00:00:01
anytime we were sitting and awaiting a verdict from a jury is a little bit nerve-wracking detective Brian byerson
00:00:11
anxiously waited in the hallway at the Fairfax County Courthouse while jurors considered Megan haran's fate you never
00:00:20
really know what a jury's thinking during the trial detective berson says he rarely knows what is happening inside
00:00:29
the courtroom as a witness he is forbidden from hearing other testimony until it's time for closing arguments I
00:00:38
can't talk to the other Witnesses so I end up just sitting in the hallway or sitting in a conference room by myself
00:00:44
and just kind of wondering for weeks you know I hope it's going well byerson says
00:00:49
he spends hours studying people's faces as they go in and out of court he'll notice whether prosecutors walk by in a
00:00:58
good mood or if a witness seems upset after they testify but outside of those glimpses
00:01:05
byerson doesn't have any other idea how a trial is going including the case against Megan haran juries can be funny
00:01:16
and of course detective byerson was hoping that when the jurors heard all the evidence laid out they'd convict
00:01:24
Megan I've always thought that once you explain this to anybody they generally at the end go oh yeah she absolutely did
00:01:30
this it's it's clear as day right but you don't know what's going on behind those closed doors with the
00:01:38
jury after 3 weeks of testimony and two days of jury deliberations detective byerson could finally exhale Megan haran
00:01:49
was found guilty a first-degree murder for killing her mother and youngest sister it's like an emotional rush I
00:01:56
mean you feel you feel good I remember feeling like the jury understood what happened here a
00:02:04
mlan woman could be headed to prison for the rest of her life for killing her mother and her sister jurors found Megan
00:02:11
haran guilty of the murders and staging the crime scene to look like it was a murder suicide detective byerson thought
00:02:20
it was all over except for the sentencing he was wrong a wrench or perhaps a sledgehammer got thrown into
00:02:28
the proceedings after Megan's conviction the defense alerted the judge that they had
00:02:35
discovered juror misconduct a woman on the jury allegedly had gone Rogue one of the jurors had
00:02:44
volunteered that they had done an experiment jurors are supposed to stick with what they're told in court not
00:02:52
reenact a crime scene on their own so the judge made a decision uh to vacate the the jury vers
00:03:00
verdict and told us that we would have to retry Megan haran it was anyone's guess whether the second jury would
00:03:09
agree with the first I'm Peter vanat from 48 hours this is the finale of blood is thicker the
00:03:21
hargan family killings episode 6 the aftermath throughout this podcast one man has
00:03:35
known the case best detective Brian byerson the detectives in the family are the only ones that have been dealing
00:03:42
with it since day one byerson started with the Fairfax County Police Department about two
00:03:49
decades ago he's worked homicides for nearly 10 years and he spent six of those years regularly talking to Megan's
00:03:58
sister Ashley haran at times he said they spoke nearly every week there is a very small group of
00:04:06
people in the world that have been intimately involved in these murder cases where they are like a direct
00:04:15
victim of what happened and in this case it's so much worse because the perpetrator of these
00:04:21
crimes is also a member of your family victim's families say berson brings a calmness to dark situation
00:04:30
he gives his time freely to suffering family members like Ashley after all the haran murders are just one of many he's
00:04:39
assigned with at any given time we can only cherish these wins for a short amount of time because we live in
00:04:47
tragedy byerson understands he's the person who likely knows the most about what happened to their loved one he
00:04:55
thinks it's part of his job to be there we're available to these families 24 hours a day even to this day and so
00:05:05
detective byerson was there when the judge decided Megan and what was left of the family she helped to destroy would
00:05:14
have to relive all that pain a second time you might not know this but after a verdict defense attorneys and
00:05:25
prosecutors often reach out to jurors to find out what they could have done better detective berson does it too you
00:05:34
always want to know afterwards hey what did we do that you guys thought was important or do you guys have any
00:05:42
questions in general about anything that happened um sort of trying to gauge them
00:05:46
to see how do we do a better job in the next trial but after Megan's first trial
00:05:52
when her attorneys pulled jurors one of them volunteered that she had done an experiment outside of the Jury Room at
00:06:00
home sort of a reenactment to try to figure out if um one of the theories presented by the
