48 Hours - Toe on the Trigger | Blood is Thicker: The Hargan Family Killings | Part 5

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

Detectives finally arrest a suspect in the Hargan family murders. But at trial, defense attorneys present a new theory for how the killings might have happened. According to one scenario based on a forensic specialist's digitally reconstructed crime scene, Helen could have reached the rifle trigger with her toe. And that theory might cast enough doubt to throw the entire case into question.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. 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. This episode contains graphic audio and references to self-harm and family violence. Please listen with care. I think that she is contemplating how to murder her family that night.

And she wants to do that for what purpose? The sole purpose of greed. Money. Of greed. Money. When Detective Brian Byerson first walked through the crime scene on Dean Drive in McLean, Virginia, he saw a macabre jigsaw puzzle. And he wasn't yet sure how the bloody pieces fit together. But now, nearly 16 months after the shootings, he was ready to make an arrest. Detective Byerson told me he believed Megan started plotting the murders after her first failed attempt to wire money from her mother's account.

And it may have all come down to, as strange as it may seem, her mother's cell phone. That's how petty this whole thing is. She knows that she has to have her mother's cell phone. That's how petty this whole thing is. She knows that she has to have her mother's cell phone because she has to answer that phone and she has to regurgitate a security number that they're going to give her on that cell phone. And in order for her to get that phone, she's going to have to kill her mom.

That petty. That petty. But what about Helen? What motivated Megan to also shoot her youngest sister? Perhaps it was to eliminate a witness, even if it was her own flesh and blood. I think Helen knew what happened. I mean, we'll never understand, I don't think, in any capacity why it is that Megan went upstairs and told her that she had shot their mother. I have no idea

why she did that. I can only assume that at some point after telling her that, she realized that was probably not a great idea and realized that the only way out for her was to stage this scene as if Helen had killed Pamela and then took her own life so she could just walk away and she'd get the money as she thought and then everybody would just blame Helen. Two lives, a sister, a mother, a family destroyed to buy a house. All for a house. In fact, when Megan finally went on trial in 2022, that's the story prosecutors planned to tell. The eldest of three daughters wanted her mother to buy her a house. When she didn't get her way, she chose to kill her mother, then kill and frame her youngest sister. It's just an immeasurable grief, tragedy all the

way around. Megan's defense team embraced the theory that Helen was most likely the murderer. They said there was a way she could have killed herself with that long rifle, using her foot. In fact, an expert for the prosecution had given Megan's lawyers an opening. It's possible for a person to use their toe to engage the trigger. That is certainly possible. And that claim would change the course of the trial. I'm Peter Van Sant. From 48 Hours, this is Blood is Thicker,

the Hargan family killings. Episode 5, Toe on the trigger. I've never seen a case like this. And how would you characterize it? Particularly deliberate, willful, and cruel. Tyler Bazilla served as lead prosecutor on Megan Hargan's case. This is an individual who murdered two of her closest family members for money and for no other reason. Bozilla and his co-counsel plan to tell the jury the story of a calculating killer.

I'm telling them the facts and showing them that we're going to demonstrate over the next several weeks that every shred of evidence shows that Megan Hargan was the one who committed these murders, and she did it for greed, and it's not Helen Hargan. Helen Hargan was an innocent 24-year-old girl having a normal day. The prosecution laid out how it believes Megan murdered Helen, then showed how it believes Megan tried to frame her sister as the killer. There was no evidence that Helen had done any of those things, and all the evidence was that Megan did. Remember, to make police think Helen was suicidal,

Megan had said Helen was depressed and under the spell of a bad boyfriend. She had also given officers a motive for murder, that Helen was angry with her mom for canceling a contract on a new house in Aldi,

Virginia. But prosecutors asserted that none of it was true. It was all just a smokescreen. There was no evidence that the house was being canceled. In fact, they had an appointment for two days later to go meet with the blinds guy. When you talk to the real estate agent, the real estate agent says, there's a whole process you have to go through to stop the purchase of a house. They had never once initiated that. Prosecutors also countered Megan's character attacks on Helen and her boyfriend, Carlos Gutierrez. There was no evidence of drugs whatsoever. There was no evidence that Carlos was bad to Helen. If anything, he seemed like a very loving guy. Carlos played a key role at the trial, testifying for the prosecution. He was very emotional. Even before he walked in the courtroom, he was emotional during his

entire testimony, especially when he had to talk about Helen. This is not something he has gotten over. I mean, this has stuck with him. While the court did not release audio, we have reviewed court transcripts, and 48 Hours producers attended some of the trial. Carlos was emphatic that Helen was not suicidal, not when he spoke to her the morning she died, not ever. She was not a person that was plotting a murder or thinking her life was ready to kill herself. She was not a person that was plotting a murder or thinking her life was ready to kill herself.

