The Han Family Murders | Post Mortem | Forensic Files

Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your [music] host Anne Marie Green, and today we're discussing the Hahn family murders. In
March of 2016, the bodies of Dr. Henry Hahn, his wife Jenny, [music] and their 5-year-old daughter Emily were
discovered wrapped in plastic in the family's garage. Now, there is a lot to get into here. So, joining me now is 48
Hours correspondent Natalie Morales, who worked on this hour. Natalie, thanks for
joining us again. Thanks for having me once again, Anne Marie. And of course, a reminder to everyone
that if you haven't listened to the 48 Hours episode that we're about to discuss, head on over to your podcast
feed. You'll find the full audio version there. Take a listen, and then come on back. So, shortly after police
discovered the bodies of Dr. Hahn and his wife Jenny and their daughter, a trail of evidence led them to Pierre
Houbrechts. He's a former business associate of Dr. Hahn's. And in the hour, the prosecutor called Pierre a
lying liar who lies about lying. It certainly seems like he was able to spin stories quite well, well enough to,
I mean, endear himself to some pretty smart people. What do we actually know about Pierre
though and his connection to Dr. Hahn? Well, Dr. Henry Hahn had hired Pierre to develop a CBD product, and it was part
of his new business venture that he had started with a couple of other partners,
but he then fired Pierre once he discovered that Pierre had been using his credit card to charge for escort
services among other things on his business account. However, just weeks before the
murders, it seemed like Pierre was able to get back into Henry's good graces. Now, prosecutors, as you mentioned,
describe him as a lying liar who lies about lying, and they describe him as a career con man.
I should point out he was never convicted of previous cons, but Pierre did tell authorities though that
he didn't have a college degree, but he lived in a college town in Arizona. He would go to the library a lot. He was
self-taught. He was fascinated with the idea of energy and technology. According
to prosecutors, this wasn't his first con. Allegedly, Pierre had duped a group of investors in Arizona into giving him
money to build this so-called perpetual energy machine, and his story then just grew from there. You know, Pierre's like
one of those sort of characters that we see that you think, "Gosh, you were able to endear
yourself to many, many people who are smart and who are good with money, if only you had funneled that in a
different direction, you know?" But let's talk about this perpetual energy machine. Pierre's own attorney said in
the hour that you don't have to be a scientist to know that a perpetual energy machine does not exist.
>> Yeah, it it implies it just, you know, creates its its own energy source. So,
according to the prosecution, Pierre apparently did demonstrations for this group of investors back in Arizona.
However, in those demos, twice they found an external energy source that was sort of plugged into this so-called
perpetual energy machine. The first time apparently there was, you know, like a car battery that it was connected to,
and the second time investors actually traced back and they found what were like
wires running underground into this prototype. So, you know, we did try to reach out to these investors in Arizona.
Unfortunately, we didn't hear back from any of them. I think what was particularly
challenging about this hour is, of course, you know, there's a young child who's killed. Like he he he kills the
entire family, and I was hoping as the hour was unfolding to hear, "And they found Emily in the bedroom sleeping," or
something like that. I just I thought, "Why a child?" I think that's the hardest thing to try to understand,
wiping out the whole family the way he did. And little Emily, who was just 3 days shy of her sixth birthday. You
know, it's hard to believe that money was purely the motive here, but prosecutors believe that Pierre had
targeted Henry Hahn because he was flat broke. I think he had $500 left in his bank account, according to the
prosecutor. Also, Pierre was apparently desperate for a real relationship, so much to the point
as we told you, he was hiring escorts to have companionship, and apparently he fell in love, according to the
prosecutor, with one of the escorts, and outright gave that that escort a $10,000
payment. So, there went more money. Now, Pierre had told people, including his friend T.J. Darretta, that he wanted
to move to Russia because he felt he clicked more with the women there. And Pierre's friend, T.J., also told
investigators that Pierre confessed to him, as you saw in the hour, about the murders. But he said in that confession
that his his motive was purely financial, that he planned to drain the money out of Dr. Henry Hahn's account.
He said that, you know, as long as he felt like he kept making these transfers, perhaps
no one would be the wiser for it. You know, once he did start to try to make those transfers, I believe the first
amount was $72,000 that he tried to take out of Dr. Henry Hahn's account. Well, that triggered a bank fraud alert, as
