When investigators entered the McLean, Virginia homeof millionaire mom Pam Hargan, they found the our bodies of Pam and her youngest daughter Helen, who was discovered with a rifle. Hours later, police instructed the household her wound appeared self-inflicted. Did Helen shoot her mother after which take her personal life? The crime scene urged to some that she may have pulled the set off along with her toe. And her older sister, Megan, instructed investigators Helen had been struggling emotionally. How did Pam and Helen Hargan die? And why?
WHO ARE THE HARGANS?
On Friday, July 14, 2017, at about 5 p.m., Fairfax County Virginia Police go to the following of kin to ship terrible information: 63-year-old Pam Hargan and 24-year-old Helen Hargan are useless.
Det. Brian Byerson: Pamela was shot twice — within the mudroom.
Lead detective Brian Byerson says police are recording and whispering to keep away from being overheard, once they give Pam's ex-husband, Steve, extra painful particulars about Helen.
OFFICER: She had a gunshot wound that seems to be self-inflicted … I am actually sorry.
Det. Brian Byerson: There was a thought that went round that it might need been a murder-suicide.
Hargan quickly summons his different two daughters: 32-year-old Ashley and 34-year-old Megan.
MEGAN HARGAN (to her father): What is occurring? What's? … What occurred?
They react with equal elements ache and panic.
MEGAN HARGAN (to her father): Oh God, what are we gonna do? Jesus, what are we gonna do? I do not know. ...
ASHLEY: Our mother took care of every thing! …
MEGAN HARGAN: I simply do not even perceive. We have been on the freaking home!
Megan Hargan tells authorities she and her 8-year-old daughter, Molly, have been residing with Pam and Helen whereas her husband is within the navy. She says she'd left the house with Molly at about 1:30 p.m. that day, including that there'd been an argument between her mom and Helen, who had been upset.
MEGAN HARGAN (to police): Helen has been so offended, like, simply so offended on a regular basis.
And struggling emotionally.
MEGAN HARGAN: I knew that Helen was depressed, however, like, to do that … I can not wrap my head round this.
Peter Van Sant: Is it true that she as soon as threatened suicide?
Det. Brian Byerson: I feel that's probably true, sure.
In reality, sister Ashley would later inform authorities Helen had ideas about self-harm.
ASHLEY: I do know my sister was depressed.
POLICE: Proper. … Has she ever talked about hurting herself?
ASHLEY: Yeah.
However Megan additionally suggests her mom and sister may have been attacked, by providing a doubtlessly necessary clue — one thing she reviews she'd seen the day earlier than.
Det. Brian Byerson: Two suspicious males … casing the neighborhood … And … she later tells us … these explicit guys are the rationale why she finally ends up bringing this rifle as much as the principle flooring of the home.
It is the .22 Ruger rifle discovered with Helen's physique, and it belongs to Megan's husband. She says her mom had allowed her to retailer it in the home till the couple moved into their very own place in West Virginia.
MEGAN HARGAN (to police): My husband and I actually simply closed on our new dwelling yesterday. My mother purchased it for us.
Steve and Pam Hargan divorced when the kids have been younger. Pam took them and moved round, earlier than ending up in Potomac, Maryland — subsequent door to Tami Mallios.
Tami Mallios: Megan was very upset concerning the divorce.
Within the subsequent few years, Mallios received to know Megan and her little sister Helen, and infrequently noticed them throughout the yard fence.
Tami Mallios: The ladies have been out within the yard on a regular basis with the canines, that sorta factor, so.
Mallios says she at all times knew there was sibling rivalry.
Tami Mallios: Megan did deliver that up rather a lot … saying that Helen was the favourite.
However she remembers that for probably the most half, the Hargan sisters appeared to get alongside advantageous. Pam was pleased with them.
Tami Mallios: She talked extremely of her ladies each time I did communicate along with her.
Michelle Sigona works for CBS Information. She's been masking this story for practically 4 years and says the opposite love of Pam Hargan's life was her job. Pam had spent many years climbing the profession ladder to develop into a vp of aerospace big, Lockheed Martin.
