A Scottish court case linked to Should I Marry a Murderer? has brought back the killing of cyclist Tony Parsons, 63, who died after Alexander McKellar hit him with a car in the Highlands in September 2017. McKellar later told Caroline Muirhead, a forensic pathologist, that he had killed a man years earlier in a hit-and-run.
Parsons was on a 100-mile solo bike ride for charity when McKellar struck him while driving under the influence of alcohol. He was not killed instantly and died about 20 to 30 minutes later, while McKellar and his twin brother, Robert, left him behind to hide their damaged car instead of calling for help. The brothers then buried Parsons in a shallow grave in a remote peat bog, destroyed his belongings, hid his bike behind a waterfall and later moved his body to a pit used for disposing of animal carcasses. McKellar kept the secret for three years.
The confession changed the case. Muirhead secretly left a Red Bull can near the makeshift grave and then alerted police, leading to the arrest of Alexander and Robert McKellar in December 2020. Both men initially pleaded not guilty to murder, but a month before trial they accepted plea deals for lesser charges. In August 2023, the High Court of Glasgow convicted Alexander McKellar of culpable homicide and attempting to defeat the ends of justice and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. Robert McKellar received 5 years and 3 months for helping conceal the crime.
The case matters today because McKellar has now settled a civil case out of court in January 2025, closing another part of a killing that began on a Highland road and ended in a peat bog. Before Muirhead identified where the body was, police had questioned the McKellar twins about Parsons's disappearance but had not treated them as suspects. Alexander McKellar worked as a farmer alongside his brother in Bridge of Orchy and was known for taking groups out to hunt deer in the Scottish Highlands, a far cry from the man his lawyer described as someone who was not evil but had done a terrible thing and could never rewind the clock. The answer to the headline is plain: no, she should not marry a murderer, and this case shows why the warning carried by that Netflix title was never just for television.