Mark and Marla Palumbo have been involved when their good friend and trade spouse Dr. Henry Han failed to turn up for a gathering on March 23, 2016. They’d be informed the horrific reason the next day from a information document.
Marla Palumbo: I used to be within the kitchen on my pc and I saved checking … And I simply take into accout screaming, “they are all lifeless.”
Dr. Han, his spouse Jennie, and their 5-year-old daughter Emily have been discovered lifeless within the storage in their Santa Barbara house. Mark Palumbo had simply observed them on his long ago from a trade go back and forth.
Mark Palumbo: We went out for dinner … performed Attach 4 with Emily.
Mark and Maria Palumbo
Marla Palumbo: He introduced his telephone to me and I am simply having a look at a lot of these footage of Emily … they usually have been … taken the Friday sooner than …
Natalie Morales: Simply horrific.
Marla Palumbo: Yeah. … and she or he’s simply goofing round with a ebook … making a lot of these humorous faces and … it’s worthwhile to inform … she was once loving lifestyles.
Trade Settlement Signed the Remaining Day of Sufferer’s Lifestyles Ended in a Individual of Pastime
The Palumbos had not too long ago launched into a brand new trade project with Dr. Han.
Mark Palumbo: I truly cherished the fellow. I imply he truly was once good and curious and open-minded …
Marla Palumbo: He needed to include meals … and in shorts and flip-flops … simply no … air about him.
Natalie Morales: However what made you believe him?
Marla Palumbo: His pastime.
Mark Palumbo: Yeah. The way in which he cared about other people.
Don Goldberg had identified Dr. Han for greater than 25 years and considered him as a brother. To Goldberg, he was once simply “Henry.”
Don Goldberg: I used to be … roughly 10 years older than Henry, however he nonetheless known as me his more youthful brother. … you simply do not come throughout a pal like Henry … It is as soon as in an entire life friendship.
Santa Barbara Herb Sanatorium
Once they met, Henry Han was once making a reputation for himself after emigrating from China, the place he got here from a circle of relatives of physicians. He would quickly take over the Santa Barbara Herb Sanatorium.
Dr. Glenn Miller: I had a number of sufferers … who had had drugs unintended effects … They’d say … I went to look Physician Han … and it went away. … And it was once like, I gotta meet this man.
Dr. Glenn Miller, a psychiatrist, says he and Henry Han advanced a mutual recognize or even partnered on a ebook about how Japanese and Western drugs may just paintings in combination to fortify sufferers’ high quality of lifestyles.
Dr. Glenn Miller: Henry’s follow was once flourishing … so far as energetic sufferers, he would see like in a month, it was once masses … however he additionally attempted to steadiness it.
In 2009, that steadiness he was once in search of changed into a fact, when Henry met and married Jennie Yu.
Dr. Glenn Miller: He appeared extremely satisfied … It was once excellent to look Henry that satisfied.
Marla Palumbo: Jennie … was once completely heat and wonderful.
Santa Barbara D.A.’s Workplace
Once they had Emily, the dream was once entire.
Don Goldberg: Henry was once simply … on cloud 9. He was once very proud father.
They have been regularly in combination on the sanatorium, the place Jennie had temporarily turn out to be Henry’s proper hand, says her good friend Isaiah Oregon.
Isaiah Oregon: He truly relied on her and let her roughly take the reins …
Within the spring of 2016, they have been on the point of have a good time Emily’s sixth birthday.
Isaiah Oregon: We have been planning for her party and … , had all her items wrapped.
However simply 3 days shy of her birthday, her family members have been troubled with grief.
Don Goldberg: I do not truly have good enough phrases to explain h — how I felt … The unhappiness … is simply too deep.
As night time fell at the Han property on Wednesday, March 23, Goldberg attempted to procedure what he had simply witnessed. He had known as 911 when he could not to find the Hans any place, and he was once with sheriff’s deputies after they came upon the our bodies within the storage wrapped in plastic.
Don Goldberg: None of it made any sense in any respect.
Prosecutor Ben Ladinig says it was once in a while sooner than middle of the night when Santa Barbara sheriff’s investigators acquired a seek warrant and started to piece in combination what had took place within the home. It gave the impression the circle of relatives were shot whilst they slept upstairs on the second one ground — Henry within the couple’s bed room, and Jennie and Emily around the corridor in Emily’s room.
