48 Hours - The Boyfriend | Blood is Thicker: The Hargan Family Killings | Part 2

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

On the day that Helen Hargan and her mother Pamela were found dead, Helen Hargan's boyfriend Carlos spent hours convincing 911 dispatchers to send help to the Hargan house. By the time police arrived, it was too late. Police were given two versions of the morning: one where Helen was scared for her life, and one where she was likely the killer. But Carlos' story, along with the weapon placement at the crime scene, would blow a hole in the theory that the Hargan killings were a murder-suicide.Get early, ad-free access to episodes of Blood is Thicker: The Hargan Family Killings by subscribing to 48 Hours Plus on Apple Podcasts or Wondery+ on the Wondery app. The series is widely available everywhere else you get your podcasts.Subscribe to 48 Hours+: https://apple.co/4aEgENoSubscribe to Wondery+: https://wondery.com/plus/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial, and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. A bizarre and maddening tale involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense. A sister testifying against a brother. A lack of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove,

the troubled case against Crosley Green, ad-free on Amazon Music. This episode contains graphic audio and references to family violence. Please listen with care. Fairfax County Police and Fire, how may I assist you? Yes, I have an emergency. More than a thousand miles from where he believes a crime is unfolding,

Carlos Gutierrez is desperately trying to save his girlfriend's life. This was back in the summer of 2017. Hello? Are you there? Yes, I'm here. These calls are from emergency services in northern Virginia. That's where the love of his life, Helen Hargan, lives. I'm thinking my girlfriend's life is in danger. His girlfriend's life is in danger. His girlfriend's life is in danger, but Carlos feels like the 911 operator isn't taking him seriously.

Why aren't they responding with concern? Okay, sir, what I need you to do then is contact your local jurisdiction, file a report with them, and tell them that Fairfax County requires a teletype in order to do a welfare check. Okay, I think this is like life or death. Like, I think someone might be dead. Carlos is trying to make sure the operator understands the seriousness of the situation. But instead of quickly dispatching police, the 911 operator tells him to call someone else. Contact your local jurisdiction, file the report, have them send us a teletype, and then we will go and check on her.

Okay, how do I get a hold of my jurisdiction? How do I do that? Well, sir, if you don't have their non-emergency number, if you dial 911, you'll get your emergency center. Okay, thank you. Uh-huh, bye-bye. Center. Okay, thank you. Uh-huh, bye-bye. I would play this 911 call for Detective Brian Byerson of the Fairfax County Police. He told me this first operator no longer works at the call center. Yeah, this one is incontrovertibly horrible. We do not require a teletype number to report a possible homicide. That's completely ridiculous.

Carlos would call, speak to an operator, and then be told he needed to call someone else again and again. Listen closely, because this 911 tape is not exactly easy to understand. Is your girlfriend at home right now? Well, that's the thing. She won't answer her phone. According to Carlos, hours earlier, Helen had called him to say her mom might be dead.

And then she stopped answering her phone. She hadn't called 911. Carlos didn't hear from her, and now he was worried Helen was in danger. In a race against time, Carlos keeps calling the police. We're going to need you to call your local police department. They're still not there. I'm sorry? They're still not there. How are we supposed to get there? You didn't give us an address. Y'all can't look up the names, Pam Hargan and McClain? We looked up the names, Pam Hargan and McClain. We don't list individuals by name.

We don't record information that way. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm just having a hard time. Finally, more than an hour after his first 911 call, police tell Carlos that they're sending officers to Helen's home. Detective Brian Byerson didn't find out about Carlos' calls to 911 until after he walked through the Hargan house and saw the two bodies for himself. Ultimately, what Carlos had to say would blow a hole in the theory that this was a murder-suicide, and that meant a killer could still be on the loose. If true, you have a brutal, vicious killer in this community who could kill again. That is correct.

