True Crime with Rachel Shannon
Murder of NYPD Detective's Daughter SOLVED After 20 YEARS?! The Horrifying case of Megan McDonald
18 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: Who was Megan McDonald and what happened on March 14, 2003?
Hello everyone, my name is Rachel and welcome back to another true crime video. Today we are going to be discussing the case of Megan McDonald. Megan McDonald was only 20 years old when her life was taken from her on March 14th, 2003.
She was the daughter of a widely known and respected New York Police Department detective who was a part of investigating the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. He had been a part of the NYPD for 20 years and he was known as a diligent, talented detective. Meanwhile, her mother worked as a nurse.
Megan had one sister named Karen, as far as I could tell, and the family lived in Queens before moving to Orange County in New York so that they could have a house with a bigger yard for Megan to play in. Megan was described as being full of life, happiness, laughter, and love. She was the life of the party and lit up any room that she entered.
Megan loved animals, always walking around and holding her kitten in her arms. From the time that she was a little girl, she always understood how important family was to her, especially her dad. She had always been very close to her father, so when he suddenly passed away in 2002, when she was only 19 years old, she was devastated.
He died at the young age of 47 from a sudden heart attack, and obviously this sent shockwaves through the family. Those around Megan said that she had a very, very difficult time dealing with this. She couldn't wrap her head around it. It made her angry. She was so confused and this was just a very rough time for her in her life, but she used her pain to help others in any way that she could.
Megan had graduated from Burke Catholic School in 2000 and then went on to study at Orange County Community College and while attending school, She also worked as a waitress at the American Cafe restaurant in Galleria Mall in Middleton. By all accounts, even though she was dealing with the tragic death of her father, Megan was so excited to start her life.
She had just signed a lease to a new apartment, she was in a new relationship, and she was partying it up with her friends. Things were going really great for her. At 10.30am on March 13th, 2003, Megan showed up for her shift at the cafe. She worked her shift as normal and left by 3pm once her shift was over.
After her shift, she went back to her new apartment where she had just moved into that same year and she was so excited about it. Either way, one of her friends invited her to a party that was located on Greenway Terrace in the town of Wallkill, but she declined. Her ex-boyfriend named Edward had also been at that party and she didn't want to see him.
So, she said that she was going to be hanging out with her other friends in Middleton. So, by 7 30, she arrived at her friend's house in Middleton for a party that was happening there. While at the party, Megan called around to five or six different friends to see if she could get some weed for the party, but she was having trouble getting any.
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Chapter 2: What events led to Megan McDonald's disappearance?
Now, for the 20 years that followed the murder, this was really all police had in their investigation. They knew that Megan's boyfriend was the last known person to have seen her and was in the car with her that night. Then we know that Megan and her ex Edward had a falling out just days before her murder.
It's known that she did try to avoid contacting him until she was in the same area as him on the morning of March 14th. They knew that the boyfriend had the opportunity to do this because he was in such close contact with her. But it didn't really seem like he had much of a motive. Edward, he was the one that had a pretty strong motive.
It's possible that her new relationship could have angered him. He could have also still been mad about their argument or he could have been mad that she avoided contacting him until she needed him for weed. All of those things are very possible.
Over the course of 20 years, police said that they had interviewed hundreds of people spanning all the way from New York to some being all the way in Florida. They started working with the FBI and eventually put together a $20,000 reward for information in the case. They put up billboards in Middleton with a photo of Megan and a phone number for tips.
Police said that they had over 1,000 pieces of evidence, including DNA. They said they just had to hope over the years that DNA technology would lead them to answers. Her case was featured on Dateline more than once and that really gave police a push to move forward with the case.
But even though police had two really good suspects, they didn't have enough information to confidently say that either of these men were responsible for the murder beyond a reasonable doubt. But, I believe it was in 2022, police started using new technology in the case, and in early 2023, police got help from a private cybertech company to help with identifying the cell phone data.
Now, like I mentioned earlier, I believe the argument between Edward and Megan happened sometime before March 11th. As we know, the last communication with them was on March 11th, and that would make it seem like the argument is what caused them to stop. But I don't think that that was totally the case. I think that Meghan started seeing her new boyfriend before March 11th.
And I think the argument took place before March 11th as well. And I think that they were still contacting each other until that day, until maybe something made them decide that we are totally just not going to talk anymore. This was because on March 9th, 2003, Megan had received a call from a phone number, which she didn't answer. But this person left a voicemail.
In the voicemail, the caller said, quote,
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