Virginia McCullough (left) and her dead parents
A woman murdered both her parents and then lived with the bodies entombed in the home for several years, a court heard today.
Virginia McCullough, 36, is facing life in prison with the prosecution pushing for a whole life term due to the horrific nature of the murders of her own parents and the lenghths she went to conceal them, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
The court heard how police made the grim discovery of the two bodies concealed in the home in the three-storey home in Pump Hill Great Baddow, near Chelmsford, Essex, by furniture and other items in September 2013 after they responded to concerns for the welfare of John McCullough, 70, and Lois McCullough, 71, who had not been seen for some time.
Once police executed a search warrant McCullough showed officers a makeshift concrete tomb and said: “My father is in there, I murdered him.”
She said her mother was upstairs in a wardrobe that she had not opened since she killed them more than four years earlier.
She admitted to police to poisoning her father, a published author and retired Anglia Ruskin University lecturer, with her own prescription drug Pregabalin that she laced into his alcoholic drugs in the evening of June 17 2019, giving her mother a milder, non fatal dose.
John and Lois McCullough
She said she found him dead the next day and knew she would have to murder her mum to stop her telling police.
McCullough matter of factually described struggling to do it, going into her mum’s room four times with a hammer.
She saw her listening to the radio with headphones, and hit her with the hammer.
Her mum asked what she was doing and tried to defend herself, before McCullough got a knife and stabbed her in the throat.
She told police she held her mother’s hand and apologised as she died.
McCullough then wrapped both bodies in plastic sheets, dust sheets and sleeping bags bought with her father’s credit cards, that were taped up.
He mum was taped into the wardrobe on the top floor and her father entombed in a concrete bed-shaped structure that had 11 layers of plastic inside it.
Police at the scene following the discovery of the bodies
She continued to live at the address, just metres away from the bodies, for more than four years, continuing to claim their pensions.
She even told police the blood stained hammer, knife and drugs used in the murders were still in the home.
She confessed to planning the murders for six months, even giving test runs of lower amounts of drugs to explore the effects.
McCullough had £48,000 of debt before the murders and had been fleecing them for years before hand, lying that she had a job and forging documents to show they would soon get significant PPI payouts that never existed.
From June 1 2018 to September 14 2019, she spent £21,193 on online gambling and went on a spending spree on clothes and jewellery on her mum’s credit cart straight after her death.
The court heard she had benefitted by around £149,000 since their deaths from pensions and other payments the dead parents continued to receive and use of loans and credit cards.
The court heard that to cover her tracks, McCullough told persistent lies about their whereabouts, frequently telling doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
She had a series of mobile phones and sim cards to pretend to be her parents to message friends and family to convince others they were still alive.
She even sent birthday cards from online retailers to relatives to continue the deception.
Her actions were uncovered after her parents’ GPs raised concerns over missed appointments in 2023, leading to a social care safeguarding and then police enquiry.
The team told officers that a GP at Lois and John’s registered practice had raised a concern for their welfare, having not seen them for some time.
The GP explained John had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments.
McCulloughat an early hearing in 2023
McCullough lied to officers when initially contacted, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
An investigation was launched and, on Friday 15 September 2023, officers from our Operational Support Group executed a warrant at the Pump Hill address.
In the moments afterwards, she confessed to poisoning her father with prescription medication and later stabbing her mother.
At Chelmsford Crown Court earlier this year she pleaded guilty to murdering to both parents between 17 and 20 June 2019.
McCullough told police her father was abusive to her mother, who was often angry and a “happiness hoover” with mental health problems.
She claimed to be “stuck” in their abusive relationship with financial problems.
However, three relatives, of the victims, who gave statements to the sentencing hearing, said they were loving and caring people and her making up these lies had added to the hurt already caused.
It was established during a lengthy financial investigation which that before the murders McCullough had long manipulated and abused her parents’ good will for financial gain.
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.
The documents uncovered at the address built a picture of a woman who was trying desperately to keep her parents from discovering the depth of the financial black hole she continued to dig, while giving them false assurances about her employment and future prospects.
Prosecuting, Lisa Wilding KC, pushed for a whole life order saying the murders were likely carried out as her frauds were soon to be exposed and involved significant planning and concealment of the bodies.
Lois and John McCullough
Police at the scene
The court heard McCullough had been assessed for her fitness to plea, due to mental health problems, but she was found to be able to.
She was found to have autism spectrum disorder during psychiatoirc examination aftrer the murders.
But, a report by psychiatrist Professor Nigel Blackwood said: “Her abnormal personality structure (with psychopathic features of deceptiveness, callousness and a striking lack of emotional empathy), together with her hostility toward her parents and her desire to be ‘free’ of them, help to provide some explanation for the index offences, but do not reduce her culpability for the same.”
Sentencing will take place this afternoon when we will update you with the result.