The Depraved Heart Murder | Full Episode + Post Mortem | Forensic Files

[Music] [Music] I hate seeing people get away with stuff and I like figuring stuff out my
name is Ian iello and I was the lead detective in the Sarah Harris case Sarah Harris she
was incredibly bright um one should always pursue knowledge no matter the topic very energetic very fun did Sarah
have any idea how beautiful she was honestly I don't think she did Sarah Jane Harris Sarah hopes to become an
anesthesiologist she was shocked that she won the Miss Marilyn petique pageant she had thought from a very young age
that she would want to be a doctor she wanted to help people in 2020 Sarah needed wisdom teeth pulled
she initially met James Ryan as a patient at his oral surgery practice I'm James Ryan I mean it's not just that we
say that we care but we really do we take pride Dr James Ryan was a well-respected oral surgeon a lot of
people knew him and thought very highly of him so she gets the teeth done she starts getting all these text messages
and they're from Dr Ryan and he says by the way I'm looking to hire someone as a
surgical assistant do you know anyone she says something like well what about me Mom and he offered her the
job she then became an employee and then his girlfriend and his living girlfriend Sarah's life appeared
glamorous on the outside but behind closed doors I mean that wasn't necessarily the case
I would have never ever thought that her life would end the way it did Montgomery count
911 my girlfriend I think overdosed I'm trying to resuscitate her right now and what is your first and last name j Ryan
I'm doing so compression and is responsive is she breathing she's not breathing when the two responding
officers um got to the house they saw Sarah she's laying on the floor what did authorities think had happened
to Sarah that day she overdosed and we don't know if it's an accident if it's suicide or if it's a homicide the
decision was made to charge him with depraved heart murder I think most of our audience will have never heard of
depraved heart murder I have never seen it before you have to show an extreme indifference to human life James Ryan
provided those drugs that caused her death that doesn't mean he's guilty of murder another way of presenting this
case would be you never intended to hurt her I knew this was not just some simple
accidental overdose this was much more [Music] [Music] was she sleeping on the couch last night
yeah she would do that sometimes it's the morning of January 26th 2022 Sarah Harris lies unresponsive on
the floor of the room in disarray her boyfriend Dr James Ryan tearfully talks with police at the scene the
conversation is recorded on a body camera as they ask him about the night before we're watching TV know that she
said you should probably go to bed because you're tired and you have to work tomorrow so I did uhhuh what time
did you go to bed probably about 10 or 11 Ryan has already told authorities he's a doctor and that he thinks it's an
overdose and he says it's happened before and I did CPR and brought her back this time Sarah doesn't
survive Dr Ryan has suggested where she got at least one of her drugs of choice a powerful anesthetic
she used to take probol too she used to steal that from my office how they got into her body I've caught her before
with um like injecting herself with things and why she was bipolar also so she would could be really angry or could
be really happy Ryan had called Sarah's family with the awful news that morning but her
mother Tina just didn't believe anything he said she immediately suspected James
Ryan was responsible for Sarah's death she arrived at the scene about 20 minutes
later I started kicking and hitting him and screaming up the mail let the mail let the mail what did he say
happened he said he went to bed and left her alone and came down and she was unresponsive in the morning authorities
say they found wrappers from syringes tourniquets and saline bags next to the kitchen sink and Drug vials in Sarah's
purse Tina thinks Ryan arranged it that way he wanted to look like it was a suicide Tina had long held suspicions
about Dr Ryan he had encountered Sarah harrris more than a year earlier not as a girlfriend but as a patient to get her
wisdom teeth out Dr Ryan is somebody who's practiced for over 20 years he has incredible credentials Mary fulan is a
former prosecutor and defense attorney and a CBS News consultant we asked her to use her Decades of courtroom
experience to help analyze this case he's esteemed and regarded in his community as one of the best at what he
does Tina haris says the first time her daughter met Dr Ryan for her teeth in the summer of 2020 the doctor was
professional but she does remember at the time feeling it was curious when his interest in Sarah seemed to change she
starts getting all these text messages he asks her how are you doing and she says I'm fine and he starts sending
little emojis what are you thinking as her mom I thought it was a little bizarre that he added a little happy
face and I thought well maybe he just likes using emojis she says that's when Ryan had mentioned
he was looking to hire someone as a surgical assistant I thought well you know maybe he just thinks that she'd
really be a good addition Dr Ryan hardly seemed like a threat he was divorced with three grown children and was
involved with a woman with whom he already had a baby at 47 he was more than twice Sarah's age he say no I don't
need your resume just come on in for a working interview I said well I'm proud of you honey that's
pretty incredible he's going to teach you all this stuff at the beginning Sarah seemed to
love the job but Tina says as the holidays approached an extravagant gift retriggered her suspicion that Dr Ryan's
interest in Sarah was more than professional what was it a diamond necklace that's quite a gift I said okay
he's after you I said you got to put your foot down instead in early 2021 she says Sarah and announced she had agreed
