Click, Play, Kill: YouTuber Tries to Get Away with Murder

He thought it was an airtight alibi, a YouTube live stream with timestamps and proof. I just realized I'm literally going to be drinking and driving and the game by the way I'm not leaving the house tonight. But there's something this YouTuber forgot. Your internet history is never really deleted. And the receipts point to a sinister revelation. This is Scandal, presented by Lawncrime. I'm Sierra Gillespie. The holidays are generally a time to spend with family and friends, reflecting on the past year and treasuring the moments with our loved ones. And that's the exact message, YouTuber Steven McCullough put out to his some 37,000 subscribers in December 2022. I'll have too many loved ones in my life, but the ones I love, I love with all my heart. It was a complete shock then, when Steven's pregnant girlfriend, 32-year-old Natalie McNally, was found brutally murdered in her northern Ireland home. At first, detectives arrested Steven, believing he was responsible. But when he provided an airtight alibi of six hours worth of a YouTube live stream, he was cleared as a suspect. It wasn't until later, when detectives took a closer look, they uncovered a terrifying truth. Today, Scandal takes us to Lurgen, Northern Ireland, a large town in county, Arma. Lurgen was home to 32-year-old Natalie McNally. According to Natalie's family, she was a deeply loving person. She was the kind of woman who was always just a phone call away. She was there for her friends and her family, when they were in need of a pick me up. Someone who was there to support them in both the bad times and the good. And that's just what Natalie was up to on the night, a December 18th, 2022. Natalie's boyfriend, Steven McCullough, hosted a YouTube live stream under the account VoteSax107. The channel had more than 37,000 subscribers, and Steven often live streamed to them while playing video games. In the spirit of the holidays, he titled the stream on December 18th, Violent Night Christmas. Natalie and Steven had matched on Bumble back in August 2022 and started their relationship shortly thereafter. By November of the same year, they'd announced they were expecting a baby together, a boy who Natalie planned to name Dean. On December 18th, 2022, Natalie, ever the supportive and loving girlfriend, texted Steven Goodluck with his upcoming live stream. At 8.24 pm, she even logged onto YouTube to watch Steven and his stream. She probably saw something like this. Kind of the text can go Merry Christmas, how's things? Maybe it's someone that you've fallen out with or someone that you've just not spoken to in a long time because, you know, it's life, life gets in the way. If I'm a little text, let's go Merry Christmas. It's like what Bill Murray says at the end of Scrooge. You know, it's never too late. There's someone we call. Our text disposal would be, I don't know, message them. Is that the, um, the correct way of speaking? I don't know. So, you know, at least I've got that going for me. These are clips from the actual live stream put out by Steven that night. In this stream, he references a few key things, including an ongoing announcement that Steven's chat feature wasn't working. Well, because this stream and software is kind of up the left, it means I can't check the live chat, which is a real shame. So, by all means, talk amongst yourselves. I could use my phone to dip in every now and again and check it, but I've decided that I kind of hit live streams where people just sit and read comments and go, "Oh my god, for god's sake, ask me a question." And also, if I go on my phone for too long, I'll end up just scrolling through TikTok and the amount of time that I've lost scrolling through TikTok is unbelievable. So, yeah, phones away. Can't look at the live chat for some bloody reason, because if I do, it makes the whole thing freeze, and OBS just screws up. Right, yeah, so I need to get my anxiety about whether or not the stream will crash just either way, otherwise it'll affect the whole bloody thing. But yes, if you have questions, comments, opinions, anything like that. Tough. What I want this to be, right, is, do you know when you used to watch Big Brother back in the day, like E4 had like a live stream that ran like all night, and it was just live footage from the night. It's kind of going to be like that. So, you know, like you can dip in, you can dip out that sort of thing. And meanwhile, I'm just going to be focusing on playing the game. All good, all good. This is really important, because when creators live stream, they're able to interact and chat, read the comments with their followers. They can react to them in real time. But Steven says, his chat wasn't working that day. He takes it a step further to, and even leaves the stream a few hours in to show he's taking a break. Anyway, um, back in five, 10 minutes or so, so, um, go get yourself something to eat. Is all of this just an excuse to bolster his alibi? Some of the subject matter, Steven discusses, is bizarre too, including police