Virginia woman allegedly staged deaths of sister and mom as murder-suicide

Police arrested a 35-year-old woman who allegedly killed her mother and younger sister, in a case that authorities initially ruled a murder-suicide.

The suspect, identified as Megan Hargan, was arrested in West Virginia more than a year after the murder, as reported by PEOPLE.

She was charged with the murders of her mother, Pamela Hargan, 63, and her younger sister, Helen Hargan, 23. The victims were shot to death in their $1.3-million home in McLean, Virginia on July 14, 2017.

Fairfax Country Police Major Ed O’Carroll described the crime as “domestic violence at its worst.”

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GRISLY MURDER

On the day of the murders, police received a 911 call reporting that someone might have been killed in the home.

A police team rushed to the home and found the Pamela and Helen dead. The older woman’s body was found in the laundry home while her dead daughter was found in an upstairs bedroom.

Their investigation at the time pointed to a murder-suicide, with Helen allegedly killing her mother before shooting herself.

Police investigators later discovered, after a closer look at the evidence, that the scene was staged and made to appear to be a murder-suicide.

O’Carroll now alleged that Megan had attempted fraudulent money transfers from her mother’s account on the day of the killings and the day before.

SIBLING RIVALRY?

After her arrest, Megan was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of the crime.

Tammy North, Pamela’s sister, said that Megan was jealous because her mother bought a home for Helen.

This is not the first case of murder in a family that shocked the world. Early this year, a man named Christopher Watts was accused of murdering his wife and two daughters. A video of him in 2012 talking about rescuing relationships recently surfaced.

The nine-minute YouTube video showed Watts giving a PowerPoint presentation that he called "Communication Speech, Relationship Deterioration, and Repair."

He said in the clip, "Sometimes you find your partner no longer attractive physically or in their personality."