LONDON — A British woman who killed her parents and then lived next to their bodies in makeshift graves in the family home for four years was jailed for life on Friday and told she will not be eligible for parole for 36 years.
Virginia McCullough, who spent her parents’ money and went to great lengths to cover her tracks with family and friends through a web of lies, pleaded guilty to murdering her parents in June 2019 at a preliminary hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court in southeast England.
Judge Jeremy Johnson said during sentencing that McCullough’s actions represented a “gross breach of the trust that should exist between parents and their children”.
When Essex Police raided her home in the village of Great Beddow last September, McCullough admitted that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
McCullough, 36, admitted to poisoning her father, John McCullough, 70, with prescription drugs she ground up and adding to his drinks, and a day later, she beat and fatally stabbed her mother, Lois McCullough, 71, with a hammer.
“I knew it was going to happen eventually,” she said while handcuffed in police footage released Friday. “It’s normal that I’m serving a sentence.”
After McCullough was arrested on suspicion of the double murder, she told the officer, “Cheer up, at least you caught the bad guy,” adding that “I know I don’t look 100 percent evil.”
Other body camera footage shows McCullough at the police station telling officers where they can find the hammer and kitchen knife she used to kill her mother.
According to the prosecution, McCullough kept her father in a “makeshift mausoleum” in his first-floor bedroom and study, a structure that “consisted of masonry blocks stacked together.” She also wrapped her mother’s body in a sleeping bag in the upstairs wardrobe of the property.
Between the murders and her arrest, McCullough racked up large credit card debt in her parents’ names and continued to spend on their pensions. The court heard that she canceled family arrangements and often told doctors and relatives that her parents were ill or on long trips.
Statements from the defendant’s three unnamed siblings were read out in court by prosecutor Lisa Wilding. One said “our parents were absolutely blameless victims” while another said: “Virginia always said mum and dad were fine and made up lie after lie about their day-to-day affairs.”
In September 2023, a doctor raised concerns for her parents’ welfare and the Essex County Public Safety Team referred them to the police.
Judge Johnson said McCullough maintained a “sophisticated, extensive and sustained web of deception” over months and years and that he believed there was a “significant degree of both premeditation and planning” given that she stockpiled a large number of prescriptions. drugs and bought a knife and tools for crushing and splitting pills.
Essex Police said documents found at the address painted a picture of a woman “desperately trying” to keep her parents from finding out about the dire state of her finances while giving “false assurances” about her job and future prospects.
“She is a clever manipulator who chose to callously kill her parents with no thought for them or those who continue to suffer as a result of their loss,” Superintendent Rob Kirby said. “The details of this case shock and horrify even the most experienced homicide detective, let alone the right-thinking member of the public.”
Barrister Christine Agnew, mitigating, told the court the defendant understood she had harmed her siblings to the point they were “unlikely to recover” and that she said: “I’m a happier person in prison than I was. outside”.
