Death in the Family | Fatal Fraud | Forensic Files

Every fraud begins with a promise, but most don't end in murder. >> My husband, >> a quick fortune, easy money, or a life
torn apart. >> It was for $250,000 for a payout on life insurance. >> But behind these illusions, is this an
isolated incident or could there be more? lie calculated deceptions. Two months before his death, there was an
incident where somebody had tried to blow up Allen's car, carefully hidden in plain sight.
>> Do you know anyone that would have a problem with you? >> There are two people that have had a
problem with it. >> Sometimes these criminals are backed into a corner. >> That's the last thing people are
thinking of when they're genuinely in love with somebody >> and feel their only way out is to kill.
What was shocking to everyone, how somebody could go to these lengths to cover up $40,000 in checks.
In June 2008, police were called to the home of married couple Alan and Miriam Helmick.
>> What's the problem? Tell me exactly what happened. >> It looks like somebody came in and
robbed him. >> My name is Sean Wells. I was the detective sergeant in charge of Alan
Helmick's case. This was definitely a unique case in my career as an investigator.
This had not happened during my tenure at the police department and as far as I know still hasn't happened.
Allan and Miriam lived in Whitewater, Colorado. June 10th, 2008. Mesa County dispatch received a call
from Miriam that she had came home from being downtown after Allan had failed to
meet up with her and she found her husband Allan dead in a pool of blood on the floor.
Upon examination, the police determined that Allen had been killed with a gunshot to the back of the head.
Karen Wilson was a local news reporter who covered the story. In 2008, I was working as a news reporter in Grand
Junction, Colorado for the NBC affiliate. I was in the newsroom. We have a police
scanner. So, we heard something come over the scanner about a possible robbery homicide in Whitewater. We have
a stringer photographer that works with us. So, he's first on the scene, as well
as the police working their investigation, removing Allan from the scene. >> Miriam had told police she had returned
home after being out all morning. >> She discovered Allen dead in a pool of blood. It looked like the house had been
ransacked and robbed. >> Miam claimed that the house was a mess when she arrived home and found Allan
dead. Miriam did say there was an intruder in the house and that somebody had came in
to burglarize the house. She believed Allen was dead when she arrived home. Every detail at a murder scene is very
important. It could be the most minute thing, the smallest piece of evidence. It isn't necessarily everything that
jumps out at you. It could be things that maybe later on throughout the investigation is your big evidence
moment that will direct you to the killer. The investigators found a small handgun in the home, but the caliber of
that handgun did not match the bullet pulled from Allen's body. They also found a spent shell casing in the home
that matched the bullet that was removed from Allen. In a place like Whitewater, Colorado,
with it being such a tight-knit community, the death of Allen Helm was shocking to everyone.
>> Delta is on the western slope. We're a smaller area. Agriculture has always been our base. We have the mountains, we
have the rivers, and we have desert here. It's a wonderful place to be. 62-year-old father of four Alan Helm and
his 51-year-old wife Miriam had been married for 2 years and were familiar faces in the local community.
>> Alan Helmick was a businessman in Delta. He was a banker. He was very well known.
I knew him through his kids. I grew up with a few of them and knew the Helms to be good upstanding people in the city of
Delta. Alan Helmick was a very wellrespected member of the community. He was very
financially stable commercial real estate development, title insurance, and he did very very well.
Allan was very generous, very kind, and unfortunately he was a widowerower. Allan's first wife had passed away a few
years prior of a heart attack on New Year's Eve. It was very tragic. My name is Dr. Kerry Nixon and I'm a
consultant forensic psychologist. This is a man who had been happily married. He had children who were grown
up and his wife died and he was actually still grieving when he met Miriam in 2005 shortly after his wife's death.
He was very depressed and his friends and family encouraged him to take ballroom dancing lessons. That's how
Alan and Miriam originally met. She was his dance instructor um for ballroom dancing lessons.
Despite clauses in place in her contract and whatever Allan signed when he signed
up to take lessons, there was no fratization between clients and instructors. Despite that, Alan and
Miriam began a relationship. She was a widowerower herself, so she was able to connect with Allen where he
had uh his wife had passed away. Miriam had previously been an instructor at another studio but had suddenly left.
