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[Music] There were two bodies that were located inside of this home and that's really
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all we knew. Is there a little adrenaline when you're pulling up? Always. Your blood starts to get pumping
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a little bit and you start to think about how this is going to play out. What did you see as you entered this
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home? Well, it's a very nice home in a great neighborhood. Fairfax County is located just outside
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of Washington DC. It is an an affluent area of Northern Virginia. It was a million-dollar home.
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As you walk through the kitchen, you encounter a mudroom that connects the kitchen to the garage.
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In that mudroom, we discover Pamela Hargan. How was she positioned on the ground?
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She was laying face down and she had a blanket laid over her like a quilt. Her cell phone is actually laying on top of
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the quilt and there was a pool of blood coming from the area of her head onto the floor. What else do you find? We go
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upstairs and then we encounter Helen Hargan inside of the bathroom that's in her bedroom. She appeared to have been
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sitting on the toilet when she was shot. She was fully clothed. She has some kind
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of trauma uh to her head. There's a rifle in between her legs. She's got a tremendous amount of uh blood in her
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mouth. Finding two deceased persons with one with a gun on their body. Might have
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been a murder suicide. Suicide possibly. What are we looking at here now? This is
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the main room of the basement. that set of books. They're photo albums and I wanted to see what my victims may have
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looked like in life. Pam Hargan was a woman in her 60s, an incredibly successful, business-minded
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woman. She was generous with her money. This was a woman who built an $8 million
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estate. She poured her life into her family. Helen, the youngest daughter, had returned home from college. Helen was
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the kind of daughter I think that everybody would want. She was lovely. She had a number of friends. She had a
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boyfriend. Helen never struck me as having a dark side. Mothers and daughters butt heads. I
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mean, did Helen and her mother get along perfectly? I don't think so. You don't know what goes on behind closed doors.
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Maybe Helen had murdered her mother and then shot herself. So, what's your gut telling you as you
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take a look at these two bodies? Wait, you will make mistakes if you make assumptions before you actually do the
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work. So, she would have had to have done what to shoot herself in the head that way. Magic.
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She would have had to done magic. It just isn't possible. [Music] [Music] Friday, July 14th, 2017, about 5:00 p.
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p.m. Fairfax County, Virginia police visit the next of kin to deliver awful news. 63-year-old Pam Hargan and
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24year-old Helen Hargan are dead. Pamela was shot twice in the mudroom. Lead detective Brian Byerson says police
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are recording and whispering to avoid being overheard when they give Pam's ex-husband Steve more painful details
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about Helen. She had a punch shot from the computer. I'm really sorry. There was a thought that went around
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that it might have been a murder suicide. Hargan soon summons his other two daughters, 32-year-old Ashley and
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34year-old Megan. What is happening? What happened? They react with equal parts pain and
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panic. Oh god, what are we going to do? Jesus, what are we going to do? I don't know. Our mom takes care of everything.
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Yeah, I just don't even understand. We were at the freaking house. [Music] Megan Hargan tells authorities she and
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her 8-year-old daughter Molly have been living with Pam and Helen while her husband is in the military. She says
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she'd left the home with Molly at about 1:30 p.m. that day, adding that there had been an argument between her mother
00:05:45
and Helen, who had been upset. Helen has been so angry, like just so angry all the time and
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struggling emotionally. I knew I was depressed like to do this. He's like, I can't
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wrap my head around this. Is it true that she once threatened suicide? I think that that is possibly true. Yes.
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In fact, Ashley would later tell authorities Helen had thoughts about self harm. I know my sister was
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depressed. Has she ever talked about hurting herself? Yeah. But Megan also suggests her mother and sister could
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have been attacked by offering a potentially important clue. Something she reports she'd seen the day before.
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Two suspicious males casing the neighborhood. And she later tells us those particular guys are the reason why
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she ends up bringing this rifle up to the main floor of the house. It's the 22 Ruger rifle found with
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Helen's body and it belongs to Megan's husband. She says her mother had allowed her to store it in the house until the
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couple moved into their own place in West Virginia. My husband and I literally just closed on our new home
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yesterday. My mom bought it for us. [Music] Steve and Pam Hargan divorced when the
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children were young. Pam took them and moved around before ending up in PTOAC, Maryland, next door to Tammy Malios.