00:06:08
defense was uh was possible in fact that juror had tried to test whether Helen could have used her toe to push the
00:06:18
trigger of a long rifle here's 48 Hours producer Michelle sigona I have personally not had very many cases over
00:06:28
my career where there's been jur misconduct this isn't something that I have personally seen it happens but
00:06:35
generally there's some sort of conclusion someone is found guilty or not guilty byerson told us how the
00:06:41
juror's admission set off a chain of events the defense then uh notified us about this the judge did exactly what he
00:06:51
should have done and that is just vacate the ruling detective byerson was at that
00:06:57
hearing he understood why the judge decided to throw out the first verdict against Megan haran and as difficult as
00:07:05
that was to explain to the surviving sister that we would have to do this whole thing over again berson remembered
00:07:12
sitting in a room at the courthouse with Ashley to talk through what the judge's
00:07:17
decision meant I mean we we sat down as a group after that hearing myself and our wonderful uh victim Services
00:07:25
representative who was working alongside me with Ashley for the entire of the of
00:07:30
this journey and the prosecutors and we all had a uh conversation during their meeting detective byerson thought Ashley
00:07:39
seemed to take the news okay I would say that she took it better than I thought uh she would I mean the mood was not
00:07:48
good uh that that was the expectation going in there was that I mean we were not happy with what happened with that
00:07:55
juror but that being said I I could not argue with the ruling and in a way byerson realized this decision
00:08:06
by the judge would be a blessing in disguise if the judge hadn't vacated the first verdict byerson thought Megan's
00:08:14
lawyers surely would have tried to appeal the verdict after they discovered this jur
00:08:20
misconduct but that appeal would have taken a long time years to work its way through the courts at least in this case
00:08:30
Megan could be tried again more quickly I think what the judge was doing was basically saying there's a likelihood
00:08:38
that this will be overturned based on the conduct of the juror so instead of just wasting all of
00:08:44
that time I'm just going to say From the Bench here that I'm vacating at his meeting with Ashley her
00:08:53
father Steve and the prosecutors byon said they immediately started strategizing about the next trial Ashley
00:09:01
understood that as difficult as that was I think for her she understood what happened and she was very very steadfast
00:09:12
in her cooperation and her intention to help us out or be available for whatever we needed to go through this
00:09:21
whole thing again prosecutors and detective berson saw an opportunity to hone their arguments for the trial that
00:09:30
meant going back through the witness list and trying to figure out hey do we want to approach this in the exact same
00:09:38
way with the exact same Witnesses with the exact same lineup as we did the first time or do we want to change some
00:09:44
things around which we ultimately decided to do between trials Megan stayed locked up Megan was never
00:09:52
released from uh from custody or anything like that she was held Megan's next trial wouldn't happen till
00:09:59
September 2023 almost a year after her first verdict was thrown out during this time
00:10:07
Michelle sagona said she thought about Megan's Daughter Molly I think about the little girl in all of this who has lost
00:10:16
her grandmother lost her aunt essentially lost her mother I think about the victim's loved ones while the
00:10:23
prosecution had a plan byerson still worried about how a new jury would interp the evidence even though our
00:10:32
conviction rate is is very very good here in Fairfax you never really know what a jury's
00:10:44
thinking summer was nearing its end in 2023 when the second trial against Megan haran began it went a bit quicker
00:10:54
because this time they left one key witness out did not call Ashley to testify which was different than the
00:11:02
first trial in the first trial the defense accused Ashley of lying and plotting to
00:11:09
put Megan behind bars so that she could inherit their mother's entire estate they also focused on Ashley's inability
00:11:18
to remember some details the first time was sort of based around some things that she didn't recall um and and they
00:11:27
spent a they spent a lot of time on sort of roughen her up a little bit because she couldn't recall some things Ashley
00:11:34
wouldn't have to suffer through another difficult cross-examination if she never took the
00:11:40
stand it just really wasn't worth it to put her up there and put her through sort of a rigorous cross-examination uh
00:11:48
like that happened the first trial especially when Helen's boyfriend Carlos Gutierrez could testify to a lot of the
00:11:56
