A Virginia woman, Megan Hargan, has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted for the second time for the 2017 murders of her mother and sister. The Hargan Family tragedy unfolded in their McLean, Virginia home, where Megan Hargan staged the scene to appear as a murder-suicide committed by her younger sister.
Megan Hargan, 41, faced a retrial in 2022 due to juror misconduct in her initial conviction. However, in September, six years after the deaths of Pamela Hargan, 63, and Helen Hargan, 24, she was once again found guilty on two counts of murder.
On July 14, 2017, the Fairfax County home became the site of a horrific crime. Pamela and Helen Hargan were fatally shot in their upscale residence where they lived with Megan and her young daughter. Prosecutors successfully argued that Megan Hargan was responsible for shooting both her mother and sister, meticulously arranging the scene to falsely implicate Helen, a recent Southern Methodist University graduate, in a murder-suicide.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749×0:751×2)/Megan-Hargan-with-her-mother-Pamela-Hargan-and-sister-Helen-Hargan-69b4cb3c808a4f0b9469a554cb6c59f1.jpg)
Fairfax County law enforcement officials stated that the motive behind the Hargan family murders was rooted in jealousy. At the time of the murders, Megan Hargan was in the process of purchasing a home in West Virginia. Prosecutors revealed that Megan grew resentful because her mother, Pamela Hargan, a successful executive at a defense contracting firm, was providing financial assistance to Helen for a house purchase, but not extending the same help to Megan.
Evidence presented by the Commonwealth attorney Steve Descano showed that on the day preceding the murders, Megan Hargan attempted to fraudulently transfer $400,000 from her mother’s bank account to her own. This transaction was flagged and blocked. It is alleged that after fatally shooting Pamela, Megan Hargan again tried to execute the same fraudulent transfer before proceeding upstairs to murder Helen.
“The actions of Megan Hargan in July of 2017 are beyond comprehension for most individuals,” stated Descano. “In the sanctuary of her mother’s home, she made a devastating and irreversible choice – one that has irrevocably damaged her family and profoundly shaken the community. First-degree murder carries the severest penalty under Virginia law, and [Friday’s] sentencing appropriately reflects the enormity of the crimes committed by the defendant against the Hargan family.”
For each of the first-degree murder convictions, Megan Hargan received consecutive life sentences. An additional six years were added to her sentence for related gun charges.
Megan Hargan’s initial conviction in November 2022 was overturned when a judge determined that a juror had engaged in improper conduct.
Reports from NBC Washington detailed how a juror informed a defense team investigator about conducting an unauthorized experiment at home during the trial. This juror tested the defense’s theory that Helen Hargan could have used her toe to shoot herself with a .22 rifle. Concluding that it was impossible, the juror shared these findings with the jury, which ultimately led to the unanimous guilty verdict against Megan Hargan.
Despite the vacated initial conviction, prosecutors immediately announced their intention to retry Megan Hargan, which culminated in her second guilty verdict in 2023, ensuring justice for the Hargan family.
