By Grâçia Ada Obi
A daughter who murdered her parents then lived alongside the bodies for four years told the police officers that finally arrested her: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother before hiding their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Pump Hill, Chelmsford UK.
The 36-year-old hid then told persistent lies to cover her tracks, Chelmsford Crown Court heard, including telling doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or travelling.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and continued to spend their pensions after their deaths. When her web of deceit was finally untangled in September 2023, officers forced entry to their home and McCullough confessed her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
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.”
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. At the Police Station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon,” and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it.”
McCullough 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. She was jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years.
Mr Justice Johnson, sentencing, said that she “span and maintained” an “elaborate, extensive and enduring web of deceit” over months and years. He said he was sure the offences involved a “substantial degree of both pre-meditation and planning.”
He said that over a period of three months, McCullough “accumulated a large amount of prescription drugs” and in May 2019 she “bought a knife as well as implements to crush and separate tablets.”
“These were considered acts of aggression following months of thought and planning,” the Judge said.
Concerns for Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were first raised in September 2023 by a General Practitioner (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 then became a murder investigation – leading officers to force entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023.
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.”