Dr. Caroline Muirhead says she was 'hung out to dry' by police whilst spying on murderer fiancé
Netflix’s newest hit documentary, Should I Marry a Murderer?, follows a Scottish pathologist who discovered that her fiancé had killed a man and hid his body.
Following Dr. Caroline Muirhead, the Netflix true crime doc follows the woman after she reported him for the murder of Tony Parsons.
Her fiancé, Alexander McKellar, struck Parsons whilst drink driving in 2017. Parsons was on a charity bike ride, and his body was not found until three years later when police discovered his remains with the help of Caroline. After McKellar told Caroline about the incident she soon after reported it to the police and has since claimed she was ‘pressured’ by detectives to spy on him to gain further evidence.
She ended up recording him over a long period of time, with these secret recordings being shown in the true crime documentary. Despite McKellar ultimately ending up in jail however, along with his brother who helped bury the body and cover up the crime, Caroline has been heavily critical of Police Scotland.
Muirhead accused police of ‘hanging her out to dry’ whilst she spied on McKellar
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Speaking about her experience with the police in the past to the Daily Record, the pathologist claimed that she had been ‘pressured from the start’ by detectives to go undercover and find out more information from McKellar.
This included her saying that police had implied she would get in trouble if she didn’t help.
Speaking to the Scottish newspaper in 2023, she said: “I put so much trust in them and they promised anonymity, support, yet the minute you give them what they want you’re hung out to dry. They suggested from the start that I could also end up in trouble with assisting a criminal, wasting police time, aiding and abetting.”
Staying close to McKellar put her at major risk, with him and his brother being released shortly after they were arrested due to her report. She told Netflix’s TUDUM: “When I came forward in December 2020, I trusted that the system would keep me safe when I was at my most vulnerable, but that wasn’t my experience.”
She was arrested after running away from a court appearance due to a mental health crisis
Caroline was a key witness for the prosecution, and was set to appear in court to testify against the McKellar brothers.
In the documentary, however, she showed that in the time since she had been made to act as an undercover source for the police her mental health had taken a toll. This also saw her turn to substance abuse to cope with the stress, and she fled the day she was supposed to appear as a witness.
An expert speaking in the documentary, Frances McMenamin KC, stated that she should have been treated as a vulnerable witness – which would have allowed her testimony to be taken ahead of time.
What is not included in the documentary, however, is that she was told at the last minute that cameras from an upcoming BBC documentary would be allowed in court, something which caused Muirhead to panic. Muirhead says in the documentary that she went in search of the bike Tony Parsons had been riding the day he was killed, stating that she wanted to prove it ‘wasn’t just the word of a crazy person’. She filmed herself amidst an 18-mile hike trying to find the bike where the McKellar brothers had disposed of it. A warrant was issued and she was arrested for contempt of court.
McMenamin was critical of the police in their handling of Caroline, saying in the doc: “If the criminal justice agencies want people to come forward as witnesses, they have to do better at every single stage.
“There needs to be a real awareness about the trauma experienced by witnesses.”
Caroline made multiple complaints against Police Scotland, but the majority were not upheld. They maintain they gave her ‘appropriate support’, but declined to participate in the Netflix doc.
LADbible group have contacted Police Scotland for comment.
Topics: Netflix, True Crime, TV, Documentaries, TV and Film
Michael Slavin