John Jefferson
Inset left: Virginia McCullough. Inset right: ugh, inset on the left; Lois and John McCullough. Background: The McCullough family home (Essex Police).
A woman who murdered her parents and then feasted on their finances for several years after hiding them in “makeshift tombs” at their own house will spend the next several decades in prison.
On Friday, Virginia McCullough, 36, was sentenced to spend at least 36 years behind bars before she is eligible for parole, according to a press release issued by the Essex Police Department in east England.
By the time the killer was apprehended, however, her guilt was never in doubt. She readily admitted to the crime — and seemingly relished the latest of several unfortunate turns when finally caught.
“Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy,” the murderess told arresting officers in September 2023. “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
In June 2019, the since-condemned woman poisoned her father, John McCullough, 70, with a fatal cocktail of prescription medication, according to police. The pills, accumulated the months before, were crushed or cut up and then secreted into alcoholic beverages.
The day after her father died, Virginia McCullough decided it was time for her mother to go as well — in a far less surreptitious fashion. She beat Lois McCullough, 71, with a hammer, then stabbed her to death.
For the next four-plus years, the woman lived alongside her dead parents.
After the highly considered murder of her father, Virginia McCullough placed his body into a tomb “composed with masonry blocks stacked together,” according to Prosecutor Lisa Wilding, in comments reported by London-based cable news channel Sky News. On top of the tomb — constructed in her father’s former study — the killer placed “multiple blankets, and a number of pictures and paintings.”
The older woman’s body was wrapped in a sleeping bag and then placed inside a wardrobe in an upstairs room of the family home, according to the prosecutor.
“McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address,” Specialist Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service Nicola Rice said. “She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parent’s money and accruing large debts in their name.”
In September 2023, the couple’s doctor finally raised concerns — prompting a law enforcement investigation that led to their daughter’s arrest. She pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in July.
In the years following the murders but before the arrests, the killer “told persistent lies” about her parents’ whereabouts, according to police. She repeatedly canceled family plans — telling doctors and relatives the pair were not well, on holiday, or other long trips.
Police said the two murders and their concomitant coverups involved “vast levels of deceit, betrayal and fraud” and were carried out “on a shocking and monumental scale.”
Finally, after John McCullough failed to pick up several medications and make several appointments, his doctor sounded the alarm.
A missing persons investigation ensued.
When contacted by police, Virginia McCullough initially said her parents would return the next month. Police decided not to wait — using their “powers” to enter the residence in the Pump Hill neighborhood of Chelmsford where the family lived and died.
“McCullough was the sole occupant and instantly confessed to officers that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them,” police wrote in the press release. “Documents found at the property showed she had run up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names. After their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions.”
During her sentencing, the judge said a life sentence was the only possible option for the admitted, convicted killer, according to a courtroom report by United Kingdom public broadcaster BBC.
“There is a single sentence that can be passed upon you in these circumstances,” Judge Christopher Morgan intoned.
Law enforcement savaged the killer and remarked upon the pain her actions had caused the victims’ families.
In a statement, Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby said:
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.
The killer’s siblings also released a statement — fondly remembering their parents as individuals and as the loving couple they were.
“Our Dad was caring and hardworking and he had a passion for education and writing,” the statement reads. “He worked tirelessly in his career in university education, which spanned many years. “Dad enjoyed lots of hobbies, with particular favorites being golf and snooker. As we think of Dad, we remember the numerous jokes he used to tell us and the laughs he gave us. Our Mum was kind, caring and thoughtful. Mum delighted in her grandchildren. She had friends from around the world through her penfriend hobby, many of whom she had written to for several decades. Mum had a passion for history, and maintained a keen interest in the royal family. Mum and Dad loved their trips to the seaside together, where they enjoyed many walks and visited lots of different attractions. Their love for the seaside was so great, they were hoping to move to the coast in their retirement years.”
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