Carlos said that Helen was scared and that she told him Megan confessed the unthinkable, shooting the woman who gave her life and loving support in cold blood. He's an eyewitness without his eyes but through his ears, and he was sort of there through Helen's words. Whitney Gregory was co-counsel for the prosecution. She said that Carlos was genuinely heartbroken on the stand. The intangibles of him just crying, staring down Megan, it was, there's no way he was acting. And just that raw emotion showed that there's no way that Helen could have done this. Carlos' emotional testimony was followed by another compelling witness. After initially defending her sister Megan, Ashley Hargan agreed to testify against her for the prosecution.

She was the middle sister by birth and caught in the middle by this tragedy between two sisters she had always loved. Ashley presents herself very stoically. She's very strong, independent, but she's grieving in a way that none of us have ever experienced. And I think because she comes off so stoically, people may think she's not as upset as she really is. Adding to the stress of her testimony was the fact that Ashley was pregnant with her first child. When she testified, she was eight, almost nine months pregnant, and she kept her composure. With one exception. She got very teary-eyed when I showed her an autopsy photo of her mom and sister, but she's grieving like anyone would.

So for Ashley Hargan, one day she's having lunch with mom and her niece and getting Snapchats from her sister, and the next day her entire family is either murdered or suspected of murder. I mean, she lost everything in a day. At trial, Ashley strongly defended her sister Helen. But as you'll recall, back when she was initially interviewed by Detective Brian Byerson, Ashley suggested Helen might have been the killer.

Prosecutors said that Ashley had been in shock and was simply parroting what she had been told by her big sister. Megan, out of all the family members, is the only one that ever suggests Helen did this because mom was going to pull the house. No one in the rest of the family had ever heard that. They never even suggested it. It's important because... And Helen always talked to her sister Ashley, and Ashley would have known this. Ashley would have absolutely known it. Yeah, because Ashley was close with Pam.

Pamela was actually visiting Ashley the day before the murders. She was around when Kaplan alone called and said, hey, someone tried to take all this money out of your account. Ashley knew that all the stuff Megan's saying is not true. In cross-examination, the defense attacked Ashley's credibility, accusing her of lying out of self-interest. They claimed Ashley wanted the money from Pamela's estate all to herself. And if Megan took the fall, Ashley would inherit millions.

She has to grieve the loss of her family, grapple with the fact that her sister is a murderer, and then be targeted for somehow wanting all this estate, and that's why she's blaming Megan. But it turns out Ashley had a very good reason for her change of heart. According to the prosecution, she had listened to the Capital One calls of Megan impersonating their mother. She knew 100% through the evidence and in her gut that Megan is the killer. So she testified for us, testified factually,

and I think it was very powerful for the jury to see that Ashley believed in her heart and through the evidence that Megan did this heinous act. 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, wherever you get your podcasts.

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attorneys played her recordings of what she previously told police, long before she knew the facts of the case. When was the last time that Helen had ever talked about not hurting herself? With me, it was probably last year, I want to say. This call between Ashley and Detective Brian Byerson was recorded five days after the killings.

Did you know that there was was your mom was financially supporting the buying of the house with Megan? I knew that she was not not afterwards but right I knew that she was going to be helping them with purchasing a house yes okay she'd agreed with all that. In-hmm. In this conversation, before she heard the Capital One calls, Ashley backed up Megan's story. You didn't know how much your mom was giving her, but you knew that she was helping her out. Right? For the house. For the house.

Yes. However, on the stand, Ashley claimed to not recall these conversations. 48 Hours consultant and criminal defense expert Matt Troiano reviewed her testimony. So it's my understanding, Peter, that during Ashley's cross-examination, she says 150 times thereabouts that she doesn't remember certain things. And that's a lot of times to forget what you said. There's two ways to look at that. Number one is that she doesn't remember, right? Number two is that she doesn't want to say things that are not helpful for the prosecution.

That she has an interest, vested interest, financial interest, emotional interest, in protecting her mother and her sister Helen, and that she is not going to be cooperative. The defense tried to use Ashley's memory lapses in their favor. All they needed to do was so doubt that Megan was the killer. It's not the job of the jury to answer the question of who did it. jury to answer the question of who did it. The job of the jury is to determine if the state, the prosecution, has proven the case beyond a reasonable doubt. And Megan's lawyers zeroed in on other curious, some might say baffling, facts. Remember, curious, some might say baffling facts. Remember, Helen didn't try to escape the Hargan home, even after her mother had been shot and her sister had confessed to the killing.

Helen didn't even call 911. And Carlos testified that she also asked him not to report anything. Here's Matt Troiano again. She actually says, don't call 911 as I understand it. The question is why? Why would that ever be reasonable? What is the reasonable explanation for Helen to not want to get help? I asked Detective Byerson that same question. That is one of the pieces to the puzzle that we'll never have. We don't know why she didn't call 911. We don't know why she didn't leave. But prosecutor Whitney Gregory offered a potential answer. Perhaps Helen was trying to protect Molly, Megan's daughter.

I think it could be survival mentality. She believes that Molly's in the other room. If Megan's capable of killing her own mother, who else is she capable of killing in the home? So I think in part it's just she couldn't wrap her head around what happened and also to just trying to protect herself and other survivors in the household. But Helen at this point is not a 12-year-old. She's a university graduate, two degrees, a very bright woman. And she tells Carlos, I can hear my mother gurgling downstairs. And she doesn't call 911 to get medical help for her mom. That makes no sense.