Ben Ladinig: Emily’s room was once tricky to look … Mother … most certainly learn her tales to have Emily fall asleep that night time and was once snoozing along with her.
Natalie Morales: What did that let you know in regards to the depravity of the type of one who may just do one thing like that? … What have been they after?
Ben Ladinig: We did not know what he was once after. However … the depravity I have by no means observed the rest find it irresistible.
Detectives picked up at the distinct odor of the assassin’s makes an attempt to hide his tracks.
Ben Ladinig: The odor of bleach … was once there. …We had bleach bottles discovered … There have been bleach … stains at the carpet and during different pieces upstairs … and you then see bloody issues in … a washer.
The entire bedding, which were stripped from the beds was once discovered piled within the laundry room and within the system.
Ben Ladinig: The washer, the alarm had long gone off as it — the burden was once unbalanced. And inside of there are an enormous crew of bloody sheets …
Santa Barbara D.A.’s Workplace
Wedged in pillows within the laundry, crime scene investigators discovered a .22 caliber bullet and bullet fragments. 3 matching shell casings have been discovered inside the wrapping of Jennie’s frame, and one was once later discovered lodged between the baseboard and field spring of Emily’s mattress.
Ben Ladinig: We had one bullet that was once a via and thru … it was once best for comparability … for … the homicide weapon.
Ben Ladinig: As issues are going, we begin to to find clues as to … who probably might be concerned.
Within a paper bag subsequent to Henry’s mattress, detectives discovered a file signed the closing day Henry was once observed alive. It equipped a reputation.
Ben Ladinig: It is mainly a four-page trade contract between two companions. Spouse one, Pierre Haobsh, and spouse two, Dr. Han.
Don Goldberg knew a Pierre that Dr. Han was once related to, however Goldberg concept he was once risk free.
Don Goldberg: I didn’t suppose that … Pierre was once able to … homicide … I by no means truly noticed Pierre turn out to be indignant or agitated.
However the Palumbos had a nasty feeling.
Natalie Morales: You did not believe him?
Mark Palumbo: I didn’t.
A Suspect is Sought as a Group Mourns
The indelible scar left through the murders was once the sort that now not even Dr. Han may just’ve healed.
Paul Wellman/Santa Barbara Impartial
Kymberlee Ruff: It was once like a bomb exploded … No one may just transfer for weeks. … There’s something … very, very, very darkish occurring.
Kymberlee Ruff says Dr. Han handled her circle of relatives for twenty years — ever since she was once identified with thyroid most cancers in a while after giving beginning to her son. Ruff says Dr. Han’s holistic means allowed her to nurse her new child whilst nonetheless treating her tumors.
Kymberlee Ruff: He may just do the rest. … Regardless of how scared you could be, or- or nervous, you simply left feeling find it irresistible’s gonna be OK. Yeah, he was once one thing.
Instilling hope can have been one of the most secrets and techniques to why his sufferers say Dr. Han may just heal absolutely anything.
Sheri Buron: Dr. Han, like, stored my lifestyles.
Sheri Buron was once additionally a tender mom with most cancers when she went to Dr. Han.
Sheri Buron: My daughter, Abbey, was once 15 months outdated … I felt a lump underneath my armpit.
Even if she had the prescribed surgical operation and chemotherapy, she credit Dr. Han along with her survival.
Sheri Buron: There have been such a lot of those who kicked the bucket round me. … He were given me via it.
Natalie Morales: What was once the affect for you of his loss?
Sheri Buron: It is the worry of … if one thing comes again. … And I am … making an attempt each day to be certain and … check out to stick with his point of calm and what kind of self assurance he had that like the whole lot’s sorted.
That conviction is what had drawn the Palumbos — who labored within the skin care business — into their partnership with Dr. Han, hoping to regard more than a few pores and skin maladies.
Marla Palumbo: Henry was once very all for CBD.
Having used CBD in his follow to regard ache and irritation, Henry Han sought after to harness its complete attainable. It was once groundbreaking science on the time, and he sought after 25-year-old Pierre Haobsh to lend a hand broaden it.
Don Goldberg: Pierre … from what we accrued had a large number of enjoy, uh, in laboratories … on this case in the case of CBD.
Henry Han had taken a liking to Haobsh after assembly him via every other affiliate, however the Palumbos have been uncomfortable with Pierre from the beginning.
