Woman who murdered and lived with her dead parents for 4 years reveals why she did it in harrowing letter

A woman who killed and lived with the bodies of her dead parents for years has revealed why she did it in a harrowing letter.

In October last year, Virginia 'Ginny' McCullough, 36 at the time, was sentenced to at least 36 years behind bars for the murder of her elderly parents, John, aged 70, and Lois, aged 71.

She had poisoned John and savagely beat her mom to death with a hammer under the very roof the family had called home in the quiet 'sleepy' village of Great Baddow in Essex, UK, some time ago in 2019.

"Cheer up," Ginny could be seen saying to officers upon her arrest. "At least you caught the bad guy!"

However, it wasn't just the shocking crime and her harrowing confession that made international headlines, as the killer had also coexisted alongside her victims' corpses for a staggering four years.

Lois' body had been stuffed in a sleeping bag and in a taped-up wardrobe, 'to keep the maggots out' Ginny grimly explained, while John lay to rest in her self-made 'mausoleum' made of breeze blocks and blankets.

'You wouldn't think you're chatting to a murderer'

Now, the Chelmsford murderer has hinted at what could've driven her to carry out the heinous act in a harrowing letter, told for the first time in a new Paramount+ documentary, Confessions of a Parent Killer.

The 90-minute movie invited dozens of locals - the grocer Paul Hastings, shopkeeper Alan Thomson, florists Debbie and Rachel, as well as some of Ginny's former classmates and other acquaintances - to talk about the murder that rocked their community in which they revealed Ginny simply appeared one day and they never saw Lois or John again after the Covid-19 lockdown.

"I think I should have asked her more," Alan recalled after stating Ginny told neighbors her parents had relocated, "but you wouldn't think you're chatting to a murderer."

Ginny accuses parents of 'emotional abuse'

Lois was stabbed to death while John was poisoned by Ginny (Essex Police)

Ginny's apparently rocky relationship with her parents is a main focus in the film, as locals said rumors circulated specifically about John who they described as 'curt', a regular drinker and 'strict' with his daughters.

In her letter, Ginny claimed she suffered years of emotional abuse at their hands, writing how she felt 'emotionally trapped' if not physically and never 'a part of the family' that was 'too cold.'

She also accused her parents of violence, saying she was 'smacked' as a child for wetting the bed which marred her childhood from five to 10 years old, and even resulted in her being bullied at school, which her former elementary school classmates remembered.

"Children were noticing that I looked untidy and strange. I was dirty somedays and others I had washing up liquid slicked back in my hair in a ponytail,” she penned. “I looked so unkempt and dirty that kids started saying ‘Ginny germs, no returns.’”

John's body was concealed in a makeshift tomb (Essex Police)

"I wondered if my parents loved me or if I was a burden?”

In one humiliating moment, she said her dad 'forced' her to carry a pack of diapers for herself.

As a teenager, she said she received 'no approval or praise' and her parents chastised her academically, later remarking that she became a 'buffer' between her dad's drinking and mom's mental health struggles, 'taking abuse from one or both of them'.

Alcohol and mental health

Ginny's letter continued to portray her father as a heavy alcoholic and that her mom had 'severe OCD', writing: “Sometimes my mother would shout out insults in the night or say she wished I was dead. It was hard to calm her down or reason with her and my dad resorted to drinking more.”

A psychiatrist said it's possible Ginny suffered some degree of childhood neglect and emotional abuse, which could have built up resentment towards her parents.

Ginny when she was arrested in 2023 'instantly confessed' (Essex Police)

And while a former friend said she felt 'something terrible' had happened in Ginny's childhood, the killer stopped short at elaborating any further, instead ominously writing: "I will not go into all details, for everything that happened that my father did.”

Eventually, the lengthy show concluded with Ginny's frank admission that she murdered her parents simply for a 'quiet life'.

Ginny commits murder for one simple desire

She wrote: “A number of months before the end, my mother was getting more and more emotionally cruel, telling me that I was worthless and there was growing toxicity from my dad's drinking. Night time was my only respite and even then I would cry and feel hopeless.

"I felt emotionally desperate and trapped. I got to a point where there was nothing I wanted more than a normal quiet life at almost any cost."

Ginny said she even took 'comfort' in their deaths (Essex Police)

Ginny murdered her mom in a 'frenzied' and 'intimate' attack after attempts to similarly poison her like her father didn't work.

Gathering gloves, a knife and a hammer, Ginny struck her mom while she lay in a 'deep sleep' but wrote how she 'wasn't even hitting her properly, like someone playing the xylophone badly.'

Ginny finds 'comfort' in the death of her parents

Their deaths were then a 'comfort' to her, as she said the lack of 'mental abuse or drinking' in the home was the closest she felt to 'living normally and quietly.'

Eventually, Ginny's own web of lies caught up with her as her 'fantasist' allegation that she had been assaulted instead turned the spotlight onto her missing parents.

The court also heard how Ginny covered up her tracks for years by making fake medical appointments and even impersonating her mom on the phone to her siblings.

Gambling debts and financial motivation

She also used her parents' bank accounts and stole more than £150,000 (roughly $200,000) from their pensions - a factor the prosecution claimed was evidence she was motivated by financial gain after racking up £48,000 (around $64,500) in debt.

Officers grew suspicious of Lois and John's whereabouts when Ginny reported an assault (Essex Police)

In her confession, she justified stealing the sums as she shockingly claimed she didn't buy 'holidays, vehicles, designer items or anything high end.'

'Psychopathic tendencies'

After her sentencing, Ginny said she believed she 'deserved life without parole' before noting even that would not be 'punishment enough to ease my guilt or remorse, even mildly'.

“I have made so many mistakes in my life through deception, secrecy and self sabotage. The worst of all is the crime that I killed my parents," she concluded.

Meanwhile, the court ruled Ginny likely had psychopathic tendencies and was a pathological liar, with experts in the documentary suggesting her letter could easily be read as another manipulative technique to elicit sympathy and gain control over the situation.

Confessions of a Parent Killer is available to stream on Paramount+.