High school teacher shares memories of Hampstead homicide victim

HAMPSTEAD, NC (WWAY) — A life taken, and a community left in disbelief.  

Earlier this month, firefighters found the body of 21-year-old Megan Dolan at a home in Hampstead. Investigators believe Megan died before the fire began, with her brother Matthew Dolan being named as the primary suspect.   

Sherry Storms is a culinary teacher at Topsail High School, and taught Megan in 2021. 

Storms said she remembers Megan well.  

“I immediately remembered her, remembered where she sat, remembered her character and remembered what a good kid she was, just a good person. Nice to adults, respectful, smart, hardworking, a kind soul,” Storms recalled.

Storms was heartbroken when she heard about Megan’s death.

“I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say,” Storms said. “So, my friend who used to teach out here, she wrote me and she asked me if I had Megan or Matthew, and I said ‘I had Megan,’ and, you know, I always kind of my breathe when someone asks me that because I’m hoping ‘please God, don’t let them be in a wreck’ or anything like that, but when I found out what it was it was so much worse. So much worse.”      

An educator’s worse nightmare, to hear the student they taught and greeted every day, now gone.  

“So the kids, I joke with them, I’m like ‘don’t tell me you’re doing crazy things because those are the things that wake me up at 2 a.m. and I worry.’ So, yeah, you definitely want the best, just like your own children. I have two grown kids and, you know, you care about them. It really is a relationship,” Storms said. 

After Megan’s death, the family started a GoFundMe to cover the cost of a funeral. Within days of posting the fundraiser, it gathered more than double its $10,000 goal.  

“I pray for that family every day. I cannot imagine as a parent what they’ve gone through,” Storms said. 

Matthew Dolan is currently fighting extradition to North Carolina, so it could be a few weeks before he is brought back to face charges.