brutality. I was reading somewhere recently, like the amount of police force that we have lost over the last 12 years is just frightening, and the wonder crime is on the rise. That's why a lot sticking to just doing crimes in a video guy keeps things simple, mate. At one point, Steven even references making a crime look like an accident before saying Natalie's name in the live stream. Uh-huh, yeah, that's, that's physics. That's, that's what would happen in the real world. Abs of, not late. Abs of, not late. The stream goes on for about six hours until Steven ends the live stream with this. I think I'll wrap up this stream with none of you watching at all. Uh, just by saying, very Christmas everyone. It's, um, it's a time that we sort of, we look forward to him and get excited about whenever we're young. And then as we get older, we get much more cynical and stuff like that. And then we wait to stage when we realize it's not about us anymore. It's about the younger generation. It's about keeping that, that love alive and passing it on. And I think that's, that's something I'm looking forward to doing more than anything else, really. About 24 hours later, after he doesn't hear from Natalie, Steven heads to her home in Lurgan. And it's there that he discovers her body and calls the 999 emergency line. Hey, is the patient breathing? No, it's cold. Okay. What's the address of the emergency, please? Go to the center, go to the center. Listen, you think he's pregnant? Yes, I don't know. Do you think you say she's cold? Okay, listen, listen to me. I'm going to help you. Okay, you stay on the line last night. All right. Okay, listen, if there is a disability available and send someone else to get it, 9 keys, we need a leader. Call me whenever you have it. Okay. Is there anybody else with you to go and get a D-Fib? No, the club will wear her. Listen to me. I'm organizing the health for you. 9, stay on the line. I'm going to tell you exactly what to do. Natalie has been badly beaten, stabbed repeatedly, including once to her jugular vein. A medical examiner later determines she's broken multiple bones in her neck, indicating she was also strangled. On top of all of this, Natalie is found with blunt force trauma to the head, meaning she was hit at least five times in the face and neck. Tragically, Natalie and her unborn son, Dean, are both pronounced dead and a murder investigation, soon opens. Right away, detectives look at Stephen. He's arrested, pretty early on, but quickly released when he provides an alibi, the six hour long YouTube live stream that quickly takes investigators off his trail. During this time, Stephen plays the role of devastated boyfriend, openly mourning, at Natalie's wake, making and posting a memorial video about the loss and even pointing investigators in the direction of her ex-boyfriend. as a possible suspect. Even still, some detectives have a weird feeling about Steven. So despite this livestream alibi, they follow up on his whereabouts at the time of the murder, and soon come to a grisly realization. The livestream that Steven posted the night of Natalie's murder wasn't live at all. In fact, tech experts were able to determine that Steven recorded the entire ordeal long before the night it was published. Remember when Steven claimed the chat wasn't working? It's not that the chat wasn't working, it's that the video was recorded. There's no way to predict what viewers would write in the chat, so he just pretended like it was malfunctioning. That means when Steven claimed to be going live, he was actually ending Natalie's life instead. [BLANK_AUDIO] On the end of the December, you were telling the world that you weren't going to be dying straight up into your lifetime. From six of all, until midnight. [BLANK_AUDIO] You had something like Twitter post on Instagram post saying that you would be dying straight night. The violent night Christmas, live, getting streaming, streaming illness. [BLANK_AUDIO] You get the appearance of the energy room playing around with the order. On your device. Now your device has been examined. It receives from it was examined. And there is nothing to suggest that you were on your device between six and twelve and midnight. On the evening of December. There's no activity on your device between six and twelve. Investigators soon discovered that at 4 p.m. on December 18th, the day of Natalie's murder, Steven scheduled the live stream. At 6 p.m., the pre-recorded video goes live. And just a half an hour later at 6.36 p.m., Steven is caught on CCTV video leaving his home in a disguise. Minutes later, there's video of him on a bus heading towards Natalie's home. Doorbell camera video later shows Steven approaching Natalie's house at about 8.51 p.m. Nearly an hour later at 9.31 p.m., Steven is caught on the same doorbell camera this time leaving Natalie's home. After that, he's seen hailing a taxi and fleeing the crime scene headed back to his own home. It would be about another 24 hours before Steven returned to the crime scene, pretending to find Natalie's body and calling the 911 