Over the years the UK has seen several cases that have shocked the country, from televised nationwide searches to gruesome serial killers who its taken years to bring to justice. But in the murder of Lois and John McCullough, the culprit was closer to home than you might think.
Hiding their bodies in a ‘homemade mausoleum’, Virginia McCullough admitted to killing her parents in 2019 and hid their bodies for four years at the family home in Chelmsford, Essex. It wasn’t until the couple’s GP raised concerns that the pair had missed several important appointments that an investigation took place.
This article will cover the story of the McCulloughs, the Virginia's motives and her disturbing demeanour during the arrest.
Missing parents
A missing persons’ investigation was launched into the disappearance of John and Lois McCullough in 2023 when their GP raised concerns after not hearing from them in a while and the number of medical appointments they had missed.
Suspicions began to arise after their daughter provided friends and family with a myriad of lies as the whereabouts of her parents. She claimed that they were unwell or on holiday. This web of lies continued well into lockdown which made it easier for McCullough to keep the disappearance hidden for longer due to COVID restrictions.
Police later decided to take matters into their own hands by executing a warrant at their family home in September 2023.
A cocktail of drugs
36-year-old Virginia McCullough admitted to poisoning her 70-year-old father, John, with a cocktail of prescription drugs before she later went on to stab her mother, Lois, to death at their home in Chelmsford.
At the trial, McCullough told the court that she had beaten her mother with a hammer before stabbing her with a kitchen knife multiple times in the chest. She admitted to listening to the radio while she was murdering her mother. The defendant decided to kill her mother out of fear she might discover what she had done to her father.
'When I was hitting her, it was like someone badly playing the xylophone, it was willy-nilly', McCullough said to police when making her statement.
The motive
Within the Essex police department’s search, they found several documents indicating McCullough was in a lot of financial debt, a fact she kept from her parents for months.
According to sources, McCullough assured her parents she had employment and many prospects. This was not the case as she had run up large debts on credit cards that she took out in her parents’ name – she also continued to spend their pensions after they had died.
As a result of killing her parents, the court heard that the defendant had benefitted from around £149,697 in financial gain from their pensions and credit cards. It was said that while the money was not spent on lavish items, it was wasted away on internet gambling over four years.
Detective Superindent Rob Kirby described Virginia as 'an intelligent and adept manipulator'.
No remorse
The head of major crime at Essex Police claimed that the case of Virginia McCullough had 'shocked and horrified' even the most experienced detectives on the force. It wasn’t just the heinous attack itself that proved distressing, but what happened after, too.
When McCullough’s crimes were finally discovered, the suspect had admitted to poisoning her father and stabbing her mother to death in June 2019. She had kept their bodies hidden in sleeping bags for four years, in what officials have claimed looked like 'a homemade mausoleum'.
When McCullough was arrested, she told the police to 'cheer up, at least you've caught the bad guy' before she was sentenced to a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court. It was seen that she had shown no emotion when she was sent down.
Virginia McCullough’s uncle, Richard Butcher, said in a victim impact statement that what had happened had 'undermined my faith in humanity'.