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Megan was very upset about the divorce. In the next few years, Tammy got to know Megan
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and her little sister, Helen, and often saw them across the backyard fence. The girls were out in the yard all the time
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with the dogs, that sort of thing. So Tammy says she always knew there was a sibling rivalry. Megan did bring that up
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a lot, saying that Helen was the favorite, but she remembers that for the most part, the Hargan sisters seemed to
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get along fine. Pam was proud of them. She talked highly of her girls whenever I did speak with her.
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Pam Hargan poured her life into those kids. Michelle Sigona works for CBS News. She's been covering this story for
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nearly four years and says the other love of Pam Hargan's life was her job. Pam had spent decades climbing the
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career ladder to become a vice president of aerospace giant Loheed Martin. She had built an $8 million estate, but she
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didn't keep it for herself. She was constantly giving to those around her, specifically to her children. Helen
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seemed to have her mother's ambition, double majoring in math and management science at Southern Methodist University
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in Dallas. That's where Aaron Rockne met her in 2014. When I first met her, I was extremely
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scared of her because she didn't laugh or smile. She's kind of like a onion. You have to peel the layers off and you
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really get to know the kind and genuine person underneath there. Rockn says they
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became close friends. It's been said that Helen may have suffered from depression. Did you ever see any of
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that? I did not at all. Rockin says her friend spent a lot of time studying, though Helen did have a
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job at a nearby restaurant. She was working as a waitress. There was a 30-some named Carlos Gutierrez working
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in the restaurant, too. They fell for each other in short order and they had plans to move in together.
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Pam had started building a house for Helen in Northern Virginia. So, in the spring of 2017, Helen had moved back
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home from Dallas. According to Carlos, he hadn't asked her to be his wife, but he was working towards that. But Megan
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tells police Pam hadn't approved of Helen's relationship. She believed that Helen was going to try to move Carlos
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into the house and my mom didn't want him being there. Still, Helen had been moving ahead, planning for the future.
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It was just a matter of figuring out her career path. Takes a little while to figure it out, but she was going to get
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there. But Helen Hargan never got there. Fairfax County Police and Fire. How may
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I assist you? Yes. I have an emergency. On the day of the shooting, it was Carlos Gutierrez who had first alerted
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authorities that something in the Hargan house was dreadfully wrong. I'm in Dallas, Texas, and my girlfriend lives
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in McLaren. He says he and Helen had spoken earlier that morning. Now, he can't get in touch with her and he's
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worried. My girlfriend won't answer the phone and I'm thinking my girlfriend's life is in danger.
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Okay, sir. What I need you to do then is contact your local jurisdiction, file a
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report with them, and tell them that Fairfax County requires a teletype in order to do a welfare check. I feel
00:11:04
really bad for Carlos because he's bounced around all over the place just trying to get somebody to listen to the
00:11:09
fact that he thinks his girlfriend's life is in danger. I think this is like life or death. Like, I think someone
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might be dead. Carlos Gutierrez would later testify about why he was so concerned. He would also tell a jury he
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felt authorities were giving him the runaround that day, even when he called back later with something explosive to
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add, something Helen had told him. Exactly. What did your girlfriend say to you?
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[Laughter] [Music] Fairfax County Police and Fire. How may I assist you with as an emergency? It's
00:12:01
1:44 p.m. on July 14th, 2017. Carlos Gutierrez, Helen's boyfriend in Texas, is having a hard time with 911
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dispatchers in Virginia. Look, I think someone might be dead. Right, sir. contact your local jurisdiction. File
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the report had them. The call ends without a promise of help. So 15 minutes later, Carlos calls again.
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Police involve and this time he makes a startling revelation about something he says Helen had told him on the phone
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that morning. My girlfriend told me that her sister killed her mom. Now my girlfriend won't answer her
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phone. Megan Hargan had murdered her mother. Or at least that's what Carlos said Helen
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had told him. Okay. Was this just out of the blue? Your girlfriend is sitting in
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a house with a dead woman. Yes. Why was Carlos, who is more than a thousand miles away, calling 911? Why
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didn't Helen call herself? What was going on in that house? I reported a murder earlier and I have
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the address. We don't have the address. When police arrive around 300 p.m., they
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find Pam is dead. But they discover Helen's body, too. Carlos had offered authorities a
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possible explanation for Pam. But Helen was a mystery. Megan Hargan told police something interesting. Her mother and
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sister had been arguing that day. This morning, my mom let Helen know that she was cancelling the contract on
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the house she's building her because she truly believed that Helen was going to try to move Carlos into the house. And
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when middleister Ashley hears that Carlos is accusing Megan of murder, she makes it clear she doesn't believe him.
