Naman Shrestha
The episode titled ‘Run, Run, Run’ of ABC’s ’20/20′ explores two mysterious and tragic deaths of Jack Giles and Alan Helmick, both of whom had a common denominator — Miriam Helmick. When the investigators dug deeper into her life, they found evidence of her alleged involvement in other crimes, involving her father’s house and an attempt to take Alan’s life weeks before she eventually killed him. Since the episode also features Miriam’s interview, we get a detailed account of the crimes and her involvement in them.
Miriam Helmick Was Allegedly Also Involved in the Murder of her First Husband
Born on January 26, 1957, to Frank Morgan, Miriam Helmick was the wife of the late Alan Helmick. Before being involved with him and his murder, she was alleged to have been responsible for other crimes. Several years prior to meeting Alan, Miriam was married to Jack Giles for more than two decades, and together, they raised two children — Amy and Chris Giles. Unfortunately, the couple suffered the loss of their daughter in 2001. About a year later, on April 15, 2002, Jack was found dead in his bed at their residence in Jacksonville, Florida. Although it was declared that he had shot himself with a .38-caliber handgun while Miriam slept right next to her, she was suspected of having a hand in his killing.
Soon after the case was closed, Miriam reportedly moved in with her father, Frank Morgan, and her stepmother, Frankie, for a couple of months. During the course of her stay, she allegedly scammed both of them and withdrew thousands of dollars from Frank’s bank account. When Frank called her to ask for an explanation, she did not pick up and disappeared from their property. On the same night, the back porch of their house caught fire under suspicious circumstances, leading them to believe that Miriam could be behind it. Despite lodging a report against her, she was never arrested for the fire at the property.
A few years later, while working as a dance instructor, Miriam crossed paths with a Colorado businessman named Alan Helmick. The friendship that started on the dance floor soon turned into something romantic as they fell in love with one another. In June 2006, both of them tied the knot for the second time and looked forward to spending the rest of their lives together. Unfortunately, fate, or rather, Miriam had other plans. On June 10, 2008, she pulled the trigger on her husband and landed the fatal shot that killed him. To cover her tracks and keep herself out of prison, she deliberately made the house appear chaotic and ransacked.
During the Alan Helmick Murder Investigation, Miriam Tried to Distract the Police
When the authorities questioned her, she claimed that the couple were supposed to meet for lunch as she had been running some errands outside that fateful morning. She told them that when he did not pick up her calls, she went back to their house in Whitewater, Colorado, only to find him dead, after which she called 911. The detectives conducted various tests on Miriam, but all of them came back negative. She even had the shopping receipts for that day, which backed her rock-solid alibi. She also told the authorities about a life-threatening incident that occurred with her husband a few weeks before his demise.
As per her claims, when she went to the restroom in Delta, Colorado, while they were parked, the car went up in flames with Alan inside of it. It is likely that someone deliberately set fire to the car, and when he was asked by the police if Miriam could be the one responsible for it, he found it absurd. According to court evidence, she started the fire and tried to kill Alan that day by lighting a wick-like device in the car’s gas tank and walking away. After she succeeded in murdering him six weeks later, she tried to divert the investigators’ attention from the case at hand and claimed that she was being stalked and watched. She also claimed that she had received a mysterious note that said, “Allen was first, your next. Run, run, run!”
Thanks to the surveillance footage of the store from where the card was bought, the investigators were able to find out that Miriam was the one who purchased the card. In her defense, she claimed that she did it to gain the police’s attention and do something about her concerns of someone watching her. As soon as the detectives suspected her of being involved in the murder, she relocated to Jacksonville, Florida, where she tried to take on the identity of Alan’s late first wife, Sharon Helmick. After gathering enough evidence against her, on December 8, 2008, the investigators arrested and charged her with first-degree murder, attempted murder for the car fire incident, and several counts of forgery.
Miriam Helmick is Serving Her Sentence at a Colorado Prison Facility While Maintaining Her Innocence
After Miriam Helmick pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her, the prosecutors also tried to use her previous alleged crimes, including the murder of her first husband and the arson at her father’s Jacksonville house, in her trial. Meanwhile, the defense asked the judge to exclude evidence of those crimes as they were unrelated to the case at hand. A month before the trial, the judge ruled out the prosecution’s requests. Finally, in November 2009, Miriam stood trial for the murder of her second husband, Alan Helmick.
During the month-long trial, the prosecution and defense presented their respective evidence and arguments in the court to sway the jury in their favor. After much deliberation, in December 2009, the jury returned with a guilty verdict and convicted her of first-degree murder for shooting and killing her husband, attempted first-degree murder for a previous attempt to kill her husband, and ten counts of forgery. Subsequently, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge, in addition to a combined 78 years in prison for other convictions.
Even after her conviction and sentencing, Miriam Helmick continued to maintain her innocence and claimed that she did not kill him. Since then, she has filed a total of three appeals to have her conviction overturned or her sentence reduced, the most recent one being in April 2024. However, none of them were entertained by the court. While maintaining her innocence to this day, she remains incarcerated at Denver Women’s Correctional Facility in Denver, Colorado.
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