he said the bullet
00:02:40
entered Helen's skull from the top of her head down into her neck it's straight down left to right in crime
00:02:50
scene photos the 22 caliber long rifle is aimed up resting in her lap she would have to hold it straight up and be able
00:03:00
to reach the trigger to accomplish this I've never seen that before and I've worked a lot of death cases I've worked
00:03:06
a lot of murders I've never seen that we had other uh detectives at the time that
00:03:11
had much more experience than I did we all agreed that this is not even a possibility in his mind they were now
00:03:18
investigating a double homicide so now this big puzzle we're starting to fit pieces together and we're starting to
00:03:25
see a general outline of maybe what happened here Detective byerson wanted to talk with the only other adult who
00:03:33
said they were in the house the day of the shooting Megan haran I'm sorry I didn't
00:03:39
have your phone number by then Megan haran had talked on the phone with Detective byerson a few
00:03:46
times I offered everything the first night I said please like just whatever you need but berson wanted to speak in
00:03:55
person she had offered to come in one time and give us anything that we asked for so we took advantage of that at this
00:04:02
point they've got evidence and they want to confront Megan with some of it and see how she reacts would she have a good
00:04:11
explanation for having touched the rifle and if she did have something to do with the deaths of her loved ones
00:04:19
would she confess I'm Peter Van Sant from 48 Hours blood is thicker the haran family
00:04:28
killings I gave you every my clothing I gave you my finger I gave you everything
00:04:35
because of that why would I give that if I if I knew I was guilty episode three a killer in plain
00:04:45
[Music] sight we wanted to know more about who Megan haran was in early summer of 2022
00:04:58
we turned to Becca wolf she's one of Megan's closest friends she told us more about the eldest daughter in the haran
00:05:08
family Megan and I met through a lot of the animal rescue work that we did together we fostered some of the same
00:05:15
dogs Rebecca said they met a couple of years before the shootings 2015 2016 we met and just hit
00:05:23
it off right away they originally bonded over their Love of Animals Megan volunt
00:05:29
ered for dog rescues and even helped veterans bring home dogs they had adopted overseas so it evolved obviously
00:05:39
um from just that topic to talking about all the things talking about her daughter talking about her family
00:05:45
talking about my family Rebecca said Megan often talked about her life and plans including how she hoped to move
00:05:53
into a new house in West Virginia she described Megan as kind-hearted she will give you the shirt off her back
00:06:01
she raised a great daughter her daughter is one of the smartest kids I know we wanted to know if Megan had told Rebecca
00:06:08
about any turmoil in the haran family any worrisome signs you could call it the All-American family now because now
00:06:16
the all- American family is messed up right so the haran family as told to me was your typical American Family where
00:06:23
Mom and Dad got divorced all the drama that comes with that with new relationships new spouses
00:06:31
stepparents but Rebecca didn't remember Megan being all that resentful or upset about her childhood As Told by Megan a
00:06:41
very beautiful family experience with the perfunctory weirdness of families Megan did Tell Rebecca that at
00:06:50
times she was frustrated with kid Sister Helen Helen was the baby sister and if you have siblings you know the baby
00:07:01
whatever is a pain always but that doesn't mean you don't love them that doesn't mean you don't go out of your
00:07:09
way to help them Megan did that for Helen a lot the gist Rebecca got from her friend was that Megan was the
00:07:18
responsible one Megan was kind of the mom of the crew my understanding of Helen is that she was actually more of
00:07:24
an introvert that she was not the party animal Ashley was more the party animal but Rebecca said that from what she knew
00:07:33
Megan the oldest always got along more with her middle sister Ashley than with Helen I never got the impression that
00:07:42
the relationship with Ashley was as maybe contentious as it was with Helen and and the reason I use that word
00:07:50
contentious is because again baby sisters can be a pain in the butt however Megan said Helen was
00:07:57
particularly dependent on the Family that was sort of her attitude on life mom will Mom will take care of it if Mom
00:08:03
doesn't take care of it Megan will come down here and take care of it for me type thing so again she kind of got the
00:08:10
benefit of a mom and a secondary mom Helen isn't here to tell her side of things but that's what Rebecca said
00:08:18
Megan told her and apparently Megan never said a harsh word about her mother to Rebecca Megan admired Pam's wisdom
00:08:28
her career all that she had done through her lifetime she always spoke very lovingly of her Rebecca said her friend
00:08:36
described Pamela as a strong matriarch her loves in life were her daughters and her
00:08:45
granddaughter and she and Molly had an exceptional relationship and as someone who enjoyed being generous it wasn't
