Shocking true story : Where are they now ?

Tony Parsons was 63 years old when he disappeared in 2017 during a charity cycling trip across Scotland. For four years, his family had no answers — just silence. His body wasn't found until 2021. That gap, those four years of not knowing, sits at the heart of Netflix's docuseries Should I Marry a Murderer ?, one of the platform's most talked-about true crime releases of 2026.

The series follows Caroline Muirhead, a forensic pathologist from Scotland who met Alexander "Sandy" McKellar on Tinder in 2020. They got engaged. Then, during a car ride, Sandy made a confession that unraveled everything : he and his twin brother Robert had struck a cyclist in 2017 and hidden the body. That cyclist was Tony Parsons.

We tracked down every key figure from this story — here's where they all stand today.

The crime, the confession, and the wire

Sandy's confession wasn't abstract. He told Muirhead directly : if the truth came out, they would lose everything and spend the rest of their lives in prison. That framing — placing himself and Caroline in the same boat — was a calculated move. It didn't work.

Muirhead went to the police. But she didn't walk away from Sandy immediately. Instead, she stayed in contact while secretly cooperating with investigators, recording conversations and gathering evidence against her own fiancé. It's the kind of decision that's easy to judge from the outside and nearly impossible to truly understand unless you've been inside it.

The docuseries doesn't shy away from the moral complexity here. How far can someone go in gathering evidence before the method itself becomes questionable ? That tension runs through every episode. For those of us who follow true crime content across streaming platforms, this is exactly the type of nuanced storytelling that separates a strong documentary from a simple crime recap.

Parsons, meanwhile, had vanished mid-trip — no trace, no explanation. Police later described how "it appeared that he had just disappeared into thin air," leaving his family in a prolonged state of uncertainty that lasted years.

Where Sandy, Robert, and Caroline are now

The legal outcomes came years after the crime. Here's a clear breakdown :

Sandy pleaded guilty and reached a deal with prosecutors in 2023. His lawyer delivered a statement : "The only explanation he can offer is simply fear and panic. In his own words, he says he was too cowardly to tell the truth." Sandy himself acknowledged that Muirhead had made the right call — a realization that arrived far too late to change anything.

Robert's role was different. He hadn't been driving. His conviction centered on helping conceal the body and obstructing justice. Both brothers are still serving their sentences in Scotland.

As for Caroline Muirhead — she paid a different kind of price. In the series, she speaks openly about what the experience did to her mentally :

• Severe anxiety and psychological strain during the investigation
• Reliance on alcohol and drugs as coping mechanisms
• A deep disillusionment with the justice system meant to protect her
• A slow, difficult return to work in the medical field

Her words in the documentary are direct : "I trusted the system would stand by me and keep me safe when I was at my most vulnerable — but that wasn't my experience." She's now using her story to push for stronger protections for victims and witnesses, and for better integration of mental health support within police and court systems.

What this story says about true crime — and what comes next on Netflix

True crime as a genre performs consistently well on Netflix. Should I Marry a Murderer ? adds something the format doesn't always deliver : a main character who is neither victim nor perpetrator in the traditional sense, but someone caught between the two, forced into a role she never asked for.

The Tony Parsons family story is the quiet, devastating backbone of all of this. He had set out on a charity ride. His loved ones spent years not knowing. The discovery of his body in 2021 brought answers — but as the series makes clear, answers and closure are not the same thing.

For viewers wondering what to watch after finishing this docuseries, Netflix isn't slowing down with high-stakes, character-driven stories. The platform has several compelling projects in development, including Netflix's The Whisper Man with Robert De Niro and Adam Scott, which looks set to be one of the standout thriller titles of the summer.

What Should I Marry a Murderer ? ultimately forces us to sit with isn't just the question of guilt — it's the question of cost. The psychological toll on witnesses who do the right thing rarely makes headlines. Caroline Muirhead's experience suggests it should. If the series sparks any real conversation about how the justice system treats cooperative witnesses, that's a consequence worth more than a verdict.