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Marla Palumbo: You understand how whilst you meet someone … you’ll’t put your finger on it … however one thing’s now not proper. That was once Pierre.
Mark Palumbo: It was once at all times this sort of little boiling simmer.
When it got here time to do the lab paintings, the Palumbos say the effects have been irritating.
Marla Palumbo: What we got here to determine was once he was once the usage of poisonous fabrics … when … we known as him on it … he mentioned, , “I am simply finding out extra in regards to the molecules” … it was once simply bizarre.
Because it became out, Haobsh wasn’t a officially skilled scientist. He did not also have a faculty diploma.
Mark Palumbo: The extra you were given underneath that floor, the extra you recognize that he may just, uh, communicate a sport and keep over the oldsters’ heads a little scientifically …
Natalie Morales: Appears like he was once form of … a snake oil salesman-type, proper?
Marla Palumbo: He was once —
Mark Palumbo: — refined one, however sure —
Marla Palumbo: Yeah, very refined one.
There was once extra eyebrow-raising conduct — Haobsh had additionally made abnormal fees on Henry Han’s account.
Marla Palumbo: I used to be doing the entire budget … And I am like, this does not glance proper.
Natalie Morales: No longer a trade expense —
Marla Palumbo: On no account.
After Marla Palumbo flagged the costs to Henry Han, he came upon they have been for escort services and products.
Marla Palumbo: Henry was once, “You will not imagine this! Pierre’s out.”
Natalie Morales: That was once the general straw.
Marla Palumbo: That was once Henry’s ultimate straw.
Mark Palumbo: For Henry, yeah.
However then, a couple of weeks sooner than the murders, the Palumbos say Henry Han introduced up Pierre Haobsh all of the sudden.
Marla Palumbo: Henry discussed that he had discovered much more about Pierre’s upbringing … how a lot Pierre had to triumph over from his adolescence. … Mark nor I truly answered. We did not wish to have Pierre again in our fold in any respect.
The Palumbos weren’t by myself in being cautious of Pierre Haobsh. Jennie Han’s good friend, Isaiah Oregon, says Jennie additionally had issues and confided in him about them 4 days sooner than the murders.
Isaiah Oregon: It was once weighing on her closely. … “Will we believe him? … Will we give him every other probability?” … I used to be like, “Completely now not.” … If he stole from you sooner than, he is gonna scouse borrow from you once more.”
However Pierre Haobsh had already ingratiated himself again into Henry’s excellent will.
Don Goldberg: Henry had an overly trusting nature … Henry had shared with me that Pierre informed him that he was once … sick … that it was once late-stage most cancers and that, uh, he was once going to do what he may just to lend a hand Pierre.
Isaiah Oregon: The use of Henry’s excellent nature … through mendacity to him, through manipulating him.
Government discovered that Haobsh were an in a single day visitor on the Han’s house sooner than the murders and had shaped a brand new partnership with the healer. There was once that contract present in the main bedroom they’d signed the closing day of Henry’s lifestyles. However Prosecutor Ben Ladinig says it did not appear reliable.
Ben Ladinig: It … was once like a school sophomore drafted it. … It was once now not notarized, now not witnessed.
Detectives had discovered one thing else of passion.
Ben Ladinig: A super detective … discovered … packaging to … the plastic … wrapping … that every one 3 of the Han circle of relatives have been wrapped in … In a trash can, within the kitchen space subsequent to packaging … of 3M duct tape, very similar to the duct tape that was once used to wrap all 3 of the our bodies.
Santa Barbara D.A.’s Workplace
He identified the plastic wrap was once a House Depot logo and reached out to the corporate’s safety division.
Ben Ladinig: And House Depot was once, inside of hours people … gaining an access into the home, in a position to run the ones two pieces in combination, to look if they’d been bought within the Southern California area inside the closing a number of days or perhaps weeks.
A House Depot in Oceanside, California, had safety pictures of a person who matched the DMV picture of Pierre Haobsh, who additionally took place to have an Oceanside cope with.
Ben Ladinig: And that was once “Bam!” We knew. … He is strolling out with 3 massive plastic rolls … and certain sufficient, duct tape.
Santa Barbara D.A.’s Workplace
Natalie Morales: So inside of hours of … the crime scene being came upon, Pierre Haobsh changed into … an individual of passion.
Ben Ladinig: Sure.
However the place was once Haobsh now? Detectives had a slump. Information from the Hans’ cell phones — that have been lacking — confirmed they have been touring south, additional, and farther from Santa Barbara.
