‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says woman as she is arrested for murdering her parents

An “intelligent manipulator” murdered her parents “in cold blood” then hid them in makeshift tombs and lived alongside their bodies for four years.

Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, aged 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her 71-year-old mother Lois McCullough shortly afterwards.

She then lied about their whereabouts and spent their money.

Judge Mr Justice Johnson sentenced McCullough, of Chelmsford, Essex, to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing in the same court.

Richard Butcher, brother of Lois McCullough, said in a victim impact statement that his niece – the defendant – was “very dangerous” and what had happened “undermined my faith in humanity”.

McCullough poisoned her father, who had worked as a university lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, with prescription medication that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks – then, a day later, she beat her mother with a hammer and fatally stabbed her.

The sentencing hearing was told she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Pump Hill, 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 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 on 15 September 2023, McCullough confessed her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.

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 then 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 per cent evil.”

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”.

Passing sentence, the judge told the defendant she was almost £60,000 in debt before the killings and that she “span and maintained” an “elaborate, extensive and enduring web of deceit” over months and years.

Mr Justice Johnson described her actions as a “gross violation of the trust that should exist between parents and their children”.

He said: “I’m sure a substantial motive for each of the murders was to stop your parents discovering you had been stealing from them and lying to them and to take money that was intended for them.”

McCullough, who has shoulder-length dyed blonde hair and wore a purple top, nodded to the judge before she was led from the secure dock to the cells.

Christine Agnew KC, mitigating for McCullough, told the court the defendant “says ‘I’m a happier person in prison than I was outside’”.

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.”

Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, 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.”