Miriam was fired from that dance studio. What had happened is the owner realized
a checkbook was missing and somebody had written a check and she had maybe thought it was somebody else, but that
just didn't make sense and she figured it must have been Miriam. From there, Miriam said she wanted to
start her own ballroom dancing lessons, her own company and studio. Uh, and she did that.
>> Allan and Miriam married in 2006, and soon after Allan began investing money in businesses for Miriam to run.
For a town the size of Grand Junction, there's not enough clients to sustain two separate ballroom dancing companies.
Um, but she did it anyway. The other business that Allan helped Miriam start was a horse breeding
business. And that was to obviously breed horses, but also to give riding lessons to people. Again, not seen as a
super good financial win. It was probably going to be a loss. But Allan wanted to make Miriam happy and he
wanted to fund her dreams. Now, in each of those businesses, Allan owned 95% of the businesses and Miriam owned 5% of
the businesses. He was obviously desperate to be happy again, desperate to have a wife, desperate to be in love,
and he was willing to do anything to make her happy. He gave her money for businesses, a dance studio, a horse
business. What we can see is that he was a very kind and generous man who wanted
to be loved and his way of making her happy was to give her everything he could.
>> Allan being a successful businessman, he knew he could make businesses work and
Miriam wanted some businesses to run for herself. So the dance studio did not turn out as Allan had hoped and it
caused him some financial strain as well as the horse breeding business and they
were starting to drain Allen's bank account. >> My name is Fiona Hodston Moore and I'm a
forensic accountant and expert witness. If Allan had invested significantly large sums in the two businesses on
behalf of Miriam, then potentially he's borrowed a lot of money to do that and that will put financial pressure on his
other businesses. I'm Dr. Briana Fox. I'm a psychological criminologist at the University of South
Florida and a former FBI special agent. Alan may have known that Miriam's businesses were not going very well. uh
for one because he had to keep purchasing more and more for her. So he knew one business wasn't successful. It
was becoming replaced by another. Aside from the two businesses he started with Miriam which were described as losers,
Allan was very financially stable. People viewed him as a very successful businessman. His net worth was somewhere
in the ballpark of 2.5 million. As police began their investigation into Allen's death, they became suspicious
about Miriam's claims that Allan had been murdered during a home robbery. When police arrived, they found Allan
had been shot in the back of the head. And they also found what Miriam thought was a robbery, but it looked a little
funny. All the drawers were pulled out to the same space. Nothing was really taken.
When the Mace County investigators looked at the scene, they examined Allen's wallet and found that his credit
cards and anything of value was still in his wallet. They found that drawers that
were open and doors on cabinets and bins that were tipped over, nothing of value
was taken. And immediately they knew it appeared to be staged. very high value items were all left
behind, which somebody willing to kill in a robbery wouldn't have made that mistake. They also saw that Alan
Helmck's body had been dead for much longer than she had stated he was dead for. So those two pieces made them think
this wasn't a robbery. What really happened? Police investigating Alan Helmick's
death had asked Miriam to talk them through her movements that day. >> Miriam had a lot of evidence that she
had kept to show that she was in town, that she was trying to call Allan. >> Hey Alan, this isn't funny anymore. I've
been sitting here in front of the Chinese dragon or the Chinese place for 15 minutes and you're never late.
>> She had receipts for every store that she went into. She had phone calls of her calling Allen to see where he was.
And it was just too convenient for her to have those things ready to go organized for those investigators.
In my experience as an investigator, most people in that situation would be frazzled enough to not be prepared to
present those at that time. But not Miriam. She was ready to go and prove the timeline.
>> Police also realized the bullet that killed Allan was of the same caliber of a gun that Allen had owned.
>> Allan was shot with a 25 caliber bullet. Now, no gun was found in the house. >> Police did find out that Allan had owned
a 25 caliber handgun, and one of his daughters had noticed that it had been there in the home previously, but now
it's missing. >> After speaking with Allen's children, police also discovered that the family
was becoming concerned about Miriam's true motives for the marriage. >> His kids were definitely starting to get
suspicious. Miriam essentially took control of Allen's phone. So when the banker had been trying to reach him, she
would answer, say he was sick and that he would call her back. They never got calls back cuz Allan never got those
messages. Now the same thing happened with his children. Miriam would intercept the calls and she would tell
the kids, you know, make up an excuse as to why Allan couldn't talk and that he would call them back. Uh and he never
did. And they definitely suspected Miriam of being in the marriage for only money.
