Gone Ballistic | Forensic Files | S14 E16 | FULL EPISODE | Forensic Files

[Music] up next a real estate developer lives in fear for his life somebody wanted this guy dead i was
scared for him i was very scared for him on a spring afternoon his worst fears come true
a computer search exposes some dark secrets someone was researching death but it's a
20 year old clue that helps unlock the case are you kidding you found a bullet that had been fired
in 1989 in western colorado a successful land developer alan helmick and his wife miriam were
going through difficult times professionally allen's real estate ventures weren't
what they once were on a personal level someone had recently tried to take ellen's life while allen is waiting for
miriam he notices smoke coming out the back end of his car it was right in the middle of a parking
lot in broad daylight apparently someone had placed a lit fuse in the gas tank fortunately alan saw the smoke and got
out in time for whatever reason the conditions weren't right for an explosion the car
did not explode unfortunately the parking lot had no surveillance camera so it was impossible
to tell who had planted the device 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
our two entities one was the state bank the president the vice president they were trying to accuse me of an
illegal loan which i didn't make they made i had the sense and i think the investigators had the sense that this
was going to be a drawn out deal did a business deal go bad there was some sales of some properties
that involved various people were one of those people angry and took it out on allen in a different
way maybe because they lost money six weeks later allen missed a scheduled lunch date with
his wife [Music] when miriam drove home she found him on the floor of his office
what's the problem tell me exactly what happened he was on the fly and it looks like somebody
came in and robbed them when police and paramedics arrived they pronounced alan helmick
dead at the scene he'd been shot once in the back of his head a shell casing from a 25 caliber handgun
was next to the body suicide was immediately eliminated no weapon present and the location of
where the injury was was not feasible to to be suicide allen's son-in-law learned of the murder
when he arrived at the scene [Music] it was terrible for all of us it was it was beyond terrible
it's terrible for someone to get shot because this is a person that people loved and respected and he loved his
family and he tried to make his life better and he loved people around him at first
it looked like robbery was a possible motive several drawers were pulled out and the
jewelry box was empty but there was no forced entry so that theory was quickly ruled out
it was not consistent with other burglary cases that i have worked the rest of the house was not ransacked
as you would expect to find in most of the burglary cases that we've worked since miriam helmick found the body
she was automatically considered a suspect but she willingly agreed to take a gunshot residue test
anyone who fires a gun usually comes into contact with the gases discharged when the bullet is fired
detectives swabbed marion's hands arms and face but no gunshot residue was detected
investigators now wondered who wanted alan helnick dead and why i'm missing my right my right arm i feel
like i'm just missing my life i came in and found it alan and miriam helmik had been married
for about two years it was a second marriage for both allen and miriam were known as being
inseparable social friends of theirs said they were always together they were like two peas in a pot
miriam was convinced that alan's murder and the attempted car bombing six weeks earlier
were both related a week after allen's funeral miriam found a greeting card under her front
doormat it was addressed to the grieving widow she opened the card and it read insanity is doing the same
thing over and over again and expecting a different result allen was first your next run run run
miriam essentially collapses physically collapses many words in the message were
misspelled including alan's name there was no postmark on the envelope which meant
it had been hand delivered miriam is frantic about this she is convinced that the killer is now out to get her
the simple block lettering made handwriting analysis impossible there were no fingerprints on the
envelope or the letter the envelope wasn't sealed so there was no saliva on the envelope flap and no dna
to recover and the barcode on the back of the card was missing [Music] it had been cut out and as if somebody
knew we might want to try to trace that greeting card and find out where it came from
investigators contacted the company that made the card and learned it was sold in three different stores in
the area the most recent sale happened just four days before the card was delivered
it was a cash purchase at a store 13 miles from the helmet's house detectives asked to see the store's
surveillance lo and behold who's purchasing the greeting card it's miriam helmik based on her haircut
her glasses the way she walked her body shape there was no doubt in our mind that it was miriam hellmich miriam was
confronted with the surveillance image she did admit to placing the card at her house her