I'm Peter Van Sant. From 48 Hours, this is Blood is Thicker, The Hargan Family Killings, Episode 2, The Boyfriend. The Boyfriend Carlos Gutierrez is on the phone with a 911 supervisor out of Fairfax County, Virginia. Mr. Gutierrez? Yes, yes ma'am. Okay.

She asks him more about his relationship with Helen Hargan. How long have we known your girlfriend? For about a year. Carlos and Helen had been dating for a year. They first met in Dallas. They were working at a local restaurant together, and there were sparks. They hit it off. This is Michelle Sigona.

She's a producer for 48 Hours and has spent years following the case. There are cases we will spend months, years on, and then they will air. This is one of those that we spent an incredible amount of time prior to it airing. Carlos was in his early 30s when he met Helen. She was 23. He said that, you know, although maybe he wasn't technically formally living with her, per se, in Texas, he was at her house 24-7, so they were living together, essentially. Helen was attending Southern Methodist University and said on her resume that her goal was to work for a defense contractor, just as her mom Pamela had once done. According to Carlos, they fell in love and were inseparable.

It seemed like Carlos was planning to include Helen in his long-term future. The couple were planning to leave Dallas and build a new life together in Northern Virginia. He was so dedicated to Helen that Carlos was ready to leave his life in Texas and move to Virginia. As Carlos calls 911 the day of the tragedy, he tells the story of the life they had planned. He even mentions the house in Aldi, Virginia that Helen's mother was buying. He said they were serious, committed.

According to Carlos, he had big plans for their future. He was planning to propose to her at some point. After Helen made the move back east, the couple video chatted, texted, and called every day. He said the night before the shootings, they missed each other so much that they spent nearly four hours talking on the phone. That's a long time to talk to anyone. spent nearly four hours talking on the phone. That's a long time to talk to anyone. Ten days before Pamela and Helen's deaths, Carlos went to see Helen in Virginia. So according to court testimony, Carlos said he came to the area. He did not stay at Pam's house, that he and Helen stayed at a hotel nearby.

Carlos said he had no idea that Helen's family had any animosity toward him until after the shootings. But there were signs. None of Helen's family came out to meet him when he and Helen stopped by the house for blankets for a 4th of July outing. The blankets were put outside, but Carlos said he didn't think anything about it. Helen's oldest sister, Megan, would bring this up to police.

They were in the driveway when she came to get blankets for Fourth of July. And she said, Megan, wait, they're in the driveway. She's saying her mom told her not to go out and meet him. Pamela had bought Helen a house, but was now having second thoughts because Carlos might move in with her daughter. Here's Megan in a police recording taken hours after the shooting. This morning, my mom let Helen know that she was canceling the contract on the house she's building her because she truly believed that Helen was going to try to move Carlos into the house, and my mom didn't want him being there.

After that, she said Helen was furious her mother had changed her mind, but also said her kid sister was even mad at her. Why? Megan said she and her husband closed on a house of their own in West Virginia. So while Helen's dream was taken away, Megan was still getting hers. She got mad at me and thought the house was my fault. And then, you know, Mom was like, it has nothing to do with her. You know why, Helen. I can't trust you. And I'm not letting that Carlos move into that house.

Megan said that she was leaving to drive to West Virginia that morning. Before she left, she said the door to her mom's home office was closed. When I was leaving, like I said, I saw her office door closed, and that usually means she's on the phone, so I just left it be. She remembered how Helen was out on the front porch, very upset. I think it was this afternoon when I was leaving the house. And she was crying. And I went up to the porch and I said,

who are you on the phone with? And she was like, Carlos. And I was like, oh, are you okay? And she was like, and I said, and I said, are you, is everything okay? She was crying. Police had been given two versions of that deadly morning. One where Helen was scared for her life, and another where she was the likely killer.

But which one did the evidence support? In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon 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. This particular case, there were things about the scene itself that were concerning to us on day one. Detectives Brian Byerson and Julia Elliott, a forensics expert, looked over the two rooms where Helen and Pamela were shot.

