An “intelligent manipulator” who murdered her parents then lived alongside their bodies for four years while spending their money has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years. Virginia McCullough poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks in June 2019.
A day later she also beat her 71-year-old mother Lois McCullough with a hammer and fatally stabbed her. Chelmsford Crown Court heard the 36-year-old hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions. The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns for Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police. The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments.
It was found that McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence. Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15, 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them. She pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court to murdering her parents between June 17 and June 20, 2019, and was sentenced at the same court on Friday.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually. It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink and put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe. McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.” She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer that she said “will still have blood on it”. Essex Police said documents found at the address “built a picture of a woman who was trying desperately to keep her parents from discovering the depth of the financial black hole she continued to dig, while giving them false assurances about her employment and future prospects”.
Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby, of Essex Police, said: “Virginia McCullough murdered her parents in cold blood. Her actions were considered, meticulous and carried out in such a way as to conceal what she had done for as long as possible.
“These were the actions of someone who had taken time to plan and carry out the murder of her parents in the interest of self-preservation and personal gain, before living within metres of the bodies of her two victims for a number of years. Throughout the course of our investigation, we have built a picture of the vast levels of deceit, betrayal and fraud she engaged in.
“It was on a shocking and monumental scale. McCullough lied about almost every aspect of her life, maintaining a charade to deceive everyone close to her and clearly taking advantage of her parents’ goodwill.
“She is an intelligent manipulator who chose to kill her parents callously, without a thought for them or those who continue to suffer as a result of their loss. The details of this case shock and horrify even the most experienced of murder detectives, let alone any right-thinking member of the public.
“It therefore follows that the wider family of John and Lois, understandably, could never have guessed or anticipated that McCullough would be capable of undertaking these murders before committing herself to this level of deceit. They have been left utterly devastated by the circumstances of this case and they continue to feel the loss of John and Lois each and every day.
“This process, from the finding of John and Lois’ remains to the unravelling of McCullough’s web of lies, has taken a huge toll on the wider family network. With this sentence and with all that we have uncovered throughout our investigation, we hope they can now start to find a way forward with their lives.”
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address. She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”