UK - Lois and John McCullough, 70s, daughter accused of killing parents between 21 Aug 2018 and Sept 2023, Chelmsford, Essex, 15 Sept 2023

[bobbymkii]

I wonder if she will ever say why?

I think the chances are actually pretty good that she will

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Daughter, 36, admits poisoning father and stabbing mother to death

Virginia McCullough, 36, killed John, 74, and Lois, 75, (pictured together) at their home in Chelmsford, Essex, between June 17 and June 20, 2019.

www.dailymail.co.uk

An artist wept in court today as she admitted murdering her parents five years ago.

McCullough was arrested on September 13 last year after her parents' bodies were found in a top-floor bedroom at their three-storey house in Pump Hill.

Essex Police said in the moments afterwards, she confessed to poisoning her father with prescription medication and stabbing her mother shortly afterwards.

 

[Luwin]

There seems quite a disparity between poisoning one and stabbing the other

 

[nhmemorymaker]

There seems quite a disparity between poisoning one and stabbing the other

Yes, truly a research study for psychiatrists!!

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I wonder where she slept at night??

And HOW she slept at night.

 

[AcbMurders]

Daughter, 36, admits poisoning father and stabbing mother to death

Virginia McCullough, 36, killed John, 74, and Lois, 75, (pictured together) at their home in Chelmsford, Essex, between June 17 and June 20, 2019.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Locals living around Pump Hill in September last year described McCullough as 'quite chatty' and a 'little bit odd'.
A worker at a nearby shop, who asked not to be named, said McCullough had told him her parents had moved to be by the seaside.
(…)
He said that McCullough would speak to workers in the local shops and buy them things.'If anything she was just like a pest,' he said.
'She would be talking about the problems she had in the street.'
He said she was a 'little bit odd sometimes', adding: 'She would come in and go 'do you want a coffee' then five minutes later there would be a coffee sitting there.'
He said she had told him she was pregnant, and he did not know whether to believe this.
Neighbour Phil Sargent said McCullough was 'quite chatty' and 'would always come and descend on you'.
'It would be a fair comment to say she was slightly irrational with her thinking,' he said.
'She didn't appear to be a threat of any kind.'
He said McCullough 'would buy you things, gifts and leave them outside your door - stuff from the Chinese takeaway, on a regular basis'.
'She would all of a sudden appear at 10pm and want to talk,' he said.
'If you were going out she would spot you and come out.
'You would get this story or other on what's happening to her and her world, most of it was just made up.'
~~~~
Interesting what some of the neighbours say about her …. It does not sound like she had many friends. How come none of her sisters queried the fact that they had not heard from their parents for 4 years? Maybe they’d all cut ties with their parents for whatever reason…

 

[Cedars]

How come none of her sisters queried the fact that they had not heard from their parents for 4 years? Maybe they’d all cut ties with their parents for whatever reason…

I agree, clearly not very attached, close family. Perhaps her mental health problems were inherited?

I think, in part, Covid helped a lot. They clearly didn't get together for Xmas 2019, but then everything was in lock-down for years, if you wanted to make excuses for not visiting elderly people.

Maybe she did talk to her family and made up stories about why the parents couldn't talk themselves... sometimes siblings are just relieved that someone else is willing to do the caregiving, and don't want to barge in because that might mean they'd have to take over the caregiving themselves?

JMO

 

[TootsieFootsie]

I'm not sure how much caregiving was needed by her, as nothing much has been said about the state of their health.
Maybe caring for them became too much for her.
No excuse, but maybe a reason.