Helen was found upstairs in her bathroom. Pamela in the mudroom, found on the floor under a quilt. Oddly, her phone was sitting on top of the quilt in a pool of blood. We know what that means. We know that it means that that phone was placed there sometime after she died. But this wasn't the only strange clue. Helen's cell phone was set on the bathroom counter near the sink and yet didn't have a spot of blood on it. And I want to find out who put that cell phone there in that particular place. So you want to check for fingerprints and DNA?

Yes. What do you find on this phone? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing on Helen's phone. She'd find the mother's phone was also clean. On the front, we will typically see fingerprints or at least smudges of fingerprints. On this one, we were able to see smears as if someone had wiped it from side to side.

The bathroom was in disarray with toiletries scattered on the floor. But Detective Elliott noticed that the rifle was neatly placed. Why hadn't it tumbled away when she shot herself? The rifle was still laying perfectly within her legs. That to me tells me that if she's moving enough to move things off of the back of the toilet, I would expect that gun to have fallen down to the floor. I also have seen suicides done with long guns where they are not able to retain control of the gun. But for detectives, the rifle's perfect placement wouldn't be the only red flag. You have a scene that's relatively small.

Detective Byerson told me that if Helen had killed herself in such a small bathroom, there'd likely be blood on the rifle. There is blood everywhere. It's all over the place. However, there doesn't seem to be any blood on the rifle itself, which is sitting in the middle of all of this, even though there's blood underneath. So that is a huge problem. To the detective, this just didn't make sense. We had a generally clean weapon, and then underneath the weapon, there was blood where there shouldn't have been, if the weapon was there. So that suggests perhaps someone else shot Helen.

It suggests that the weapon wasn't there until later on. Which doesn't sound like a murder-suicide to me then, right? It does not. And in the basement, another strange sight. Detective Elliott found couch cushions that looked like they'd been slashed with a knife. I wasn't sure if someone was taking out some anger or what they were doing. Was it a tear kind of cut or was it a puncture kind of cut? It was a stabbing puncture type cut. Like someone had, what, practiced on it?

Yes. And is it true that there was a long knife found in the house? Yes. The knife was in plain sight. She took a photo of it still down there in the basement. This is the knife, and it's sitting on a bookshelf was in plain sight. She took a photo of it still down there in the basement. This is the knife, and it's sitting on a bookshelf that was just to the left of the couch cushions in the same room. Detective Elliott believed the killer may have considered using the knife as a murder weapon instead of the rifle. And then, when Detective Elliott turned to look at Pamela Hargan's bookshelves, she spotted something else.

So that center set of books that are kind of gray with the red band, those are photo albums. And I got a little nosy and I wanted to see what my victims may have looked like in life or as they grew up. So I pulled out one of the center photo albums to look at it and open it up. And behind it was a piece of evidence that ended up being quite important. What was found? It was a photocopy of Pamela's spreadsheet that she used for all her accounts, account numbers, and passcodes. It was also a photocopy of Pamela's bank statement. This was still the night of the shootings. And while Detective Elliott wanted to dig in and learn more about this bank statement. Financial documents were not on our

search warrant. And so therefore I could not take it. We photographed it as we found it that night. And eventually a couple of days later, came back with a search warrant to recover those papers. And they were not there. They were not there? They were not. You found yourself a pretty interesting piece of evidence, right? Yes. At the time, we weren't exactly sure what we were dealing with. Detectives were becoming increasingly convinced that both the Hargan women had been murdered. But by who? And what was the motive? It would turn out that Helen's boyfriend, Carlos, had shared a theory with Ashley. Here's Detective John Vickery asking the father, Steve Hargan, about it.

Tell me again what Carlos says to you, to her. I'll tell you exactly what Ashley tells me that Carlos said to her, that Megan shot your mother. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases,

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I wanted to see if by chance you were awake. Call me when you do wake up. Love you. To Carlos, nothing out of the ordinary. Everything appeared to be okay. Our producer, Michelle Sigona, read through Carlos' court testimony about that morning. He was at home in Dallas and had slept in.

