A McLean, Virginia, woman was found guilty of killing her mother and sister after her case was heard for a second time.
In a verdict Friday, a jury found Megan Hargan guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the 2017 shooting deaths of her mother, 63-year-old business executive Pamela Hargan, and her sister, 23-year-old Helen Hargan. Prosecutors said Megan Hargan staged the crime scene to look like a murder-suicide committed by her sister.
Megan Hargan was found guilty last year but a judge threw out the verdict after a juror was found to have done outside research, amounting to jury misconduct. The juror said she used a rifle at home to try to determine if it was physically possible for Helen Hargan to have killed herself, Megan Hargan’s defense attorneys said.
The second guilty verdict comes amid years of heartbreak for the family, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said.
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“When the first conviction was vacated, I promised that my office would continue to fight for justice for the Hargan family and for the community, and today we have obtained that outcome. Today’s guilty verdict has been a long time coming, and I hope [that] Pam and Helen’s loved ones will be able to take one step closer to healing,” he said in a statement.
Prosecutors argued that money was Megan Hargan’s motive and that she attempted more than $400,000 in 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.
Megan Hargan has maintained that she's innocent.
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A tragedy in McLean
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 Hargan 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 Hargan’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 Hargan 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 Hargan was upset after her mom cancelled plans to give the 24-year-old a new house, and because her mother disapproved of her boyfriend. Another sister, Ashley Hargan, said in a recorded police interview that Pamela Hargan had suspected Helen Hargan 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.
Megan Hargan is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 26. She faces up to life in prison.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
