A woman who killed her parents and lived with their corpses for four years told the arresting police officer: “Cheer up, at least you caught the bad guy.”
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father, John McCullough, 70, with a “cocktail of prescription drugs” and fatally stabbed her mother, Lois McCullough, 71, with a kitchen knife in the summer of 2019.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, the court heard how McCullough built a “makeshift tomb” for his father in the ground floor room of the family home, which was previously his bedroom and study.
He is then said to have placed his mother’s body in a sleeping bag in the bedroom wardrobe on the top floor of their home in Pump Hill, Great Baddow, Essex.
When Essex Police arrested him last year he confessed everything to them and said “you’ve got the bad guy”.
The court also heard how McCullough made 185 calls to a GP surgery, including calls where he pretended to be his mother.
McCullough also spoke to a police officer on the phone and told them his parents were away but would return for his mother’s birthday.
McCullough cashed in his parents’ pensions after the murders, making more than £135,000.
Psychiatrist Prof Nigel Blackwood, who assessed McCullough, told the court his behavior, including a “lack of emotional empathy”, was “more commonly found in psychopathic personalities”.
Essex Police have now released footage of his arrest.
On September 15, 2023, officers attended McCullough’s home address after his parents failed to attend GP appointments, raising concerns about their health.
Video footage shows five police officers outside the suburban home as a cop in riot gear breaks the glass plane at the back door.
Then an officer dressed in a forensic suit walks through the door and says, “There’s no one here right now, wait.” He shouts: “[This is] police.”
An officer holding a yellow stun gun walks through the property toward the front door, where McCullough stands wearing a pink top.
McCullough, who appeared calm, was then told: “It’s 12.12pm and you’re under arrest on suspicion of murder against John McCullough and Lois McCullough, OK?”
He answers: “Yes.”
As he is being handcuffed, one of the officers asks McCullough “if there’s anything inappropriate we should know about.”
He replied: “Yes, there is.”
The officer interrupted: “Where is he?”
He continued: “Can I take you there?”
He replied: “No, you can tell me.”
Four years ago, on June 17, 2019, McCullough poisoned his father with prescription medication and then stabbed his mother and hit her with a hammer the next day. Their bodies never left the house.
While still being questioned by police, McCullough told them his father’s body was in the back room of the home’s ground floor, in what prosecutors described as a “homemade mausoleum.”
When asked where his mother’s body was, he said the situation was “a little more complicated.”
“So there are about five wardrobes upstairs,” he said. “Behind the bed in the back, next to the sink.”
In the footage, McCullough can be seen telling the police how he killed his father by spiking his drinks.
“I put a bunch of these in his drink,” he said. “There were about two or three drinks I brought downstairs.
“He didn’t drink it all. He probably drank half of it. I walked in at six in the morning and he was gone. “He was gone.”
While officers searched the home, McCullough continued to talk to the officers who arrested him.
“I knew this would come eventually,” he told them. “It’s only right that I serve my punishment.”
The court heard he constantly lied about his parents’ whereabouts, canceled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives that his parents were unwell, on holiday or on long trips.
The murders only came to light when a GP at Lois and John’s practice expressed concern for their welfare as he had not seen them for some time.
It was later revealed that McCullough frequently canceled appointments, using various excuses to explain his father’s absence.
When he first contacted police officers, McCullough initially lied to them, claiming his parents were traveling and would return in October.
Footage of his arrest shows McCullough signing a confession to police.
The officer asks him: “Are you happy to sign this to say that this is a true statement?” “Yes, yes,” he replied, before seemingly emotionlessly signing with a ballpoint pen.
Bizarrely, McCullough told the officer to “cheer up” because he “caught the bad guy.”
“I know I don’t look 100 percent bad,” he added.
The officer replied: “I just woke up today and did my job.”
Detectives told the court McCullough “manipulated and abused his parents’ goodwill for financial gain over a long period of time.”
He stole from them during his lifetime and after their death to support his gambling habit. Documents found at the property showed he owed tens of thousands of pounds on credit cards in his parents’ names.
As he continued to speak with officers, McCullough told them that his eventual conviction “might give me some peace.”
“Obviously I deserve to take whatever comes sentence-wise because it’s the right thing to do and it might give me some peace of mind,” he said.
McCullough was sentenced to life imprisonment and a minimum of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday.
Footage taken later at the police station where McCullough was taken after his arrest shows him explaining the location of the knife used in the murder of his mother.
Handcuffed in a cell, he said: “So, the murder weapon is upstairs… a kitchen knife.”
The court was told that, as he admitted, his deadly attacks were the result of months of thought and planning that began in March 2019.
He hit his mother’s head with a hammer and asked, “What are you doing?” he begged. What are you doing?”.
McCullough later admitted to police that he stabbed his mother with a kitchen knife “when he realized the hammer wouldn’t work.”
McCullough admitted to police that the hammer he used to attack his mother still had “traces of blood” on it.
“It’s very difficult to talk about the next part, it’s probably the most chilling detail,” he told officers in his cell.
“On the ground floor, under the stairs, there are a few storage bins and stuff.
“You will find that this is forensically useful. There is a hammer. There will still be blood on it. “It’s rusted, but there will still be traces of blood on it.”
In the final clip, McCullough was seen clearly explaining to police why he admitted his crimes and saying he “must pay for what I did.”
“So not cooperating is futile,” he said. “There’s no point in not cooperating. There really isn’t.
“Besides that, I have to pay for what I did anyway. I guess that’s the other side of the coin.”
Superintendent Rob Kirby, of Essex Police, said the case had shocked “even the most experienced murder detectives”.
“This process, from the discovery of John and Lois’ remains to the uncovering of McCullough’s web of lies, has caused great damage to the wider family network,” he said.
“With this sentence and everything we uncovered throughout our investigation, we hope they can now begin to find a path forward for their lives.”