to go out for a meal with Ryan who was ending his other relationship he seemed to win over Sarah and Tina admits in
their early days as a couple even she found him impressive as a mother was a part of you excited she was dating a
doctor well I was excited I was excited because he had a wonderful reputation and she says Ryan was generous he would
Le Sarah a new car and take her and her family on trips all expenses paid Tina says in a way he spent time courting her
too you know he would say I would love to have you as my mom Sarah's so blessed to have you Tina says she and Sarah
always had a special bond we were very very close she says Sarah was close to her
three siblings too especially older sister Rachel Rachel took it upon herself that she was going to be the
protector but there had been a rough period during Sarah's youth in Suburban Maryland like many young people she
experimented with drugs and had problems moderating her mood she suffered from anxiety when did she first struggle with
depression I noticed depression coming about when she was about 14 15 years old she would start feeling down but Tina
says Sarah is still excelled in high school craving knowledge and the skills that came with it um it's currently
hanging in the in Paris she learned German Spanish Russian and sign language to she put a lot of pressure on herself
especially with her grades before long Sarah got her social bearings she fell into a great group of
kids they would sit out in the living room play the guitar play the piano sing she was at a music festival in
2018 when 21 one-year-old Sarah caught the eye of Henry Peterson 7 years older I feel like it was like stars colliding
and uh meeting someone like you're supposed to meet they lived 7 hours apart but he says they quickly became
emotionally Inseparable we talked about everything you could think of in terms of a future um marriage and children and
family he says the distance eventually made them drift Peterson broke it off though he says he still imagined they
would end up together she and I never stopped talking the love was always there by her mid 20s Sarah had gotten
into modeling and competing in beauty pageants and in 2020 she'd won that Miss Marilyn petite pageant the next year is
when she started quietly seeing Dr Ryan and by that summer they had decided to live together and that's when everything
goes downhill [Music] [Applause] by the end of the summer of 2021 Tina Harris says James Ryan was dominating
Sarah's life boss boyfriend even letting her live rentree in his house but instead of flourishing Sarah seemed
anxious and depressed she saw a psychiatrist who gave her that bipolar diagnosis her complexion starts to
change she starts to lose weight on a family trip to Key West that September Tina says Sarah had been
asleep when a drunk Dr Ryan revealed something unsettling he had first noticed Sarah in
the park when she was just 14 I used to see Sarah walking the neighborhood and playing at the park with her
friends and he says then I found out she worked in the toy store so I would take
my kids there so I could see her and I remember when she dressed up as Elsa from Frozen and she looked just like
Elsa and then he said yeah and then I found out she worked at one of these restaurants and so I would go in there
for dinner so I could get her as my server it sounds like Dr Ryan was obsessed with he was he was very much
so by their next trip to Florida a month later she says Sarah was acting strangely she wore a bulky longsleeve
sweatshirt despite the Heat and it seemed like she and Ryan were always fighting and she goes I hate him I don't
want to be here I want to go home and when they returned to Maryland Tina saw the full horrifying picture of what
Sarah's life had become she says she called Sarah on October 28th 2021 phone rang rang rang she finally
picked up she could barely talk her words were extremely slurred so I said Sarah what's going on what's wrong with
you she goes oh I'm just really tired mom you knew something was wrong yeah well I knew she was slurring Tina says
she and Rachel left for Sarah's house minutes later and we walked into hell what did you see well Sarah
answers the door she smells it looks like she hadn't bathed in a week or more she looked horrible she'd weighed 120
when she'd had oral surgery with Ryan Tina says but Sarah was Skin and Bones now and Tina says there was more The Ivy
bags needles laying all over the floor syringes tourniquets bloody Footprints bloody paper towels and there were drugs
but bottles and vials everywhere Rachel gathered them up and photographed them I
never looked at the drugs and I wish I had I do think some people watching would think how did you
not look at what the drugs were of course I just wanted to get her out she says Sarah had offered an innocent if
unconvincing explanation she goes I've just been dehydrated mom he's just hydrating me I said I'm turning him in
and Sarah starts crying mom you can't do that please don't do that she's begging
me I grabbed her arms and I pulled her sleeves up and she had needle marks from here to here all over her arms bruises I
became hysterical against her better judgment Tina agreed to hold off on calling authorities but she says she
insisted Sarah move back home just Days Later Tina says Ryan convinced Sarah to come back to
him in the following weeks Tina says Sarah seemed to be getting better she started cooking eating even going to
church but on December 3rd 20121 Tina says her daughter answered the phone slurring again Rachel Harris jumped into
action Rael said I'm going to go and check on her when Rachel got there it was worse
than the first time poking around the ground floor Rachel once again pulled out her camera
finding drug bottles and vials as well as a saline bag an IV pole Ivy needles and bloody footprints on a