>> Something that's fascinating in this case is not just her motivation for money. She was also very very
controlling. She distanced him from his friends and family. She kept his cell phone in her bag so she limited the
calls. We see her isolate him and that's absolutely coercive control which tells
me that this was also an abusive relationship as well as a relationship where she wanted to take his money.
As the investigation developed, Delta police records uncovered a shocking incident that had been reported just two
months earlier. Somebody had tried to blow up Allen's car. Now, the way they tried to blow it up, they had put a wick
in the gas tank and lit it, and they expected that car to explode. >> Shawn Wells was one of the officers who
responded to the call. >> And that's when I met Miriam for the first time as she was also on scene.
Alan and Miriam had driven down to Delta, Colorado that day. Allan was selling his portion of a title company
and he received a check for $100,000. When he did that, what happened is they were getting ready
to leave and Miriam said she had some stomach issues and she needed to go inside and use the restroom. So Miriam
went inside, spent a little bit of time there, and when she came out, realized somebody had tried to set Allen's car on
fire. When I arrived on scene, the sergeant met with me and showed me what they found when they arrived.
And there was light damage to the trunk area and the rear tail light area. The fire was fairly small. Uh Allan had
noticed smoke. He looked in his rear view mirror, jumped out of the car, ran to the back, and was able to extinguish
the fire. Was a clumsy arson attempt. Mr. Helm had just put fuel in it. So, the there were a lot less vapors,
therefore, it did not burn the car to the ground. >> Police questioned Allan and Miriam as to
who might have had a potential motive to harm them. Allan thought it could be a number of
people, a failed business partner, a former friend that uh he had testified against before, or even just some random
kids walking by doing kid things. >> Do you know anyone that would have a problem with you?
>> There are two people that have had a problem with me. >> Okay. Who are those two people?
>> Uh or two entities. One was at the state bank, the president, the vice president.
They were trying to accuse me of an illegal loan, which I didn't make. I attempted to talk to Miriam. Miriam
was very nervous around me as I tried to ask her some questions. She didn't want
to talk to me. She seemed kind of elusive. And at that point, I noticed that she is
making an attempt to avoid me. She stated that she needed to go to the bathroom again. as I started asking more
questions and we said that was fine. Well, about 20 feet from where we were was where she had went to the restroom
prior to my arrival. Instead of going back to that restroom, I found it very interesting that Miriam decided to walk
across four lanes of traffic to go to the restroom across the street at a convenience store.
As investigators were going through this attempted murder crime scene, they went
into the bathroom that Miriam had used and noticed that it smelled very strongly of lighter fluid.
What's ticking in my mind is she knows more than she's telling. And why did she need to get away from me
so quickly? She knew that the questions were pointed. She knew that I was asking
for basic things and she couldn't provide answers. So, I felt that I needed to do my due
diligence, check the area, look for video footage, and talk to others that may have been on the street at the time,
but also I was turning to focus on Miriam. >> Based on the way that the police had
questioned Allen and had questioned Miriam by telling them both, we have to assume that the police were absolutely
suspecting Miriam as the perpetrator. There were no people seen walking through the area at the time of the
fire. Unfortunately, there was no video from any of the businesses at the time to show Miriam lighting it. But the
absence of anybody in the area during that time and her actions when I interviewed her on scene led me to focus
on her. After the arson attack, Shawn even informed Allan that he was investigating
his wife as a potential suspect for the attempted murder. >> Allan was not happy with me when I
called him to let him know that I was focusing on Miriam and I felt that he may be in danger. He was upset with me.
He told me that Miriam would never hurt him, she would never do anything to him,
and that I was wrong. Allan said, "There's no way it could have been Miriam. She has no reason to kill me.
I'm worth more to her alive than dead." >> Allan did come by the police department
and demand that I stop the investigation against Miriam. Demand that I stop focusing on her. And he that he didn't
want anything to do with this investigation anymore. I did tell Allan what I discovered, what I saw. and he
told me he didn't believe it and that she would never hurt him. >> Less than 2 months after the arson
attack, Detective Shawn Wells worst fears were realized. >> When I received a phone call that Allan
was murdered, I was afraid this was going to happen. >> Miriam was taken to the station to be
interviewed. While there, she was checked for forensic evidence. Miriam was checked for gunshot residue
and none was found. There was none found on her hands, her face, her body, her clothing, which a person that does
enough research will know that if they go shower, change their clothes, you're not going to find gunshot residue on
them. >> When investigators see a murder occur, one of the first things that we always
say is check the spouse. And uh one of the things that they'll always do is see what was going on in the marriage
immediately before this death happened. One thing would be was there any financial pressure. These could be
unpaid debts living beyond their means. This could be easily checked into by seeing what were the bills that were
coming in. Were they within their income range or were there significant stressors?