00:08:52
like you want something again it was I want to do this for you Megan told her friend that her mother had insisted on
00:09:02
helping pay for her new house Megan was in the process of moving to West Virginia she didn't need the help her
00:09:09
husband Frank's salary was enough to get them alone but Pamela's help would let them buy a place outright with cash I
00:09:18
mean she was going out to get a house with her husband the two of them and her mom said I want to contribute to this
00:09:25
house for you I want to help you buy this house so her understanding was her mom was going to do something one way or
00:09:32
the other Megan had been living with her mom for nearly 8 years her husband Frank
00:09:38
was a soldier who was often deployed overseas finally the couple and their daughter would soon be back under the
00:09:46
same roof and starting a new life in West Virginia That was supposed to happen the
00:09:53
day before Pamela and Helen died Rebecca expected to get a call about about their
00:09:59
new ranch style home and not a tragedy Megan called me and left me a voicemail and just said hey it's Megan I just
00:10:10
wanted to let you know something horrible has happened and I don't want you to see it on the news and um Mom and
00:10:16
Helen are gone call me Megan sounded distraught I almost felt bad about calling her back cuz she sounded so
00:10:24
upset Rebecca started Googling for information police please say Helen haran shot her mom Pamela haran before
00:10:33
turning the gun on herself nothing led me to wow I think Helen's going to murder
00:10:39
her mom and kill herself over a house a week or two after the shootings Rebecca said Megan came to visit her in
00:10:48
Virginia she didn't know then Megan was a person of interest in her sister and mother's murders she just seemed very l
00:11:00
lost I don't know any other way to put it and I think it probably took a long time for her to really wrap her arms
00:11:08
around my mom's gone Helen's gone Rebecca sat with her friend not thinking even for a second that Megan could be
00:11:19
the killer no never once and that's the thing I mean she and I have had many many conversations in the years since
00:11:26
all this has happened and I would not have let her in my house if I thought by any stretch of the imagination that what
00:11:34
they accused her of was possible I just wouldn't have I'm biased she's my friend do I think she did this and I
00:11:41
always came back to no I do not my Spidey senses never went off I do not believe that Magan killed her mom Pam or
00:11:49
her sister Helen but unlike Rebecca detectives hadn't ruled out that Megan could be
00:11:57
responsible for the double homicide side what we're trying to find out which we think you it's important to you too is
00:12:03
to find out who killed your sister and Mom that's what the main goal of this whole conversation is I did not kill my
00:12:09
okay then who did Byers uh detective Megan har I'm sorry I didn't have your phone number oh no
00:12:22
problem Megan how how you holding up I am really not okay Megan haran called Detective Brian
00:12:29
berson on July 17th 2017 it had been 3 days since her sister and mother Helen and Pamela haran were
00:12:39
found dead we're at the funeral home right now I'm sorry right now I'm so sorry detective
00:12:47
berson's investigation had just taken a turn and he had some questions for Megan
00:12:54
hey the um do you have a do you have a second okay they talked on the phone a couple of times that day in the calls
00:13:03
Megan went back and forth between blaming her sister Helen my sister was not my sister for many months and being
00:13:12
adamant that the murder suicide theory was out of the question I just I can't imagine her doing something that violent
00:13:22
the same day as these calls detective byerson had learned of new evidence he asked Megan for certain details on the
00:13:31
phone but asked her to come into the police station later that week I'll probably have you guys come out here so
00:13:38
we'll make sure that it's it's uh that your schedule will I'm just allow it's just yeah and can everything be done at
00:13:47
once yes byerson and Megan talked enough that day to fill up his recording device 2
00:13:56
Days Later Megan arrived at the police station with her family their understanding was that detectives had
00:14:03
new information she had offered to come in uh one time and give us anything that
00:14:09
we asked for so we took advantage of that and myself and my partner detective needles had her come in for an update uh
00:14:16
as we termed it detectives brought Megan to a small room for her to be fingerprinted byerson said the other
00:14:24
family members were taken into another room she comes up she meets with the Julia Elliot we take a DNA sample from
00:14:31
her we take her fingerprints yes okay so she's going to take care of the of the fingerprints okay and the DNA stuff and
00:14:38
then when she's done Steve and I'll come in here and we'll we'll get you updated
00:14:41
okay after they are finished with the tests Megan sat down with Detective byerson and detective needles well
00:14:49
thanks for coming I appreciate it well I but like I I don't I don't mean to harp
00:14:54
on this but like I I'm here like what do you need sure he may Megan could leave whenever she wanted byerson told her as