Michelle Sigona: Pam Hargan … poured her life into these children … She had constructed an $8 million property. … However she did not preserve it for herself. She was always giving to these round her, particularly to her kids …
Helen appeared to have her mom's ambition — double majoring in math and administration science at Southern Methodist College in Dallas. That is the place Erin Roughneen met her in 2014.
Erin Roughneen: After I first met her, I used to be extraordinarily terrified of her, as a result of … she did not chuckle or smile … She's sort of like an onion … You need to peel the layers off. And you actually get to know the type and real individual beneath there.
Roughneen says they grew to become shut buddies.
Peter Van Sant: It has been mentioned that Helen could have suffered from despair. Did you ever see any of that?
Erin Roughneen: I didn't in any respect.
Roughneen says her good friend spent lots of time finding out. Although Helen did have a job at a close-by restaurant.
Michelle Sigona: She was … working as a waitress.
There was a 30-something named Carlos Gutierrez working within the restaurant too. They fell for one another in brief order.
Michelle Sigona: And so they had plans to maneuver in collectively.
Pam had began constructing a home for Helen in Northern Virginia. So, within the spring of 2017, Helen had moved again dwelling from Dallas.
Michelle Sigona: In keeping with Carlos … he hadn't requested her to be his spouse, however he was working in direction of that.
However Megan tells police, Pam hadn't permitted of Helen's relationship.
MEGAN HARGAN (to police): She … believed that Helen was going to attempt to transfer Carlos into the home and my mother did not need him being there.
Nonetheless, Helen had been shifting forward … planning for the longer term.
Michelle Sigona: It was only a matter of determining her profession path. It takes a short while to determine it out, however she was going to get there.
However Helen Hargan by no means received there.
911 DISPATCHER: Fairfax County Police and Hearth. How could I help you?
CARLOS GUTIERREZ: Sure, I've an emergency.
On the day of the taking pictures, it was Carlos Gutierrez who had first alerted authorities that one thing within the Hargan home was dreadfully improper.
CARLOS GUTIERREZ to 911: I am in Dallas, Texas and my girlfriend lives in McLean.
He says he and Helen had spoken earlier that morning. Now, he cannot get in contact along with her and he is anxious.
CARLOS GUTIERREZ: My girlfriend will not reply the telephone … and I am considering my girlfriend's life is at risk.
911 DISPATCHER: OK, sir. What I want you to do then is contact your native jurisdiction, file a report with them, and inform them that Fairfax County requires a teletype as a way to do a welfare verify.
Det. Brian Byerson: I really feel actually unhealthy for Carlos, as a result of … he is bounced round in every single place simply attempting to get somebody to hearken to the truth that he thinks … his girlfriend's life is at risk.
CARLOS GUTIERREZ: I feel that is, like, life or loss of life, like, I feel somebody could be useless.
Carlos Gutierrez would later testify about why he was so involved. He would additionally inform a jury, he felt authorities have been giving him the runaround that day — even when he referred to as again later with one thing explosive so as to add; one thing Helen had instructed him.
A FATAL DISCOVERY
It is 1:44 p.m. on July 14, 2017. Carlos Gutierrez, Helen's boyfriend in Texas, is having a tough time with 911 dispatchers in Virginia.
911 DISPATCHER: Fairfax County Police and Hearth. How could I help you?CARLOS GUTIERREZ: Sure, I've an emergency.
CARLOS GUTIERREZ: Like, I feel somebody could be useless.
911 DISPATCHER: Proper, sir. Contact your native jurisdiction, file the report …
The decision ends with out a promise of assist. So, quarter-hour later, Gutierrez calls once more.
And this time, he makes a startling revelation about one thing he says Helen had instructed him on the telephone that morning.
911 DISPATCHER: Fairfax County Police and Hearth. How could I help you? …
CARLOS GUTIERREZ: My girlfriend instructed me that her sister killed her mother. … Now, my girlfriend will not reply her telephone.
Megan Hargan had murdered her mom, or no less than that is what Carlos mentioned Helen had instructed him.
911 DISPATCHER: OK. Properly, this was out of the blue? … Your girlfriend is sitting in a home with a useless girl?
CARLOS GUTIERREZ: Sure.
Why was Gutierrez — who was greater than a thousand miles away — calling 911? Why did not Helen name herself? What was happening in that home?
