Wndri Plus subscribers can listen to Blood is Thicker: The Hargan Family Killings, early and ad-free right now. Join WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or 48hours Plus on Apple Podcasts. In 1976, a man in Florida tells a cop he has a confession to make. Arriving in Miami, I proceeded to do certain things that I considered to be necessary in the crime that I planned to commit. I had nearly been one of his victims myself. My connection to him would totally change my life. From Orbit Media and Sony Music Entertainment, my friend, the serial killer, is coming. June first. Subscribe on Apple podcast to binge all episodes or listen weekly wherever you get your podcast. Hey, everybody. Jon Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, The Weekly Show, coming out every Thursday. We're going to be talking about the election, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday? Listen to the Weekly Show with Jon Stewart, starting June sixth, wherever you get your podcast.

This episode contains graphic audio and reference 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. When Detective Brian Biersen first walked through the crime scene on Dean Drive in McClane, 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 Biersen 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 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 Vansatt. 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. How would you characterize it? Particularly deliberate, willful, and cruel. Tyler Buzilla served as lead prosecutor on Megan Hargan's case. This is an individual who murdered two of her close as family members for money and for no other reason. Buzilla 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 friend Carlos Gutiérrez.

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. 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. 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 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.

There's no way he was acting. And just that raw emotion showed that there's no way he was acting. Just that raw emotion showed that there's no way that Helen could have this. Carlos's 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. 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-ed-eye 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.

She lost everything in a day. At trial, Ashley strongly defended her sister Helen. But as As you'll recall, back when she was initially interviewed by Detective Brian Bierson, Ashley suggested Helen might have been the killer. Prosecutors said that Ashley had been in shock and was simply parodying 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-Wohn 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. I'm 48 Hours Correspondent Erin Moriardi, and I'm taking you inside chilling true crime investigations in my podcast, My Life of Crime. This season is all about shocking family My Secrets. Listen to My Life of Crime wherever you get your podcast. Take true crime with you on your shirt, mug, or hat with official 48 Hours merchandise at paramountshop. Com. You can take 20% off with cold codehours20. That's 20% off at checkout on all 48 Hours products with code Hours 20 at paramountshop.

Com. When Ashley Hargan was on the stand and Megan's defense 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 hurting herself? With me, it was probably last year, I want to say. This call between Ashley and Detective Brian Biersen was recorded five days after the killings. Did you know that there was Your mom was financially supporting the buying of the house with Megan? I knew that she was-Not afterwards, but since all this happened. Right. I knew that she was going to be helping them with purchasing a house. Yes. Okay. She'd agreed with all that? Mm-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 this stand, Ashley claimed to not recall these conversations. 48 Hours consultant and criminal defense expert Matt Troiano reviewed viewed 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. 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, 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 Bierson 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 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 hand around what happened, and also, too, just trying to protect herself and other survivors in the household. But Helen, at this point, not a 12-year-old. She's a university graduate, two degrees, a very bright woman. She tells Carlos, I can hear my mother gurgling downstairs. 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 hope 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. Listen to the 48 Hours podcast for shocking murder cases and compelling real-life traumas from one of television's most watched true crime shows. Go behind the scenes of each episode with award-winning CBS News correspondence and producers in Postmortem, a weekly deep dive. Listen to 48 Hours wherever you get your podcasts. Always on the go? You can take CBS Mornings with you. Wake up to your daily dose of news and interviews on the CBS Mornings On The Go podcast. Listen to CBS Mornings On The Go, ad free on WNDYRI Plus. In the second week of the trial, the prosecution and defense focused on one critical question. Was it possible that Helen could have first killed her mother and then herself with a long rifle?

The fatal bullet had traveled from a wound at the top of her head downward, which seemed physically impossible. The prosecution called Iris Deligreff to the stand. 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 wound, Graff didn't think it was likely that Helen shot herself. Top 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. 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 5 inches. She's 5 inches short of reaching the trigger if the gun was held at this angle. Based on my experience in We're 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 their toe to engage the trigger. That has been done? Yes. Okay, try to imagine this for a moment. In Graff's It'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.

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. 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 Sox could have prevented her from leaving prints on the trigger. I asked prosecutor Tyler Buzilla about the theory. 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 24th, 2022, took off Friday, and returned a verdict that following one day. Guilty on all four charges. So first degree of Pamela, first degree of Helen, and then the two associated fire on 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 in the zone trying not to pass out. Detective Brian Bierson, 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 McClane woman could be headed to prison for the rest of her life for killing her mother and her sister.

Jury 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 Ealey Hulse, Michelle Sagona, and Lauren White. Jamie Benson is the senior producer for Paramount Audio, and Mora Walls is the senior story editor. Recording assistance from Alan Pang and Marlene 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 Music Entertainment. It was written and produced by Alex Schumann. Our executive producers are Katherine 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. Katherine Nuhann is our fact checker. Our production managers are Tamika Balanskolasny 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 WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or on Apple podcasts. Thanks for listening. If you like Blood is Thicker: The Hargan Family Killings, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDRI Plus in the WNDRI app or 48hours plus on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wndri. Com/survey. Get one of the most successful broadcast in television history on your schedule with the 60 Minutes podcast. Hard-hitting investigative reports, news and culture-maker interviews, and in-depth profiles are waiting for you in every episode. Listen to 60 Minutes ad-free on WNDRI Plus.