Alexander “Sandy” McKellar swept Dr. Caroline Muirhead off her feet in a whirlwind romance, but their love story had a dark ending.
Shortly after proposing, he told Muirhead he’d hit a man with his car three years prior and buried the body. Alexander’s shocking confession sent them both spiraling.
Muirhead admitted in Netflix’s Should I Marry a Murderer? that her friends, as well as Alexander’s own twin brother Robert McKellar, all warned her that he was bad news. She said she was so besotted with Alexander that she was blind to the red flags they all waved.
In a shocking reversal, Muirhead ended up working with police to get Alexander behind bars. Her and Alexander’s relationship, his crimes and her brave investigative work are all unpeeled in the new docuseries, which hit Netflix on April 29.
Find out where Alexander McKellar is now below.
Who is Alexander McKellar?
Alexander was a hunter and gamekeeper on the Auch Estate, a massive 68-square mile farm in the Scottish Highlands near Bridge of Orchy.
On his Tinder profile, McKellar described himself as a “6ft 4 Highlander: Lonely contractor looking for someone to keep him warm on cold nights on the farm.”
He matched with Muirhead, a forensic pathologist, on the app in early October 2020, and they quickly bonded over their jobs, which both involved death. Muirhead and Alexander quickly became inseparable.
But, Robert once told Muirhead that Alexander was “not right in the head.” She added in the docuseries that Alexander often grew belligerent and loud when he had too much to drink and that she suspected he drank and used drugs as a “crutch” during their relationship.
What did Alexander McKellar do?
Late on the night of Sept. 29, 2017, Alexander drove drunk and accidentally struck Parsons, who was riding his bicycle at the time, per BBC News. Robert was in the passenger seat of Alexander’s truck.
Parsons allegedly didn’t die immediately after the collision, but neither Alexander nor Robert called for help. Instead, they dragged Parsons and his bike to the side of the road, then drove back to the Auch Estate, where they changed clothes, switched vehicles and returned to the scene.
Once there, they allegedly took Parsons’ body back to the estate, where they first left it in the woods before burying it elsewhere on the grounds.
How did Alexander McKellar get caught?
After Alexander proposed to Muirhead in November 2020, he confessed what he had done to Parsons. She recalled that while he admitted he made a terrible mistake, Alexander insisted he “wasn’t a bad person.”
Muirhead was horrified, but didn’t go to police immediately because she hadn’t processed the news. In late December 2020, Alexander told her that the estate’s new owners planned to add buildings where Parsons’ body was buried and asked her to help him move the remains. It was then that Muirhead reported him and Robert to authorities.
Police arrested the McKellars on Dec. 30, 2020, but the brothers refused to talk, responding to officers’ questions with “no comment.” Because investigators hadn’t yet found Parsons’ body, they had to release the twins with no charges.
Alexander and Muirhead continued seeing one another after his initial arrest; he didn’t realize she was doing so just to build a case against the brothers. Muirhead recorded several discussions between Robert and Alexander about the case and made it her mission to find physical evidence linking them to the crime as well.
On one visit to the estate, Muirhead told Alexander that she would help him dispose of Parsons’ remains, but she needed to know their precise location first. Alexander showed her on the grounds where he and Robert buried Parsons, at which point she surreptitiously dropped a crushed Red Bull can. Muirhead contacted police and told them to dig where she left the can.
In January 2021, police found Muirhead’s Red Bull can and excavated around it. They uncovered Parsons’ body exactly where she told them it would be, per The Scottish Sun. Nine days later, Muirhead helped police locate Robert and Alexander, and the McKellar twins were arrested and remanded in custody.
What was Alexander McKellar charged with?
Once prosecutors got Parsons autopsy results back, they were able to charge both McKellar twins with murder.
Forensics experts claimed that Parsons likely survived for up to half an hour after the accident, in which he suffered severe blunt force trauma to his pelvis, ribs and spine, as well as possibly a collapsed lung, according to BBC News.
What was Alexander McKellar’s verdict?
Though Robert and Alexander were both initially charged with murder, prosecutors agreed to a plea deal.
The brothers both pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice and Alexander also pleaded guilty to culpable homicide.
Where is Alexander McKellar now?
Alexander was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Robert was ordered to serve five years and three months.
In January 2025, BBC News reported that Alexander settled a civil case out of court when his insurance company issued a six-figure payment to Parsons’ family.