CARLOS GUTIERREZ: I reported a homicide earlier and I did not have the handle. Now, I've the handle.
When police arrive round 3 p.m., they discover Pam is useless. However they uncover Helen's physique, too. Gutierrez had provided authorities a potential rationalization for Pam. However Helen was a thriller. Megan Hargan instructed police one thing fascinating: her mom and sister had been arguing that day.
MEGAN HARGAN (to police): This morning, my mother let Helen know that she was canceling the contract on the home she's constructing her, as a result of she actually believed that Helen was gonna attempt to transfer Carlos into the home.
And when center sister, Ashley, hears that Gutierrez is accusing Megan of homicide, she makes it clear she does not imagine him.
ASHLEY: She would by no means do this ever. By no means. OK?
Megan Hargan's good friend, Rebecca Wolfe, agrees.
Rebecca Wolfe: I don't imagine that Megan killed her mother, Pam, or her sister, Helen. No piece of me believes that.
Wolfe and Megan met in 2015 once they each have been volunteering in a program to search out houses for canines rescued from warfare zones. Wolfe says that Megan at all times had a ardour for animals.
Rebecca Wolfe: She may be very compassionate. Beneficiant coronary heart. … She is only a actually good individual.
And Wolfe says Megan usually talked about her household: her beneficiant mom —
Rebecca Wolfe: Megan admired Pam's knowledge, her profession … She at all times spoke very lovingly of her.
— and her sisters, particularly the infant of the household, Helen.
Rebecca Wolfe: Megan talked about Helen combating issues and feeling depressed. However I by no means received the impression that it was insurmountable.
Wolfe says that Megan referred to as her on the day of the taking pictures and appeared like a girl who'd misplaced every thing.
Rebecca Wolfe: Very distraught … And she or he didn't give me particulars of what had occurred. She simply mentioned, "We have misplaced Mother and Helen."
By 8 p.m., police had instructed the media what they'd instructed the Hargan household: this appeared like a murder-suicide.
However, Det. Byerson says the extra he noticed of the crime scene, the much less he thought so and the extra he wished to take a more in-depth take a look at Megan Hargan. That evening, he had officers check her palms for gunshot residue and photograph her.
Peter Van Sant: Does she develop into an individual of curiosity at that second?
Det. Brian Byerson: She's definitely an individual of curiosity, as a result of we all know that she was in the home.
Police knew the home most likely held solutions. Crime Scene Detective Julia Elliott, who had joined Det. Byerson on the scene, spent the night combing for proof.
Det. Julia Elliott: I used to be proven Pamela's physique first.
One factor that caught her consideration was Pam Hargan's cellphone.
Det. Julia Elliott: It is mendacity on high of the pool of blood and the blanket.
Peter Van Sant: Was it uncommon to see the cellphone in this type of place?
Det. Julia Elliott: Sure. … It definitely would not fall on high of the blanket and on high of the blood when you have been already lined up.
Peter Van Sant: And what does it counsel that the cellphone is mendacity on high of this comforter?
Det. Julia Elliott: That means to me that it was positioned there by somebody.
Elliott says the Helen Hargan taking pictures scene was subsequent.
Det. Julia Elliott: She had lots of blood on her face.
A lot blood that it was unattainable to see an entry wound and there was extra on the ground. However there was an absence of blood the place investigators anticipated to see it.
Det. Julia Elliott: The rifle itself had little or no blood on it.
The rifle was leaning towards Helen's physique, the butt was on the ground between her legs, the barrel was pointed up in direction of the ceiling.
Det. Julia Elliott: You'll count on that if the rifle had been sitting there as she bled so closely, it might even have blood on it.
Peter Van Sant: And was there something on this gun from Megan?
Det. Julia Elliott: No.
Peter Van Sant: What about fingerprints on this rifle?
Det. Julia Elliott: None … that have been usable.
There was DNA discovered on the set off, nevertheless it wasn't Megan or Helen's.
Peter Van Sant: Is it true that Helen's DNA was discovered on the rifle case.
Det. Brian Byerson: Sure, that's true.
However Byerson says solely on the tip of the case. Megan's DNA was on the case handles. It is a part of the rationale police imagine Helen Hargan by no means touched the gun that day.