kitchen mat she was so distraught she left without talking to her sister a few days later Tina confronted
Dr James Ryan she was in no mood for another explanation I just reached across and smack the living crap out of
him you hit him yeah oh I hit him and I said what are you doing are you trying to kill my daughter
Tina says Ryan still insisted he'd only been hydrating her and you still believed it I believed he was giving her
something I didn't know what it was I did not look at the vases all I could see was my daughter and what kind of
trouble she was in but the next day she says Ryan admitted he'd been doing more than hydrating her he'd been giving
Sarah drugs though only to keep her from them someplace else so I told him I said
look you can break it off with my daughter or I'm calling the police and he said well I'll break it off with her
but days turned into weeks and Dr Ryan never did after months of tension Tina says she couldn't keep arguing with her
daughter anymore what was I going to do lock her up you probably wanted to I threatened it and she said if you do
that Mom when I get out you'll never hear from me again and that scared me to [Music]
death within weeks there was a new tragedy for the Harris family Sarah's brother Christopher just 38 died after a
heart attack in Montana I had to sign the papers to take him off life support which um
no mother should have to do his death was devastating to the whole family Sarah posted this tribute
message to her brother never goodbye I'll see you soon big bro and only 18 days after Christopher's
death at about 8:30 a.m. on January 26 2022 Tina says she and Rachel were together when Rachel got James Ryan's
call Rachel started screaming she's holding the phone and James has it on FaceTime and he's got the camera pointed
at my [Music] baby that's there on the ground saying she's gone she's [Music] gone at the time of her death Sarah
Harris weighed just 83 lbs authorities would list her manner of death as undetermined Dr Ryan was not arrested
they seemed to accept his story that Sarah struggling with mental health issues had
overdosed but there would be help from a most UN likely investigator Rachel started trying to
get into Sarah's [Music] eyecloud I just hope that you're happy that I'm with someone who truly truly
loves me 3 months before before she died Sarah left a voicemail for her ex-boyfriend Henry Peterson I've
never trusted anybody as much as I've trusted the man that I'm with right now professionally
emotionally you never let me in that way they' stayed in touch after breaking up so when she didn't answer her phone
after January of 2022 Peterson says he had a strange feeling and decided to go online I Googled her
name and uh uh there's an obituary yeah he says when Tina gave him details he joined her in the belief that James
Ryan the man Sarah said she had trusted more than anybody else was responsible for her
death but First Responders didn't think so they didn't shut it down as a crime scene police seized some drug violence
but left the house unguarded Tina says that's because they believed what Dr Ryan had told them about where she'd
gotten the drugs and how she'd taken them it was an overdose but she says she knew there was
more to it than that though she didn't know how to prove it turns out there was someone very close to her who
did Rachel told me she would find the evidence Rachel Harris decided to ex examin Sarah's laptop to see if it might
contain Clues authorities hadn't seen she didn't know the password but she knew her sister well it took her
about a couple of days to figure out Sarah's password coming through Sarah's computer and iCloud Rachel hit Pay Dirt
a trove of texts between her sister and James Ryan the messages were full of references to drugs including a
tranquilizer named Di Pam and two fast acting surgical anesthetics the type Rachel had seen in the home Dr Ryan and
Sarah shared propop fall and ketamine which is sometimes also used for depression Rachel created a binder
adding the photos she'd taken there Rachel compiled 200 pages of evidence the medical examiner would release
Sarah's autopsy report which showed those same three drugs in Sarah's system research suggests they can all be habit
forming and they can suppress breathing taking them in combination can be lethal
all the while Rachel's building a case yes yes in February 2022 Rachel gave her binder to monomer County Police it
eventually landed on the desk of detective Ian iello an expert in pharmaceutical investigations after more
than 33 years as a cop iello was nearing retirement he decided to come and alone
on a Sunday it was my birthday and nothing was going on you don't get parties when you're this age I'm like
I'm just going to go in the office and look through this binder and just see what I cavello Saul in Rachel's
binder suggested cops at the scene had been wrong about Sarah's death he says reading the text between Sarah and James
Ryan was like watching a murder in slow motion you could see Sarah die Sarah is suffering within the first month of
their relationship she had anxiety she was having trouble sleeping Ryan offers a
quick fix I can give you an injection the anxiety will be completely gone in 6 seconds he writes it will work let's try
it he had already made the decision I cavello says the text suggests that over the months Sarah
developed a drug habit and a habit of asking her boyfriend the doctor to feed it in October 2021 do we have ketamine
here in November we need syringes I feel like in December I just really need sleep she writes can you bring
propol she's actively asking for drugs at no point does he say no iavo says the text suggests Dr Ryan
often brought Sarah the dangerous drugs and that he actually administered at least one about a month before her death
it was December 20th 2021 if you wake up I just went to change after I gave you ketamine just
now he writes he's injecting her while she's asleep no monitoring no anything an