While Miriam was interviewed, officers seized bank statements and other documents that led them to a startling
discovery. >> Miriam was writing checks on Allen's account. She was forging his signature
and it wasn't discovered until investigators dug into that Allen, I don't believe, ever realized that she
was draining his accounts to pay for whatever she was paying for. this activity of her forging Allen's name on
checks was happening and she kept it hid for for quite a while since probably they were together.
>> She had been defrauding Allen for quite some time. What she had been doing is
writing checks to the businesses that she owned with him, Dance Junction and the horse breeding business. And she
would pass those checks to the businesses and then take that money out herself. This was about $40,000
which she had essentially stole from Allan and Allan was close to figuring out what was going on. His account was
depleted. >> Mesa County interviewed Miriam and she admitted that she had signed the checks
but claimed she had permission from Allen. It is very difficult to differentiate
between normal household activity and fraudulent activity by a spouse. So one would normally look at the historical
expenditure and activities on someone's bank account. What did they normally spend and how did they normally spend it
before the alleged fraudulent activity? So really to have a look at a pattern and what changed and what might have
changed it. Police also seized a number of computers from the home. As police were doing
their investigations, they took any electronics Miriam had, cell phones, computers. Now, what they found in the
search history was very interesting and very alarming. One particularly interesting search was
what would happen when Viagra is introduced in combination with some of the other drugs that he was taking,
particularly for somebody who had heart problems, which Allen did. >> She may have looked up ways to poison
somebody. I know that Allan's children, specifically one of his daughters, was concerned that he was not himself and
that he was sick quite a bit and felt that he may have been being poisoned. >> They had a lot of prescription drugs in
that house and there were a lot of searches about those drugs and about how it might kill somebody.
Police also discovered Miriam stood to benefit considerably in the event of Allen's death.
>> It appeared at the time that it was for $250,000 for a payout on life insurance if
anything happened to Allen. >> What Miriam did is she called an insurance agent and inquired about
opening her own insurance policy on Allen's life without him knowing. That was the maximum she could get. What
she had originally asked for was 2 million. >> Through the investigation, it was found
that she had asked the agent if they could execute this uh insurance policy without her husband being involved or
knowing about it. >> You cannot claim or take out a insurance policy on someone else without their
knowledge of consent. And you have to have a financial interest in that person. So you have to be in some way
dependent on that person. >> They've been together for 2 years and she's trying to set up life insurance
without his knowledge. That is a major red flag. When you're in the initial stages of a relationship and you're in
love, you don't think, "Oh, I know. Let's go and set up some life insurance." That's the last thing people are
thinking of when they're genuinely in love with somebody. >> Police investigating Alan Helmick's
death wanted to know more about Miriam. >> Miriam Helmick was also a widowerower.
She came from Jacksonville, Florida. Her former husband had passed away. Their daughter had passed away a couple of
years prior. Miriam had one son left. As I focused on Miam, knowing that she was not from Colorado and that she was
from out of state, I needed to look out of state. So, at that time, I ran the information I had from Miriam and found
that she indeed was out of Florida. And as I looked at things that I was able to
access on these databases we use in law enforcement, I had seen a pattern. Miriam's family life was pretty dark.
She was surrounded by a lot of death, a lot of hardship. >> Her husband and daughter had died under
suspicious circumstances, but both were ruled uh as a suicide. The daughter's case was ruled as an
accidental overdose. Miriam was present when her daughter passed away and by all accounts her
daughter didn't use drugs. Her daughter definitely didn't use prescription drugs. So there was a little bit of
speculation around that. >> She claimed that she was there um and watching her daughter. Her daughter had
used drugs and that's what she had let law enforcement know and they believed it. Shawn discovered Miriam had had
insurance policies on both her first husband and her 23-year-old daughter. >> What we later learn is that Miriam had
life insurance on her daughter, and that was about $100,000, which she blew through very quickly.