Det. Julia Elliott: As she died, another person was there to put it on her.
She says Helen's telephone was telling as effectively: there was virtually no blood on it. And though Helen had used it that day to speak and textual content with Carlos Gutierrez, there have been no fingerprints both.
Det. Julia Elliott (in lab) What we discovered was what appeared like swipe marks, as if somebody had taken their hand and wiped off the entrance of the display.
Although it might take time to be taught precisely how the Hargan ladies died. Within the basement, Det. Elliott noticed a direct alternative to learn the way they'd lived.
Det. Julia Elliott: I received slightly, uh, nosy. And I wished to see what my victims could have appeared like in life … So, I pulled out one of many middle photograph albums to have a look at it and open it up.
Tucked away in that album of household pictures was one thing that appeared misplaced: Paperwork, Megan's financial institution assertion — Pam's too, and a spreadsheet filled with passwords and safety verification particulars to unlock all of Pam Hargan's accounts.
Peter Van Sant: Properly, that is fascinating. Have been you in a position to analyze the paper?
Det. Julia Elliott: So, on the time of us finding that, monetary paperwork weren't on our search warrant.
So, Det. Elliott photographed the paperwork and left them in the home. However when she entered with the right search warrant days later…
Det. Julia Elliott: They weren't there.
Peter Van Sant: They weren't there.
Det. Julia Elliott: They weren't.
The home had been returned to the Hargan household's custody the day after the taking pictures. And one thing else had occurred that day: The health worker delivered her report on Helen Hargan's post-mortem, casting doubt on the murder-suicide concept.
WHO PULLED THE TRIGGER?
A police spokesman was calling the Hargan shootings a murder-suicide, however the subsequent day when Det. Brian Byerson noticed Helen's post-mortem report, he was sure it was one thing else.
Det. Brian Byerson: The gunshot wound on Helen Hargan was within the high of her head.
The rifle bullet had traveled downward into her neck.
Det. Brian Byerson: She must maintain it straight up and be capable of attain the set off to perform this. I've by no means seen that earlier than, and I've labored a lotta murders.
Peter Van Sant: Properly, what does that inform you … if you be taught that data?
Det. Brian Byerson: It tells us that another person pulled the set off.
As Det. Byerson arrived to work two days afterward Monday, July 17, there was a clue ready for him — a clue that Byerson was in a position to take all the way in which to the financial institution.
Det. Brian Byerson: That Monday morning … I've a message on my desk telephone from Capital One.
The financial institution had some startling information. Financial institution staff had seen reviews of Pam Hargan's loss of life and wished him to learn about some unusual exercise on her account.
CAPITAL ONE BANK (telephone name): Might you inform me your title, please?
CALLER: Pamela Hansen Hargan.
Somebody claiming to be Pam Hargan had referred to as the financial institution the day earlier than the taking pictures with a request.
CAPITAL ONE BANK: What can I do for you right now?
CALLER: I used to be … instructed that I may do a wire switch.
Whoever it was was attempting to switch cash — greater than $400,000 — out of Pam's account, to an actual property settlement firm in West Virginia.
CAPITAL ONE BANK: Oh, you are going to purchase a home?
CALLER: Uh, for my daughter. Sure.
The caller was in a position to efficiently reply Pam's safety questions.
CAPITAL ONE BANK: All proper. … You aced the verification. Nice job.
Det. Byerson found that the transaction hadn't gone by, so the caller had tried once more the following day — on the morning of Pam's homicide.
CALLER: Uh, sure. We tried to yesterday and there was a little bit of a mix-up. So, we wish to do it once more now.
CAPITAL ONE BANK: OK. …
CALLER: They want it right now.
Peter Van Sant: Any individual's attempting to maybe steal Pam's cash.
Det. Brian Byerson: Sure.
And Byerson believed he knew who that "someone" was.
Det. Brian Byerson: That's Megan Hargan, pretending to be her mom.
Peter Van Sant: Pretending.
Det. Brian Byerson: Pretending.
He determined it was time for him to get Megan Hargan on the telephone.
DET. BYERSON: Megan. How are you holdin' up?
MEGAN: I'm actually not OK.
