A seemingly ordinary dwelling in Great Baddow concealed a dreadful secret. Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark Comments Daughter murdered parents and dwelled alongside their remains in a self-made tomb
For a duration of four years, Virginia McCullough resided on a tranquil street in Great Baddow, Essex, informing her neighbors that her aged parents were ailing, on vacation, or simply wanting privacy.
However, behind the closed doors of their detached family residence rested the macabre reality that both her parents had perished, their corpses hidden within what law enforcement later characterized as a “self-constructed sepulcher”.
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McCullough, aged 36, received a life sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court, with a mandatory minimum of 36 years, subsequent to confessing to the slayings of her parents, John and Lois McCullough. The killings, perpetrated in June 2019, remained undetected until September 2023, when constables unearthed the remains within the premises, prompted by a missing persons inquiry.
The tribunal was informed that McCullough poisoned her 70-year-old father with a “concoction of prescribed medications” blended into his beverages, before assaulting her mother, aged 71, with a hammer and a kitchen knife the subsequent morning.
Her father’s cadaver was subsequently discovered encased in a makeshift crypt within his downstairs office, while her mother’s skeletal frame was unearthed within a sleeping bag stowed inside an upstairs wardrobe.
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Upon the arrival of officers to apprehend her, McCullough offered no opposition. In bodycam footage disseminated by Essex Police, she is audible stating: “Chin up – at least you’ve apprehended the perpetrator.”
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Prosecuting attorney Lisa Wilding KC conveyed to the court that the homicides were deliberate and spurred by financial motives. McCullough, who cohabited with her parents at their abode on Pump Hill, had amassed substantial debts and had been employing credit cards and bank accounts under their names. Upon the spiraling escalation of the fraud, she resolved to terminate them.
Evidence located within the residence depicted a woman leading a dual existence – reassuring her parents regarding her employment prospects while covertly engaging in online wagering and accumulating losses. Documents unearthed by investigators revealed her “frantic efforts to shield her parents from recognizing the profundity of the financial abyss she perpetually deepened.”
McCullough’s father, a retired engineer, and her mother, a former educator, both held her in complete trust. The court was informed that post the slayings, McCullough persisted in accessing their pensions and savings, ultimately profiting by almost £150,000 over a span of four years.
“She fabricated nearly every aspect of her existence,” stated Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby, who spearheaded the inquiry. “Her duplicity was of a startling and colossal magnitude. This constituted a calculated and sustained undertaking to conceal her transgressions, while exploiting her parents’ assets and manipulating individuals in her vicinity.”
Apprehensions regarding the couple’s welfare were initially voiced in September 2023 by their GP, who observed that neither had attended appointments nor collected prescriptions for an extended period. Additionally, relatives commenced to harbor suspicions, having neither sighted nor communicated with John or Lois for several years.
Upon officers’ visitation to the property, McCullough informed them that her parents were absent, travelling and anticipated to return in October. Officers promptly grew dubious and procured a warrant to examine the dwelling.
Within mere moments of her detention, McCullough admitted guilt. “I was cognizant that this would eventually transpire,” she confided to officers. “It is equitable that I endure my penance.”
During interrogation, McCullough recounted how she assessed the potency of a drug combination on her father in the days preceding his demise. On the evening of June 17, 2019, she administered the same medication to him, pulverizing prescription pills and infusing them into his alcoholic beverage. Her father passed away shortly thereafter.
The subsequent morning, fearing that her mother would ascertain the events, McCullough attacked her as she listened to the radio in bed. She initially struck her repeatedly with a hammer prior to stabbing her numerously in the chest.
Subsequently, she acquired plastic gloves and sleeping bags utilizing her father’s bank card, concealing his corpse within a structure fashioned from masonry blocks in his study – what law enforcement later denoted as a “self-made sepulcher” – and encasing her mother’s cadaver within one of the sleeping bags.
In the ensuing years, she upheld an intricate network of falsehoods. She annulled family gatherings, informed relatives that her parents were unwell, and even alleged that they were vacationing abroad. The Covid pandemic, prosecutors observed, furnished the ideal alibi, enabling her to isolate without inducing suspicion.
Between 2019 and 2023, she persisted in withdrawing her parents’ pensions and utilizing their accounts for routine expenditures, gambling approximately £21,000 online. Prosecutors asserted that the funds appeared to have been “squandered away” rather than invested in opulent items.
Her uncle, Richard Butcher, communicated to the court that the revelation had “eroded [his] trust in mankind”, characterizing his niece as “extremely perilous”. In a declaration on behalf of the extended family, he conveyed: “They remain perpetually in our hearts, and are cherished and missed beyond any reckoning. We have been left devastated and heartbroken.”
Virginia McCullough will fulfill a minimum of 36 years prior to her eligibility for consideration for release.