The two played phone tag until after 11 Eastern time. When Carlos finally caught her, Helen was beside herself. Later in the morning, Carlos says specifically that Helen sounded frightened and scared. He used words like, Helen was trembling. she was sobbing, she was very frantic.

She immediately told him why, and Carlos would tell 911. If I keep having police and fire, how may I assist you? My girlfriend told me that her sister killed her mom. And now my girlfriend won't answer herself. Carlos explained to the operator that Helen told him her sister Megan came upstairs to her room and said that she killed her mother Pamela. So if you let that sink in for a minute, she told me that her sister had killed her mother. I can't imagine being in Dallas, Texas while talking to my girlfriend on the phone who

was inside this home where something horrific has happened and not really knowing what to do. Carlos even said Helen told him she could hear her mother gasping for life. Things sounded dire. He was trying to get to the heart of what was happening in all of this. Carlos told Helen to leave immediately. He was trying to tell her to get out of the house, to call police, to do something. But Helen had hesitation. According to Carlos, Helen was very nervous and possibly scared for her niece, who apparently was also in the home. Helen wanted to protect her niece, Megan's daughter Molly, and that she was worried what her sister might do if the police showed up.

She didn't want her niece to see her mother getting arrested. Soon after, Helen stopped responding, and he called for help. But Carlos couldn't recall Pamela Hargan's address. Carlos thought his future wife's life was at risk. But this lack of details only left emergency services with more questions. They asked Carlos to call back when he had more information and kept having him speak to different operators, rehashing what Helen had told him. Finally, the public safety supervisor in Fairfax County, Virginia,

called Carlos herself. Her name is Lisa Wagoner-Smith. She wanted to know how this alleged murder had unfolded. Okay, was this just out of the blue? Did she say how she did it or why she did it? She said she shot her. She said she woke up and her sister told her she shot her mom. So your girlfriend is sitting in a house with a dead woman. The 911 supervisor sounded skeptical. Why would Helen stay put if her sister had killed their mom? Carlos would call back with the right information and reach a 911 operator. I reported a murder earlier and I didn't have the address,

so now I have the address. So you reported a murder earlier. Do you think something happened there? Well, I know for a fact that her sister shot her mom. When? This morning. That's what I'm trying to tell you guys. Yeah, this morning. She called me and told me that her sister shot her mom and she didn't know what to do. And I told her to call the cops, to get the kid, and to call the cops. The operator passed Carlos back to Lisa, the supervisor. With the address and some information confirmed, after multiple calls from Carlos, 911 was finally able to send help. We are sending an officer out there.

Is there anything else you can think of that we need to know? No, I mean, I'm just freaking out. I'm thinking something bad happened to my girlfriend. In case you didn't catch that, Carlos said he was freaking out and worried something had happened to Helen. Before they end the call, though, Carlos did think of something else officers needed to know. I have some incriminating text that her sister sent me. Carlos thought Megan was texting him, not his girlfriend.

What does that say? Because after the fact that Helen told me that her sister killed her mom, right? Mm-hmm. I called her, and she wouldn't answer, and so she texted me back, Helen did, and it was like, hey, sorry, I'm just arguing with my mom. She pisses me off. I f***ing hate her. And this is after the fact that Helen told me that her sister killed her mom, so I know that her sister got her phone and was sending me messages.

Here's what one of those texts said. Everything is fine. I'm not mad at Megan. I'm mad that my mom paid for her house. She and her husband should buy it themselves. Here is our producer, Michelle Sigona, again. Based on these text messages he was receiving, they were a huge red flag for Carlos. He just wanted Helen to call him, but all he got were texts, and that started to feel suspicious. I'm not even mad at her, really, the text continued, just effing hate my mom. Carlos didn't think that sounded like the woman he loved. He kept calling Helen's cell. Finally, he was able to reach someone, but it was not Helen. It was Megan on the other side of the phone.