iello points to this exchange from the day before Sarah died is it possible to bring home ketamine when you come she
asks yes I will bring some home I love you Baby Ryan replies the text tell a story they do
so do Rachel's photos from Sarah's house says I cavello though his colleagues lacking experience in pharmaceutical
investigations might not have understood that they had no idea what they were really looking at he says Patrol cops
and paramedics often deal with overdoses of street drugs like heroin and Fentanyl
but the deadly drugs in Sarah Harris's house were masquerading as something else there's a difference
between drugs and medication iello says to the untrained eye the drugs at Sarah look like
medication the paraphernalia around the house might have been confusing too usually what we see is burnt spoons tin
foil uh some hypodermic needles maybe a shoelace or some other string that kind of drug paraphernalia but to I cavello
the syringes and the saline the professional tourniquets and the plastic wrappers at Sarah made it resem an
operating room that's what a lot of it looked like whatever questions responding authorities may have had he
says Dr Ryan offered answers and you've got James saying she did all of this without any other information okay
well we're just kind of going to go with what he says he's a doctor he's a doctor
but I cavello says after reading through the family's binder any credibility Dr Ryan may have had at that day
vanished and on March 22nd 2022 nearly 2 months after Sarah's death James Ryan was arrested for the
murder of Sarah Harris but prosecutors would have to make the case to a jury sometimes it's hard to convince
them maybe especially so in this case because James Ryan's defense is suggesting he was only trying to save
Sarah's life and that she had other ideas [Music] what do you make of those text messages
between Sarah and Dr Ryan chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X [Music]
[Music] I knew the case was solid detective Ian I cavello was sure Dr James Ryan was responsible for Sarah
Harris's death and he had no problem convincing prosecutors on Montgomery County's overdose task force Jennifer
Harrison it's his fault James Dietrich he was the one who was providing those drugs and Kimberly sisle he knew how
dangerous these drugs were was a doctor after all but as certain as prosecutors were that he knew he was
risking Sarah's life they had no conclusive evidence he intended to kill her we never suggested that you can
accept that James Ryan loved Sarah Harris but it does not excuse all the other actions that he took that led to
Sarah's Sarah's death so they charge Ryan with a subcategory of second deegree murder unfamiliar to many people
it's known as has depraved heart murder prosecutors say the charge doesn't require proving the killer actually
wanted anyone dead only that they knew their actions would likely kill someone and didn't care we have to prove that he
did it with Reckless disregard for the value of her life diet gave us an example forance if I take a gun and just
randomly shoot it into a crowd I may not necessarily want or care that anybody dies but that is such a grossly Reckless
Act that someone's likely to die prosecutors also charge Ryan with a slightly lesser charge involuntary
manslaughter plus two counts of drug distribution and one count of possession with intent to
distribute ladies and gentlemen meet Dr jamesan opening statements begin on August 16th
20123 there are no cameras in court but there is an audio recording but behind door he was conducting a deadly medical
experiment on his 25-year-old patient turned employees turned living brok the prosecution
portrays Ryan as a controlling older man who got his glamorous young girlfriend hooked on drugs he was stealing
dangerous sedation drugs from his business and administering them to his girlfriend sah
her prosecutors say the proof of Ryan's guilt is largely in those text messages Ryan offering to get rid of Sarah's
anxiety in six seconds telling her he gave her ketamine while she was sleeping and on the night before her body was
found apparently agreeing to bring ketamine home to her can you tell us not fa I don't know where to start I was the
first to testify she was my baby Tina Harris is emotional as she relives Sarah's downward spiral just months
before dying I asked to see her arms and she said no Mama but I grabbed her arms and I pulled up the sleeves and
her little arms were covered in Needle marks and bruises and the medical examiner tells
the jury about the Dangerous Drug cocktail that brought her life to a tragic end when people use all three
together those just cause profound strong sedation the drugs can be so dangerous in fact the prosecution tells
jurors that doctors who use these drugs have equipment and protocols in place to
revive patients if needed even though Dr Ryan would follow all of those safety protocol calls in his own office he
would never follow those at home she was chemically dependent on she was chemically dependent on him prosecutors
also call social worker Janice Miller who says that kind of power imbalance is a Hallmark of abusive relationships the
drugs were the way that he controlled her and really ensured that she wouldn't leave the relationship he's created an
addict Dr Ryan and his attorneys did not agree to be interviewed by 48 hours but
at trial they argue Sarah Harris may have played an important role in her own demise suggesting that after wrestling
with mental illness she was now losing her battle with anxiety depression and drugs their focus on Sarah Harris is
obviously her mental illness the defense suggests Sarah may have begun stealing the drugs herself they want the jury to
know about her Facebook post about seeing her deceased brother soon but the judge won't allow
it but they are allowed to tell jurors about a text Sarah sent Ryan months before her
death she said I've lost my will to live I've lost my will to live do you think there's any chance
