Moment daughter sobs as she reveals where she hid murder weapon to hit mother 'like a xylophone' after murdering father
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Disturbing footage shows the moment a daughter breaks down sobbing 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 mum Lois, 70, several times and hit her with a hammer 'like someone badly playing a xylophone' at their home in Chelmsford, Essex, four years ago.
She also killed her 70-year-old father-of-five John by poisoning him with prescription medication crushed into his drink.
McCullough stuffed her father's body in a 'makeshift tomb' disguised as a bed on the ground floor and secreted her mother's remains in a wardrobe upstairs.
In the video, McCullough, who initially appears remorseless and unfazed, describes where she left the murder weapon before going on to what she terms the 'grisly detail'.
Virginia McCullough murdered her parents then lived alongside their bodies for four years while lying about their whereabouts
Undated handout photo issued by Essex Police of 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 that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks. The following day, on June 18 2019, she murdered her mother Lois, 71, beating her with a hammer and stabbing her multiple times in the chest
A bodyworn video dated 15/09/23 issued by Essex Police of the arrest of Victoria McCullough at her home in Pump Hill, Chelmsford
Virginia points upstairs to where her mother's body is after police pay her a visit and subsequently arrest her
'The next thing is probably the most hard to talk about,' she says.
'On the ground floor underneath the stairs there's a few storage boxes and things.'
She goes on to say: 'There's a hammer.
'It's in the middle underneath the stairs. It will still have blood on it.'
The disturbed daughter was sentenced to a life term today, with a minimum of 36 years, after having pleaded 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 to her parents' finances - which culminated in her decision to kill them and bury the crime so she could continue doing so.
In another video displaying body-worn camera footage released by Essex Police, McCullough calmly tells officers who turned up to arrest her: 'Cheer up: at least you've caught the bad guy.'
The daughter lived with the couple's bodies for four years after the murders had taken place between June 17 and June 20, 2019.
Described in court by a psychiatrist as exhibiting psychopathic tendencies - she admitted to police who turned up to arrest her that she had murdered them before spending more than four years covering it up.
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 issues including thunderclap headaches - which did not surface during her time in custody - and had not been employed since she was a barmaid in 2017.
Nevertheless, she pretended to her parents she was a salaried web designer, and pretended to go into the office. She also lied about having benign cysts requiring treatment, and falsely made out to her GP that she was pregnant and had miscarried.
She resented her mother, the court heard, branding her a 'happiness hoover' who would smack her while bathing her as a child.