Ben Ladinig: Then inexplicably, Henry’s telephone is going darkish … however Jennie’s remains to be on and it helps to keep going south. …We are getting mainly virtual footprints main all the way down to the Oceanside space from a lifeless girl’s telephone.
A Key Witness Tells Detectives Pierre Haobsh Confessed to Him
Sgt. Anthony Flores (using): Anytime you might be looking to forestall someone this is sought after for murder, the stakes are gonna be excessive.
The day after the Han circle of relatives was once discovered murdered, a manhunt was once underway in Oceanside, California — just about 200 miles from the crime scene. Sgt. Anthony Flores and his spouse have been a part of the native Oceanside Police group helping the Santa Barbara investigation.
Sgt. Anthony Flores: We had are available to paintings with our Particular Enforcement segment … And we have been gonna be the forestall automotive for that day. … If … given a window of alternative … to take him into custody or probably forestall him.
In the meantime, undercover detectives have been engaging in surveillance on the place of abode Pierre Haobsh shared along with his father and updating all devices — together with the murder group that had pushed down from Santa Barbara with Prosecutor Ben Ladinig.
Ben Ladinig: Hastily, we get chatter … on our intercoms … “dad’s at the transfer.”
The surveillance group adopted Pierre Haobsh’s father as he drove to a Walmart car parking zone, the place safety cameras captured him assembly up without any instead of Pierre.
Santa Barbara D.A.’s Workplace
Ben Ladinig: That is dad using in … sedan and you then see the Lexus following in a while at the back of … They seem like speaking in short in combination … you’ll simply see that trunk pop — on dad’s automotive.
After moving two massive duffel baggage to Pierre Haobsh’s automotive, they each drove off.
Ben Ladinig: We gotta transfer temporarily.
Sgt. Anthony Flores (using): It was once … a bit after middle of the night and … we had simply were given the replace that the suspect was once at the transfer … As we are touring, we are listening to that he is pulling into the ARCO station.
Sgt. Anthony Flores: He had a couple of miles of a head get started.
The opposite devices and Ladinig had pulled over through the ARCO station looking ahead to the arrest group to reach.
Ben Ladinig: Then swiftly, you spot … an unmarked automotive … power all over the center of that intersection … sparks fly and … it simply mainly is available in, pulls in and lays at the brakes … Two massive dudes get outta the automobile and pull gun on him and vulnerable him out. And our eyes are like saucers. We are like, whoa.
Natalie Morales: Wow.
Santa Barbara D.A.’s Workplace
Natalie Morales (at ARCO station): It is 200 miles away that this investigation began and it culminated right here.
Sergeant Flores had handcuffed Pierre Haobsh.
Natalie Morales (at ARCO station): What do you take into accout about that arrest?
Sgt. Anthony Flores: I bring it to mind happening truly speedy … all of our senses have been heightened …
Inside 48 hours of the murders, investigators had the Han circle of relatives’s alleged killer in custody. Pierre Haobsh waived his Miranda rights and began speaking to detectives. What he informed them was once one thing out of a secret agent mystery. He claimed that his lifestyles was once in peril.
PIERRE HAOBSH (to detective): Over the last couple of days, I—I child you now not I have been shot at. … most certainly about 5 people up to now that I shot in self-defense.
He claimed he was once being centered as a result of a systematic wonder he had invented.
DET. HENDERSON: What does it do?
PIERRE HAOBSH: It is, um, it is a very, very complex power supply. … it is — it is a quantum kinda power supply. … I believe most certainly no less than 15 people who had been attached to this mission are — are lifeless.
Santa Barbara Awesome Courtroom
Pierre Haobsh mentioned he had long gone to Dr. Han’s area previous within the week to put in one among his perpetual power gadgets and that the plastic wrap and duct tape he was once observed buying have been for that objective.
PIERRE HAOBSH (to detective): Dr. Henry, we, um, we signed a freelance in combination … he was once going to facilitate taking the era out to China. … love— love the fellow to demise. … he truly, um, truly appreciated this mission …
Pierre Haobsh mentioned he had left Santa Barbara round 2 p.m. on March 22 — the day sooner than the murders — after signing the contract. However detectives driven again.
DET. HENDERSON: There is extra to this tale that you are not telling me. … Dr. Han is lifeless.