Here's Carlos again. Yes, and now I called my girlfriend, and her sister answers the phone and refuses to let me talk to my girlfriend. But Carlos persisted. And he kept asking, I need to speak with Helen. I'm having a bad day. I need to speak with Helen. And he's just getting some conflicting information. Carlos doesn't back down.

He said he stayed on the phone, pushing Megan to give the phone to Helen for nearly 10 minutes. He believes at this point that she is not okay. On that long call, Carlos said Megan told him that her mother didn't approve of him and that she wasn't going to let them move into the new house in Aldi. Carlos claims that, you know, Pam had never said that to him or to Helen. The call ended without him ever speaking to his girlfriend. So none of this is making sense to him. This is why he decides to make a brave move and call 911. Carlos realized that he needed to be the one to call for help and would begin his agonizing journey to sound the alarm with emergency services.

My gosh, can you imagine? I mean, not knowing what's happening inside of that house and trying to call 911 and being told you have to go through all these steps. Megan told police she left the house around 1.30 that afternoon, headed for West Virginia, and then turned around to go to her dad's after she heard about the shooting. Ashley was racing to her dad's, too. Carlos had called her while she was in the car, but Ashley had trouble believing his story. Here is Detective Vickery asking Ashley about the call

after she arrived at her dad's. We heard you received a call from Carlos? Yes, and I don't even know this kid. Mr. Ranger off the street. He was saying that this sister shot my mom. By this sister, Ashley meant Megan, who was sitting right there with them. She would never do that, ever.

Never. Okay? Obviously, I've known her my entire life, and we've been through hell and back together. I know my sister. Ashley told the detective she's been calling her mom and sister. Megan chimed in to say she has two. I left whistles for mom. I was trying to talk. Carlos was saying Megan killed her mother, but in that moment, the sisters were dismissive of him. I don't f***ing know this guy from Adam.

That's what I've been saying. Ashley made it clear she didn't believe that Megan is a murderer. Do you recall his exact words? Megan shot your mom. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? They were together all morning. Like, just nothing's adding up. Nothing was adding up.

Ashley and her dad didn't seem scared of Megan. Police didn't arrest her. And that day, law enforcement told the public that the killer was dead. Patrol officers thought Helen had done it. But given how the crime scene didn't neatly fit a murder-suicide, and Carlos' 911 calls, Detective Byerson asked himself the question. Was Megan the killer? Did she murder both her mom and Helen that morning?

We have manipulated crime scene in multiple places, the wiped phone, the possibly wiped rifle, the placing of the rifle. We have the fact that mom was covered and that her phone was laying on placing of the rifle. We have the fact that mom was covered and that her phone was laying on top of the quilt. A couple days later, they would hear about a suspicious call. It becomes very obvious to us that there is no other, there is no boogeyman here. It is exactly who we think it is. boogeyman here. It is exactly who we think it is. From 48 Hours, this is Blood is Thicker, the Hargan family killings. Judy Tigard is the executive producer of 48 Hours.

Original reporting by 48 Hours producers Josh Yeager, Sarah Ely Hulse, Michelle Sigona, and Lauren White. Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount Audio, and Mara Walls is the senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan Pang and Marlon Polycarp. Special thanks to Paramount Podcast Vice President Megan Marcus and 48 Hours Senior Producer Peter Schweitzer. Blood is Thicker is produced by Sony Music Entertainment. It was written and produced by Alex Schumann. Our executive producers are Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch. Our associate producer is Zoe Culkin. Theme and original music

composed by Hansdale Shee. He also sound designed and mixed the episodes. We also use music by Blue Dot Sessions. Catherine Newhan is our fact checker. Our production managers are Tamika Balans-Kolasny and Samantha Allison. I'm Peter Van Sant. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to rate and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. For early and ad-free access to Blood is Thicker, subscribe to 48 Hours Plus on Apple Podcasts or Wondery Plus on the Wondery app.

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