Prosecutors said Megan Hargan killed her mother, 63-year-old business executive Pamela Hargan, and her sister, 23-year-old Helen Hargan, in McLean and then staged the crime scene to look like a murder-suicide.
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.
“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.
Source: Aimee Cho, News4 Reporter, Andrea Swalec, NBC Washington Staff, 4 WASHINGTON. Click here to view original post.