Now, the money that Miriam received from her daughter's death did not go to uh any rehabilitation of drug users or
anything good. She purchased a vehicle. She purchased clothing, flashy things, things that just would not be on the
mind of a grieving parent. And she did so fairly quickly after receiving payout.
In 2001, after the shocking death of their daughter, Miriam's husband also died.
>> Miriam's former husband had shot himself in the head while they were lying in bed
together. And the speculative reason that he did this is because their daughter had passed away due to an
accidental drug overdose. >> Miam, she happened to be in a room in bed when her husband supposedly
committed suicide. It was ruled as suicide, but that he was shot in the side of the head that Miriam laid on.
>> The weird part about this is that Miriam had just laying down in the bed. That's
what she told police. He put up a pillow barrier to evidently protect her. >> Her first husband was right-handed, and
you would have thought that he would have used his right hand to fire the gun. Instead, the wound was found on the
left side of his head and the weapon was found on the left side of his body. So, either he reached around his head at
a weird angle which did not align with the trajectory of the bullet or he used his non-dominant hand to shoot himself
with his wife beside him. >> Police also became suspicious about the way her husband's death was initially
investigated. It was Miriam's half brother that was the police officer that arrived on
scene. >> She knew how to manipulate her family and others. So, I don't feel that she
was worried about it at all. >> Once again, Miriam collected a large insurance payout after her husband's
death. When she received payment for her first husband's life insurance, she also, as soon as she received the money,
bought flashy things, things that just would not seem to be on the the mind of a grieving wife.
>> Police found other worrying similarities between Miriam's past life in Florida
and their investigation into the arson attack on Allen. I found that arson was attempted on her parents' home. I found
that very, very interesting because she had embezzled lots of money from them and they were upset with her. Miriam had
moved in with her father and stepmother and she started to commit some fraud. She started to write checks to herself.
She was intercepting her father's bank statements so that he wouldn't see that money was missing.
and that's when she moved to Colorado. >> After those discoveries, I realized this
is not just bad luck for Miam. I realized that there's more to this story than we know. They wanted the Florida
law enforcement agency to reopen the case and investigate it, but they told me they would not reopen the case and
they would not reinvestigate it. They also advised Mesa County that they would not reopen the case and reinvestigate it
as an attempt murder or a murder in this situation. >> 16 days after Allen's murder, police
received another call from Miriam. Miriam had called and let the sheriff's office know that she'd found a card
under her doormat >> and it said to the grieving widow. Inside the card it was a woman sitting
in a rocking chair and it said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. Allan was first. You're next. Run
run run. There were misspellings in that card. Allan was spelled wrong as well as the
incorrect version of your. After Miriam had found that card, she made sure a friend was with her when she
found it. Investigators found this suspicious. So, they investigated the card and where it came from.
They found that the card was purchased at a City Market store about 10 miles from Miam's home. The investigators were
able to uh access the cameras inside the City Market store. And so as they viewed
the camera footage, they were able to see Marian pick up that card, walk to the register with it, purchase that
card, and leave the store. >> When Allan was found dead, one thing that law enforcement thought was, is
this an isolated incident or could there be more? And Mrs. Helmick wanted to further that narrative because of course
if she was at risk, she couldn't possibly be the perpetrator. When police asked Miriam about the card
and why she had that, why she did that, she said she would didn't feel like the police were doing enough for Allen's
investigation and she wanted to speed things up and also get it back into the public eye.
She wrote a note to try and make the police think that she was also a potential victim. These things they
suggest that even though she's manipulative, she's not actually that right. She hadn't really thought it
through. It wasn't enough for Miriam just to have her financial problems go away. She had an issue and she wanted to
solve it, but she had to be the center of attention and the victim. Not only did her husband die, not only did she
get what she wanted, she had to also be at risk herself. It really shows here's this woman that has this personality
issue where not only is it sufficient to have just one instrumental goal achieved, she had to go through much
more. Bringing more attention under herself, only raising her profile and making more people pay attention to her,
which of course is exceedingly dangerous. As police were building their case, Miriam went on the run.
