Huge reason Caroline Muirhead skipped testifying against fiancé was left out of Netflix doc
Caroline Muirhead and the case of Tony Parsons, who was struck and killed by Muirhead’s fiancé Alexander McKellar in a drunk driving accident, are receiving newly renewed interest due to a brand-new Netflix doc.
Netflix’s Should I Marry a Murderer? focuses on Muirhead discovering that her fiancé had killed a man and covered up the body, horrifyingly realising that he had hidden the body on their estate and she ‘jogged past him every day’.
Muirhead eventually agreed to help the police elicit a confession, going undercover to try and record him admitting to the killing.
Eventually McKellar, and his brother who helped hide the body, were charged with murder, but Caroline pulled out of testifying on the day.
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In the documentary this focuses heavily on her mental health struggles at the time of the trial after having spent months gathering evidence against her fiancé.
What it leaves out however is a major change that was sprung on her at the last minute which she has previously said contributed to her not testifying.
Cameras from a BBC documentary were brought in at the last minute to film the case, and it caused her to freak out
A BBC documentary crew filmed inside the courtroom during the first day of what was set to be a trial for murder, ahead of the series Murder Case – The Vanishing Cyclist.
Speaking to the Daily Record in 2023 however, Caroline stated that shortly before the court case was set to begin she had discovered the judge’s decision to let the film crew in.
She reportedly ‘panicked’, telling them she did not want to appear in the film.
Muirhead told the Scottish newspaper: “I was completely mentally unravelled, I didn’t really know what I was doing.
“Even though the documentary crew said they would change my name and my voice it didn’t matter.
“I went on the run the day I was due to testify in court.”
The McKellar brothers were not tried for murder in the end after Caroline ran away
Alexander McKellar, and his brother Robert, ended up pleading not guilty to murder and accepting lesser charges.
Alexander McKellar ended up being sentenced to 12 years in prison for culpable homicide, with the difference between this and a murder charge in Scotland being in your ‘intent’ or the degree of recklessness you showed.
Robert plead guilty to ‘trying to defeat the ends of justice’ for helping to hide the body of Tony Parsons, having been in the car with his drunk twin brother when the incident took place.
Prosecutors accepted the plea after Caroline was arrested for contempt of court and spent two days in jail in the midst of a mental health crisis, having travelled to the remote waterfall where she believed McKellar had hid Parson’s bike.
Caroline was heavily critical of Police Scotland and their handling of her case, with legal expert Frances McMenamin KC 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 and Film, TV, Documentaries
Michael Slavin