Netflix’s New Docuseries Asks an Important Question: Should You Marry a Murderer?
This past Wednesday, April 29th, Netflix debuted Should I Marry a Murderer?, a three-part docuseries with a story from Scotland that is genuinely stranger than fiction. In a short span of time, the series and its central subject, Dr. Caroline Muirhead, have already captivated the Internet. So, what’s the story behind it?
Muirhead, a forensic pathologist, met Alexander “Sandy” McKellar, a farmer and deer-stalker, through the dating app Tinder in 2020. They officially began a relationship that September, and after five weeks of a whirlwind romance, they were engaged the following November. After saying yes to McKellar’s proposal, Muirhead asked if there were any proverbial skeletons in his closet that could impact the two of them.
At this point, McKellar confessed to his role in the death of Tony Parsons, which had already been a cold case for over three years. The 63-year-old Parsons, who was a cancer survivor, retired Royal Navy officer, and grandfather, had set out to do a 100-mile bike ride to raise money for a prostate cancer charity. Parsons began to ride the route from Fort William to his hometown of Tillicoultry on September 29, 2017, and had been last seen outside of the Bridge of Orchy Hotel that evening.
As it turned out, Parsons had been hit by McKellar’s car between the towns of Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum. McKellar and his twin brother, Robert McKellar, were driving home drunk from a dinner with a hunting party at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, when they accidentally struck Parsons. Parsons is believed to have died within thirty minutes of the initial accident, but instead of taking him to a nearby hospital or calling the authorities, the brothers fled the scene. They then returned home and switched cars, grabbed Parson’s body and his bicycle, and buried him in a kill pit that was used to dispose of their hunting trophies. They then destroyed or buried Parsons’ personal belongings, hid his bike behind a nearby waterfall. When taking the truck that caused the accident in for repairs, McKellar blamed the damage on having hit a deer.
“We went to bed and he cuddled in next to me and fell asleep,” Muirhead later told the BBC (via The Scottish Sun). “I was wide awake and on my phone trying to Google anything about a missing cyclist to see if this could be true and then I saw the appeals about Tony Parsons… I was really terrified. I was on a private estate with a man who had just admitted killing someone. And I was scared to leave. His family had an excess of guns and shooting and hunting paraphernalia all over the house.”
“When I first heard Caroline Muirhead’s story, I thought this must be the plot of a drama, not the real experiences of a living person,” Should I Marry a Murderer? director Allott said in a statement through Netflix. “Her dilemma is so unimaginable, but it’s also one that’s impossible not to hypothesise in your own relationship. The person you’ve just said you’ll spend the rest of your life with tells you that they have a terrible secret. Do you choose to keep that secret and live with the awful consequences, or reveal it, and destroy the person you love and everything you’ve hoped for?”
What Happened in the Tony Parsons Case?
McKellar eventually showed Muirhead where Parsons was buried, and she made a point to drop a Red Bull can nearby so it would be easier for police to triangulate the kill pit. She stayed with McKellar for more than a month so she could gather whatever information and evidence, ultimately reporting her fiance to the authorities on December 27, 2020.
Parsons’ remains were found in the kill pit that next month, and McKellar and his brother were arrested soon after… only for Muirhead to bail them both out of jail three days later. She then spent nine months undercover and still engaged to McKellar, losing her forensic pathologist job in the process, in order to get as much information as possible. She formally left him in August of 2021, with the brothers being charged with murder in December of 2021.
The trial eventually occurred three years later, with Alexander being sentenced to twelve years of prison on charges related to the manslaughter and the cover-up, and Robert being sentenced to five years and three months for his role in the cover-up.
“Since the sentencing, I’ve worked incredibly hard to rebuild and regain control of my life,”. Muirhead said in a statement with Netflix. “It’s only now that I’m finally in a place where I have felt strong and confident enough to tell my story… When I came forward in December 2020, I trusted that the [justice] system would stand by me and keep me safe when I was at my most vulnerable but that wasn’t my experience. I hope by speaking out and sharing what happened to me, we can start an honest conversation about greater protection for victims and witnesses and why a far deeper understanding of mental health within the police and court system is so desperately needed.”
(featured image: Netflix)
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