In a chilling incident, a woman from the United Kingdom pleaded guilty to killing her parents, hiding their bodies and living at their house for several years.
Appearing via video conferencing before Chelmsford crown court on Thursday, the 36-year-old Virginia McCullough pleaded guilty to murdering her 71-year-old mother, Lois McCullough, and 70-year-old father, John McCullough, between June 17 and 20 in 2019, the Guardian reported.
According to the Essex police, she used prescription medication to poison her father and shortly after stabbed her mother to death.
Hailing from Great Baddow's Pump Hill near Chelmsford, Virginia told the police that she murdered her parents at home during summer of 2019, following which she hid their bodies within the property and continued to live at the house.
Then to dismiss any suspicion over her parents' whereabouts, she lied to relatives and doctors, saying that they were unwell, on holiday or long trips, police said.
Virginia's acts came to the light after her parents' doctors raised concerns over their missed appointments in 2023, prompting the Essex police to execute a warrant at the Pump Hill address on September 15, 2023.
After this, Virginia confessed to have killed her parents, officials added.
Virginia, who appeared via prison video link, entered pleas of guilty to two counts murder and to say that she understood the judge's remarks.
"You will understand that there is a single sentence that can be passed upon you in these circumstances. Consideration, however, has to be given to the minimum term," Judge Christopher Morgan was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
A judicial inquiry into the death of Lois McCullough found that stab wounds to the chest led to her passing.
Meanwhile, Michelle Brown, the Essex area coroner, last October had said that "human remains believed to be" of John McCullough were also found at the Pump Hill address, adding that the cause of his death was pending further probe.
Judicial inquiry into the McCullough's deaths were reportedly opened and adjourned.
Virginia's neighbours from Pump Hill described her to be "quite chatty" and "a little bit odd". One of the workers at a shop nearby had said that the accused told him that her parents had shifted to live by the seaside.
Notably, he said he had not seen them since before the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that previously they used to be seen in the vicinity twice or thrice a week.
Virginia's parents "seemed nice", he said. "We are all shocked, we didn't think she was capable of this," he added.
Justifying on why she was a little odd, the shop worker said that Virginia would randomly talk to people and local shop workers and buy them things. "She would come in and go 'do you want coffee' then five minutes later, there would be a coffee sitting there," he was quoted as saying by the news outlet.
Another neighbour said that he only knew her enough to say hello, noting that she was not a trouble. "She had been carrying on, going up to the Chinese (takeaway) like nothing happened," adding that he thought she lived by herself.
Phil Sargent, another neighbour was cited to be saying that though she seemed a little irrational with her thinking, she did not appear to be any kind of a threat.
Notably, Virginia's sentencing will take place on October 10.