Megan claimed the tried wire transfers have been simply an harmless mix-up on the financial institution. However by now, Byerson was suspicious of every thing she mentioned. He started to suppose Megan Hargan had been attempting to confuse police all alongside.
MEGAN HARGAN: I notice there is a lotta confusion right here.
Megan had burdened Helen's despair and anger points with investigators.
MEGAN HARGAN: Helen has been so offended, like, simply so offended on a regular basis over every thing.
However Megan instructed Byerson her sister by no means would have killed herself or her mother.
MEGAN HARGAN: I can not think about my very own child sister doing that in any respect.
She repeated her story about two unusual males within the neighborhood.
MEGAN HARGAN: I needed to name the police about — these two guys. … Different individuals had referred to as them, apparently.
However Byerson says that tip went nowhere.
Det. Brian Byerson: The one name that is made about these guys within the neighborhood is from Megan Hargan.
He had run down each lead, each various concept. There have been no different suspects. However there was a motive: the cash. And the one who had wanted it, could not cease speaking.
Det. Brian Byerson: She demanded to return in— and get an replace on the case.
So, on July 19 — 5 days after Pam and Helen's deaths — Det. Byerson introduced Megan in.
MEGAN HARGAN: My mother…
He says that after Megan began —
MEGAN HARGAN: Simply unimaginable.
— she would not cease.
MEGAN HARGAN: All the things. I may ask her for something.
Det. Brian Byerson: We simply cannot get her to depart!
MEGAN HARGAN: That is you.
She stayed for greater than 4 hours.
MEGAN HARGAN: Lengthy story quick, the purpose I am making ...
Det. Brian Byerson: We might ask her questions that we knew the reply to and … she would both pivot to one thing else or simply outright not reply the query.
MEGAN HARGAN: I do not know what you need me to say.
DETECTIVE NEEDELS: We wish you to inform the reality. The reality.
DETECTIVE BRIAN BYERSON: Oh, I simply need you to reply the query.
At first, Megan insisted it was her mother who had made these calls to the financial institution.
DET. BRIAN BYERSON: I am gonna play the decision for you.
However when Byerson performed the tapes for her …
DET. BRIAN BYERSON: Who — is that on the telephone?
MEGAN HARGAN: It's me.
DET. BRIAN BYERSON: It is you, proper?
Detective Byerson says she lastly admitted to mendacity to him concerning the wire switch.
DET. BRIAN BYERSON: 06:23:55;00 Why on this planet would you do this?
MEGAN HARGAN: (whispers) 'Trigger I knew how it might look.
DET. BRIAN BYERSON: No, no. It is not how it might look. You knew that if we knew about this, that will shine an entire new mild on you.
Nonetheless, she was adamant that she hadn't shot anybody. So, it was actually weird, when midway into the interview —
MEGAN HARGAN: Simply blame me.
DET. BYERSON: Simply reply the questions and clarify it —
MEGAN HARGAN: Simply blame me, simply blame me, simply blame me. … My household's been by sufficient. … Simply blame me to allow them to transfer on from this, OK?
Det. Brian Byerson: It appeared like she was acknowledging that we knew that she did it … with out … overtly giving us an in depth confession.
MEGAN HARGAN: This isn't taking place.
Although inadmissible in court docket, she readily agreed to take a polygraph.
Det. Brian Byerson: She … failed … thrice.
Byerson says it was all including up — he was sitting throughout from a killer.
Det. Brian Byerson: It turns into very apparent to us … it's precisely who we predict it's and it is Megan Hargan.
However regardless of every thing, police let Megan go away that day.
Det. Brian Byerson: So, homicide investigations may be extraordinarily complicated. … You not solely have to make certain, it's important to be proper. And that call will not be — doesn't simply relaxation on me. … I've to be on the identical web page because the Commonwealth Lawyer's Workplace. … So, in session with them, we determined to attend.
Regulation enforcement could not have moved, however Megan Hargan did. Although she by no means received Pam's cash, she and her husband used a VA mortgage to purchase a special home in West Virginia.
Det. Brian Byerson: We saved a watch on her. We knew the place she was.
