System.Web.HttpException: Server cannot append header after HTTP headers have been sent

I have a web application that uses jquery AJAX client side and WebMethod server side to communicate. My WebMethods are declared on individual aspx.cs pages and are being consumed by jquery AJAX from there. I'm returning JSON object from my WebMethods by using return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(myObject, Formatting.Indented);.

I'm using Owin authentication for authenticating into the application. I have configured ELMAH for error reporting and I intermittently get error reported in the title. The stack trace looks like this:

System.Web.HttpException (0x80004005): Server cannot append header after HTTP headers have been sent.
   at System.Web.HttpHeaderCollection.SetHeader(String name, String value, Boolean replace)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb.CallHeaders.AspNetResponseHeaders.Set(String key, String[] values)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Infrastructure.ChunkingCookieManager.AppendResponseCookie(IOwinContext context, String key, String value, CookieOptions options)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Security.Cookies.CookieAuthenticationHandler.<ApplyResponseGrantAsync>d__f.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Security.Infrastructure.AuthenticationHandler.<ApplyResponseCoreAsync>d__b.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Security.Infrastructure.AuthenticationHandler.<ApplyResponseAsync>d__8.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Security.Infrastructure.AuthenticationHandler.<TeardownAsync>d__5.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Security.Infrastructure.AuthenticationMiddleware`1.<Invoke>d__0.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb.IntegratedPipeline.IntegratedPipelineContextStage.<RunApp>d__5.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task)
   at Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb.IntegratedPipeline.IntegratedPipelineContext.<DoFinalWork>d__2.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
   at Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb.IntegratedPipeline.StageAsyncResult.End(IAsyncResult ar)
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.AsyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStepImpl(IExecutionStep step)
   at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

This is what my aspx WebMethods look like:

[WebMethod] 
public static object myFunction() {
      var myObject = new Object();
      return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(myObject, Formatting.Indented); 
}

Any idea what I could be doing wrong here or how I can fix this?