00:15:03
much if you want to leave let me know and will walk you back downstairs okay okay I I just want to make sure that you
00:15:10
understand that you're I'm not holding you here okay and then we then start going through this update with her and
00:15:17
is this a conversation that's on video it is it's about 4 and 1/2 hours long and most of that is because it at some
00:15:24
point we just can't get her to leave detective byerson sat across from her and leaned back a little in the chair we
00:15:31
didn't have enough at that time to charge her officially so we wanted to get a statement on the record from her
00:15:37
the interview went on and on for hours at times it got contentious she had very inappropriate emotional responses
00:15:49
at at weird times she got very angry at us for weird things we asked her if she'd ever done any drugs anything about
00:15:56
drug use anything oh my God no okay never have no all right no I'm sorry I'm Sor really strong
00:16:05
right at one point in the interview Megan told the investigators that she had called police to report two
00:16:12
suspicious men in the neighborhood one black the other Asian this is something Megan had brought up to byerson before
00:16:21
she said she reported the suspicious men the day before the murders you guys know
00:16:27
about I had to call the police or my mom asked me to call the police cuz there was those two
00:16:32
guys detective John vicory remember he was the cop at the father's house on the day of the tragedy he'd recorded Megan
00:16:41
talking about these two men on the day of the shootings I had to call the police over those guys and you just know
00:16:48
when someone like that's not somebody that's in your neighborhood kind of thing cuz we're very quiet neighborhood
00:16:54
Megan told vicory that to be safe her mom asked her to hide the rifle in the family room I don't think she would ever
00:17:02
you know in a rush try to get it out it was in a bag detective byerson checked into Megan's story but no one besides
00:17:11
her had mentioned these men to police the only call that's made about these guys in the neighborhood is from Megan
00:17:17
haran another issue detective byerson wanted to nail down was all those houses Pamela haran was supposedly buying and
00:17:26
selling he asked about the one Megan was buying with her husband what is the situation with that house you
00:17:33
guys are are you guys buying how's that working okay so she was going to do a wire transfer she said it's too late for
00:17:38
me to do cashier check um cuz she just thought she was like I can always do a wire transfer that's what she just
00:17:43
thought she said why she had done it before you think with another house that wire transfer for more than
00:17:51
$400,000 would never go through that money didn't leave Pamela's account so so what was the problem Megan
00:18:01
blamed a series of complications there was an issue about which bank account the money for the
00:18:07
house would come from she told detective byerson that Pamela was going to use the
00:18:13
money from a Family Trust yeah because at first we thought the trust were already going to be dissolved it was
00:18:20
supposed to happen May 24th and it never did or I don't know if it's legally a mess I don't know what
00:18:27
happened I don't know don't know much about the trust my mom just told us it's you're going to be fine you can have
00:18:32
that for your house but that didn't turn out to be true Megan wouldn't get that house and by the next day that Friday
00:18:42
Pamela and Helen haran would be dead here's detective needles and did she ever wire the money to them she Adit
00:18:51
okay that's what happened Thursday this is why Thursday is very important for me
00:18:55
cuz I realize you this is a big amount of money and I realized because of what happened you guys are me like I
00:19:01
understand that I doing what suddenly Megan's mood shifted they're looking at me looking at you yeah I oh I mean
00:19:08
looking at you because you might be responsible is that what you're talking about yeah by then Megan understood she
00:19:16
was in their sights 1 hour into the interview Megan showed no signs of wrapping up her
00:19:25
version of events with detectives byerson and needle I'm sorry that's okay I mean Friday's
00:19:31
difficult very difficult for you it's understandable but obviously Friday is important they're surprised how long
00:19:37
Megan stayed with them in that little room at the police station it's probably like more like 3 hours of actual back
00:19:44
and forth and an hour and a half of just like we're trying to figure out like she
00:19:49
won't leave she even tried to convince them that her cooperation was a sign of Innocence I gave you every my clothing I
00:19:58
gave you my finger I gave you everything M because of that why would I give that
00:20:04
if I if I knew I was guilty as the interview progressed the detectives questions became more and more direct
00:20:12
they brought up the 911 calls from Helen's boyfriend Carlos Gutierrez because there's are a lot of
00:20:20
phone calls and there's a lot from Carlos oh she never told me she didn't tell me to lader that Carlos called her
00:20:25
no but he says you answer the phone and if that calls on the records the detectives bore in saying they didn't
