Megan Hargan has been found guilty by a Virginia jury for the murders of her mother and sister. According to court documents Megan Hargan was deep in debt and decided the best way to pay off her debts is by killing her mother and sister and staging the double murders as a murder suicide. Police arrived at the scene and found 23-year-old Helen Hargan and her mother, 63-year-old Pamela Hargan dead from gunshot wounds. Police initially thought that Helen Hargan had shot and killed Pamela Hargan before killing herself however an arrest over a year later would shake the community to the core when Megan Hargan was arrested for the double murder. Megan Hargan would be convicted of the double murder in March 2022.
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A Fairfax County jury delivered a guilty verdict Monday against a woman accused of killing her own mother and sister in 2017. Megan Hargan, 35, was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, and two counts of using a firearm in committing a felony.
In July 2017, Fairfax County Police were called to a home on the 6700 block of Dean Drive, in McLean, Virginia, after receiving a 911 call that a person may have been murdered. When police got to the scene, they found two bodies inside the home: 23-year-old Helen Hargan and her mother, 63-year-old Pamela Hargan
Detectives initially believed that Helen Hargan had killed her mother with a rifle before killing herself.
However, in November 2018, police would make an arrest in the case that would change the investigation completely.
Authorities charged Megan Hargan, of Monongalia County, West Virginia, with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in committing a felony. Fairfax County Police accused Hargan of killing her sister and mother and staging the incident to appear as a murder-suicide.
In 2018, Pamela’s sister, Tammy North, said she felt Hargan was motivated by jealousy and greed.
“I believed from day one that she did it,” she said.
North added that Pamela Hargan had bought Helen a house she was due to move into just before the pair were killed.
“Megan Hargan attempted fraudulent money transfers from her mother’s account on the day of the murders,” said Fairfax County Police Department Major Ed O’Carroll.
Now, Hargan has the choice to have her sentencing determined by the jury, or to have a judge decide her sentence.
“We in Fairfax County have no tolerance for such disregard for human life and I am committed to addressing crimes of this magnitude with the seriousness they merit,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said following the jury’s verdict. “We will be asking for a substantial sentence that reflects the seriousness of the crime.”
According to Descano’s office, Megan Hargan pleaded her innocence throughout the case. She was represented by public defenders. WUSA9 reached out to Megan Hargan’s representation for comment but has yet to receive a response.
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A McLean, Virginia, woman is guilty of killing her own mother and sister inside their home nearly five years ago, a jury ruled Monday.
Megan Hargan was found guilty on all counts, including first-degree murder, in the shooting deaths of her mother, 63-year-old business executive Pamela Hargan, and her sister, 23-year-old Helen Hargan.
Megan Hargan leaned her head on her attorney’s shoulder as the verdict was read. Her sister Ashley Hargan, who testified against her, cried.
The jury is expected to recommend a sentence later Monday after hearing more evidence. Ashley Hargan will speak. Twenty years to life in prison is possible for each of the two first-degree murder convictions.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said prosecutors would seek a significant sentence.
“We in Fairfax County have no tolerance for such disregard for human life, and I am committed to addressing crimes of this magnitude with the seriousness they merit,” Descano said in a statement. “We will be asking for a substantial sentence that reflects the seriousness of the crime.”
Prosecutors and Megan Hargan’s defense attorneys laid out dramatically different accounts of what happened on July 14, 2017.
Prosecutors argued money was Megan Hargan’s motive and that she attempted fraudulent money transfers from her mother’s accounts on the day of the killings and the previous day, as she closed on a new home.
Defense attorneys described a murder-suicide, claiming that Helen Hargan shot her mother and then herself.
Crime scene tape surrounded the Hargan home in the 6700 block of Dean Drive the day the mother’s and daughter’s bodies were found. Fairfax County police discovered a gruesome scene that included a rifle wedged between Helen Hargan’s legs.
Police initially described the women’s deaths as a murder-suicide. But the investigation suggested a more chilling family tragedy.
Police arrested Megan Hargan in November 2018 — more than a year after the killings — and said they had determined that she gunned down her mother and sister and then staged the scene to frame her sister as the shooter.
Megan Hargan’s defense attorneys argued that case was a murder-suicide and Helen Hargan was responsible. Helen Hargan called her boyfriend and said Megan killed her mom, attorneys said in closing arguments. Then, they argue, she killed herself.
Prosecutors pointed to the single, point-blank gunshot wound in the top of Helen’s head. She was found in a bathroom with the .22-caliber rifle wedged between her legs, with the muzzle pointing up.
“Someone put the gun to the top of her head and pulled the trigger, and it went straight down to her neck. That’s how you get a wound like that,” the prosecutor said.
Megan Hargan’s defense attorneys told jurors that Helen put the gun to her own head and fired using her toes. She wore a sock to avoid leaving evidence on the trigger, they said.
The defense argued Helen was upset after her mom cancelled plans to give the 24-year-old a new house, and because her mother disapproved of Helen’s boyfriend. Also, another sister, Ashley Hargan, said in a recorded police interview that Pamela Hargan had suspected Helen of drug use and had planned to hold an intervention. She told detectives her youngest sister had previously attempted suicide.
Megan Hargan’s young daughter was in the home at the time of the shootings.