Sarah was suicidal absolutely not absolutely not where's the indication of a suicide on the scene there is none
detective iello says the drug bottles found found in Sarah's purse were too far from her body for her to have given
them to herself these drugs are fast acting she's going to be out in seconds how she put all the medication in her
purse then went and laid down not possible she wouldn't have cleaned up somebody else had to have done
it but according to CBS News consultant Mary fanti the defense argues that detectives mishandled the seene that
there's no way to know exactly what happened including who administered the Fatal dose they didn't test to see if
his DNA or fingerprints were on those syringes Dr Ryan chooses not to testify the defense argues he was a loving
partner who was just trying to help Sarah this is a case about caring for somebody and possibly loving them to
death his lawyers call a friend who saw Sarah using drugs before she began dating Ryan and relative who saw them as
a happy couple in closings prosecutors remind the jury that to convict Ryan of depraved heart murder it doesn't matter
whether or not he actually put the drugs in Sarah's body or even whether or not he wanted her to Die the act of giving
her the drugs is him handing her a loaded gun but with the jury agree if you were a juror in this case
what would be your your verdict and why learn more about the case at 48 [Music] hours.com I try to believe the best in
people and my for as long as Kyle Stevens can remember his friend Dr James Ryan has done right by people he was
pretty straight lace clean cut guy when he talked about Sarah how did he sound in the beginning he seemed enthusiastic
and excited but Steven says at a certain point Ryan did reach out with a concern
he had asked about how to best be helpful and supportive to someone in that place of depression and possibly
addiction did it make you wonder if he was actually asking about Sarah yeah but I didn't press so Steven says he had no
idea what was really going on between the two then he discovered his friend was arrested and headed to trial when
you heard the verdict what did you think I was taken back after a nearly 2 we trial it takes
jurors Less Than 3 hours to reach their decision as to count one murder in second degree guil
on August 25th 2023 they find James Ryan guilty of the second deegree depraved heart murder of Sarah
Harris relief yeah relief they also convict Ryan on the manslaughter and drug charges my heart
just felt satisfied Sarah's voice was heard through this Tina and Rachel speak at a press conference after the verdict
she was this beautiful beauty queen and she wasted away at the hands of Dr James
Ryan and again at sentencing months later he is a predator he is a wolf and she's
floating FL put bar until his life is been but James Ryan's lawyers had submitted supportive letters from his
friends and a legal filing which detailed that James Ryan had his own struggles with drugs and mental health
Ryan addresses the court and insists he didn't administer the lethal dose but takes responsibility for not preventing
Sarah's access to the drugs that killed her the words do not exist to convey and
express the level of remorse I feel though the guidelines suggest a sentence of 15 to 25 years for this case of
depraved heart murder the judge has something else in mind it is the sentence of this court that you be
committed to the Maryland Division of Corrections for a period of 40 years with more time for the other
counts it's a total of 45 years in prison a 45e sentence puts James Ryan in a category with some violent murderers
you know 45 years for James Ryan is basically life patients rely on doctors and their expertise in their advice and
I think she's sending a very loud message to the medical community and State's Attorney John
McCarthy wants to send a message to lawmakers the depraved heart murder charge may have worked in this trial but
it's a difficult crime to prove in other overdose cases we need tougher laws as early as 2015 McCarthy began pushing to
streamline Maryland law so state prosecut leaders can more easily convict dealers and Distributors who Supply the
drugs that lead to overdose deaths but it hasn't been easy we're not at a place in Maryland right now that the
legislature seems very interested in creating new crimes and new penalties Ian I cavello who read murder
between the lines of this case and retired after the trial says he still thinks of Sarah often I did everything I
could um for her so does her ex-boyfriend Henry Peterson who looks back at their breakup
with regret I guess I always thought she was going to be there a regret Sarah seemed
to share he showed us a letter she wrote him years earlier when their relationship ended you made me feel
alive now that you're gone I feel so many pieces and parts have died with you as if to preserve his connection to
Sarah Peterson still practices a kerto he played at her [Music] grave where today a mother who faced
great loss with even greater courage struggles to face the future without Sarah and her brother so close in life
and death that she actually buried their ashes in the same casket I hear Sarah tell me
Mama it's okay what do you want your daughter's legacy to be I want people to remember my Sarah
as a light a brilliant young woman who cared about others and loved life loved it
[Music] as a kid growing up in Chicago there was one horror movie I was too scared to
watch it was called Candyman but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly
inspired by an actual murder listen to Candyman the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder wherever you get
your podcasts I'm Erin morard of 40 8 hours and of all the cases I've covered this is the one that troubles me most
listen to murder in the Orange Grove the trouble case against Crosley green wherever you get your
