In England Daughter murdered her parents in cold blood

 

An elderly couple who were murdered in cold blood by one of their daughters as she helped herself to £150,000 in their name were 'quiet' and 'dowdy' people who kept to themselves, according to locals who knew them before they disappeared.

John and Lois McCullough, 70 and 71, were killed by daughter Virginia at their home in Chelmsford after she racked up £60,000 in debts while pretending she had a full-time job as a web designer.

The 36-year-old schemed to kill them over several months before she slipped prescription medicine into their drinks in June 2019, killing Mr McCullough in his sleep. She then battered her mother with a hammer the next day before stabbing her eight times.

McCullough, described in court as showing signs of a personality disorder, then bundled her loving parents' bodies up into sleeping bags and barricaded them away for four and a half years in a wardrobe and a makeshift tomb fashioned like a bed.

The couple, who had raised her from birth, were in such a state of decomposition when they were discovered that they could only be identified via dental records.

It was a tragic end for a couple described by locals in Great Baddow as quiet and largely reclusive.

The McCulloughs' other daughters, meanwhile, are still in mourning for their parents, whom they described as caring, thoughtful and hardworking.

Today, after she admitted murder, a judge sentenced Virginia to serve a minimum of 36 years in prison for what he called a 'gross violation of the trust between parents and their children'.

Mr Justice Johnson said: 'You say you murdered them because you felt trapped. The reality is you were trapped only by your own dishonest behaviour.'

The court heard McCullough is the youngest of five daughters born to John and Lois. The other four moved away while Virginia remained at home.

Mr McCullough, a university lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and published author, was 'on the autistic spectrum' and 'very much a man of routine'.

Mrs McCullough, meanwhile, was described by her children as having 'OCD which would manifest as cleaning with disinfectant'. 

There were rules about who used which towel in the bathroom and separating laundry for example. The siblings said Mrs McCullough had a fear of microscopic germs.