Caroline Muirhead helped police find Tony Parsons body
caroline muirhead helped police find the body of cyclist Tony Parsons after Sandy McKellar confessed to a hit-and-run that killed him three years earlier. Netflix’s three-part series Should I Marry a Murderer? follows how Muirhead, then 29, discovered that her fiancé had buried the cyclist in a peat bog.
What began as a whirlwind romance on Tinder ended with Muirhead marking the burial site with a Red Bull can on a vast estate and keeping her relationship intact so police could identify the body. The case turned on her decision to keep feeding officers information even after the twins were arrested.
Sandy McKellar’s confession
Muirhead met Sandy McKellar after coming out of a bad relationship. McKellar was a Scottish farmer, and Robert McKellar warned her at a party that his brother was “not right in the head.” Muirhead later recalled thinking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” before accepting his proposal.
After the engagement was announced, Sandy McKellar confessed that he had driven a truck into cyclist Tony Parsons three years earlier. Sandy McKellar and Robert McKellar buried Parsons in a peat bog on the estate Sandy worked for. Muirhead then went to police and was asked to help identify where the body lay on the estate.
Red Bull can on the estate
Muirhead marked the location with a Red Bull can, then maintained her facade so officers could dig up and identify the body. Police promised that her identity as a key witness would stay secret, and the twins were arrested after the body was identified.
That arrest did not end Muirhead’s role. She was told to cut contact with the twins, but she kept the relationship going because she feared they would work out that she had turned them in. She kept sending police new information and recorded conversations while gathering more evidence.
Police protection for Caroline Muirhead
The documentary sits alongside a review that says police did not protect Muirhead with every possible means at their disposal. The review says police did not provide extra security for Muirhead or her parents when they asked, even as she turned to drink and drugs and moved toward a near breakdown.
The same account says Muirhead begged for help while she was losing her grip on reality. It also says the twins left Parsons by the side of the road to get tools and a change of clothes, and that he was dead when they returned.
The series leaves viewers with the weight of Muirhead’s choice to keep talking to the police while still living beside the men she had exposed. Her story now sits in public view, with the three-part documentary turning a hidden witness account into the center of the case.