same evidence that Ashley had shared the first time around plus detective berson
00:12:02
said he and the prosecutors thought the new plan might surprise the defense we just kind of decided yeah
00:12:11
we're going to keep her subpoena or whatever and then we can use her if we if we absolutely need to or we can use
00:12:16
her later on as a rebuttal witness byon admires Ashley for everything she has endured she's one of the strongest
00:12:26
people I've ever met in my life she was there every day she came in she dealt with testimony and then just like us she
00:12:32
sat and waited for that verdict byerson said that his testimony didn't really change from the first trial to the
00:12:40
second the way I look at it is all I'm talking about is is basically facts right because I'm not I'm not up there
00:12:47
I'm not going to be able to offer my opinion on anything or what I think none of that stuff matters right detective
00:12:54
berson focused on the Capital One calls and the 4 and 1/2 hour interview Megan gave him by then he'd come to see that
00:13:03
long police interview in a different light she was demanding an update on where we were with the case which is you
00:13:10
know in hindsight is very interesting right she really wanted to know you know what we were doing Megan sometimes had a
00:13:17
hard time keeping her story straight but detective byerson now thinks during that
00:13:23
long interview she was really trying to figure out how to get away with murder I
00:13:29
mean she's a she's a sociopath I think she's always thought that she could talk her way out of anything or she you know
00:13:35
she could explain her way out of all of this stuff the prosecutors weren't sure whether Megan would testify in her own
00:13:42
defense that's why they kept Ashley's possible testimony in their back pocket if something comes out that we we
00:13:50
specifically need her to rebut especially if her sister ends up taking the stand or something like that but
00:13:56
Megan never testified so we just we ultimately didn't call her however Carlos did have to fly to
00:14:05
Virginia from Texas to take the stand again detective byerson knew revisiting that awful day when the love of his life
00:14:14
died wouldn't be easy I've talked to Carlos a lot Carlos is a is a good guy this has this has
00:14:22
affected him uh tremendously the loss of his of Helen and the way it happened and
00:14:28
and sort of cuz you got to remember you know he he was basically the last person
00:14:34
that she ever talked to and she not only talked to but she was telling him what was going on in real time so he's got
00:14:42
that burden on him for the rest of his life which I think is difficult to handle it's a burden he eloquently and
00:14:49
emotionally shared with the jurors making him a crucial witness because he's the one that gets
00:14:57
in all of that conversation from that morning and the weird things that were going on that morning like you know
00:15:04
Megan answering Helen's phone detective byerson said Carlos struggled to even get through the second trial he flew in
00:15:12
from Texas for both trials and I'm positive he didn't want to especially after after that time goes by and stuff
00:15:19
and now we're asking you hey you know I I'm really sorry but a juror did something you know that that is making
00:15:27
us have have to have to do this whole thing over again can you please come back out and bear your soul on the stand
00:15:34
again but he did it ultimately he said that continuing to discuss the murders was too difficult and he didn't want to
00:15:42
do an interview but berson said one thing was clear I think he truly loved Helen after the defense chose not to
00:15:53
have Megan testify her fate was once again in the hands of a jury for me personally when you're sitting there and
00:16:02
you you get the call that hey there's a verdict and you come back in the courtroom and you sit down and you're
00:16:08
waiting like that that 10 minutes for everybody to get back including the defense and then and you know the the
00:16:15
defendant and then the jury to sort of come out and and read that uh verdict the second
00:16:23
jury agreed with the first Megan haran was found guilty again of killing her sister Helen and her mother
00:16:34
Pamela and then there's kind of like this emotional relief that's taken off your shoulders because especially like
00:16:42
for for for the detectives and and the family who have been dealing with this since day one at this point detective
00:16:50
byerson knew the haran family inside and out you develop these bonds with these with these victims because you talk you
00:16:59
know weekly in their conversations byerson said that Ashley talked about her niece Megan's Daughter Molly Ashley
00:17:08
was worried at the time of the murders Molly was eight and back then she too had to be interviewed by police we had
00:17:18
asked that Megan not be involved in bringing Molly to the forensic interview site the safe spot is is that's who we