00:20:34
believe Megan she claimed she'd never spoken to Carlos when they knew she had I have never talked to him
00:20:45
never the the closest thing I have ever gotten to him 4th of July they were coming to get the
00:20:52
blankets and I was lit I was at the bottom of the stairs my mom was like no no no they're still in the driveway but
00:20:57
so you you've never spoken to but as we told you last episode Carlos said he spoke to Megan for nearly 10 minutes
00:21:05
while he tried to get her to put Helen on the phone then the detectives asked her outright about what Carlos told
00:21:14
911 that Helen said she killed their mom why would he say something like that well what would be his motive to
00:21:23
implicate you yeah why you why would he pick he knows I live there and I think right I don't I don't want
00:21:33
to say what I think we want you anything that'll help you say I don't want to say
00:21:37
I don't want to say I don't want to say what I think I don't want to say what I think
00:21:44
I'm sorry you think your s you killed your mother there's no way I would have I would have heard it Megan's response
00:21:54
here doesn't line up with what she originally told police she had said she and her daughter Molly left the house
00:22:02
before the shootings so it's unclear what she meant by I would have heard it here's Megan again the only time I
00:22:11
wasn't I was downstairs I I would assume I would still hear something like that and my mom was with me like how how
00:22:22
how I don't understand like I don't I just don't understand how how what how how that would have
00:22:29
happened I don't I don't understand I'm sorry I just I don't I don't know it seemed that Megan was struggling to keep
00:22:37
her story straight she wasn't sure Helen was the killer anymore the detective started this
00:22:44
interview not knowing what they'd get but some recently discovered evidence had made them curious about how Megan
00:22:52
planed to pay for her new house in West Virginia she said her mom was going to watch the money she initiated the wire
00:23:01
transfer her story had changed yet again Megan had told police that something got
00:23:07
tripped up when her mother wired the money the detectives waited before pointing out the holes in Megan story if
00:23:15
she's going to talk let her talk we were texting I mean you guys got my phone you know like give me my phone
00:23:22
you can see the texts that were back and forth she was like okay listen I froze the accounts I'm going to deal with this
00:23:27
when I get back down there up until this moment Megan insisted that her mom called the bank but you heard Megan say
00:23:36
it right there to the detectives and they had looked through her phone the evidence was clear but detectives had
00:23:44
some evidence Megan didn't know existed the recordings from Capital One they could listen to who made the request to
00:23:53
wire money and they offered to play Megan some of the tape you know know when the when you call the bank to do a
00:24:00
wire transfer you know they record the calls right okay so one of the things that's always been bothering me a little
00:24:08
bit yeah um is that call meanwhile in the other room where Megan's family is waiting police were playing the calls
00:24:17
for them too they recognized the voice when they arrived at the police station Megan's family was standing by her but
00:24:27
now so they're hearing the calls and I think what's going on is that they're realizing on that day that oh my God
00:24:35
like there is a good chance that she actually did this on the next episode of blood is
00:24:42
thicker and incriminating call good morning thank you for calling cap one B my name is Brooks would you tell me your
00:24:49
name please Pamela Hansen hen hello missan thank you for using our automated system for verification what can I do
00:24:56
for you today I was just transferred to you I was told that I could do a wire transfer
00:25:01
online wait is that [Music] Pamela from 48 hours this is blood is thicker the haran family killings Judy
00:25:26
Tigard is the executive producer of 48 Hours original reporting by 48 Hours producers Sarah elely Michelle sigona
00:25:36
Lauren white and Josh joerger Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount audio and Mora
00:25:43
walls is the senior story editor recording assistance from Alan Pang and Marlin polycarp special thanks to Paramount
00:25:54
podcast vice president Megan Marcus and 48 hours senior producer Peter schwitzer blood is thicker is produced
00:26:03
by Sony Music Entertainment it was written and produced by Alex Schuman our executive producers are
00:26:12
Katherine St Louis and Jonathan Hirsch our associate producer is Zoe kulin theme and original music composed
00:26:22
by hansdale shei he also soundd designed and mixed the episodes we also use music
00:26:29
by Blue Dot sessions Katherine Newan is our fact Checker our production managers
00:26:35
are Tamika balance kassi and Samantha Allison I'm Peter vanand if you're enjoying the show be sure to rate and
00:26:44
review it helps more people find it and hear our reporting you can listen to blood is thicker the haran family
00:26:52
killings early and AD free right now by joining wry Plus in the wry app or on Apple podcasts thanks for listening
00:27:04
[Music]