PIERRE HAOBSH: What!? … I had —no clue that — oh my gosh. The whole lot was once completely high quality once I left.
Pierre Haobsh was once adamant he would by no means harm the circle of relatives and insisted the shadowy figures who were after him had killed the Hans and have been looking to body him for homicide.
PIERRE HAOBSH (to detective): … I invented a era that adjustments the sector… oil firms and other people are not looking for this era in the market.
Ben Ladinig: It was once this large conspiracy to stay this … next-level power device from getting out to marketplace. … “James Bond,” “Venture Not possible” … this fantastical lifestyles.
Pierre Haobsh’s outlandish tale persisted, however then detectives gained an surprising name from somebody who claimed to have details about the murders.
TJ Direda: I am a horny tough across the edges man … I’ve tough across the edges buddies.
TJ Direda was once a marijuana grower who mentioned Dr. Han had approached him about supplying CBD-rich traces. Direda had additionally met Pierre Haobsh.
TJ Direda: Dr. Henry had informed me … that he was once … like a prodigy boulevard chemist … he had completed some stuff that was once forward of his time.
Natalie Morales: So, a bit little bit of a mad scientist?
TJ Direda: Yeah, I’d say.
Natalie Morales: Most likely, yeah.
In keeping with Direda, Pierre Haobsh had a penchant for making up grandiose tales to hunt consideration. However he befriended him, nevertheless.
TJ Direda: He was once … that … awkward … child that sought after to slot in. … And … I used to be the fellow in highschool that caught up for children like that … So … I, uh, got interested in him … in that regard. …
Natalie Morales: You suppose he relied on then you definately?
TJ Direda: Oh, he completely relied on me.
As Direda published to detectives, Pierre Haobsh had reached out to him by the use of textual content the morning of the murders. The message despatched at 09:39 a.m. mentioned: “I want your lend a hand with one thing urgently… Like its pressing!!!!!”
Natalie Morales: What was once he requesting?
TJ Direda: Uh, he wanted my lend a hand. … shifting one thing.
He says Pierre Haobsh informed him he was once in Santa Barbara and had to communicate head to head. So Direda had him come to his area in Thousand Oaks, about an hour away.
TJ Direda: The very first thing out of his mouth … “simply so , I am a monster.” … He had informed me proper then and there that he had killed Dr. Henry … his spouse and his kid … and wanted lend a hand …
Natalie Morales: Did he provide you with main points … of what he did?
TJ Direda: He did.
Direda informed detectives Pierre Haobsh mentioned he had attempted to place the our bodies in his automotive, however they would not all have compatibility and Henry was once too heavy — main points Ladinig says handiest the killer would know.
Ben Ladinig: How the killings have been completed, how the our bodies have been wrapped up … how he had the physician’s telephone …
Direda informed detectives Pierre Haobsh had additionally published his reason: $20 million that he deliberate to empty from Henry’s accounts after killing the circle of relatives. Direda says he did not know if what he was once listening to was once every other one among Haobsh’s far-fetched tales. And till he knew evidently, he determined to play alongside.
TJ Direda: I simply sought after to get him out of the home and ensure whether or not what he had simply mentioned was once true or now not. … I mentioned let me paintings on it and I will name you later …
As soon as Pierre Haobsh was once long gone, Direda attempted to achieve Dr. Han and someone who may have knowledge, to no avail.
TJ Direda: I did not wish to name the police as a result of I did not — I wasn’t positive but … it was once chaotic. It was once … it was once frightening and likewise … complicated.
Pierre Haobsh saved messaging him. Round 5 p.m., when Direda nonetheless hadn’t equipped any help, Haobsh texted him with a proposition.
Natalie Morales: “Wish to come to Vegas this night? I will pay.” What did you suppose the cause of that all-of-a-sudden go back and forth to Vegas?
TJ Direda: At that time, I wasn’t positive. It did not sound correct … He was once most certainly gonna kill me and come what may make it seem like I had one thing to do with it.
Natalie Morales: You have been gonna be the autumn man.
TJ Direda: Proper.
Direda made up an excuse why he could not cross. And Haobsh would ship him one ultimate textual content at 7:35 p.m. that night time: “Yep. Am screwed. They only discovered the whole lot. My lives over. Provided that I were given to all of it quicker.”
Ladinig says Pierre Haobsh had simply returned to the crime scene with a large truck to move the our bodies, however legislation enforcement had crushed him to the scene.
