A Maryland Couple In a 3-Way Relationship With Their Roommate Got Into a Crack-Fueled Clash With Her. Then They Strangled and Dismembered Their Shared Lover.

A Maryland man and woman will spend the next 40 years behind bars after killing and dismembering their roommate and shared lover in 2017.

On May 26, the Anne Arundel County State Attorney’s Office announced that Christina Harnish and William Rice were sentenced to 40 years in prison for the death of Megan Tilman after they pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder.

On Nov. 1, 2017, relatives of Tilman reported her missing to the Annapolis Police Department after not hearing from her since Sept. 26, 2017.

On Oct. 17, 2017, officers from the Anne Arundel County Police Department received a call about potential human remains in a bay in Shady Side. Skeletal remains were found and investigators determined the victim died by homicide, but they could not identify the victim at the time.

Detectives used DNA samples from Tilman’s relatives to compare to the remains found in Shady Side and the victim was positively identified as Tilman in April 2019.

Officials said Harnish and Rice moved in with Tilman and her mother and “relied on their financial support.” However, Tilman disappeared after she stopped giving them money.

Tilman’s ex-husband told authorities he received “suspicious text messages” from Tilman's number and noticed social media posts that were “distinctly different from her normal communications.”

After Tilman’s disappearance, Rice and Harnish fled to Arizona, where they were arrested in January 2022.

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According to The Baltimore Sun, Tilman, Rice and Harnish were in a three-way relationship. On the day Tilman died, she and Rice reportedly got into a physical fight after she broke his glasses. Harnish punched Tilman and Rice started choking her. Harnish then covered Tilman’s mouth and nose until she died.

The attorneys for Harnish and Rice argued they were drunk and high on crack cocaine when they killed Tilman.