explanation was to get law enforcement to refocus on the investigation and be more active
now suspicious investigators searched miriam and alan's computer hard drives for possible clues
they had two distinct computers side by side allen used one miriam used one people
tend to be very intimate with their computers they will ask it questions through google that they
would not ask another human being and investigators soon learned that miriam had been searching the internet for all
sorts of interesting information especially about the prescription drugs alan had
been taking i recovered approximately 180 online medical searches for things such as viagra
overdose ambient overdose lysinopril overdose a combination of those three drugs mixed
together pain killing overdoses i think she was looking at various ways to kill alan investigators also learned
miriam would benefit handsomely as a result of alan's death allen's real estate holdings were worth
millions yes the oldest motive in the world there was only one problem investigators
had no proof miriam shot and killed her husband investigators now believed that alan
hellmacht might have been murdered not by an angry business associate but by his second wife miriam when
police checked her background they discovered something suspicious six years earlier
miriam's first husband jack giles shot himself to death while he was sleeping next to her
anytime you hear that a woman has more than one husband die of a gunshot wound to the head
you get concerned and colorado investigators soon discovered something odd about this suicide
for one thing it was miriam's half-brother a local policeman who was first on the scene and declared the death a
suicide this despite the fact jack giles apparently killed himself with his right hand
jack couldn't do anything with his right hand he was a complete lefty and yet he would
choose to shoot himself kill himself with his offhand his right hand that didn't make sense to us also
strange was miriam's explanation as to why jack committed suicide she said yes he
was very depressed because of her daughter amy who had supposedly overdosed miriam
changed that story when she told it to me quite a few times it was overdosed once and one time it
was uh some sort of min uh physical uh ailment records showed miriam was the beneficiary of jack giles
100 000 life insurance policy she apparently gets some insurance settlement and very quickly is back living
the life while trying to solve the murder of miriam's second husband alan helmek investigators found
a series of checks totaling 40 000 made out to miriam the checks were signed by allen
but now police weren't so sure we believe there were a lot more checks that she probably forged but we tried to
limit them to the checks that we thought we had the best evidence on forensic document examiners
determined ten czechs were forgeries although it was impossible to say conclusively
that miriam was the forger police now believed that the attempted bombing of alan's car
was miriam's work she was conveniently away from the car inside the store when alan found the lighted wick
sticking out of his gas tank to investigators it reminded them of the car bombing
scene in the hit film no country for old men the villain in that particular movie
blows up a car using a homemade wick and we wondered if alan and miriam had actually seen that
movie we checked their cable billing statements and sure enough they had rented that
movie four days before this attempted car fire in delta colorado police had a wealth of
circumstantial evidence the surveillance image in the card store the czech forgeries the attempted car
bombing and the computer searches there are so many components and if you look at the
totality of all the components it's very clear what happened in this case the only thing they didn't have was the
murder weapon a 25 caliber handgun allen's daughter told police her father did own a 25-caliber gun that was a
family heirloom my little sister christy recalled seeing the gun that they believed was used in
the murder in my father's dresser drawer under the socks she was putting away laundry for
him that gun was now missing from the home's inventory it would have pointed the finger at
miriam helmik the person who would have had access to it and easy access to it the gift that kept on
giving every time you thought she knew everything something else would come up with her
and investigators learned something more 20 years earlier that same gun had been
fired in a domestic dispute involving wendy's grandparents my grandfather went a little crazy and tried to shoot
my grandmother in their front lawn one day a neighbor saw what was happening and
intervened he jumped on my grandfather and the gun went off turns out it went into the lawn
that's where this history from this gun comes from the neighbor who intervened in the
shooting incident 20 years earlier was still alive and remembered it vividly the neighbor did tell the police
where he believed it had injured the lawn with the slimmest of hopes forensic analysts
searched for the bullet that had been buried for almost 20 years we went out there
with metal detectors and after some time we were able to locate the bullet are you kidding you found a
