Jealous daughter killed mum and sister and staged murder-suicide

Megan Hargan wanted money to buy a house and was willing to murder her family for it

- GAIL SHORTLAND

Ambition and hard work had paid off for Pamela Hargan, 63. After working her way up to become a well-paid senior human resource executive at a top US aerospace corporation, she landed a role at a defence contractor.

She owned a $1.3 million (£1 million) home in McLean, Virginia, and enjoyed a life of luxury holidays and an estimated wealth of $8 million. But her priority was always her daughters, Megan, Ashley and Helen.

In 2017, two of the three daughters were back living with divorcee Pamela. Helen, 24, had recently moved home after graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. During her studies, she’d worked as a waitress and had fallen in love with her colleague, Carlos Gutierrez. Now Pamela was having a house built for Helen in northern Virginia.

Megan, then 34, was married, but said her husband was in the military, so she and their seven-year-old daughter lived with Pamela. The long-distance marriage raised questions, but Pamela’s loyalty was unwavering.

On 14 July 2017, Helen’s boyfriend Carlos called the police emergency number from Texas to say that he couldn’t contact his girlfriend and he was concerned.

“I think someone might be dead,” he said. He explained that Helen had called him at 11.30am, crying and saying that Megan had killed their mum. When Carlos asked Helen where her sister was, she told him she was trying to sort out a money transaction.

The police went to Pamela’s home and found her dead, her body face down and covered with a blanket. She’d been shot in the head. Helen was dead on the bathroom floor with a rifle between her legs, its barrel facing towards her. She had been killed by a gunshot wound to her head.