Daughter who murdered parents lived with dead bodies for four years

Virginia McCullough, 36, lived with the bodies of her dead mother and father for four years after murdering them both in 2019.

A woman who lived with her dead mother and father's bodies for four years has been jailed for life for their murders.

Virginia McCullough pleaded guilty to the murders of John and Lois McCullough, both aged in their 70s. McCullough, 36, is thought to have killed the parents fearing that they would expose the credit card fraud she had carried out in their names.

McCullough, from Chelmsford, Essex, admitted killing the pair between June 17, 2019 and June 20, 2019. She will serve a minimum of 26 years behind bars.

McCullough plundered her parents' bank accounts for more than four years. Calculated McCullough used the Covid pandemic to conceal their murders from family and cash in their pensions as their bodies decomposed.

Det Supt Rob Kirby, from 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 meters 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’ good will. 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.

"The details of this case shock and horrify even the most experienced of murder detectives, let alone any right-thinking member of the public. It therefore follows that the wider family of John and Lois, understandably, could never have guessed or anticipated that McCullough would be capable of undertaking these murders before committing herself to this level of deceit. They have been left utterly devastated by the circumstances of this case and they continue to feel the loss of John and Lois each and every day."

It was heard at McCullough's sentencing today that she cashed in the fortune of around £170,000 from her dead parents' credit cards and pensions. In a chilling confession to officers after her arrest, McCullough said she poisoned her father with a "cocktail of prescription drugs" in his Guinness, red wine and brandy.

As reported in the Mirror, she gave Lois a sleeping drug but it was not enough to kill her, so when she woke in the morning and discovered her father dead with rigor mortis, she knew she had to kill her mother, the court was told.

She told cops: "I did go upstairs, I didn't really have a plan as such. I had a rough idea of what I might do. So I had Wilkos garden gloves, I had a kitchen knife and I had a hammer. I went into my mother's only wearing the gloves. I had the hammer and the knife was still in my room. I knew I was going to be arrested for the murder of my father and I was going to go to prison. I looked at her and she looked so innocent. She was just listening to the radio, she was not doing anything.

"I went in with the hammer probably about four times. I went in three times maybe to build up the gumption, I knew I had to get it done. I raised the hammer a couple of times, I didn't do anything. I raised it a final time and I struck a blow... She didn't pass... She turned over and said, 'What are you doing?' That's when I hesitated for 20 seconds because she was staring at me in disbelief... I realised the hammer was not going to work. I didn't want her to suffer, I wanted her to be like my father, but my mother didn't drink...

"I left the room, I took off one of the garden gloves... I got the knife, which was from Lakeland, it was a large kitchen knife. I didn't have much time, she was still awake, she didn't say anything, other than, 'What are you doing?'"

After stabbing her, McCullough said: "I took her hand... she stopped moving and then that's when she just passed. I kissed her hand. That's when I came to the realisation I had killed them both. Then I just went for a wander around the house for a little bit."

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