you would hope the banks are on to this kind of thing, and that transaction never went through. I mean, I don't know
why he thought that would work. I literally get a bank fraud alert when I try to buy like a train ticket. I mean,
the the banks are really sensitive to this stuff these days, right? So, Right, especially this went against Dr. Hahn's
usual, I mean, if usually if there were big transfers like that, maybe it would pass, but in this case, Dr. Henry Hahn
wasn't that kind of man to just transfer that amount of money like that. So, here's the thing about the scene. This
is a guy who, you know, thinks he's planned everything out, but then he's left with a very, I mean, messy crime
scene that he he tries to clean up, but he's kind of unsuccessful. Investigators
find bleach stains and bloody sheets in the laundry room, and very quickly police zero in on Pierre as a person of
interest. Yeah, I mean, that's right. The prosecutors believe that, you know, Pierre's plan was to get rid of the
bodies, to clean up the scene, make it look like the Hahns were actually missing instead of dead. But he doesn't
account for the weight of the bodies and being able to fit the bodies, all three
of them, in his car. Keep in mind, there was this business meeting that very next
morning, and Mark and Marla Palumbo, friends and business partners of Dr. Hahn's, they start to call and they're
worried, and that's when they send Don Goldberg, you know, who's such a good friend of Dr. Hahn's, to go check out
the house, and that's when investigators are then called to the house, and they discover the bodies and this horrific
crime scene. The other kind of component to this investigation is that there was a huge
amount of digital evidence that led investigators to Pierre. So, this is a guy who's supposed to be pretty savvy,
right? When it comes to computers, but he leaves like this tremendous digital footprint.
Right. Let's let's start first with the fact that he had placed this keylogger device on Dr. Hahn's computer, but also
he left it plugged into his computer, so that all the keystrokes were basically tracing right back to Pierre's computer.
Security video was also found placing him at an Arizona gun store 4 days prior to the murders, purchasing ammunition
and two firearms, including the alleged murder weapon. Now, investigators also traced the plastic wrap that was found
used to wrap the bodies to a Home Depot in Oceanside, that's Southern California, right near where Pierre
lived. So, they go into that Home Depot, and as you know with Home Depots, they have great surveillance footage. So,
they had footage of him leaving the Home Depot with that plastic wrap and also duct tape.
I was also impressed with how rapidly Home Depot was able to pinpoint where these purchases were made. I feel like
I've done several Postmortems where we've talked about Home Depot being like clutch when it came to investigating
It's remarkable. I mean, I just reported on another story in the Fandrich case where
the video surveillance footage from Home Depot was crystal clear. It could spot the suspect at the time leaving with a
big package of goods, and they even having the receipts. You know, Home Depot keeps track of the receipts. So,
once they identify the time of purchase, they can go back into their receipts in
their computer system, and that's where they then are able to track the surveillance footage as well. It's
unbelievable. And then Pierre was also captured on surveillance camera meeting his father in a Walmart parking lot.
That's where the father gave him two big duffel bags, which investigators say were go bags. Go
bags meaning, you know, a bag that had enough supplies and clothing that he could live on for months.
We should say Pierre's father was not charged with any crime in that. There was no indication that that Pierre's
father was involved in any way according to the prosecutor. But Pierre also took
with him the victim's phones. He had wrapped the phones in aluminum foil trying to evade any sort of
tracking. I had no idea wrapping phones in aluminum foil was a thing, but it it doesn't seem like it would work. I I
obviously didn't >> And in this case, you know, it was it was maybe not wrapped well enough, but
investigators were able to track one of the phones. [music] It was pinging all the way to Oceanside,
California. >> Yeah, it actually became really sort of pivotal when it comes to the
investigation. So after the break, we're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk about his defense in
court. Welcome back. So investigators closed in on Pierre at a gas station in the Oceanside,
California area. He was arrested nearly 48 hours after the murder. Not a lot of time goes by. And ultimately the
evidence points to Pierre and no one else as the Hans killer. Yeah, I mean and the evidence there was plenty of it
right in Pierre's car. I mean they found Henry's wallet, his credit card, social
security number, an expended shell casing which would trace back to the bullets that were found in the victims,
the victims' phones. And as I pointed out earlier, all wrapped in them aluminum foil as if trying to evade