[Music] podcast welcome back to 48 Hours postmortem I'm your host an marie green
and this week we are discussing the Doctor Who was charged with depraved heart murder in connection with the
death of his girlfriend Sarah Harris now this is a charge that's new to me and perhaps to many listeners as well so to
explain it all I am joined by 48 Hours producer Josh gager Josh thank you so much it's pleasure nice to be here when
Sarah Harris overdose from a lethal drug cocktail 2022 Dr James Ryan was later charged with depraved heart murder this
is a subcategory of second deegree murder that I really had not heard of before um so I'm going to ask you Josh
just sort of explain it to us what is it have you reported on any other cases like this look I've been doing this job
nearly 30 years and when you've been doing it that long you you tend to feel like you've seen seen it all when it
comes to murder cases but this is something that I never seen and and members of the team said the same and in
order to prove this prosecutors don't have to prove intent in other words they don't have to prove you planned or
wanted to do this but what they've got to prove is that you acted with extreme disregard for human
life so how does that apply in this case the argument was in court that Dr James
Ryan knew as a physician and as a surgeon he knew about these particular drugs he knew how dangerous they could
be and he provided Sarah Harris with access anyway but Josh how difficult are depraved heart murder charges to prove a
trial they are not easy to prove and prosecutors told us there are a couple of real challenges they face one of
these challenges has to do with the definitions that attach to some of these crimes we asked about the similarities
and differences between depraved heart murder and manslaughter and the prosecution said
that the words in those definitions are similar in in in a number of instances words like Reckless disregard for human
life versus extreme disregard for human life and for two crimes that have such similar and and
comparatively uh vague definitions the punishments are incredibly different the sentences for manslaughter the
sentencing range the sentencing range for second deegree murder are very different so when you're comparing a
crime that may involve words like Reckless versus a crime that may involve words like extreme how is a jury
supposed to really compute what those two words mean and how they're different yet in making the decision between those
two crimes there may be Decades of difference in prison time between those two verdicts and I should point out that
that wasn't the only charge that he was facing right uh we should note that in addition to depraved heart murder a
prosecutors also charged Ryan with involuntary manslaughter plus two counts of drug distribution and then one count
of possession with intent to distribute right um I want to talk about you know a
scene that really kind of struck me Sarah's mom Tina uh she she's definitely a force she's the force behind the
continued push to find out more there is dramatic body cam footage of her screaming at Ryan when she finds out
that her daughter is dead and she runs into the house and she is hitting him um my heart went out to her I mean what you
spoke to her what was she like I think this is an extraordinary woman in our jobs we meet victims and
surviving family members of victims of of these horrific crimes all the time but I I must admit that this particular
person made a made an impression on me that's going to let asked for some time and part of that has to do with her
larger story you learn in talking to her that months before Sarah's Death Around
a year before her another daughter of hers Rachel Harris suffered an imense tragedy
Rachel's fiance took his own life in front of her and that was something that um hit very hard across the entire
Harris family then as if that's not enough just I think it's 18 days before Sarah Harris dies Tina's son Christopher
who's in his 30s died after a heart attack in Montana so on the eve of Sarah Harris's death if
you will Tina is already dealing with two appalling losses in her immediate circle of of relatives and soon to be
relatives um her strength in talking about it was was incredible and when you see
the body cam footage um it's hard to even process what she might she might be going through at that
moment so when I saw it I thought just about any reaction you could think of would be understandable because the
situation is so inconceivable so some people are going to wonder why Tina when she can see that
something is really off with this relationship and that her daughter is diminishing
why she didn't just call the police I think there are a number of of reasons I mean first she does try to
convince them to break up she's not a fan of the relationship big picture um but there are a number of reasons why I
think she does what she does and she doesn't do what she doesn't do the first is that Tina said Ryan on
paper looked like a pretty eligible guy for her daughter to be dating he was pretty impressive he was highly educated
he had a thriving practice he seemed to treat her daughter pretty well and so you can imagine a situation where you
have this highly trained educated person who claims to love your daughter and gives you his opinion on what's going
wrong and how he's trying to help you don't necessarily think you're being lied to the second is that as um Tina
discovers that there's something really wrong with Sarah in Sarah 's house that there's activity going on there that
looks suspicious um Sarah and James Ryan plead with her not to go to the authorities finally uh later on in the
second um instance where Tina threatens to blow the whistle her daughter says if you do that
I will never talk to you again look that puts a mother in in an excruciating situation I can't imagine
being in that situation and Tina says she feared for losing the relationship with her daughter the tragedy is that in