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She would never do that. Ever. Never. Okay. Megan Hargan's friend, Rebecca Wolf,
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agrees. I do not believe that Megan killed her mom, Pam, or her sister, Helen. No piece of me believes that.
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Rebecca and Megan met in 2015 when they both were volunteering in a program to find homes for dogs rescued from war
00:14:29
zones. Rebecca says that Megan always had a passion for animals. She is very compassionate, generous heart. She is
00:14:38
just a really good person. And Rebecca says Megan often talked about her family, her generous mother. Megan
00:14:45
admired Pam's wisdom, her career. She always spoke very lovingly of her and her sisters, especially the baby of the
00:14:54
family, Helen. Megan talked about Helen struggling with things and feeling depressed, but I never got the
00:15:03
impression that it was insurmountable. Rebecca says that Megan called her on the day of the shooting and sounded like
00:15:12
a woman who'd lost everything. Very distraught. And she did not give me details of what had happened. She just
00:15:20
said, "We've lost mom and Helen." By 8:00 p.m., police had told the media what they had told the Hargan family.
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This looked like a murder suicide. But Detective Byerson says the more he saw of the crime scene, the less he thought
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so, and the more he wanted to take a closer look at Megan Hargan. That night, he had officers test her hands for
00:15:44
gunshot residue and photograph her. Did she become a person of interest at that moment? She's certainly a person of
00:15:51
interest because we know that she was in the house. Police knew the house probably held
00:15:56
answers. Crime scene detective Julia Elliot, who had joined Detective Byerson at the scene, spent the evening combing
00:16:04
for evidence. I was shown Pamela's body first. One thing that caught her attention was
00:16:12
Pam Hargan's cell phone. It's laying on top of the pool of blood and the blanket. Was it unusual to see the cell
00:16:19
phone in this kind of position? Yes, it certainly wouldn't fall on top of the blanket and on top of the blood once you
00:16:25
were already covered up. And what does it suggest that the cell phone is lying on top of this comforter? That suggests
00:16:31
to me that it was placed there by someone. Elliot says the Helen Hargan shooting scene was next. She had a lot
00:16:39
of blood on her face. So much blood that it was impossible to see an entry wound.
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and there was more on the floor, but there was a lack of blood where investigators expected to see it. The
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rifle itself had very little blood on it. The rifle was leaning against Helen's body. The butt was on the floor
00:17:01
between her legs. The barrel was pointed up towards the ceiling. You would expect
00:17:06
that if the rifle had been sitting there as she bled so heavily, it would also have blood on it. And was there anything
00:17:15
on this gun from Megan? No. What about fingerprints on this rifle? None that were usable. There was DNA found on the
00:17:24
trigger, but it wasn't Megan or Helen's. Is it true that Helen's DNA was found on
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the rifle case? Yes, that is true. But Byerson says only on the tip of the case. Megan's DNA was on the case
00:17:39
handles. It's part of the reason police believe Helen Hargan never touched the gun that day. As she died, someone else
00:17:48
was there to place it on her. She says Helen's phone was telling as well. There was almost no blood on it. And although
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Helen had used it that day to talk and text with Carlos, there were no fingerprints either. What we found was
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what looked like swipe marks, as if someone had taken their hand and wiped off the front of the screen.
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Though it would take time to learn exactly how the Hargan women died, in the basement, Detective Elliot saw an
00:18:17
immediate opportunity to learn how they had lived. And I got a little uh nosy, and I wanted to see what my victims may
00:18:25
have looked like in life. So, I pulled out one of the center photo albums to look at it and open it up. Tucked away
00:18:32
in that album of family photos was something that seemed out of place. Documents. Megan's bank statement, Pam's
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too, and a spreadsheet full of passwords and security verification details to unlock all of Pam Hargan's accounts.