being tracked. They also uncovered some pretty damning internet search searches according to
investigators Pierre made in the hours following the murder. You know, he asked is a car searched when entering Tijuana?
How do crime scene investigations work? How long does it take for fingerprints to process? And the the interesting one,
he consulted an online psychic named Count Marco. And he asked, will I get caught for what I did? And Count Marco
replied, what did you do, Pierre? Well, you know, and think investigators were the ones who were able to answer that.
Yes, Pierre, you will get caught. And he did. >> Indeed. Absolutely. It's a very smart response. And I wonder
how much those psychics hear. Um and you know what I mean? And you wouldn't want them to
>> Imagine the confessions they get. Can you imagine? And also you would I'm sure
they don't want to be wrapped up or implicated in anything. So just, you know, keep it vague. Keep it
vague. So as we discussed a little bit earlier, Pierre had actually confessed to murdering the Hahn family to a friend
of his, TJ Dorita, just hours afterwards. While Pierre was in custody, detectives
get a phone call from TJ who then tells them about Pierre's confession. But he waited two days, Natalie. And I
kept on wondering like what what are you doing? What took you so long? I know. And we asked TJ Dorita that point blank.
You know, he's he said that Pierre always told these bizarre outlandish stories. So
he wasn't quite sure what to believe at that point. He was making phone calls to
all of Dr. Henry Hahn's office, to his business associates trying to track him down to see what was true, what wasn't
true. Now once TJ learned that the murders had happened, he said he then started to worry that the police would
think that he was somehow involved. So TJ said he was so scared he called his brother who happens to be a judge. His
brother told him, you need to go to the police right away. Tell your story, you know, make sure they know what's what's
real and what happened here. The defense at trial, of course, they they saw this as as an opportunity to
poke holes in in what TJ told in his testimony. They questioned if you were so scared, why didn't you go to police
right away? Because police would would have protected him. And they also questioned TJ's credibility because TJ
had worked in the porn industry in in the marketing area of the porn industry. As TJ said he worked with some rough
around the edges kinds of friends. The judge felt though that that line of questioning was irrelevant. And the
defense had to concede in this case much of what TJ Dorita testified to was corroborated by the evidence. And even
in those text exchanges with Pierre in the aftermath. Um it seems like before learning about
the murders, TJ had sort of some sympathy for Pierre. Do we know, I mean, how this friendship
started, what the nature of their friendship was, why he kind of felt sorry for him? TJ says he
felt sorry for Pierre because he saw Pierre as being very socially awkward. You know, Pierre would share with him
the stories of not being able to get a date, not being able to have a real relationship.
And and TJ said he was always that guy in high school that stuck up for the kids who were bullied. He was just that
kind of guy. So he tried to make him feel like he belonged. Pierre would send him pictures of himself working out at
4:00 a.m. looking all buff just to try to make himself feel like he and TJ could hang and be friends. TJ said he
just kind of went along with it because he felt bad for him. Mhm. Wow. Um so the thing about Pierre
though is he strikes me once again as one of those characters who thinks he's a little bit
smarter than he actually is, right? So he waives his Miranda rights and he talks to detectives without his attorney
present. Um I want to play a clip of the detectives questioning Pierre about the
Hahn murders. Obviously you're suspecting it's me. I got to that's why you're you're asking it like that.
You're the last person who's was there with them. What happened? And I have no clue that
Oh my gosh. Everything was perfectly fine when I left. Everything was perfectly fine when I
left. So just a reminder for those who watched the episode, Pierre admits he was at the
house. He'd stayed with them the night before. But there he is talking to investigators and he's trying to make up
this you know, he's trying to tell them that he's clueless in all of this. And he spins this fantastical story
about how he was being targeted by these shadowy figures that were wanting his his perpetual energy machine.
And and he said that he had engaged in three different shootouts. And and that he felt like his life was in danger as
well as the life of his father and his sister. So he said he was afraid for them. And I asked his defense attorney
in the hour, well then if he tells this whole fantastical story, you would assume there would be a
trail of bodies. And you know, she had to acknowledge of course there was there was no such record of any of that.
Yeah, I mean three different shootouts. That would be pretty easy for police to verify. Yeah. That sounded like a a spy
thriller more than it was actual an actual life. Yeah. So ultimately though Pierre is charged