00:17:27
use to do those interviews specialize in traumatic interviews of children Megan brought her daughter to that interview
00:17:33
which was not helpful and she also interrupted the interview on several occasions losing her grandmother Pamela
00:17:40
was devastating for Molly she'd spent nearly every day of her young life living with her grandma remember soon
00:17:49
after the shootings Molly's parents moved her out of state she lived with them until her mother's arrest now
00:17:56
Molly's going back to live with her dad who she she hadn't ever lived with before and is taken away from the rest
00:18:03
of that family that was taken care of her the hargens had already suffered the worst betrayal a daughter shooting her
00:18:10
mother and then putting a bullet into her youngest sister's head and why for money and Molly detective byerson says
00:18:21
she was left heartbroken and Confused in a lot of the phone calls after this happened it was very evident to us that
00:18:30
her daughter had no idea where she was she certainly didn't know that Mom went to
00:18:36
jail Megan haran was sentenced at the start of 2024 a Fairfax County woman was hit with two consecutive life sentences
00:18:45
after she was convicted of killing her mother and her younger sister and then telling police it was a murder suicide
00:18:52
both Ashley and Carlos came to the sentencing it's strange now to think back to 2017 and the phone call when
00:19:01
they first spoke when Carlos called Ashley to tell her shots had been fired at her mother's
00:19:08
house and to reveal what Helen had told him that Megan had killed her mother back then Ashley wasn't sure what to
00:19:17
believe every single emotion right now hearing about this finding out about this from Helen's piece of [ __ ]
00:19:25
boyfriend but now they both sat un United in grief at the Fairfax County Courthouse waiting to hear how long
00:19:34
Megan would spend Behind Bars more than six years later this case finally comes to a close 48 Hours
00:19:46
producer Michelle sigona can't stop thinking about the hargens and where they will go from here this will
00:19:54
obviously go on uh this doesn't end the the pain and the anguish I I don't want to speak for them but I can't imagine
00:20:04
ends for the family especially for for this little girl for for Megan's child we learn that Steve and Ashley haran no
00:20:13
longer have contact with Molly as it turns out soon after hearing those Capital One calls Ashley did two things
00:20:23
she cooperated with police on their investigation and she started seeing if she could get custody of Molly from
00:20:30
Megan and her husband at the first trial Ashley testified that she didn't feel comfortable with Molly living with Megan
00:20:39
in West Virginia according to Ashley in her own words she wanted to take custody
00:20:44
of her because she knew she could give her the home that Molly deserved essentially and when she said quote I
00:20:52
could give her a loving and caring home and yeah she's an amazing little girl end quote
00:20:59
Ashley had stopped trusting her sister and perhaps by extension her husband too Ashley was in fear for Molly being in a
00:21:08
situation or in a home with Megan and her husband and that's why according to court testimony Ashley went forward and
00:21:16
applied for for custody she wanted to to protect Molly as best as she could but Ashley's attempts to get
00:21:25
custody failed and after Megan's arrest her husband Frank stopped allowing Molly
00:21:31
to call Ashley or her Grandpa they are now estranged here's detective Brian berson for Ashley not only does she lose
00:21:42
her mom and her sister but effectively she loses her other sister as well in the process and she's left completely
00:21:49
you know by herself she was an aunt to Megan's daughter and saw her consistently and after this happened all
00:21:59
of that stuff was cut off Steve haran asked to get visitation rights as a grandparent but was denied Megan's
00:22:07
husband at the time just totally cut off communication between their daughter and
00:22:13
and that side of the family Frank hung up on us when we called him for comment Frank has been such a mystery in
00:22:22
this story Frank didn't testify in either trial nor has he kept in touch with Detectives
00:22:29
here's byerson he answered some questions that we had in the beginning of this stuff and then he you know he
00:22:35
just he sort of just disappeared you know it seems like he just didn't want to deal with this byerson said he
00:22:41
questioned Frank but never got all the answers I've always thought about it like this if I'm sitting personally if
00:22:49
I'm sitting in a realtor's office and I'm going to buy a home with my wife and my wife sends me a bank statement that
00:22:58
would indicate that we had half a million dollars in the bank I would have several questions about that he seemed
00:23:05
to have none Frank was never charged with anything connected to the house or Helen and Pamela's murders and detective