Byerson methodically saved constructing his case. Proof saved trickling in, together with the outcomes of Megan's gunshot residue check, which confirmed she had it on each palms. And on November 9, 2018, virtually a year-and-a-half after the deaths of Pam and Helen Hargan —
POLICE PRESS CONFERENCE: This morning, at roughly 7:40 a.m., detectives from our Main Crimes Bureau … stopped and arrested Megan Hargan close to her dwelling in West Virginia…
As Det. Byerson takes Megan Hargan in, investigators search her dwelling and discover one more necessary clue: that lacking password sheet to Pam Hargan's accounts.
Peter Van Sant: Do you might have any doubt … that Megan … was the one who pulled that set off?
Det. Brian Byerson: I've little question in any respect.
Matt Troiano: What the protection would say is that there's doubt throughout this case.
Megan Hargan's protection will embody a selected concept of how Helen may have killed herself.
Matt Troiano: She places her head down after which she's in a position to make the most of the set off … most likely along with her toe to have the ability to … discharge the weapon.
However will the jury agree?
Matt Troiano: Even the consultants mentioned it is potential.
THE "TOE ON THE TRIGGER" DEFENSE
Greater than three years after her arrest for the murders of her mom and sister, Megan Hargan is occurring trial.
Prosecutor Whitney Gregory: I feel she's pure evil.
Whitney Gregory and Tyler Bezilla are prosecuting the case.
Prosecutor Tyler Bezilla: Megan is a pathological liar. … That is what she is.
The Commonwealth of Virginia opens by arguing Megan tried to steal greater than $400,000 from Pam for a brand new home and received so determined for the money that she killed her. Then, she killed Helen to maintain her quiet and staged the scene as a murder-suicide.
Tyler Bezilla: That is a person who murdered two of her closest relations for cash.
The protection argues Helen was the killer— mentally unstable and livid at her mom, who had provided her a brand new home, however, the morning of the taking pictures, introduced there was one devastating situation: Helen needed to break up with the person she had hoped to marry — Carlos Gutierrez.
Peter Van Sant: What's your biggest problem with this jury?
Whitney Gregory: Proving it wasn't a suicide.
To do this, they start by calling Carlos Gutierrez and Helen's sister, Ashley, who testify that on the day she died, Helen appeared "regular" and "advantageous."
Peter Van Sant: Did Helen have a analysis of despair?
Tyler Bezilla: No.
And she or he did not take her personal life, says Det. Julia Elliott.
Det. Julia Elliott: It is a murder.
Detective Elliott tells the jury concerning the bloodstains and place of the rifle.
Det. Julia Elliott: She didn't have … an arm span lengthy sufficient to drag the set off.
Iris Graff: Her fingers aren't reaching the set off.
Crime scene reconstructionist Iris Graff agrees.
Peter Van Sant: What's on the display?
Iris Dalley Graff: OK. This can be a forensic animation … a digital mannequin.
Prosecutors employed Graff to make use of pictures and measurements from the home to create a digital mannequin.
Peter Van Sant: She will be able to't attain that set off?
Iris Dalley Graff: Proper. … We nonetheless want one other 5 inches.
Peter Van Sant: So, primarily based in your scientific evaluation, was the wound that killed Helen self-inflicted?
Iris Dalley Graff: Throughout the context of this scene, it isn't potential that she will self-inflict that wound.
Gregory says that is simply frequent sense.
Whitney Gregory: (pointing on the high of her head) Did the tooth fairy put the gun gap right here?
Helen's wound is not the one proof pointing at Megan. Megan's conduct in her police interview is damning too, and so are these telephone calls to the financial institution.
CAPITAL ONE BANK: Thanks for calling Capital One Financial institution … Might you inform me your title, please?
MEGAN HARGAN as PAM HARGAN: Pamela Hansen Hargan.
CAPITAL ONE BANK: I perceive you wanna full a wire switch with us right now?
MEGAN HARGAN as PAM HARGAN: Uh, sure. …
CAPITAL ONE BANK: That wire –
MEGAN HARGAN as PAM HARGAN: They want it right now.
Tyler Bezilla: Megan's panicking, as a result of she nonetheless owes that cash on the home.
Prosecutors reveal Megan lied to police about Pam shopping for her a home, saying the fact is that Megan was attempting to purchase that West Virginia property along with her mom's cash. Seems, Megan nonetheless owed greater than $400,000 — due the day of the taking pictures. The prosecution contends she'd secretly substituted her title onto Pam's financial institution assertion as proof of funds.
