Daughter murdered parents and lived with bodies in her home for four years

A woman who murdered her parents then lived with their dead bodies in her home for four years will spend a minimum of 36 years in jail.

Virginia McCullough poisoned her 70-year-old father with prescription medication that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks. The next day, she beat her mother, 71, with a hammer and fatally stabbed her.

McCullough, 36, then hid the bodies of John and Lois McCullough in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, a court heard. In the years following the murders, she ran up large debts on her parents' credit cards and continued to spend their pensions.

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Chelmsford Crown Court heard she told a string of lies to cover up her crimes. McCullough cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.

In September 2023, more than four years after the murders, concerns were raised for Mr and Mrs McCullough's welfare by their GP, who said they had not seen the couple for some time and that Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments.

Essex County Council's safeguarding team referred the concerns to the police and a missing persons investigation was launched. When question by officers, McCullough claimed her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.

The investigation turned to murder and officers forced entry to the property in Pump Hill on September 15, when McCullough confessed she had killed her parents and their bodies were still in the house.

She pleaded guilty to their murders at Chelmsford Crown Court and has now been jailed for life, with a minimum term of 36 years.

Police released body-worn video footage of McCullough's arrest. In the footage, she tells officers: "I did know that this would kind of come eventually. It's proper that I serve my punishment."

Having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, she told an officer: "Cheer up, at least you've caught the bad guy." She added: "I know I don't seem 100 per cent evil."

McCullough told officers 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".

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."

He said the "vast levels of deceit, betrayal and fraud" she engaged in were "on a shocking and monumental scale". He added: "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."

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."