00:23:14
Bon said they chose not to investigate his involvement further I think anybody looking at this from like a fair point
00:23:22
of you would probably have those same questions that we have like did you think it was you just
00:23:28
thought it was a gift and you never talk to like your mother-in-law about this this huge gift of a you know it it just
00:23:35
it doesn't make any sense Frank was often away on a military deployment which is why Megan said they
00:23:44
didn't live together it was easier to live with her mother and have her help raise Molly but byerson didn't know what
00:23:53
changed in 2017 why all of a sudden did make desperately want to live with her husband as far as we were able to
00:24:02
ascertain they never lived together she always sort of lived with her mom and sort of her mom took care of her and her
00:24:09
mom took care of her granddaughter she was being a doting grandmother and she wanted to make sure that Molly you know
00:24:15
had all these nice things in life and and then at the end of the day that's also taken away from Molly byerson said
00:24:24
Megan has never offered her father or sister more details I don't know that she'll ever give them
00:24:30
the satisfaction of explaining to them why she did it Megan's attorney at the Fairfax County
00:24:39
Virginia's public defenders office did not respond when we contacted them for this podcast at the time of sentencing
00:24:48
her attorneys claimed they would appeal even today byerson doesn't think Megan would even admit to her crimes I think
00:24:58
if you asked her today she would still say she didn't do it what at this point 24 people have decided that she did uh
00:25:04
in two separate trials and you know we're supposed to believe that it's just a coincidence that the day before in the
00:25:11
day of your your family's murder that you're trying to do this crazy wire transfer for a half a million dollars to
00:25:19
buy a house in West Virginia byerson knows that even if Megan were to explain why she shot her mother and sister it
00:25:27
wouldn't do much good to me personally because it's just I know what what they lost and how they lost it and
00:25:36
um the fact that they're still you know putting one foot in front of the other is is a a testament to them
00:25:42
for sure Ashley Never spoke to us for this podcast but Steve haran did go on the
00:25:49
record to offer a simple truth I will forever be devastated that lost my daughter um
00:26:02
Helen um and it's uh it's something that is has had a u profound impact on the family as a whole and I will I will
00:26:18
leave it at that I agree with him you don't need a lot of words to sort of explain
00:26:25
something that's not explainable to the majority of the people who are going to hear it
00:26:28
byerson has long believed a Court's decision can bring justice but not closure Helen haran will never marry
00:26:38
Carlos or finish grad school Pamela will never be surrounded by loving children and
00:26:46
grandchildren this this family violence is sort of the worst of the worst of this
00:26:54
because when I think I think when it's a stranger you can still in your mind kind
00:27:02
of put out a bunch of scenarios as to why this happened right but when this person is a part of your immediate
00:27:09
family that does this to another person in your immediate family with no explanation offered by
00:27:16
them other than this money there's no closure for them that's that's why I don't like that word like they they're
00:27:23
never going to be the same [Music] from 48 hours this is blood is thicker the haran family killings Judy Tigard is
00:27:46
the executive producer of 48 Hours original reporting by 48 Hours producers Josh Jagger Sarah Elie Hol Michelle
00:27:56
sigona and Lauren Jamie Benson is the senior producer for paramont audio and Mora walls is the
00:28:04
senior story editor recording assistants from Alan Pang and Marlin polycarp special thanks to paramont
00:28:13
podcast vice president Megan Marcus and 48 Hours senior producer Peter schwitzer blood is thicker is produced
00:28:22
by Sony Music Entertainment it was written and produced by Alex Schuman our executive producers are Katherine St
00:28:32
Louis and Jonathan Hirsch our associate producer is Zoe kulin theme and original music composed
00:28:40
by hansdale shei he also soundd designed and mixed the episodes we also use music
00:28:48
by Blue Dot sessions Katherine nuhan is our fact Checker our production managers
00:28:54
are Tama balance kassi and Samantha Allison I'm Peter vanat if you're enjoying the
00:29:01
show be sure to rate and review it helps more people find it and here our reporting if you liked blood is thicker
00:29:10
check out the rest of our 48 Hours podcast by searching 48 Hours on your favorite podcast app And subscribe to 48
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hours plus on Apple podcasts for adree listening thanks for listening [Music]