The Aftermath | "Blood is Thicker" | "48 Hours" Podcast (Episode 6) | Forensic Files

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

How to make sense of this incomprehensible tragedy? Detective Brian Byerson has been in touch with Ashley Hargan weekly since her mother and sister were killed. She not only testified at trial -- she made some dramatic moves after she discovered the truth.

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Brief Summary

Megan Haran was retried and found guilty again for murdering her mother and sister after juror misconduct vacated her first conviction.

Key points

Megan Haran Found Guilty. After weeks of testimony, Megan Haran is found guilty of murdering her mother and sister.
Juror Misconduct Uncovered. A juror's misconduct leads to the vacating of Megan's first verdict, requiring a retrial.
Second Trial Begins. The second trial against Megan Haran begins, this time without Ashley as a witness.
Megan's Sentencing. Megan Haran receives two consecutive life sentences for her crimes.
Ashley Haran's Custody Battle. Ashley Haran seeks custody of her niece Molly, fearing for her safety with Megan.
The Impact of Family Violence. The Haran family faces profound loss and the struggle for closure after tragic events.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's like an emotional rush.

Detective Byerson reflects on the verdict.

1:56WatchJun 12, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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