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Disturbing footage shows the moment a daughter breaks down in tears as she reveals where she hid the murder weapon used to brutally hit her mother 'like a xylophone' after also killing her father.
Virginia McCullough, 36, stabbed her mother Lois, 70, several times and hit her with a hammer “like someone playing a xylophone badly” at their home in Chelmsford, Essex, four years ago.
She also killed John, a 70-year-old father of five, by poisoning him with prescription medication crushed in his drink.
McCullough stuffed his father's body in a “makeshift tomb” disguised as a bed downstairs and hid his mother's remains in a wardrobe upstairs.
In the video, McCullough, who initially appears implacable and unflappable, describes where he left the murder weapon before going into what he calls the “grisly detail.”
Virginia McCullough murdered her parents and then lived next to their bodies for four years while lying about her whereabouts
Undated leaflet photo issued by Essex Police to Lois and John McCullough. Daughter Virginia murdered the pair at their home in Chelmsford, Essex
McCullough poisoned her father, John, 70, in June 2019, using prescription medication which she crushed and put in his alcoholic drinks. The following day, June 18, 2019, she murdered her 71-year-old mother Lois, beating her with a hammer and stabbing her several times in the chest.
A body worn video dated 15/09/23 issued by Essex Police regarding the arrest of Victoria McCullough at her home in Pump Hill, Chelmsford
Virginia points up to where her mother's body is after the police visited and later arrested her
“The next thing is probably the hardest to talk about,” she says.
'Downstairs, under the stairs, there are some storage boxes and stuff.'
She goes on to say, 'There's a hammer.
'It's in the middle, under the stairs. There will still be blood.
The troubled daughter was today sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 36 years, after pleading guilty to two counts of murder at Chelmsford Crown Court in July.
Police said she embarked on a “meticulous” campaign of “deceit, betrayal and fraud” after helping herself support her parents’ finances – which culminated in her decision to kill them and bury the crimes so that she could continue doing this.
In another video showing body-worn camera footage released by Essex Police, McCullough calmly tells the officers who showed up to arrest her: 'Cheer up: at least you caught the bad guy.'
The daughter lived with the couple's bodies for four years after the murders occurred between June 17 and 20, 2019.
Described in court by a psychiatrist as exhibiting psychopathic tendencies – she admitted to the police who showed up to arrest her that she had murdered them before spending more than four years covering up the crime.
Virginia McCullough, the court was told, was described as a “compulsive liar” and “socially awkward” by those who knew her.
She claimed to suffer from complex medical problems including thunderclap headaches – which did not develop during her time in custody – and had not worked since she was a waitress in 2017.
Still, she pretended to her parents that she was a salaried web designer and pretended to go to the office. She also lied about having benign cysts that required treatment and falsely stated to her doctor that she was pregnant and had miscarried.
She resented her mother, the court heard, labeling her a “happiness vacuum cleaner” who beat her while bathing her as a child.
