Daughter who murdered parents and lived with bodies for four years jailed for life - with minimum of 36 years

11 October 2024, 15:35 | Updated: 11 October 2024, 15:45

A woman from Essex who murdered her parents and lived with their bodies for four years has been jailed for life with minimum of 36 years.

Virginia McCullough poisoned her father John McCullough, aged 70 at the time of his death, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her 71-year-old mother Lois McCullough shortly afterwards at their home.

The 36-year-old - who benefitted nearly £150,000 from the deaths - admitted to their murders sometime in June 2019 at an earlier hearing in July.

McCullough had concealed their bodies within the home at Pump Hill in Great Baddow, Essex and continued to live at the address.

Today she was sentenced to life with a minimum of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court.

To cover her tracks, she told persistent lies about their whereabouts, frequently telling doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips, Essex Police added.

Her actions were uncovered after her parents' GPs raised concerns over missed appointments and police forced entry to the home on September 15 2023.

In the moments afterwards, she confessed to what she had done, the force added.

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McCullough "built a makeshift tomb" for her father, who had worked as a university lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC told the court.

The structure, in a ground floor room of the family home, which had been Mr McCullough's bedroom and study, was "composed with masonry blocks stacked together".

It formed a "rectangular tomb" and was "covered with multiple blankets, and a number of pictures and paintings over the top", Ms Wilding said.

She concealed the body of her mother, wrapped in a sleeping bag, within a wardrobe in her mother's bedroom on the top floor of the property," the barrister said.

The prosecutor said the defendant "engaged in online gambling" and spent £21,193 in transactions related to gambling between June 1 2018 and September 14 2023.

Ms Wilding said that McCullough "made arrangements to ensure that she continued to enjoy the benefit of the pensions that continued to be paid in their names" after the deaths of her parents.

The prosecutor said McCullough "benefited from" £59,664.01 from the state pension and £76,334.58 from Mr McCullough's Teacher's Pension between June 18 2019 and September 15 2023.

Ms Wilding said money appeared to have been "frittered away and the investigation has not revealed any expenditure on expensive, luxury or extravagant items".