Daughter killed her parents and lived with corpses in home-made mausoleum for four years

For four years, Virginia McCullough lived in a quiet cul-de-sac in Great Baddow, Essex, telling neighbours her elderly parents were unwell, away, or simply keeping to themselves.

Behind the doors of their detached family home, however, lay the grim truth that both her parents were dead, their bodies concealed in what police later described as a "homemade mausoleum".

McCullough, 36, was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years after admitting to the murders of her parents, John and Lois McCullough. The killings, carried out in June 2019, went unnoticed until September 2023, when police discovered the remains inside the property following a missing persons investigation.

The court heard McCullough poisoned her 70-year-old father with a "cocktail of prescription drugs" mixed into his drinks before attacking her mother, aged 71, with a hammer and a kitchen knife the next morning.

Her father's body was later found sealed in a makeshift tomb in his office downstairs, while her mother's remains were discovered in a sleeping bag stored inside an upstairs wardrobe.

When officers arrived to arrest her, McCullough offered no resistance. In bodycam footage released by Essex Police, she can be heard saying: "Cheer up - at least you've caught the bad guy."

Prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC told the court the murders were premeditated and financially motivated. McCullough, who lived with her parents at their home on Pump Hill, had accumulated significant debts and had been using credit cards and bank accounts in their names. When the fraud began to spiral out of control, she decided to kill them.

Evidence found in the house painted a picture of a woman leading a double life - reassuring her parents about her job prospects while secretly gambling online and racking up losses. Documents uncovered by detectives showed she had been "desperately trying to keep her parents from discovering the depth of the financial black hole she continued to dig".

McCullough's father, a retired engineer, and her mother, a former teacher, had both trusted her completely. The court heard after the killings, McCullough continued to access their pensions and savings, ultimately benefiting by nearly £150,000 over four years.

"She lied about almost every aspect of her life," said Detective Superintendent Rob Kirby, who led the investigation. "Her deception was on a shocking and monumental scale. This was a calculated and sustained effort to hide what she had done, while exploiting her parents' finances and manipulating those around her."

Concerns about the couple's wellbeing were first raised in September 2023 by their GP, who noticed neither had attended appointments or collected medication for some time. Relatives also began to grow suspicious, having not seen or heard from John or Lois in years.

When police visited the property, McCullough told them her parents were away travelling and due back in October. Officers quickly became suspicious and obtained a warrant to search the house.

Within minutes of her arrest, McCullough confessed. "I did know this would come eventually," she told officers. "It's proper that I serve my punishment."

During questioning, McCullough described how she tested the strength of a drug mixture on her father days before killing him. On the night of June 17, 2019, she poisoned him with the same medication, crushing prescription pills and stirring them into his alcoholic drink. Her father died shortly afterwards.

The following morning, fearing her mother would discover what had happened, McCullough attacked her as she listened to the radio in bed. She first struck her repeatedly with a hammer before stabbing her multiple times in the chest.

Afterwards, she bought plastic gloves and sleeping bags using her father's bank card, concealing his body in a structure made from masonry blocks in his study - what police later described as a "homemade mausoleum" - and wrapping her mother's body in one of the sleeping bags.

In the years that followed, she maintained an elaborate web of lies. She cancelled family events, told relatives her parents were ill, and even claimed they were travelling abroad. The Covid pandemic, prosecutors noted, provided the perfect cover, allowing her to isolate without arousing suspicion.

Between 2019 and 2023, she continued to withdraw her parents' pensions and use their accounts for everyday expenses, gambling around £21,000 online. Prosecutors said the money appeared to have been "frittered away" rather than spent on luxury items.

Her uncle, Richard Butcher, told the court the discovery had "undermined [his] faith in humanity", describing his niece as "very dangerous". In a statement on behalf of the wider family, he said: "They are forever in our hearts, and are loved and missed beyond any measure. We've been left devastated and heartbroken."

Virginia McCullough will serve a minimum of 36 years before she can be considered for release.