She also is in the home of the crazed maniac with a gun. And so I think she's barricading herself in a bathroom. She doesn't know what to do. She panics. Prosecutors hoped to convince jurors how the crime scene clearly indicated Megan killed Helen, that Helen didn't pull the trigger herself. But then the trial took an unexpected turn. A witness for the prosecution conceded there was one possible way Helen could have taken her own life. Matt Troiano said the defense saw an opening. The critical question is, could it have been done? If it is impossible to do it, that's one thing. If it is implausible, that's a different thing. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge?

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I'm a forensic specialist, and I was hired to look into a reconstruction of the events that happened when Helen Hargan died in the bathroom. One of the first things I do is I look to the autopsy. What do we know from the autopsy? That's fact beyond change. In this case, she had an entry wound through the bone at the top of her head and an exit in the lower part of the cranium going down into the right neck. With that kind of wound, Graff didn't think it was likely that Helen shot herself. Top of the head is usually a sign that something else is happening.

Someone else is in that room. Certainly for a downward to the top of the head is usually a sign that something else is happening. Someone else is in that room. Certainly for a downward to the top of the head, yes. Graff said she tested several scenarios and showed me her digital reconstructions of the crime scene. This is a forensic animation, a virtual model that is a depiction of the data. forensic animation, a virtual model that is a depiction of the data. The jury was not allowed to see Graff's reconstructions in court,

but they mostly challenged the idea that Helen died by suicide. Since the autopsy revealed the bullet entered the top of her head, Graff tested all the ways Helen could have pointed the rifle and still reached the trigger. In most scenarios, Helen's fingers couldn't reach. Fully extended, we still need another five inches. So she's five inches short of reaching the trigger if the gun was held at this angle. And based on my experience in covering a lot of these cases, I've never seen a suicide with a weapon, a rifle placed on someone's head by themselves like this. Have you? Not with this particular trajectory. But there was one scenario where Graff found Helen could have reached the trigger using her toe. People have done that, used like their toe to engage the trigger. That has been done?

Yes. Okay, try to imagine this for a moment. In Graff's digital reconstruction, Helen is sitting on the toilet, leaning forward so that the top of her head is against the gun barrel. In that scenario, Helen could have used her toe to pull the trigger. Yes, her legs are long enough that her toe could reach the trigger. But what do you think of this scenario? Basically, you're standing on your head to try to get to this position, which makes it very difficult to find the trigger.

And the other thing is that you're leaning so far forward that your center of gravity is over the floor, not over the toilet seat. Which you could fall down. Exactly. She conceded this scenario is technically possible, but Graff didn't think Helen killed herself. Someone else has to engage the trigger. So this is a homicide, not suicide, in your opinion? This would be homicide.

Yet Graff's finding that Helen's legs were long enough to reach the trigger raised enough doubt that the defense made it part of their argument. Only a producer of a movie could come up with this. And even then, I don't think an audience would even buy that, even in Hollywood. Prosecutor Whitney Gregory was not convinced, and she didn't think anyone else would buy the toe trigger theory. It's utterly nonsensical for several reasons. The defense attorneys even discussed how Helen's socks could have prevented her from leaving prints on the trigger. I asked prosecutor Tyler Bazilla about the theory. I mean, I thought it was ridiculous.

I'll tell you this, that in combination with them using the word framed, that Helen framed her sister, to me meant that they didn't have a defense at all. Because if you frame somebody, this isn't the way you do it. But remember, all the defense needed to do was convince one juror that there was reasonable doubt that Megan Hargan was the murderer. For her part, Megan chose not to take the stand and defend herself. The jury deliberated on Thursday, March 24, 2022, took off Friday Friday and returned a verdict that following Monday. Guilty on all four charges. So first degree of Pamela, first degree of Helen,

and then the two associated firearm, the commission of the felony charges. And how did Megan react to the verdict? At least for me as a prosecutor, I don't want to look over at that table. I think it's not very classy. I'm just sort of in the zone trying not to pass out. Detective Brian Byerson, who had been working this case from the very beginning, was also in the courtroom. There's some relief there when that verdict is read. But more so, there's a sense of, I think, weight lifted off of everybody.

I know that it was very emotional for Ashley Hargan sitting in there listening to that. The jury recommended two life sentences. A McLean woman could be headed to prison for the rest of her life for killing her mother and her sister. Jurors found Megan Hargan guilty of the murders and staging the crime scene to look like it was a murder-suicide. But the saga over whether Megan Hargan killed her mother and sister wasn't over, not yet. That argument about Helen using her toe on the trigger caused one juror to go rogue. And what she did next would put the verdict and the entire case in jeopardy. That's next time on the finale of Blood is Thicker.

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. Thank you. 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. You can listen to Blood is Thicker, the Hargan family killings early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Thanks for listening. In the Pacific Ocean,

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