On December 18, 2022, Stephen McCullagh, a content creator known online as Votesaxon07, launched a six-hour holiday broadcast featuring GTA: Vice City. During the session, he tackled the “Waste the Wife” mission—a side quest where the protagonist must assassinate a client’s spouse and stage the hit as a car accident. In an unsettling display of foreshadowing, McCullagh was heard muttering threats toward the virtual target, occasionally casting dark, piercing stares directly into his webcam.
That same evening, in the town of Lurgan—roughly 30 kilometers from McCullagh’s home in Lisburn, Northern Ireland—his 32-year-old partner, Natalie McNally, was found stabbed to death. She was fifteen weeks pregnant at the time. While investigators typically look to a victim’s partner as the primary person of interest, McCullagh appeared to have a flawless alibi: he was supposedly live on the internet for the duration of the night.
The digital facade collapsed on February 2, 2023, following McCullagh’s arrest. Forensic examination of his seized computer equipment revealed that the “live” broadcast was actually a pre-recorded video filmed four days before the murder. To explain away the lack of interaction with his audience, McCullagh had cited technical glitches as the reason he couldn’t engage with the chat. As the video played to an unsuspecting audience, he traveled to McNally’s residence to carry out the attack. His movements near the scene were ultimately corroborated by CCTV footage.
On March 23, 2026, the jury reached a unanimous verdict of guilty. The presiding judge sentenced McCullagh to the most severe punishment available: a mandatory life sentence behind bars.
Source: gta.com.ua