‘We caught the bad guy’: McCullough's confession caught on police body camera
A woman who murdered her parents and lived next to their bodies for four years in her parents’ home has been sentenced to life in prison.
In September 2023, the bodies of Lois and John McCullough, aged 71 and 70, were found in sleeping bags at their home in Great Baddow, Essex.
Virginia McCullough, 36, admitted to poisoning her father and placing him in a “homemade mausoleum” and stabbing her mother to death in June 2019.
The defendant, who told police he was “cheerful and at least we caught the bad guy," will have to serve at least 36 years in prison before being considered for release.
She racked up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names, and continued to use their pension even after her parents’ deaths.
Essex Police said documents found in the couple‘s home showed that the couple were “desperate to keep their parents from knowing the depths of the financial black hole they had dug, giving false assurances about their employment and future prospects.” It depicts a woman who was working hard.”
McCollough, who previously admitted two counts of murder, showed no emotion as he was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court.
Detective Constable Rob Kirby, Essex Police’s major crime chief, said the case had “shocked and horrified” even the force's most experienced homicide detectives.
He said McCullough had created a web of lies on a “shocking and extraordinary scale” and described her as an “intelligent and skilled manipulator”.
A missing persons investigation was launched in September 2023 after the McCulloughs’ doctor expressed concern that they had not been contacted.
Police became suspicious because the couple’s daughter was constantly making excuses about her parents’ whereabouts, and later executed a warrant at her parents’ home.
Handouts to families
The bodies of Lois and John McCullough were wrapped in sleeping bags and hidden in different parts of the house.
Footage from the body shows McCullough admitting to the murder to the arresting officer and telling him: “Cheer up, at least we caught the bad guy.”
She confessed to police on June 17, 2019, how she created the “drug cocktail” to poison her parents, days after using her father as a “guinea pig” to test the concoction.
Prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC said McCullough poisoned her father by crushing prescription drugs and putting them in his alcoholic drink.
The effect was fatal for Mr. McCullough, but Mrs. McCullough was given a weaker dose and was simply sedated.
essex police
Virginia McCullough lived with her parents’ bodies for four years.
The next morning, McCollough beat his mother with a hammer and stabbed her multiple times in the chest with a kitchen knife as she listened to the radio in bed.
She decided to kill her mother out of fear that Mr. McCullough might find out what happened.
The court heard how Mr McCullough’s body had been hidden in a “homemade mausoleum” made of stone in his study.
Mrs. McCullough’s body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag in an upstairs closet.
essex police
John McCullough’s body was hidden in a makeshift grave erected in a downstairs office.
McCullough told police: “When I was hitting her, it was like someone playing a bad xylophone, and it was happening on its own,” McCullough told police.
After the murder, the defendant went into Chelmsford city center and bought plastic gloves and a sleeping bag using his father’s bank card.
Wilding said that even after McCullough hid the bodies, she persistently lied about her parents’ whereabouts, canceling family arrangements and telling doctors and friends that her parents were sick or on vacation. .
“COVID-19 restrictions were a blessing in disguise for this defendant in pursuing the deception that his parents were still alive,” the prosecutor added.
essex police
Virginia McCullough’s term will be at least 36 years.
“It’s very dangerous.”
The court found McCullough made a profit of £149,697 as a result of killing his parents, including pensions, credit cards and the sale of assets.
“It appears that the money was not spent on expensive or luxury items and was scattered around,” Mr Wilding said, adding that the money was not spent on anything expensive or luxurious, and included $20,000 paid for online gambling between 2019 and 2023. He said it included £1,000.
In a victim impact statement, Lois McCullough’s brother Richard Butcher said his niece was “extremely dangerous” and that the incident had “eroded my faith in humanity.”
Handouts to families
Lois and John McCullough were fooled by their daughter who sold them her dreams of a future.
Sentencing him, Judge Jeremy Johnson told McCullough: “You are more concerned about money than humanity.
“Your parents had a right to feel safe in their own bed and home, and they had a right to feel safe with their daughter.
“Nevertheless, you made a complete, conscious and deliberate decision to murder each of your parents.”