Ben Ladinig: He knew his goose was once cooked.
Extra Irritating Main points Concerning the Han Circle of relatives Murders Emerge
Pierre Haobsh’s arrest close to Oceanside, California, had come at a crucial juncture. He was once armed with a 9-millimeter handgun that was once in simple view at the motive force’s facet floorboard. He additionally had his passport and the ones duffel baggage, which he had gained from his father mins previous.
Ben Ladinig: Two “cross baggage.” … Principally, no matter you wish to have, garments … the whole lot for the individual to are living for months.
Haobsh’s father was once additionally detained and puzzled, however he was once launched later that morning.
Ben Ladinig: Lets’ve charged him … as an adjunct, however we did not have any indication. … that dad … was once concerned about any approach, form, or shape within the killing …
Day after today, throughout a more in-depth exam of Haobsh’s automotive on the crime lab, “You identify it we discovered it in that automotive,” mentioned Ladinig.
There was once Henry’s pockets, bank card and Social Safety quantity, at the side of an expended shell casing. There have been additionally the sufferers’ telephones and pill, all wrapped in aluminum foil, in an try to evade monitoring.
Ben Ladinig: And within the trunk … you elevate up the place the spare tire can be … the homicide weapon … suppressor silencer, ammunition.
The Santa Barbara Impartial
Per week after the murders, the autopsies published the sufferers were shot 14 occasions — 3 each and every into Henry and Jennie, and most annoying, 8 in Emily.
Ben Ladinig: That ammunition … is similar stuff that we discovered on the crime scene, within the decedent’s our bodies … Fit, fit, fit, fit, fit. The whole lot.
Pierre Haobsh was once charged with 3 counts of first-degree homicide, making him eligible for the demise penalty.
Protection legal professional Christine Voss, who was once with the Public Defender’s Workplace on the time, represented Haobsh.
Christine Voss: It was once probably the most difficult instances, if now not essentially the most difficult case I ever discovered. … He truly sought after to be vindicated. … To me, the purpose was once for him not to get demise.
On the 11th hour, the D.A.’s administrative center agreed to waive the demise penalty in alternate for a extra expedient bench trial, which supposed a pass judgement on, now not a jury, would render a verdict.
On Oct. 25, 2021 greater than five-and-a-half years after the murders, the prosecution delivered its opening observation and laid out its concept of the case — that Pierre Haobsh had plotted the homicide of the Han circle of relatives for monetary acquire. They painted him as a occupation con guy who up till the murders flaunted his intelligence and meant wealth.
Marla Palumbo: His complete lifestyles’s power was once being wealthy.
Ben Ladinig: He … despatched … screenshots of his Chase account from any place from about $3 million as much as $940 million bucks to more than a few other people making an attempt to dupe them that he is this jet environment, billionaire.
Pierre Haobsh claimed he had gained giant provides for his power era.
Christine Voss: I am not a scientist, however I do not know that there is a such factor as a perpetual power system.
However a number of years sooner than the murders, Haobsh was once if truth be told being paid to construct one.
Samantha Spidell: It was once gonna be a brand new supply of power as though he was once, , an Elon Musk …
Samantha Spidell met Pierre Haobsh circa 2012 when he moved right into a penthouse condo in a luxurious high-rise she controlled in Tempe, Arizona.
Samantha Spidell: He … pulled up … and had this … shiny pink Ferrari … it was once very flashy.
Ladinig says Haobsh had duped a gaggle of high-rolling buyers into financing his invention, till they learned it did not if truth be told paintings.
Ben Ladinig: He had mainly defrauded a lot of these other people and the cash dried up … When the murders have been dedicated I believe he had not up to $500 to his identify.
Prosecutors offered an in depth timeline retracing Haobsh’s actions, together with his virtual footprint, within the days sooner than and after the murders. They are saying as early as March 17 — six days sooner than the murders — he had appeared into impersonating the physician at his financial institution.
Ben Ladinig: He is in search of Asian disguises and actual flesh mask.
Natalie Morales: Like a “Venture Not possible” face masks.
Ben Ladinig: Proper. Hundred p.c. … that is his fantastical international that he lived in.
There is not any proof he ever bought a masks. However a time-stamped receipt and safety video positioned him at an Arizona gun retailer 4 days sooner than the murders — buying ammunition and two firearms, together with the alleged homicide weapon.