Pam was apparently completely at midnight till the day earlier than the taking pictures when the financial institution referred to as the actual Pam.
CAPITAL ONE BANK: Hello. Who am I chatting with?
PAM HARGAN: Who am I chatting with?
CAPITAL ONE BANK: My title is Jeff with Capital One.
PAM HARGAN: OK, that is Pamela Hansen Hargan.
A financial institution officer had referred to as her to authenticate the tried wire switch.
CAPITAL ONE BANK: Any individual tried to do a wire out of your account for 400-and-some-odd-thousand-dollars.
PAM HARGAN: What? … I didn't do this!
Matt Troiano: The protection would say … that there's doubt throughout this case.
Matt Troiano is an lawyer with many years in court docket. He did not do that case, however as a result of the protection declined to be interviewed "48 Hours" employed him to assessment the file. To assist show affordable doubt, he says the protection contends Helen was the suspicious one which day.
Matt Troiano: Helen … does not name 911. She … does not run out of the home for security. She … tells her boyfriend, "Don't name for assist."
Peter Van Sant: Why did not Helen name 911?
Det. Brian Byerson: That is without doubt one of the items to the puzzle that we'll by no means have. That is a query that got here up in the course of the trial. Why did not she simply go away? Why did not she name 911? We do not know.
There's rather a lot authorities could by no means know for certain concerning the roughly two hours they are saying lapsed between Pam's and Helen's deaths. If Megan killed Pam, why did she wait so lengthy to kill Helen? And why on earth hadn't Helen made a run for it? Testimony suggests she was anxious about 8-year-old Molly, who was dwelling on the time. Not a ok rationalization, says Troiano.
Matt Troiano: For hours, Peter! … She allowed what's claimed to be a assassin run unfastened in a house with a rifle with out looking for assist … with out barricading her right into a room.
He says Helen's physique confirmed no definitive indicators of a life-and-death battle.
Matt Troiano: Why would not she have fought again?
And the way credible are the witnesses towards Megan Hargan? Troiano says the protection desires the jury to imagine one will not be credible in any respect — her sister, Ashley.
Matt Troiano: Her story has modified …
When she'd spoken to investigators quickly after the taking pictures, Ashley instructed them Helen had as soon as been in emotional turmoil.
ASHLEY: I do know my sister was depressed.
POLICE: Proper. … Has she ever talked about hurting herself?
ASHLEY: Yeah.
However as soon as on the stand, Ashley testified she does not keep in mind ever saying that.
Matt Troiano: She says 150 occasions thereabouts that she does not keep in mind sure issues. There's two methods to have a look at that. Primary is that she does not keep in mind. Proper? Quantity two is that she does not need to say issues that aren't useful for the prosecution.
Peter Van Sant: Ashley testified — that she could not recall greater than 150 occasions … why was that?
Det. Brian Byerson: Anytime you are coping with a sufferer of trauma … there are at all times going to be elements — that she … cannot recall.
Regardless of the jury thinks of Ashley, the protection desires to clarify to them how Helen may have pulled the set off on that rifle. And so they have a concept: along with her toe.
Matt Troiano: She places her head down … after which she's in a position to — make the most of the set off, most likely with … her toe, to have the ability to discharge the weapon.
Peter Van Sant: Her toe?
Matt Troiano: She's gotta determine a way. And the — the crucial query is: "Might it have been carried out?"
Even the prosecution's skilled witness concedes, whereas not possible, it's potential.
Peter Van Sant: Can her toe attain the set off?
Iris Graff: Sure, her legs are lengthy sufficient that her toe may attain the set off.
Both means, the choose thinks Iris Graff's digital reconstruction is not mandatory, so he prevents the jury from seeing it. And although Megan Hargan by no means testifies —
Tyler Bezilla: Each shred of proof exhibits that Megan Hargan was the one who dedicated these murders.
In closings, prosecutor Bezilla argues there isn't any proof Pam Hargan was truly going to cancel the contract on Helen's new home. And he urges the jury to match Helen's habits across the time of the taking pictures to Megan's. He says Megan's actions communicate for themselves.
