Woman sentenced to life in prison for killing parents and living with their bodies

A British woman who murdered her parents and lived with their bodies for four years was sentenced to life in prison on Friday and will not be eligible for parole for 36 years.

When Essex Police raided Virginia McCullough’s home in Great Baddow last September, the 36-year-old confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had murdered them.

She admitted to poisoning her father, John McCullough, 70, with prescription drugs she put in his drink, and a few days later beat her 71-year-old mother Lois McCullough with a hammer and fatally stabbed her.

“I knew this was going to happen eventually,” she said as she was handcuffed in bodycam footage released by police on Friday.

“It is right that I serve my sentence.”

After McCullough was arrested, she told an officer, “Stop it, at least you caught the bad guy,” adding, “I know I don’t seem 100 percent bad.”

Further bodycam footage showed her at the police station where they told officers where to find the tools she used to kill her mother.

She had pleaded guilty to murdering her parents at an earlier hearing in June 2019.

In the prosecutor’s words, McCullough held her father in a “homemade mausoleum” in his bedroom and study, in a structure “composed of masonry blocks stacked on top of each other.”

She wrapped her mother’s body in a sleeping bag and put it in a wardrobe on the top floor of the building.

In the four years after the murder, she had £149,697 ($AU289,792) on credit cards in her parents’ names and continued to spend their pensions.

The court heard she had canceled family arrangements and told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell or travelling.

Statements from her three unnamed siblings were also read out in court, with one saying: “our parents were completely innocent victims”.

“Virginia always said Mom and Dad were doing well and made up lie after lie about their daily activities,” said another.

Judge Jeremy Johnson said during Friday’s sentencing hearing that McCullough’s actions constituted a “gross violation of the trust that should exist between parents and their children.”

Judge Johnson said she had maintained an “extensive, elaborate and enduring web of deceit” for months and years and that he was satisfied there was a “substantial degree of premeditation and planning” involved in the murder was.

Essex Police said documents found in the house showed McCullough desperately tried to prevent her parents from discovering the poor state of her finances and gave ‘false guarantees’ about her work and future prospects.

“She is an intelligent manipulator who chose to callously murder her parents without thought for them or those who continue to suffer as a result of their loss,” said Detective Rob Kirby.

“The details of this case shock and frighten even the most experienced murder detectives, let alone any right-thinking member of the public.”

Image: Essex Police/ 7NEWS