the end she did Tina also revealed something very unsettling that she says Ryan told her when they were on a trip
with Sarah Tina told you guys that Ryan said that he actually first noticed Sarah around town as a teenager a pretty
young teenager let's just listen to that clip from Tina and he says then I found out she
worked in the toy store so I would take my kids there so I could see her and I remember when she dressed up as Elsa
from Frozen and she looked just like Elsa and then he said yeah and then I found out she worked at one of these
restaurants and so I would go in there for dinner so I could get her as my server it sounds like Dr Ryan was
obsessed with Sarah he was he was very much [Music] so this is a conversation we could not
independently corroborate having said that we had no specific reason to doubt what Tina told us so what we learned
from Tina about this that Dr Ryan noticed Sarah when Sarah was in the park with friends at the age of 14 after that
Tina said Dr Ryan discovers that Sarah is working in a toy store and she says the Tina I remember going into the toy
store seeing Sarah dressed as Elsa he also goes on to detail um a situation where Sarah is working at a at a local
restaurant as a waitress and says that he went into that restaurant in order to have Sarah as a server and while we
don't know those the the exact timing of those second two types of encounter the
toy store and the restaurant it still tends to indicate that Dr Ryan has a rather unusual interest and Sarah and
James Ryan is 23 years older than Sarah so if you take Sarah in her mid- teens that puts him in his late
30s that's unusual and it paints things in a very particular light Sarah's sister Rachel is the real
hero in many ways here she broke into Sarah's laptop she guesss the password and she finds those damning text
messages between Sarah and Ryan how important was this evidence I think it was critically important the texts
really show three things first she complains of sleeplessness and anxiety and there's a text in which he's
saying I'm paraphrasing I can give you an injection that will take care of your anxiety in
seconds after that we see texts in which Sarah begins asking for these drugs drugs she's imploring him to bring home
drugs like ketamine propol which are dangerous and in combination with each other especially dangerous um and he is
bringing them home that's what the text suggest and finally on at least one occasion there's a text that shows Dr
Ryan actually administering a drug to Sarah and it's a text in which he says if you wake up
uh I've just given you ketamine something to that effect and now I'm changing according to authorities this
shows he's actually administering the drug to her in her sleep I thought that that text message was the most damning
because you obviously can't give permission when you're unconscious and I have to admit while I was listening to
the hour like I said earlier I kept on thinking but she's a willing participant in this until that text message so
Sarah's sister Rachel she took photos of the surgical drugs in Sarah's house both
times that she visited in 2021 sure and I'll just say the photos were critically
important Rachel takes photos around the house on two occasions in 2021 where they discover medical
paraphernalia and then there are photographs taken at the so-called crime scene where Sarah is discovered First
Responders misinterpret the scene of Sarah's death authorities said they are used to drug
overdose cases involving things like heroin where you find tin foil you find burnt spoons you find shoelaces as
tourniquet that's not what they found around Sarah Harris she was surrounded by gear that looked like it was from a
medical setting it was medical grade equipment with plastic wrappers syringes and vials of surgical anesthesia First
Responders aren't typically trained to look for that kind of stuff that's what we learned and it took a very particular
kind of cop a cop with expertise in um in pharmaceutical investigations to look at these photos to see this case in an
entirely different way he looked at those photos he sort of read between the pixels if you will of these photos and
what he saw was a different kind of drug overdose and and that um went a long way
both in making his case with prosecutors and in trying it in front of a jury so you were talking about detective Ian
iello who is the expert in pharmaceutical investigations if he had not been assigned to this case could
Ryan have gotten away with murder I think he certainly could have the investigation I think we could say
was dormant after First Responders talked to Dr Ryan who was on the scene Who provided an account of his
girlfriend Sarah Harris's life which included struggles with mental health struggles with
substances and in fact even included according to Dr Ryan a previous uh overdose in which Dr Ryan
said he brought Sarah back was able to resuscitate her so what he was doing with authorities was essentially
establishing an ongoing pattern of certain emotional mental psychological struggles Sarah had problems with
substance abuse and when you have a doctor on the scene of a death telling you in Fairly medical terms what he
thinks happened you don't have any glaring evidence at least not yet to the contrary police said you tend to take
his word for it so in 2023 Ryan is found guilty of depraved heart murder as well
as involuntary manslaughter and drug charges then months later in 2024 a judge is sentenced him and this is I
actually gasped because I was thinking how many years can he really get for this a judge sentenced him to 45 years
well above the sentencing guidelines for this combination of crimes I I wondered was this about
sending a message precisely because he was a doctor and he should have known better yes I think so first let's unpack
the charges he got uh a total of 45 years about five of those years had to do with the drug charges so he's left