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Well, that's interesting. Were you able to analyze the paper? So, at the time of
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us locating that, financial documents were not on our search warrant. So, Detective Elliot photographed the
00:19:01
documents and left them in the house. But when she entered with the proper search warrant days later,
00:19:09
they were not there. They were not there. They were not. The house had been returned to the
00:19:15
Hargan family's custody the day after the shooting. And something else had happened that day.
00:19:22
The medical examiner delivered her report on Helen Hargan's autopsy, casting doubt on the murder suicide
00:19:31
theory. It tells us that someone else pulled the trigger. What do you think the crime scene
00:19:39
suggests about what happened? Chat now on Facebook and Twitter. [Music] A police spokesman was calling the
00:19:57
Hargan shootings a murder suicide. But the next day, when detective Brian Byerson saw Helen's autopsy report, he
00:20:08
was certain it was something else. The gunshot wound on Helen Hargan was in the top of her head.
00:20:17
The rifle bullet had traveled downward into her neck. She would have to hold it straight up and be able to reach the
00:20:25
trigger to accomplish this. I've never seen that before. and I've worked a lot of murders. Well, what does that tell
00:20:33
you when you when you learn that information? It tells us that someone else pulled the trigger.
00:20:39
As Detective Byerson arrived to work 2 days later on Monday, July 17th. Good morning. Thank you for calling Capital
00:20:47
One Bank. There was a clue waiting for him. A clue that Byerson was able to take all the way to the bank. That
00:20:55
Monday morning, I have a message on my desk phone from Capital One. The bank had some startling news. Bank employees
00:21:04
had seen reports of Pam Hargan's death and wanted him to know about some strange activity on her account. Would
00:21:12
you tell me your name, please? Pamela Hansen Hargan. Someone claiming to be Pam Hargan had called the bank the day
00:21:20
before the shooting with a request. What can I do for you today? I was told that
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I could do a wire transfer. Whoever it was was trying to transfer money, more than $400,000,
00:21:32
out of Pam's account to a real estate settlement company in West Virginia. Oh, you getting ready to buy a house? Uh,
00:21:40
for my daughter. Yes. The caller was able to successfully answer Pam's security questions. All right. You as
00:21:48
the verification. Great job. Detective Byerson discovered that the transaction hadn't gone through. So, the caller had
00:21:56
tried again the next day on the morning of Pam's murder. Uh, yes, we attempted to yesterday and there was a bit of a
00:22:04
mixup. So, we would like to do it again now. Okay. They need it today. Somebody's trying to perhaps steal Pam's
00:22:10
money. Yes. And Byerson believed he knew who that somebody was. That is Megan Hargan
00:22:19
pretending to be her mother. Pretending. Pretending. He decided it was time for him to get Megan Hargan on the phone.
00:22:28
Megan, how you how you holding up? I am really not okay. Megan claimed the attempted wire
00:22:34
transfers were just an innocent mixup at the bank. But by now, Byerson was suspicious of everything she said. He
00:22:43
began to think Megan Hargan had been trying to confuse police all along. I realize there's a lot of confusion here.
00:22:51
Megan had stressed Helen's depression and anger issues with investigators. Helen has been so angry,
00:22:59
like just so angry all the time over everything. But Megan told Byerson her sister would never have killed herself
00:23:08
or her mom. I can't imagine my own baby sister doing that at all. She repeated her story about two strange
00:23:17
men in the neighborhood. I had to call the police about these two guys. Other people had called them. Apparently, but
00:23:26
says that tip went nowhere. The only call that's made about these guys in the neighborhood is from Megan Hargan. He
00:23:33
had run down every lead, every alternative theory. There were no other suspects.
00:23:40
But there was a motive, the money, and the person who had needed it couldn't stop talking. She demanded to come in
00:23:49
and get an update on the case. So on July 19th, 5 days after Pam and Helen's deaths, Detective Byerson brought Megan
00:23:59
in. My mom, he says that once Megan started, you're just unimaginable. She wouldn't stop. everything. I could
00:24:08
ask her for anything. We just can't get her to leave. This is you. She stayed for more than 4 hours. Long story short,
00:24:17
the point I'm making is we would ask her questions that we knew the answer to and
00:24:21
then she would either pivot to something else. I don't understand what or just outright not answer the question. I
00:24:26
don't know what you want me to say. We want you to tell the truth. I just want you to answer the question.
