Mother-Daughter ‘Murder-Suicide’ Was a Double-Murder Committed by Sister, Officials Say

It initially appeared that 23-year-old Helen Hargan may have murdered her 63-year-old mother, Pamela Hargan, before she killed herself, but police announced on Nov. 9 that Helen’s sister, 35-year-old Megan Hargan, was charged in both deaths.

“We have arrested 35-year-old Megan Hargan for the murders of her sister Helen Hargan and mother Pamela Hargan in 2017,” wrote police in Fairfax County, Virginia.

“She was taken into custody this morning in West Virginia. Detectives are currently interviewing her,” officials said.

Megan Hargan was charged in both deaths. Fairfax Police

The mother and daughter were found shot dead at Pamela’s home on July 14, 2017. Officials believed it was a murder-suicide, but in a new development, officials realized the crime scene was staged.

Fairfax County Police Maj. Ed O'Carroll said Hargan tried to get money from her mother’s bank account via fraudulent means the same day they were found dead. She also attempted to obtain money on the previous day, CBS News reported.

“I’ve known that it was coming, and now it’s here. It was like it all blew up in your face,” Tammy North, Pamela Hagan’s sister, was quoted by WUSA-9 as saying. “Oh yeah, there’s never been any question. I believed from day one that she did it,” added North.

Money and jealousy are two motivating factors in the movie, North believes. Pamela had purchased a house for Helen before they were killed.

“It was made to look one way,” Major Ed O’Caroll, commander of the department’s major crimes bureau, told WTOP. He added: “Our detectives are smart and we realized that that necessarily wasn’t the case, and we followed up on every lead.”

Police said the case is active, and more charges are could be pending, CBS reported.

“I will say that detectives were open-minded from the minute they arrived on the scene till yesterday when we got word of the indictment being authorized,” he said. “Every lead was followed up on.”

Reporters asked O'Carroll why it was initially described as a murder-suicide.

O'Connor said the police media relations team “did their best to share the way it looked that day,” he told WTOP. He said later: “We’ve got a lot of information that comes out from a breaking news event such as this tragedy in our community. We do the best we can to share with our community what we know at the time, what information’s coming from the scene.”

Officials recovered the gun that they believe was used in the killings, O’Carroll added. Fairfax County police at Hargan’s home in West Virginia and are trying to find more evidence, he said.

Megan Hargan and her daughter, 6, were living in the home with her mother and sister during the killings. Megan and her daughter moved to Monongalia County, West Virginia to live with her husband after the incident, WUSA reported.

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