with 40 for depraved heart murder so this man has a very very stiff sentence that's handed to him that seemed to us
and to experts we talk to clearly to be a sort of a message that the judge is trying to send to the medical community
you cannot go Rogue and sort of give or sell drugs that your patients shouldn't be
taking to them and if they wind up getting into trouble and die you are on the on the hook in a big way and you
don't have to look far um around the United States to see this kind of thing happening uh in the headlines very
recently you saw doctors charged in connection with Matthew Perry's death and in fact though many of the specifics
are not analogous um one of the drugs was ketamine one of the same drugs that Sarah Harris had in her system I think
increasingly we're seeing you know the justice system say no wait a minute there are differences between you know
conducting surgery and it goes bad or you know um prescribing a drug that someone has a bad reaction to that is
clearly an error versus something a little more malicious yeah it brings up an interesting legal question as well
and that is how well tailored is the law to situations where someone supplies drugs which wind up being used by
someone who dies and in fact in Maryland where this crime occurred State's Attorney's office told us that they have
been supporting for some time and trying to get new legislation passed to streamline the
laws um allowing for particular charges in cases where suppliers of drugs that wind up being used in fatal overdoses uh
can be charged more easily so that authorities are not in a position of having to try to take the facts of the
case square peg fitted into a charge that pre-existing charge round hole yeah I mean I can see
in this case it it seems sort of incredibly creative but it worked the the jury believed the
argument um the footage at the end of the episode of Tina at the grave site of both her son Christopher and her
daughter Sarah it's heartbreaking the fact that she buried their ashes together shows just how
close these siblings were as you mentioned earlier Christopher D just 18 days before Sarah um how did this
tight-knit family cope with this tremendous series of losses yeah it was heartbreaking to be
there and um it was clear in talking to her that these these two children she lost were not only close on the calendar
but they were close emotionally and I think she told us that that's why she decided to bury them in the same casket
she visits often and it's it's just every bit as brutal as you might expect it to be I think as perhaps we've heard
in other cases what the Harris family does what Tina does is she tries to look for something constructive in all of
this and pin her emotional well-being to that she said when she looks back at Sarah's downward spiral and her death
there are regrets that she has at the way she handled certain things and she said instead of sort of
closing in around those regrets and just suffering increased pain she wants to use those regrets and
actually highlight them for people in a way that allows people at least potentially who might find themselves in
a similar situation to avoid making the same mistakes and to me that's the definition of strength
I absolutely agree with you uh over and over in many of these episodes we see how powerful the love and the strength
of a mother can be uh that they often Drive the investigation they often demand Justice for their children and
she was definitely a perfect example of that but not just her the family as well Rachel was just
absolutely key to this having suffered her own tragedy she showed the same kind of strength remarkable
remarkable indeed um Josh thank you so much for joining us today it's been my pleasure thanks so if you like this
series postmortem rate and review 48 Hours on Apple podcast and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcast you
can also listen add free on Amazon music wry plus and in the wry app or with a 48
Hours Plus subscription on Apple podcast and thank you again for listening

Did a surgeon drug his girlfriend in order to control her?

Watch "The Depraved Heart Murder" and then catch up with "48 Hours" correspondent Anne-Marie Green and producer Josh Yager on "Post Mortem" as they discuss the doctor who was charged with depraved heart murder for the death of his girlfriend, Sarah Harris. They break down what this charge means, the challenges of proving it in court, and the incredible detective work by Sarah’s sister, Rachel, that was key in the prosecution’s case.

00:00 The Depraved Heart Murder 41:16 Listen to a post-mortem on the episode

Listen to "Post Mortem" wherever you get your podcasts: https://apple.co/4gtL3Rj

Crime. Social justice. Impact. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

Sarah Harris's tragic death leads to Dr. James Ryan's conviction for depraved heart murder after evidence reveals drug manipulation in their relationship.

Key points

The Tragic Life of Sarah Harris. Sarah Harris, a bright young woman, struggles with mental health and a toxic relationship.
A Mother's Despair. Tina Harris confronts the reality of her daughter's addiction and relationship with Dr. Ryan.
The Discovery of Evidence. Rachel Harris uncovers crucial evidence on Sarah's laptop that could change everything.
James Ryan Arrested for Murder. Nearly two months after Sarah's death, James Ryan was arrested for her murder.
Prosecution's Case Against Ryan. Prosecutors argue Ryan acted with reckless disregard for Sarah's life, leading to her death.
Verdict Delivered. After a nearly two-week trial, jurors find James Ryan guilty of depraved heart murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I would have never ever thought that her life would end the way it did.

Ian reflects on Sarah's tragic fate.

2:00WatchJan 17, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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