>> Miriam took off. She disappeared from the area. She took her car and interestingly enough, she took the ID of
Allen's first wife, Sharon, and left. Later on, she was uh found on CCTV at a pawn shop where she was attempting to do
business as Sharon Helm, Allen's first wife. >> When we learned that Miriam had left
Colorado, no one was surprised. And what it looked like is that she was running from something.
While Miriam was on the run, police still needed to trace the missing murder weapon. Allan was shot with a 25 caliber
bullet. One of Allen's daughters did remember there being a 25 in the house. It belonged to her mother, Sharon. Now,
there's a really interesting story tied to this and it's pretty wild. So, police
had the shell casing and they were told a story that the gun was handed down to Sharon from her stepfather. And I think
about 30 years prior, her stepfather had gotten into an altercation near his home
and he had that gun on him. He struggled with a neighbor who had stepped in to try to protect the other person and he
fired a shot into the ground. >> Investigators were able to locate that spent round or fired round in the ground
at the Helmick's old home in Delta. Luckily, that neighbor still lived there and was able to kind of point to the
area where he thought the bullet went into the ground. Police had metal detectors, but they they recovered that
bullet. Forensic testing was done. It was determined that it matched the rifling
and striations matched the bullet removed from Allen. So then they were able to conclude that
that 25 caliber handgun that belonged to Allan was missing from the home was the
weapon that killed Allan. >> The gun was never found at all. It was never recovered.
Police issued a warrant for Miriam's arrest. >> December of 2008, Miriam was arrested
for the murder of Allen when she was located in Jacksonville, Florida. While in Jacksonville, Miriam, she just
went right back to it. She joined a dating website. I believe that was for wealthy individuals. And she met a man.
She drove down to Orlando from Jacksonville, which is at least a few hours, to go on a date with this man,
and she ended up spending the weekend with him. And what we later learn is that Miriam had assumed the identity of
Sharon Helmick. In fact, the man that she went to go meet, he thought her name was Sharon.
>> Miriam was charged with first-degree murder of Allen, and she was also charged in the attempt murder in my case
in Delta. We combined those cases into her murder trial in Mesa County. In November 2009, Miriam Helmick stood
trial for the murder of her husband, Allan. Detective Sergeant Shawn Wells was called to give evidence.
>> I did testify in court and I did uh share what I did throughout my investigation in that trial.
>> Sergeant Wells testimony included his account of Miriam's behavior during the
arson attempt on Allen. I was able to speak to Miriam's demeanor on scene. Very nervous, elusive, going across four
lanes of traffic to go to the restroom when there was one 20 ft from her. Um, her uncooperiveness.
>> Crucially, police were able to present forensic evidence that tied Miriam to the arson attempt and the murder scene.
This piece of wick that was in the gas tank came into play when Mesa County called and asked if I had any evidence
by chance from my attempt arson case. And I was able to let Mesa County investigators know that I did keep the
wick as evidence and I still had it in my property and evidence room. >> Alan and Miriam had driven down to
Delta, Colorado that day. They were getting ready to leave and Miriam said she had some stomach issues and she
needed to go inside and use the restroom. At that point, she wanted to change her shoes, so she went into the
trunk. This is when uh the wick might have been ignited. >> Mesa County prosecutors found that the
wick had possibly matched a cutout of a horse lead or rope from the horse trailer that Miriam used to haul her
horses. The investigators in the district attorney's office was able to determine the type of rope that the wick
was made out of and also found that same type of rope in Miriam's horse trailer.
>> When police were looking at Miriam, they tested her for gunshot residue. They
didn't find any on her person. What they did find was a very small amount of gunshot residue in her car on her
steering wheel. We learned about this during the trial. Even Miriam's son was called to testify
at trial. Not far into the investigation, Miriam called her son and said she wanted to move back to Florida. Uh what
he told her was that she needed to stay in Colorado, wait for the dust to settle, you know, and then she could
come if it was appropriate. Miriam then lied to her son and said that the police
had cleared her. She also mentioned that she was taking Sharon's car and that she
had Sharon Helmick's ID. He said, "Please don't do that. That's a bad idea. Not only is it illegal, but it's
wrong." Testifying in court against his mother was very hard for Miriam's son. He had lost his sister. He had lost his
father. He was about to lose his mother. And it's still something that he struggles with to this day. He can't
comprehend how somebody could go to these lengths to cover up $40,000 in checks.
And this is something he'll continue to struggle with, I'm sure, for the rest of
his life. After a month-long trial, Miriam was found guilty of murder and fraud.