bullet that had been fired in 1989 amazing we don't get those sorts of breaks could the bullet from the 1989 shooting
tie miriam to the gun that killed her husband family members told police that alan
helmick owned a 25 caliber handgun but it was now missing the thing that alan's daughter remembered about this
gun was that it was smallish and that it had a white handle [Music] a bullet from that weapon was fired into
the ground 20 years earlier in a domestic dispute incredibly with the help of an
eyewitness and metal detectors investigators found that bullet unfortunately after two decades in the
ground it had taken a beating the bullet was badly corroded and weathered and it bore marks that are consistent with
damage caused by striking sand or small stone particles the bullet that killed alan helmuck was
also damaged as a result of impact but the lands and grooves from both bullets were still
visible investigators compared those markings to see if both bullets came from the same weapon i was able to
determine that the bullet recovered from the yard corresponded with the bullet from the victim in
number of land and groove impressions and their widths i was able to determine also
that the fired bullet from the yard was a right-hand twist my result was that the two bullets could
have been fired by the same firearm the ballistics along with the circumstantial evidence
was more than enough to charge miriam helmik with murder prosecutors believe miriam was
systematically stealing money from alan's business accounts and that at some point allen found out about it
thinking their relationship was soon to end prosecutors believe miriam tried to kill
alan first by giving him an overdose of his prescription medicines [Music] when that didn't work prosecutors
believe miriam placed a lighted wick in the gas tank of the car while allen waited for her in a shopping
center parking lot fortunately the attempt failed miserably but prosecutors believe miriam knew
about the family heirloom 25 caliber pistol allen kept in his sock drawer and when the couple was alone miriam
waited until alan was in his office walked up behind him and fired a single shot she
showered changed her clothes and drove to the chinese restaurant in order to set up her alibi
she left a message on allen's voicemail asking where he was 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 no one knows where she disposed of the murder weapon and her clothes but presumably she did
so on her way to or from the chinese restaurant when miriam returned home she called
9-1-1 saying she had just found allen's body in a pool of blood it looks like somebody came in and
robbed them after alan's funeral miriam purchased the greeting card and used it to make it appear that she
too was a potential target she didn't realize the store's surveillance camera would
capture the purchase oh it was clear as day miriam she was wearing some of the same clothes that
she'd worn in the interview when she was interviewed by law enforcement during her trial
miriam took the stand in her own defense trial watchers said her performance did
more harm than good i didn't know what happened to him and i held his hand for a few minutes and tried to make some
sense of it all i don't get many opportunities like that and that is something that'll stay with
me for some time because i had to call her more or less a killer in front of the jury
and i wasn't going to beat around the bushes with that i was going to let the jury know that i didn't buy into her
crying act in speaking with the jury when i asked what was your impression of her
about six people answered together and said liar we the jury find the defendant marion
helmet guilty and first degree murder miriam hellmick was sentenced to life in prison
plus 108 years our father is gone but we're gonna move forward and we're gonna have a
fulfilling life and um you you miriam got what you deserved he was looking for love he thought he
found it he found someone that was after his money and it cost him his life all the unique
twists that this case took will be one that will be etched in my memory the greeting card stands out the bullet
from 1989 the likelihood of us finding that one bullet that allows us to compare to that
one gun that we can't find is the work that was done on that is [Music] amazing

In 2008, Colorado real estate developer Alan Helmick was found shot to death at home by his wife Miriam, who then became the prime suspect.

Brief Summary

Miriam Helmick was convicted of murdering her husband Alan after a failed car bombing and suspicious behavior.

Key points

A Developer's Fear. A real estate developer lives in fear for his life, leading to a shocking murder.
The Dark Secrets Unveiled. A computer search exposes dark secrets that help unlock the case.
The Grieving Widow's Card. Miriam finds a chilling greeting card after her husband's murder, raising suspicions.
The Trial and Verdict. Miriam's trial reveals her deceit, leading to a guilty verdict for first-degree murder.
A Life Sentenced. Miriam is sentenced to life in prison plus 108 years for her husband's murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was terrible for all of us. It was beyond terrible.

3:32WatchMar 13, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from Forensic Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.