Ben Ladinig: — a .22 pistol with a threaded barrel … for what’s a silencer or suppressor …
On March 20, he was once again in Oceanside, California, purchasing provides sooner than using as much as the Han’s area underneath the guise of putting in the power system. As an alternative, Ladinig says Pierre Haobsh bugged Henry Han’s pc with a spyware and adware app known as a keylogger.
Ben Ladinig: What keyloggers do is each stroke, each click on of the mouse, each navigation web page you cross, it paperwork it all.
To their marvel, investigators additionally discovered the keylogger on Pierre Haobsh’s computer. On March 21, whilst Haobsh was once nonetheless on the Han’s house, the keylogger had recorded chilling seek phrases on his computer.
Ben Ladinig: What a part of the cranium is extra penetrable? … What ammunition can be higher …
Natalie Morales: As a visitor in Dr. Han’s area –
Ben Ladinig: A visitor— he’d been staying there –
Natalie Morales: — for the 2 nights sooner than … Making plans, this execution-style homicide.
Ben Ladinig: Sure.
Pierre Haobsh left the Han place of abode on March 22, however prosecutors allege he went again round 4 a.m. the following morning to hold out the murders. They are saying later that day he started frantically looking to siphon cash from Henry Han’s accounts.
Ben Ladinig: He is the usage of telephones. … He is the usage of faux electronic mail accounts. He is doing a lot of these issues from … private figuring out knowledge of Dr. Han’s that he stole previous that week.
A Chase fraud alert had flagged an tried fee for $72,000. In the meantime, Pierre Haobsh additionally rented that massive truck he allegedly drove to the crime scene hoping to transport the our bodies.
Ben Ladinig: There are black and whites everywhere that area. … The crime scene’s being processed.
The Palumbos say the assembly they have been meant to have with Henry Han simply hours after he was once murdered had foiled Pierre Haobsh’s plans.
Marla Palumbo: He concept … that he had that complete day to wash up his mess sooner than Henry can be overlooked.
Mark Palumbo: He wasn’t speedy sufficient.
Marla Palumbo: I believe we screwed it up for him, luckily.
That is when prosecutors say he fled, using south towards Oceanside. Ladinig argues Pierre Haobsh’s next searches betray his accountable sense of right and wrong: “is automotive searched getting into tijuana”; “How Crime Scene Investigation Works“; and “how lengthy do fingerprints take to procedure”. Extremely, he even consulted a web based psychic named Rely Marco and requested him “will I am getting causght for what I did?”
Ben Ladinig: And Rely Marco replies, smartly, what did you do, Pierre?
Pierre Haobsh by no means gave Rely Marco a proof, however at the stand, he could not forestall speaking.
Pierre Haobsh Tells an Outlandish Tale at the Stand
Christine Voss: This was once a tricky case … however that did not trade the truth that Pierre was once entitled to a full of life protection.
Protection Lawyer Christine Voss was once in an abnormal place.
Christine Voss: This was once a truly smartly investigated case. … As a result of my shopper sought after to have a tribulation and sought after me to show each stone, I did.
Flip each stone and lift any conceivable affordable doubt.
Natalie Morales: You argued that there have been components offered that have been improbable … unprovable and easily unimaginable, the ones have been your phrases.
Christine Voss: Yeah.
Voss expressed issues that the alleged homicide weapon and silencer present in Haobsh’s automotive did not fit up.
Christine Voss: It completely didn’t hook up with the firearm that they believed was once the homicide weapon.
She seized on discrepancies within the location knowledge from Haobsh’s automotive and contact that the prosecution had utilized in its timeline.
Christine Voss: He may just now not most likely had been in San Diego and Santa Barbara concurrently, or Thousand Oaks and Santa Barbara concurrently. However that is what the GPS knowledge confirmed.
And she or he attacked the credibility of the prosecution’s celebrity witness, TJ Direda. Voss puzzled why Direda waited just about two days to touch government, and argued in that point, he will have gotten information about the crime scene that the prosecution claimed handiest the killer knew.
Christine Voss: It was once now not the most efficient saved crime scene … he was once making more than a few telephone calls after he heard in regards to the demise of Dr. Han …
However Voss concedes a lot of Direda’s testimony was once corroborated through the proof.
Ben Ladinig: This situation was once over inside the first 72 hours.