00:24:31
At first, Megan insisted it was her mom who had made those calls to the bank. I'm gonna play the call for. But when
00:24:37
Byerson played the tapes for her, who is that on the phone? That's me. It's you,
00:24:42
right? What? Detective Byerson says she finally admitted to lying to him about the wire
00:24:50
transfer. Why in the world would you do that? I knew how it would look. No, no, it's
00:24:59
not how it would look. You knew that if we knew about this, that would shine a whole new light on you. Still, she was
00:25:08
adamant that she hadn't shot anyone. So, it was truly bizarre when halfway into the interview. Explain me. Just answer
00:25:17
the question. Just blame me. Just blame me. Just blame me. My family's not turning up. Just blame me so we can move
00:25:23
on from this. Okay. It seemed like she was acknowledging that we knew that she did it without
00:25:31
openly giving us a detailed confession. This is not happening. This is though inadmissible in court. No, I know. She
00:25:38
readily agreed to take a polygraph. She failed three times. Buyerson says it was all adding up. He
00:25:48
was sitting across from a killer. It becomes very obvious to us it is exactly who we think it is and it's
00:25:56
Megan Harden. But despite everything, police let Megan leave that day. So murder investigations
00:26:05
can be extremely complex. You not only have to be sure, you have to be right. And that decision is not just it does
00:26:15
not just rest on me. I have to be on the same page as the Commonwealth Attorney's
00:26:19
Office. So, in consultation with them, we decided to wait. Law enforcement may not have moved, but
00:26:28
Megan Hargan did. Though she never got Pam's money, she and her husband used a VA loan to buy a
00:26:36
different house in West Virginia. We kept an eye on her. We knew where she was. Buyerson methodically kept building
00:26:43
his case. evidence kept trickling in, including the results of Megan's gunshot residue test, which showed she had it on
00:26:52
both hands. And on November 9th, 2018, almost a year and a half after the deaths of Pam and Helen Hargan, this
00:27:03
morning at approximately 7:40 a.m., detectives from our major crimes bureau stopped and arrested Megan Hargan near
00:27:13
her home in West Virginia. As Detective Byerson takes Megan in, investigators search her home and find
00:27:22
yet another important clue. That missing password sheet to Pam Hargan's accounts.
00:27:29
Do you have any doubt that Megan was the person who pulled that trigger? I have no doubt at all. What the defense would
00:27:38
say is that there is doubt all over this case. Megan Hargan's defense will include a
00:27:45
specific theory of how Helen could have killed herself. She puts her head down and that she's able to utilize the
00:27:54
trigger, probably with her toe, to be able to discharge the weapon, but will the jury agree? Even the experts said
00:28:02
it's possible. [Music] What did you see in her eyes? Nothing. I don't see much behind those eyes. More
00:28:29
than 3 years after her arrest for the murders of her mother and sister, Megan Hargan is going on trial. I think she's
00:28:37
pure evil. Whitney Gregory and Tyler Bazilla are prosecuting the case. Megan is a pathological liar. That's what she
00:28:44
is. The Commonwealth of Virginia opens by arguing Megan tried to steal more than $400,000 from Pam for this new
00:28:54
house and got so desperate for the cash that she killed her. Then she killed Helen to keep her quiet and staged the
00:29:02
scene as a murder suicide. This is an individual who murdered two of her closest family members for money. The
00:29:10
defense argues Helen was the killer, mentally unstable and furious at her mother, who had offered her a new house.
00:29:18
But the morning of the shooting announced there was one devastating condition. Helen had to break up with
00:29:25
the man she had hoped to marry, Carlos Gutierrez. What is your greatest challenge with this jury? proving it
00:29:33
wasn't a suicide. To do that, they begin by calling Carlos and Helen's sister, Ashley, who testify
00:29:41
on the day she died, Helen seemed normal and fine. Did Helen have a diagnosis of
00:29:48
depression? No. And she didn't take her own life, says Detective Julia Elliot. It's a homicide.
00:29:56
Who tells the jury about the blood stains and position of the rifle. She did not have an arms band long enough to
00:30:03
pull the trigger. Her fingers are not reaching the trigger. Crime scene reconstructionist Iris Graph agrees.
