Mississippi Slayings Hit Home

When Michael and Rebecca Hargon and their 4-year-old son vanished from their home here on Valentine’s Day, their extended families closed ranks, determined to find out what was behind their disappearance.

This week they got a grim answer: Authorities said it was family.

Investigators said all three were killed by Earnest Lee Hargon, Michael’s 43-year-old cousin. He was charged Monday with three counts of capital murder, on top of charges of possessing methamphetamine and an assault weapon.

Officials found the bodies Monday in Covington County, about 75 miles south of the family’s home.

Authorities would not speculate on a motive, but one Hargon cousin said Earnest Lee Hargon, a truck driver, had grown bitter toward his relatives.

Michael Hargon, 27, had just inherited a 50-acre farm from his uncle, Charles Hargon, who had had a falling-out with his adopted son, Earnest Lee. Charles had disinherited him a few weeks before he died.

“Uncle Charles kind of took the place of Mike’s dad, and Mike took the place of Earnest Lee,” said the cousin, Louis Fischer, 41. “It’s not the land. It’s probably just jealousy.”

The Hargons had lived in an isolated spot in this town of 1,400 people -- among massive, lichen-covered oaks and fields of dark-red cotton plants, with shreds of white hanging from their branches.

On Feb. 14, a neighbor drove by the Hargons’ home and noticed two things: The front door was ajar, and so was the driver’s side door of Michael Hargon’s pickup. In the home, family members found signs of everyday life: Rebecca Hargon’s engagement ring and wedding band rested on a dresser, dishes from the previous night’s dinner were in the sink, and the family dog was padding around, Fischer said.

Guns and money were undisturbed, according to news reports. Asthma medication for their son, James Patrick, was on a night table.

Only the Hargons were gone.

The home had been the site of a slaying 10 years ago. Michael Hargon’s father, who ran a general store out of the building, was shot to death during a robbery that netted less than $100, said Yazoo County Dist. Atty. James Powell.

Jeremy Littleton, who lives down the road, remembers buying candy, bread and chips in the store -- and then seeing it closed.

“A few years later, the son came back and made it into a house,” said Littleton, 22.

After the Hargons’ disappearance, police found signs in the square brick house that pointed to violence: blood on the floor, a bullet hole in the wall, casings from a .22-caliber weapon.

On Friday, Powell said, investigators got their big break. The next day authorities announced that they planned to file felony charges against Earnest Lee Hargon.

Wesley Evans, Hargon’s court-appointed attorney, said he could not comment on specific aspects of the case.

“I am concerned about pretrial publicity at this point, and I just want to make sure that the judicial process works and that Mr. Hargon gets his day in court,” Evans said.

Acquaintances in Taylorsville, Miss. -- where Earnest Lee Hargon lives with his wife, a veterinarian -- were shocked by his arrest.

David Tadlock hired Hargon to haul cattle at his stockyard for four straight years. “I couldn’t see any flaw in anything he did,” Tadlock said. “If he liked you, he’d do anything in the world for you.”

Lisa Ainsworth, Hargon’s wife, did not return phone calls Tuesday. Ron Walker, the mayor of Taylorsville, said Ainsworth’s parents were “distraught” over the charges.

Both relatives and acquaintances said that Earnest Lee Hargon and his father, a rancher, had a stormy relationship.

“They were never too close to each other, you know,” Tadlock said. “Mr. Hargon would always laugh and say, ‘I wonder what this place will be like when Earnest Lee gets it.’ ”

During the last three years of Charles Hargon’s life, the two men didn’t speak, said Fischer, the Hargon cousin. As he neared death, Charles Hargon asked Earnest Lee to visit, Fischer said, but the younger man refused.

“All Charles wanted to do was talk to him,” Fischer said. “All it would’ve took is a phone call or a visit.”

When Charles Hargon died, he left the ranch to Michael, who planned to keep cattle on the property, Fischer said.

Earnest Lee “may have the last name of Hargon, but Hargon blood never ran through his veins,” Diana Hargon, Michael’s mother, told the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. “It was not a Hargon that killed a Hargon family. It was whatever runs through him. I don’t know what that is. I can’t understand him.”

Powell, the Yazoo County prosecutor, said it’s been 20 years since a jury here imposed the death penalty, but he hoped the Hargon case would be different.

Fischer said Hargon family members agreed.

“There is no peace right now,” Fischer said. “It’ll be a long time before there is peace. When I think about the baby, the fury and the hate bubbles out. For a baby-killer there’s no punishment severe enough.”

Times researcher Rennie Sloan in Atlanta contributed to this report.