A Killer in Plain Sight | "Blood is Thicker" | "48 Hours" Podcast (Episode 3) | Forensic Files

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

When detectives started investigating the deaths of Helen and Pamela Hargan, they came to a much different conclusion than the first responders on the scene. This was not a murder-suicide; it was a double homicide. But who could have killed the mother and daughter? Police began to zoom in on a single, shocking suspect.

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Brief Summary

Detective investigates the Haran family murders, focusing on Megan's suspicious behavior and conflicting statements during police interviews.

Key points

The Homicide Investigation Begins. Detective Byerson uncovers suspicious evidence linking Megan to the crime scene.
A Family's Tragic Loss. Megan learns of her mother and sister's deaths, leaving her distraught and confused.
Megan's Alibi Unravels. Megan's inconsistent statements raise doubts about her innocence during police questioning.
Incriminating Call. Megan's family hears the evidence that could change everything about her case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I do not believe that Megan killed her mom Pam or her sister Helen.

Rebecca's unwavering support for her friend Megan.

11:44WatchMay 22, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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