00:30:10
What's on the screen? Okay, this is a forensic animation, a virtual model. Prosecutors hired Graph to use photos
00:30:18
and measurements from the house to create this digital model. She can't reach that trigger, right? We still need
00:30:24
another 5 in. So, based on your scientific analysis, was the wound that killed Helen self-inflicted?
00:30:33
Within the context of this scene, it's not possible that she could self-inflict that wound. Gregory says that's just
00:30:40
common sense. Did the tooth fairy put the gun hole here? Helen's wound isn't the only evidence pointing at Megan.
00:30:49
Megan's conduct in her police interview is damning, too. Yes, she did. We and so
00:30:55
are those phone calls to the bank. Thank you for calling Capital One Bank. Would
00:30:59
you tell me your name, please? Pamela Hansen Hen, I understand you want to complete a wire transfer with us today.
00:31:06
Uh, yes. They needed today. Megan's panicking because she still owes that money on the house. Prosecutors reveal
00:31:14
Megan lied to police about Pam buying her a house, saying the reality is that Megan was trying to buy that West
00:31:21
Virginia property with her mother's money. Turns out Megan still owed more than $400,000
00:31:28
due the day of the shooting. The prosecution contends she'd secretly substituted her name onto Pam's bank
00:31:36
statement as proof of funds. Pam was apparently totally in the dark until the day before the shooting when the bank
00:31:45
called the real Pam. Hi, who am I speaking to? Who am I speaking to? My name is Jeff with Capital One. Okay.
00:31:53
This is Pamela Hansen Hargan. A bank officer had called her to authenticate the attempted wire transfer. Somebody
00:32:02
tried to do a wire out of your account for $400 and some odd thousand. What? I did not do that.
00:32:09
The defense would say that there is doubt all over this case. The defense declined to be interviewed. So, we asked
00:32:17
Matt Torano, an attorney with decades in court. He didn't try this case, but we hired him to review the file. To help
00:32:26
prove reasonable doubt, he says the defense contends Helen was the suspicious one that day. Helen doesn't
00:32:33
call 911. She doesn't run out of the house for safety. She tells her boyfriend, "Do not call for help." Why
00:32:42
didn't Helen call 911? That is one of the pieces to the puzzle that we'll never have. That's a question that came
00:32:47
up during the trial. Why didn't she just leave? Why didn't she call 911? We don't
00:32:51
know. There's a lot authorities may never know for sure about the roughly 2 hours they
00:32:58
say lapsed between Pam's and Helen's deaths. If Megan killed Pam, why did she wait so long to kill Helen? And why on
00:33:07
earth hadn't Helen made a run for it? Testimony suggests she was worried about 8-year-old Molly, who was home at the
00:33:15
time. Not a good enough explanation, says Troyano. For hours, Peter. She allowed what is claimed to be a murderer
00:33:25
run loose in a home with a rifle without seeking help, without barricading her in
00:33:32
to a room. He says Helen's body showed no definitive signs of a life and death struggle. Why wouldn't she have fought
00:33:41
back? And how credible are the witnesses against Megan Hargan? Triano says the defense wants the jury to believe one
00:33:50
may not be credible at all, her sister Ashley. Her story has changed. When she'd spoken
00:33:58
to investigators soon after the shooting, Ashley told them Helen had once been in emotional turmoil. I know
00:34:07
my sister was depressed. Has she ever talked about hurting herself? Yeah. But once on the stand, Ashley testified
00:34:18
she doesn't remember ever saying that. She says 150 times thereabouts that she doesn't
00:34:25
remember certain things. There's two ways to look at that. Number one is that she doesn't remember, right?
00:34:31
Number two is that she doesn't want to say things that are not helpful for the prosecution. Ashley testified that she
00:34:40
couldn't recall more than 150 times. Why was that? Anytime you're dealing with the victim of trauma, there are always
00:34:48
going to be aspects that she can't recall. Whatever the jury thinks of Ashley, the defense wants to explain to
00:34:55
them how Helen could have pulled the trigger on that rifle. And they have a theory with her toe. She puts her head
00:35:04
down and that she's able to utilize the trigger, probably with her toe, to be able to discharge the weapon. Your toe,
00:35:12
she's got to figure out some way. And the the critical question is, could it have been done? Even the prosecution's
00:35:20
expert witness conceds while very unlikely, it is possible. Can her toe reach the trigger? Yes, her legs are
00:35:29
long enough that her toe could reach the trigger. Either way, the judge thinks Iris Graph's digital reconstruction
00:35:36
isn't necessary. So, he prevents the jury from seeing it. And though Megan Hargan never testifies, every shred of
00:35:43
evidence shows that Megan Hargan was the one who committed these murders. In closings, prosecutor Bazilla argues
00:35:51
there's no evidence Pam Hargan was actually going to cancel the contract on Helen's new house. And he urges the jury
00:36:00
to compare Helen's behavior around the time of the shooting to Megan's. He says Megan's actions speak for themselves.
