ANNAPOLIS, Md. — She disappeared in the winter of 2017, and even though her remains had turned up in southern Anne Arundel County, it took 17 months before DNA evidence confirmed Megan Tilman wasn’t just missing.
She’d been murdered.
Almost five years after her killing, Shannon Perry learned her niece’s alleged killers had been arrested.
RELATED: Two arrested in connection to the murder of Megan Tilman
“We kind of knew we were getting close to an arrest, but it actually happening was pretty amazing. It kind of… we’re able to breathe again,” said Perry.
Christina Harnish and William Rice are behind bars where they moved to in Arizona.
They had been Tilman’s roommates.
Perry says her niece had known Rice since middle school and the couple was engaged to be married when Harnish moved in with them in what became a love triangle.
“I think she trusted him more, because she had known him as a kid, but he was not a trustworthy person,” said Perry, “And I tried to point that out to her. I said, ‘Megan, I haven’t even met this man and I’ve detected a couple of lies that he’s told you.’”
Lies and deceipt, not to mention an opportunity to take advantage of their roommate.
“There was a little bit of money involved,” said Perry, “They were moving out of the townhouse and I had told Megan that she could have a certain amount of money to get set up. Well, I don’t really want to go there, but there was a little bit of money involved and by that time, I think they were using drugs, and she might have just gotten in their way.”
Tilman’s family never had any doubt about who was responsible for her death, and as the weeks and months turned into years waiting for word of an arrest, the pain continued.
Police asked them to remain patient as they built their case.
“The two that have been arrested for this offense had been on detective’s radar from the beginning, and like I said, sometimes it’s that old movie line, ‘It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove,’” said Anne Arundel County Police Lt. Jacklyn Davis.
And now Tilman’s family moves a big step closer to justice for Megan’s murder.
“These are people that took someone else’s life, and they need to be held responsible for that,” said Perry, “whether I can forgive them or not, but as far as… there is nothing that’s every going to bring Megan back.”