Miriam received a life sentence plus 78 years for the fraud counts. >> This was definitely a unique case in my
career as an investigator. This had not happened during my tenure at the police department. People will go
to long lengths to cover up their fraud. They're afraid they're going to go to jail, so they think they got to hide it.
And then some people will do whatever it takes. Some people will kill to cover up
fraud. And Miriam was definitely one of those. I did not like to see a case unfinished. So this case was a bit
frustrating where where the victim Allan wouldn't cooperate where I was unable to
get Mariam in to talk to me. But I wasn't going to stop. I was going to find a way until I could bring the case
to a close, a successful close. >> Despite her conviction, Miriam still maintains her innocence.
>> Throughout the investigation, the trial, the sentencing, Miriam has maintained
her innocence the whole time. She's appealed the verdict multiple times. The Colorado Court of Appeals just
reconfirmed everything from the original case and said, "Yes, she is guilty." >> Miriam continues to deny that she
murdered Alan. This could be due to many reasons. However, with the control that she exhibited in
that relationship, I expect it's to still remain in control. In this case in particular, it seems
that Miriam Helmck didn't just come up with this all at once. She had been building up to this by engaging in
similar insurance frauds where she financially benefited and she inflicted the harm on her own property, but this
time she was inflicting the harm on her husband. And she also thought, here's how I'm going to essentially have an
alibi and cover it up. >> Miam is definitely a gold digger. Uh I believe that Miriam is responsible for
for a lot of death in her immediate surroundings. She was a manipulator, a liar, and a very cold evil person.
>> She is very much a gold digger, but she's more than that. A lot of women who are gold diggers will
use manipulation, may use their bodies, may use sex, but they just get the money. This is a woman
who was a gold digger, but was also a murderer. She was willing to go to that point to
get what she wanted. And she didn't want the man. She wasn't willing to live the
life to have the money. She wanted rid of them. She wanted the insurance money. >> Despite Miriam's conviction, the murder
of Alan Helmick has had a lasting impact on not only Detective Shawn Wells, but the wider community of Delta.
>> It does make me sad that it it came to that in our community. We're small towns.
This just doesn't happen here. And and I think it made people think and realize that it can happen anywhere. I believe
that Miam would have continued this kind of pattern and continued to defraud and
murder. Again, >> this is a criminal, a dangerous woman who is willing to take the lives of men
in order to get money. We see people who are incredibly wealthy, that have wives that we can
certainly say probably wouldn't be with that person if it wasn't for their huge amount of wealth. But those people are
willing to marry them and are willing to stay married and have that lifestyle because they're so driven by the need
for money. they're certainly not planning on killing that person. Whereas in this case, that was her plan
all along. It wasn't just to marry somebody for money and put up with the unhappiness
for the money and the lifestyle. She actually planned to take people's lives for their money.
I think if Allan would have would have let me speak with Miam and continued to investigate, I believe that I would have
been able to charge Miriam with the attempted arson. I believe that Allan could have accepted that. I think he
would have accepted it once he saw the evidence that I had compiled. And I think that he would have been sad, but I
think he would have been okay with the outcome and ultimately that would have saved his life.

When Colorado businessman Alan Helmick is shot in his home, suspicion soon turns to his wife who ran up debts and forged his checks.

This true crime series delves into cases where financial schemes spiral into betrayal, violence and murder, exposing the deadly cost of lies fueled by greed.

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Brief Summary

Miriam Helmick murdered her husband Alan for insurance money, leading to her conviction after a complex investigation.

Key points

The Shocking Murder of Allan Helmick. Allan Helmick was found dead in his home, leading to a complex investigation.
Miriam's Alibi. Miriam had receipts and phone calls ready to prove her whereabouts, raising suspicion.
Financial Fraud Uncovered. Miriam was found to have been forging Allan's signature and draining his accounts.
Miriam's Suspicious Insurance Policies. Miriam inquired about life insurance on her husband without his knowledge, raising red flags.
Miriam's Troubled Past. Miriam had a history of suspicious deaths in her family, including her husband and daughter.
Miriam's Arrest. Miriam was arrested for the murder of her husband, Allen, in December 2008.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Every fraud begins with a promise, but most don't end in murder.

0:05WatchFeb 27, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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