Miriam Helmick was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her husband, Alan Helmick. Now, after 15 years, she is speaking out publicly for the first time, claiming her innocence and offering new details about the events leading up to his death.
Fifteen years ago, Miriam Helmick was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of her second husband, Colorado businessman Alan Helmick . She currently sits behind bars at the Colorado Womens Correctional Facility serving a prison sentence for a crime she says she did not commit. Now, Miriam Helmick is speaking publicly for the first time since her conviction, offering details about her relationship with Alan and the events of the fateful day when he died.
It won't be over for anybody until it's over for me, and I do have hopes, Helmick said. I know that I didn't kill him. Helmick spoke with ABC News' John Quiñones in a prison interview for a new 20/20 airing Friday, January 31, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC, and streaming the next day on Hulu. The couple's story began on the dance floor. Miriam, a dance instructor, taught Alan ballroom dancing and their friendship blossomed into romance. Their nuptials were a second marriage for them both, and they had dreams of sharing a life together. Miriam describes Alan as a very kind, very sweet man. She said he was funny and well liked in the community.Their dreams came to a sudden and tragic end on June 10, 2008. Miriam said she was running errands that morning and planned to meet Alan for lunch. When she couldn't reach him by phone, she told police she returned to their Whitewater, Colorado, home and found her husband lying in a pool of blood. Robin Martin, an investigator with the Mesa County Sheriffs Office who worked on the case, remembered how the first officers who arrived on the scene said they found Miriam distraught and kneeling over her husband. Alan was on the floor in the kitchen, Martin said. It looked like he had been shot in the head. We had a bullet casing next to his body. Police found no one else in the house. As they conducted a sweep of the home, they noticed drawers pulled out in the kitchen and a trash can tipped over in Alans office. Investigators followed routine protocol to thoroughly review the spouses whereabouts. They tested Miriam for gunshot residue and swabbed her clothes for blood. Those tests came back negative. She even showed police all the printed receipts from where she was shopping that day. She actually went from one end of the valley to the other end, Mesa County Prosecutor Rich Tuttle said. We were able to track her movements not only by her receipts, but by her cellphone interacting with cellphone towers. Miriam said that someone had attempted to blow up Alans car. The couple had been in nearby Delta, Colorado, when Miriam went to the restroom and came back to see Alans car on fire. A wick was found in the gas tank. He came in saying that his car was on fire, and he asked me to get water, and that's all I know about it from there, Miriam Helmick told 20/20. When investigators in Delta asked Alan if Miriam could have been the one to start the fire, Alan insisted she would not have done that and asked that police stop the investigation. Oh God. No, I don't think that, Alan Helmick is heard on a recording of the police interview about the fire incident in Delta, Colorado. Why would she do that? In her 20/20 interview, Miriam Helmick suggested that Alan might have started the fire himself. She said that he could have been trying to collect insurance money. The thing about Alan (was) if he had thought I had done it, he'd have helped me pack a bag, put me on I-70, Helmick said. According to Miriam, Alan told her the investigation was done and that was the last they spoke of it.
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