00:36:08
She's doing all these things that a murderer would do. But the defense insists there's reasonable doubt in this
00:36:14
case. They argue the prosecutor's forensics are inconclusive and the toe on the trigger theory cannot
00:36:22
be ruled out. It's possible. And if it's possible, that then lends itself to doubt. Megan Hargan is innocent.
00:36:30
Megan's friend, Rebecca Wolf, spent about 5 years working for the Justice Department. She knows her way around a
00:36:37
criminal trial and has been at this one almost every day. I would not be comfortable
00:36:45
sending someone to prison for the rest of their life without knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt in my mind that they
00:36:51
did it. On March 24th, 2022, almost 5 years after the shootings, the jury gets the case. Based on your review of this
00:37:03
case, as the jury is heading into deliberation, could this go either way? Sure. What do you think of the defense's toe
00:37:14
on the trigger theory? For a look at a timeline of the investigation, go to 48 hours.com.
00:37:26
As the jurors come back into the room, they have a decision. Are you looking at their faces?
00:37:32
Yes. After a 3-w weekek trial, it takes the jury less than two days of deliberations to reach a verdict. I I
00:37:41
thought my legs were going to go weak cuz we were standing up and it had been just like months of our lives that this
00:37:45
is all we had done. Megan Hargan is guilty. Two counts of first-degree murder for killing her
00:37:53
sister Helen and mother Pam. How did Megan react to the verdict? At least for me as a prosecutor, I don't
00:38:01
want to look over at that table. I think it's not very classy. I'm just sort of in the zone trying not to pass out. I
00:38:07
think weight lifted off of everybody. It was a very emotional moment. The jury recommends a sentence to the
00:38:14
judge of life in prison on each murder count. I thought for sure that I would be getting a phone call and coming to
00:38:22
pick her up 100%. Megan's friend, Rebecca Wolf, thinks this jury was shortsighted. I thought they were going
00:38:31
to see through all of this. They were going to look at all the evidence. They were going to ask the right questions.
00:38:38
They were going to do their job. This job is difficult. Detective Byerson thinks there are parts of authorities
00:38:45
conduct in this case that he would have changed if he could. how 911 dispatchers
00:38:51
responded to Carlos Gutierrez and how quickly the Fairfax County PD went public with the murder suicide theory. I
00:39:00
don't find it helpful to kind of make a blanket statement about what we think it
00:39:04
is cuz it doesn't matter what we think it is. It only matters what it turns out to be. Was justice served in this case?
00:39:12
Depends on what justice is, right? You're never bringing back the two lives that were lost.
00:39:19
The domino effect of tragedy from what happened is immeasurable. Though the trial is finally finished,
00:39:30
waves of grief still wash over the surviving Han family. It's just an immeasurable grief.
00:39:38
And ripples still reverberate in the lives of people they touched, like Pam's former neighbor, Tammy. And I was just I
00:39:48
just devastated. I mean, just but what I didn't have any words. It was just unbelievable.
00:39:59
And Helen's friend, Aaron. I was in shock. Who had moved abroad after graduation and had to hear about her
00:40:07
death from us. I had no idea that happened to her. You're convinced if Helen were alive
00:40:17
today, she'd be on the road to some great success, some great career? Absolutely.
00:40:25
She'd be a trailblazer. How do you want your friend Helen to be remembered? For being kind and compassionate,
00:40:37
driven, and caring. Just a very caring person. [Music] [Music] [Music] a woman's uniquely lethal plan for
00:41:15
identity theft. I've seen people killed with knives and machetes and guns. Death
00:41:21
by dessert. I have never seen anyone try to kill another person with a piece of cheesecake until now. Until now. 48
00:41:27
Hours next on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus. [Music]