Tyler Bezilla: She's doing all these items that a assassin would do.
However the protection insists there's affordable doubt on this case. They argue the prosecutors' forensics are inconclusive, and the "toe on the set off" concept can't be dominated out.
Matt Troiano: It is potential. And if it is potential, that then lends itself to doubt.
Rebecca Wolfe: Megan Hargan is harmless.
Megan's good friend Rebecca Wolfe spent about 5 years working for the Justice Division. She is aware of her means round a felony trial and has been at this one virtually every single day.
Rebecca Wolfe: I'd not be comfy sending somebody to jail for the remainder of their life with out figuring out … past a shadow of a doubt in my thoughts that they did it.
On March 24, 2022, virtually 5 years after the shootings, the jury will get the case.
Peter Van Sant: Primarily based in your assessment of this case, because the jury is heading into deliberation, may this go both means?
Matt Troiano: Positive.
IMMEASURABLE GRIEF
Peter Van Sant: Because the jurors come again into the room, they've a choice, are you their faces?
Prosecutor Tyler Bezilla: Sure.
After a three-week trial, it takes the jury lower than two days of deliberations to achieve a verdict.
Tyler Bezilla: I assumed my legs have been gonna go weak 'trigger we have been standing up, and it had been simply, like — months of our lives that that is all we had carried out.
Megan Hargan is responsible: two counts of first-degree homicide for killing her sister Helen and mom Pam.
Peter Van Sant: How did Megan react to the decision?
Whitney Gregory: Least for me as a prosecutor, I do not wanna look over at that desk. I feel it isn't very stylish. I am simply form of within the zone, attempting to not cross out.
Det. Brian Byerson: I feel weight lifted off of everyone.
Tyler Bezilla: It was a really emotional second.
The jury recommends a sentence to the choose of life in jail on every homicide depend. He'll rule on that this fall.
Rebecca Wolfe: I assumed for certain that I'd be gettin' a telephone name and comin' to select her up, 100%.
Megan's good friend Rebecca Wolfe thinks this jury was short-sighted.
Rebeccca Wolfe: I assumed … they have been gonna see by all of this, they have been gonna take a look at all of the proof, they have been gonna ask the correct questions. They have been gonna do their job!
Det. Brian Byerson: This job is tough ...
Det. Byerson thinks there are elements of authorities' conduct on this case that he would have modified if he may: how 911 dispatchers responded to Carlos Gutierrez and the way rapidly the Fairfax County Police Division went public with the murder-suicide concept.
Det. Brian Byerson: I do not discover it useful to kinda make a blanket assertion about what we predict it's 'trigger it does not matter what we predict it's. It — it solely issues what it seems to be.
Peter Van Sant: Was justice served on this case?
Matt Troiano: Will depend on what justice is. Proper? You are by no means bringing again the 2 lives that have been misplaced.
Det. Brian Byerson: The domino impact of tragedy from what occurred is immeasurable …
Although the trial is lastly completed, waves of grief nonetheless wash over the surviving Hargan household.
Det. Brian Byerson: It is simply immeasurable grief.
And ripples nonetheless reverberate within the lives of individuals they touched. Like Pam's former neighbor, Tami Mallios.
Tami Mallios: I used to be simply … devastated. I imply simply … I did not have any phrases. It was unbelievable.
And Helen's good friend Erin, who had moved overseas after commencement and needed to hear about her loss of life from "48 Hours."
Erin Roughneen: I used to be in shock. I had no concept that occurred to her.
Peter Van Sant: You are satisfied … if Helen have been alive right now, she'd be on the street to some nice success, some nice profession?
Erin Roughneen: Completely. She'd be a trailblazer.
Peter Van Sant: How would you need your good friend, Helen, to be remembered?
Erin Roughneen: For being type and compassionate, pushed and caring … only a very caring individual.
Megan Hargan and her husband divorced. Their daughter Molly resides along with her father in one other state.
Megan Hargan is scheduled to be sentenced on October 28.
Produced by Josh Yager and Lauren A. White. Michelle Sigona and Sara Ely Hulse are the event producers. Jud Johnston, Grayce Arlotta-Berner and Diana Modica are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer