Daughter who murdered parents built makeshift tomb inside home, court told

A daughter murdered her parents then lived alongside their bodies for four years, with her father’s body found in a “homemade mausoleum” in his bedroom, a court has heard.

Virginia McCullough poisoned her father John McCullough, aged 70 at the time of his death, with prescription medication that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks, prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC said.

The following day, on June 18 2019, McCullough “beat her mother with a hammer and stabbed her multiple times in the chest with a kitchen knife bought for the purpose”, the barrister said.

Lois McCullough was 71 at the time of her death, and the 36-year-old defendant continued to live at the home in Pump Hill in Great Baddow, Essex, afterwards.

McCullough “built a makeshift tomb” for her father, who had worked as a university lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, Ms Wilding told Chelmsford Crown Court.

The structure, in a ground floor room of the family home, which had been Mr McCullough’s bedroom and study, was “composed with masonry blocks stacked together”.

“She concealed the body of her mother, wrapped in a sleeping bag, within a wardrobe in her mother’s bedroom on the top floor of the property,” the barrister said.

Her actions were uncovered after her parents’ GPs raised concerns over missed appointments and police forced entry to the home on September 15 2023.

She had told persistent lies about their whereabouts, frequently telling doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.

McCullough gave a detailed account, to officers in custody after her arrest, of how she had killed her parents.

The defendant, who has shoulder-length dyed blonde hair and wore a purple dress, wept in the secure dock of the court as this account was read to the court by the prosecutor.

A custody officer brought McCullough a box of tissues and she wiped tears from her eyes.

Ms Wilding said the defendant “had been thinking about killing her parents since March 2019 and had been planning for it”.

She said that McCullough “has not been employed for many years”.

The prosecutor said the defendant “engaged in online gambling” and spent £21,193 in transactions related to gambling between June 1 2018 and September 14 2023.

Ms Wilding said that McCullough “made arrangements to ensure that she continued to enjoy the benefit of the pensions that continued to be paid in their names” after the deaths of her parents.

The prosecutor said McCullough “benefited from” £59,664.01 from the state pension and £76,334.58 from Mr McCullough’s Teacher’s Pension between June 18 2019 and September 15 2023.

Ms Wilding said money appeared to have been “frittered away and the investigation has not revealed any expenditure on expensive, luxury or extravagant items”.

McCullough admitted to murdering her parents between June 17 2019 and June 20 2019 at an earlier hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court.

Richard Butcher, brother of Lois McCullough, said in a victim impact statement that his niece – the defendant – was “very dangerous” and that what had happened had “undermined my faith in humanity”.

The sentencing hearing continues.