Alexander McKellar was once known only to his neighbours in a small corner of the Scottish Highlands. Today, thanks to the Netflix docuseries Should I Marry a Murderer, his name is recognised far beyond Bridge of Orchy. His story involves a fatal collision, a three year cover up, a whirlwind engagement and a confession that ultimately led to his own arrest.
This article brings together the full and accurate timeline of who Alexander McKellar is, what he did, how his crime came to light and what has happened to him since his conviction. If you watched the documentary and want the complete picture in one place, you are in the right spot.
Who Is Alexander McKellar
Alexander McKellar, often called Sandy by friends and family, is a Scottish farmer and former deer stalker from the village of Bridge of Orchy in Argyll and Bute. He and his twin brother, Robert, grew up working on a large rural estate in the Highlands, guiding hunting parties and managing livestock.
For most of his life, McKellar was simply a private man living a quiet, working class existence in a remote part of Scotland. That anonymity ended in 2017, when a decision he made after a night of drinking set off a chain of events that would eventually make him one of the most talked about names in true crime.
Life Before the Crime
Before the events that defined his public identity, Alexander McKellar worked closely alongside Robert on the estate where they lived. Deer stalking was part of their livelihood, and the brothers regularly hosted hunting groups from overseas, including German visitors who came for the seasonal hunts.
Their work kept them close to the land and largely out of the public eye. Locals who knew the McKellar twins have since described them as hard working and unremarkable, which makes the events that followed all the more difficult for their community to reconcile.
A Close Knit Rural Community
Bridge of Orchy is a tiny settlement, and the surrounding countryside along the A82 is popular with hikers, hunters and long distance cyclists. That same road, quiet and scenic, became the site of the tragedy that would come to define Alexander McKellar’s life.
The Night Tony Parsons Was Killed
In September 2017, Alexander McKellar’s life, and the life of another family, changed forever.
Who Was Tony Parsons
Tony Parsons was a 63 year old Royal Navy veteran and a prostate cancer survivor. At the time of his death, he was partway through a long distance charity bike ride, riding roughly one hundred miles through the Highlands to raise money and awareness for prostate cancer causes. He was well liked, healthy despite his cancer history, and known for his commitment to charitable causes.
What Happened on the A82
After spending the evening drinking with a hunting party at a local hotel, McKellar was driving along the A82 between Bridge of Orchy and Tyndrum when he struck Parsons, who was cycling along the same stretch of road. Robert was in the vehicle with him at the time.
Rather than stopping to help or calling emergency services, the brothers left the scene. They returned home, switched to a different vehicle, then drove back to where Parsons lay.
Covering Up the Crime
What followed was a calculated attempt to erase all evidence of what had happened. The brothers buried Parsons’s body in a pit typically used for disposing of animal carcasses on the estate. They also hid his bicycle behind a nearby waterfall, where it has never been recovered.
For nearly three years, Tony Parsons was simply a missing person. His family had no answers, no body to grieve over, and no closure. Police periodically reopened the case but made little progress until an entirely unexpected development occurred years later.
Meeting Caroline Muirhead
In the autumn of 2020, Alexander McKellar’s life took a turn that neither he nor anyone else could have predicted. He began dating Caroline Muirhead, a forensic pathologist based in Glasgow, after the pair matched on Tinder.
Their relationship moved quickly. Within a matter of weeks, the couple were discussing marriage, and McKellar proposed not long after. To Muirhead, it felt like a fast moving but genuine connection, and she had no reason to suspect the darkness in her new partner’s past.
The Confession That Changed Everything
A few months into the relationship, an ordinary moment triggered an extraordinary revelation. While driving together, a police car passed, and McKellar’s reaction was noticeably tense. Muirhead, sensing something was wrong, asked him directly whether there was anything in his past she should know about before they married.
That question led to a confession. McKellar admitted that he and Robert had killed a cyclist in 2017 and had spent years hiding the body. He later told Muirhead that the burial site would soon need to be moved because of planned development on the land, and he took her to see where Parsons had been buried.
For Muirhead, the confession was devastating. She had unknowingly become engaged to a man responsible for a crime that had left a family without answers for years.
How Caroline Muirhead Helped Solve the Case
Rather than walking away immediately, Muirhead made a difficult decision. She reported what she had learned to Police Scotland and agreed to continue the relationship outwardly while quietly gathering information that could help investigators.
This period demanded extraordinary composure. Muirhead maintained the appearance of a normal engagement while working covertly with police. During one visit to the burial site with McKellar, she discreetly marked the location using a crushed Red Bull can, giving investigators a clear reference point to locate the remains.
