March 6, 2022
Megan Hargan is slated to stand trial Monday on two counts of first-degree murder in a case that captured widespread local attention and could last as long as six weeks. Fairfax County Police Major Ed O'Carroll summed up authorities view of events succinctly in 2018.
"This is a tragedy — domestic violence at its worst," O'Carroll said.
Hargan maintains her innocence and is pleading not guilty to all charges.
The public defenders representing Hargan declined to comment or discuss her defense, but in a filing her attorneys assert that time-stamped video evidence shows Megan Hargan's car leaving her mother's home possibly before the second killing.
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The incident played out in 2017 on July 13 and 14, with part of it captured in a series of chilling phone calls between Helen Hargan and her boyfriend.
Evidence indicates Megan Hargan called one of her mother's banks impersonating her and requested nearly $420,000 be transferred from her mother's account to a title company handling the closing of Megan's new home on July 13, according to a prosecution filing in the case.
The bank alerted Pamela Hargan, who put a freeze on the transfer, the filing states.
About 11:30 a.m. the next day, Helen Hargan's boyfriend told authorities she called him sobbing hysterically, prosecutors wrote.
Helen told her boyfriend that Megan had come into her room and told her "she just shot her mother," according to the filing. "Megan is downstairs somewhere on the computer transferring funds," Helen told her boyfriend, the filing states.
Helen's boyfriend then asked her why Megan shot the sisters' mother. Helen replied that Megan told her "she got caught doing an escort service deal" and Pamela Hargan was going to take away Megan's then 8-year-old daughter who also lived with them, according to the prosecution filing.
The boyfriend urged Helen to get Megan's daughter out of the home and call police, but Helen kept stammering, "I can't believe this," prosecutors wrote.
A short time later, Megan Hargan transferred nearly $420,000 from another bank account of her mother's to the title company handling the closing for her home, prosecutors said in the filing.
The frantic phone calls between Helen and her boyfriend continued over the next hour.
The video evidence highlighted by the defense shows Megan Hargan's car leaving the home at 12:58 p.m., according to a defense filing. The boyfriend received texts from Helen's phone after that, but prosecutors wrote in their filing they believe Megan Hargan sent the messages. The defense disputes that.
