A woman who has been sentenced to life in jail for murdering her parents and living with their bodies for four years made a chilling remark to police while she was being arrested.
Virginia McCullough appeared eerily calm as she spoke with Essex Police officers about where the bodies of her father John, 71, and Lois, 70, were located at their home in Great Baddow, Essex.
Prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC told Chelmsford Crown Court how the 36-year-old had poisoned her dad with a ‘cocktail of prescription drugs‘ which she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks, as per The Mirror.
As reported by The Guardian, McCullough ‘beat her mother with a hammer and stabbed her multiple times in the chest with a kitchen knife bought for the purpose’ in June 2019, the barrister said – before then hiding her parents bodies in the home.
Virginia McCullough calmly confessed to the murders of her parents (Essex Police)
For the next four years, she continued to live with their corpses, with Wilding explaining that she had ‘built a makeshift tomb’ covered in blankets, pictures and paintings for John, which was concealed in his bedroom and study.
The prosecutor said that Lois’ body was wrapped in a sleeping bag and tucked inside a wardrobe.
McCullough’s crimes only came to light after her parents GPs raised concerns when they missed multiple appointments, prompting police to begin an investigation before force entering their home on 15 September, 2023.
According to Essex Police, she had been covering up the killings by telling lies about her mother and father’s whereabouts, informing doctors that the couple were unwell, on holiday or taking lengthy trips.
But when police challenged McCullough, she immediately said she would ‘cooperate’.
While being arrested on suspicion of murder, she matter-of-factly told officers that her parent’s bodies were still in the home and said she ‘knew that this [being arrested] would of come eventually’.
John and Lois McCullough (Essex Police)
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment,” McCullough is seen saying on police bodycam footage.
Chillingly, she then adds: “Cheer up, at least you caught the bad guy.
“I deserve to get what’s coming sentence wise, because that’s the right thing to do. And that might give me a bit of peace.”
After being taken into custody, McCullough offered up a thorough explanation of the murders, while informing cops that the murder weapon was hidden upstairs in the home, telling them she was ‘trying to help’.
Discussing the knife she used to stab Lois, McCullough said: “It will still have blood on it, it’s rusted, but it will still have blood traces on it.”
Det Supt Rob Kirby, of Essex Police, said she had committed the murders in ‘cold blood’, while describing McCullough as an ‘intelligent manipulator’ who told lies about ‘almost every aspect of her life’.
He said she had been ‘thinking about killing her parents since March 2019 and had been planning for it’, adding that she had been unemployed for several years.
Following the murders, she spent £150,000 of her parents’ money, which barrister Wilding said had been ‘frittered away’.
It is believed McCullough may have targeted her parents as she had ran up huge credit card debts in their names.
She pleaded guilty to the murders – which took place between 17 June and 20 June, 2019 – at an earlier hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court, which is where she was sentenced on Friday (11 October).
The judge, Mr Justice Johnson, who said she had put ‘months of thought and planning’ into her crimes, jailed the 36-year-old for life with a minimum term of 36 years.