Santa Barbara Impartial/Ryan P. Cruz
If truth be told, the one witness who equipped testimony that somebody instead of Pierre Haobsh was once the killer was once Pierre Haobsh. Throughout 3 days at the stand, he repeated the action-packed account he’d given detectives about having shootouts with shadowy figures. Now he mentioned he was once positive they have been despatched through the Division of Power.
Natalie Morales: It seems like there’d be a path of our bodies … However but, is there evidence of this path of our bodies any place on your wisdom?
Christine Voss: No. … which additional made him imagine it was once the Division of Power …
And what about all that proof investigators discovered?
Ben Ladinig: The DOE … planted them … it is all a body, all that stuff is framed. The banking stuff, body task. … What is in my automotive, body task.
Christine Voss: It was once tough for me to embody Pierre’s testimony.
Natalie Morales: Do you suppose he himself believed one of the issues … he was once pronouncing have been true?
Christine Voss: Oh yeah, for sure.
Samantha Spidell: He was once obsessive about the federal government.
Samantha Spidell attests there have been some kernels of fact in his tales.
Samantha Spidell: Pierre mentions that his dad had ties to the CIA … And I may just inform that he … sought after his dad’s … approval.
When his father died in 2023, his obituary said he was once, “a key participant in clandestine Central Intelligence Company operations throughout the Nineteen Eighties.” Pierre Haobsh additionally informed Spidell that his sister was once going to celebrity in a fact TV display.
Samantha Spidell: She were given solid on a newlyweds fact display … and Pierre was once gonna be in it … come to determine that was once true.
If truth be told, each Haobsh and his father made appearances on the second one season of the Bravo TV collection “Newlyweds, The First 12 months.” Pierre was once even proven giving his brother-in-law a cooking lesson.
However Prosecutor Ben Ladinig argued any grains of authenticity in Haobsh’s lifestyles have been a ways outweighed through deceit.
Natalie Morales: You known as him “a mendacity liar who lies about mendacity.”
Ben Ladinig: Proper … Lie, lie, lie, lie masses of lies we discovered on him. … His lifestyles was once a con.
On Nov. 24, 2021, Pass judgement on Brian Hill would get the case. None of Pierre Haobsh’s members of the family attended his trial. The pass judgement on made his ruling: accountable on all counts.
Natalie Morales: The pass judgement on, when he issued his ruling, mentioned … his determination was once past a shadow of a doubt, completely surely of Pierre Haobsh’s guilt.
Ben Ladinig: Yeah … very sufficient to listen to that.
Christine Voss: I wasn’t stunned.
Natalie Morales: And what was once Pierre’s response upon listening to that ruling?
Christine Voss: Smartly, he was once visibly disenchanted.
Isaac Hernandez, Mercury Press Inc./Isaiah Oregon
On April 15, 2022, Pierre Haobsh was once sentenced to 3 lifestyles phrases with out the potential of parole. It was once little convenience to these nonetheless mourning Henry, Jennie and Emily.
Don Goldberg: I do not know how there truly might be justice.
Isaiah Oregon: He is nonetheless alive … and — and they are now not. … He took treasured moments that … we’re going to by no means get. (wipe tears from his eyes)
Marla Palumbo: I need him to really feel each ache conceivable for what he did.
Mark Palumbo: No longer sufficient dangerous issues can occur for him.
Just about a decade after the murders, the injuries are nonetheless uncooked.
Isaiah Oregon: It is exhausting to think about them.
Dr. Glenn Miller: He was once a truly excellent guy. … you do not substitute a Henry Han. No.
Don Goldberg: Just about each day I recall to mind Henry and Jennie and Emily. … There is an outdated … word that … a excellent guy and a excellent circle of relatives lives for restricted time, however a excellent identify shall are living without end … They lived too quick … however … their identify lives on without end.
Haobsh’s conviction was once upheld through the California Courtroom of Attraction in January 2025.
He additionally petitioned the U.S. Ideal Courtroom to liberate him. The Courtroom denied his petition.
On Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, TJ Direda died.
Produced through Gayane Keshishyan Mendez. Greg Fisher is the improvement manufacturer. Iris Carreras and Hannah Vair are the sphere manufacturers. Ken Blum and Diana Modica are the editors. Cameron Rubner is the affiliate manufacturer. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior manufacturer. Nancy Kramer is the chief tale editor. Judy Tygard is the chief manufacturer.