Her actions were instrumental in finally giving Tony Parsons’s family the resolution they had waited years for.
Arrest, Trial and Sentencing
The investigation reached its turning point on 30 December 2020, when both Alexander and Robert McKellar were arrested. In January 2021, using the location Muirhead had helped identify, police recovered Tony Parsons’s remains for forensic examination.
The legal process that followed took time. On 26 July 2023, at the High Court in Glasgow, Alexander McKellar pleaded guilty to culpable homicide, a charge under Scots law that sits between accidental death and murder, along with attempting to pervert the course of justice. Robert pleaded guilty to the latter charge for his role in helping conceal the crime.
On 25 August 2023, sentencing was handed down. Alexander McKellar received 12 years in prison. Robert McKellar was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months for his part in the cover up.
Robert McKellar’s Role and Sentence
While Alexander was behind the wheel, Robert’s presence in the vehicle and his participation in hiding the body and disposing of evidence made him legally responsible as well, though on a lesser charge. The disparity in sentencing reflects the different roles each brother played that night and in the years of concealment that followed.
The Family’s Response
Tony Parsons’s widow, Margaret, along with his children, issued a public statement saying they would never forgive the McKellar brothers for taking Tony from them and leaving the family without answers for more than three years. Alexander McKellar’s defence lawyer told the court that his client accepted full responsibility and understood the pain his actions had caused.
In 2025, the Parsons family also reached a six figure civil settlement with McKellar’s car insurer, agreed just before a related trial was due to begin.
The Netflix Documentary
The case became widely known to the public through the Netflix docuseries Should I Marry a Murderer, which premiered in April 2026. Directed by Josh Allott, the three part series centres on Caroline Muirhead’s perspective, using interviews with her, investigators and others connected to the case to walk viewers through the entire ordeal.
The title, while attention grabbing, does not fully capture the substance of the documentary. It is less about romantic indecision and more about the impossible position Muirhead found herself in: loving someone while knowing what he had done, and choosing to help deliver justice regardless of the personal cost.
Where Is Alexander McKellar Now
As of the documentary’s release, both Alexander and Robert McKellar remain in prison serving their sentences. Alexander is serving a 12 year term following his conviction for culpable homicide and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Caroline Muirhead, meanwhile, has rebuilt her life away from Glasgow, relocating to a coastal area. She has spoken candidly about struggling with substance use in the aftermath of the confession and has since become sober. According to Netflix, she is now in a stable, committed relationship and has focused on repairing family bonds that were strained during the ordeal.
What This Case Teaches Us
Beyond the shocking details, the Alexander McKellar case highlights several broader realities worth reflecting on.
- How devastating it can be for a family to live with prolonged uncertainty after a loved one goes missing
- How Scottish law distinguishes culpable homicide from murder, and why intent and circumstances shape sentencing outcomes
- How ordinary people, like Caroline Muirhead, can find themselves at the centre of a criminal investigation through no fault of their own
- How covert cooperation with police, even at great personal risk, can be the deciding factor in solving a cold case
These elements are part of what makes the story resonate well beyond a typical true crime headline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Alexander McKellar?
Alexander McKellar is a Scottish farmer who killed cyclist Tony Parsons in a 2017 collision and spent three years concealing the crime before confessing to his then fiancée, Caroline Muirhead.
What happened to Tony Parsons?
Tony Parsons was struck and killed by Alexander McKellar while cycling on the A82 in September 2017. His body was buried on the McKellar family’s estate and was not recovered until January 2021.
How was the crime discovered?
McKellar confessed to his fiancée, Caroline Muirhead, in 2020. She reported the confession to Police Scotland and secretly helped investigators locate the burial site, leading to his arrest.
What sentence did Alexander McKellar receive?
In August 2023, Alexander McKellar was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to culpable homicide and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
What happened to Robert McKellar?
Robert McKellar, Alexander’s twin brother, was sentenced to 5 years and 3 months for his role in helping conceal the crime.
Conclusion
The story of Alexander McKellar is a stark reminder that the truth often finds its way to the surface, no matter how long it takes. What began as a fatal, drunken decision on a quiet Highland road turned into a three year secret, only to be undone by an honest question asked in a car.
Caroline Muirhead’s courage in reporting the man she loved, and her quiet cooperation with police, gave Tony Parsons’s family the answers they had waited years for. Alexander McKellar and his brother Robert are now serving their sentences, while the case continues to resonate through the Netflix documentary that brought their story to a global audience.
For anyone searching to understand who Alexander McKellar is and what really happened, this case stands as both a tragic account of loss and a testament to the difficult choices that can lead to justice.