with three counts of first-degree murder. The DA's office agrees to waive the death penalty in exchange for a more
expedient bench trial, which means it's only a judge, no jury. A judge is going to render the verdict. Uh Pierre decides
to take the stand. What did he hope to convey to the judge? You know, at least when you're taking
the stand in front of a jury there's a possibility that one person may be influenced. But a judge, I mean,
that's that's quite a challenge. His defense attorney said that he wanted to be vindicated. He really
seemed to believe what he was saying. Now I think he also believed that he could convince the courts. I mean,
here's a guy he's as you said very persuasive. He he's managed to convince allegedly, you know, these investors who
went along with his so-called energy machine plan back when he was living in Arizona. So maybe he thought, well, you
know, I can convince the court as well. He shared a lot of detail in his testimony though. A lot of it didn't
make sense according to to the prosecutor Ben Ledinik. Pierre's explanation on the stand for the murders
was that he was being framed by the Department of Energy. That any incriminating physical or digital
evidence he said had been planted by the Department of Energy. Again, there's no
evidence pointing to the Department of Energy in any of this. His defense attorney asked Pierre on the stand if he
had ever been diagnosed with a mental illness. Pierre denied that. So you know, I think she was trying to allude
to the fact that Pierre perhaps might have had an undiagnosed mental illness. Right. Giving him some sort of
excuse I guess in a way for for the behavior. Yeah. And then Pierre was found guilty of of murdering the Hahn
family. On April 15th, 2022, he's sentenced to three life terms without the possibility
of parole. So he appeals the conviction through the California courts. And while his appeal
was pending, he also petitioned the US Supreme Court to release him. In March of 2025, the court denied his
final petition. So is there any further legal action that Pierre can take at this point?
Well, I believe that he could file other petitions or motions perhaps based on, you know, if there's new information or
evidence, but all of that again is is hypothetical. You know, whatever legal recourse he thinks he might have though,
um you know, there's just so much evidence as we see in this case against him. It's hard to believe that any
further motions, that anything could come of that. Yeah. Yeah. Um you know, to hear Dr. Hanh's friends talk about
him, I mean, he wasn't just a nice guy and a good friend. He really did change people's lives. And here's a guy who a
little bit later on in life finds the love of his life and has this beautiful child. I mean,
these are people doing everything right. It's just so much potential cut short. And I think that's truly who Dr. Henry
Hanh and his whole family was. I mean, Dr. Henry Hanh really believed that he could help people and was doing that. We
talked to a few of the cancer survivors that he worked with who talked so lovingly about his healing powers. They
believed, you know, that he really was the real deal and in the darkest moments of their lives, he was the one who was
there for them. And yeah, it's hard to even imagine the loss of little Emily, you know, as I said, just a couple of
days before her birthday. I mean, I think that's especially heartbreaking. And I think
I'll end this by, you know, saying again what Don Goldberg said, "A good man's name is his legacy." Nearly a decade
later, they're all remembered by those who knew and loved them. Yeah, that that was very very obvious.
Um it was it was a really good story, Natalie. Thank you, Ann Marie. >> [music] >> And to our listeners, if you like this
podcast, please rate and review on Apple Podcast or on Spotify.

Join "48 Hours" correspondents Anne-Marie Green and Natalie Morales as they discuss the murders of Dr. Henry Han, his wife and his young daughter. Investigators honed in on Pierre Haobsh, a business associate of Dr. Han's who prosecutors described as a conman.

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

The episode covers the investigation and trial of Pierre Houbrechts for the murders of the Hahn family in 2016.

Key points

The Hahn Family Murders. In March 2016, the bodies of Dr. Henry Hahn and his family were found.
Pierre Houbrechts: The Con Man. Pierre, a former associate of Dr. Hahn, was described as a 'lying liar who lies.'
The Perpetual Energy Machine. Pierre duped investors with a fictional energy machine, leading to his downfall.
Digital Footprints. Investigators traced Pierre's digital evidence, leading to his arrest.
Pierre's Confession. Pierre confessed to his friend about the murders shortly after they occurred.
Legacy and Remembrance. A discussion on how a person's name and actions shape their legacy over time.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Gosh, you were able to endear yourself to many, many people.

Discussing Pierre's charm and manipulation skills.

2:52WatchNov 15, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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