emergency line. When investigators finally gather all this information, Steven is arrested for the second time on January 31st, 2023. Steven, you're under arrest for murder. You do not have to say anything, but I must caution you that if you do not match with questions, something which you later rely on on court, it may harm your defense. If you do say anything, it may be given an evidence. There it is. Wait. Steven, the stage is on suspicion. About the entire ordeal, the Northern Ireland police service released a statement reading in part. McCullough was very confident of avoiding justice for this and was playing the role of the victim across his friendship group, across the McNally family and the public in Lurgen. This young woman, a much-loved daughter and sister, was 15 weeks pregnant and excited to be planning the rest of her life as a mother. Here, he carried out a sustained and shockingly violent attack which took Natalie's life and that of her unborn son. This was an attack that sent shockwaves right across the community. Not only was it distressingly brutal in nature, it was meticulously and coldly premeditated. A loving family are left with unimaginable heartache. They have lost their beloved Natalie and the baby boy they so dearly wanted to welcome into their family. Steven was eventually charged with one count of murder as Northern Ireland has no separate charge for fee to side. Steven pleaded not guilty to the charge and his trial began on February 16th, 2026, in the Belfast Crown Court. It lasted for about six weeks before a 12-person jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty. On June 3rd of this year, a judge ruled he must serve a minimum of 31 years in prison. All right, so we know the outcome of the case, but how did we get here? I want to take a deeper dive into all of this and for that, let's bring on today's guest. It's Friend of the Show and International Attorney, David Tafiri. David, great to see you. Thank you for coming on Scandal as always and let's kind of wind back the clock. Pre any sort of sentencing, pre any sort of conviction at the very beginning. We have this woman, 32-year-old Natalie, she's found murdered and something we say a lot in the true crime industry, I guess, is that phrase. It's always the husband, it's always the boyfriend, always the significant other. So do you think that's where investigators would start taking a closer look at the significant other? I think so and notably, the defendant also knew that and so he actually tried to point the finger at her ex boyfriend. And that was part of the obfuscation that he engaged in, but he was arrested twice. So originally, he was arrested right away, apparently, after they came to her apartment where the body was and they must have seen something that suggested to them that although he was claiming he had just come and found her that he actually may have committed the murder. And then he, as you probably already talked about, used this way of creating an alibi and then he was later much later re-arrested. So the police seemed to be focused on him from the beginning, the alibi convinced them it wasn't him at first. They also heavily investigated this ex boyfriend that he pointed the finger at and then they let that lead them eventually back to him. Okay, we have to talk about the alibi because this is kind of crazy. You mentioned, so Stephen, the boyfriend, he's arrested right away, investigators think it's him. Then he's like, wait a minute, hold the phone, I have this six hour alibi. I was doing this YouTube live stream. So they take a look and they're like, okay, yeah, wow, you were on YouTube, you were alive. Okay, I guess you couldn't have been committing the murder at the time, great, good to go. Now later, of course, this has a couple of holes poked in it and that'll lead to his future arrest. But what are your thoughts on the fact that he went to such great lengths to create an alibi? I mean, it's six hours worth of him making this live stream. That's me screams pre-meditation, what are your thoughts? Well, it's very unique, obviously, taking advantage of modern technology to try to create an alibi. It's an interesting way to try to do it and I'm surprised others haven't tried to do this in the past. But of course, it ultimately backfired and thankfully, the police and the investigators looked deeper into this supposed live stream, which actually wasn't live at all. And so this is one of the most interesting parts about this case and why I think it has received a lot of media attention. Yeah, I think you're right because so many people, we always have our phones on us, we're always using social media. I mean, we live stream here online crime all the time, I mean, it's something that people do. So you're right, it's interesting that we haven't seen more things like this, but to your point, it's great that detectives took a look, a cursory look and they're like, oh, wow, okay, so this guy has an alibi. But they were like, wait a minute, something here's kind of fishy, let's take a little bit deeper. And so it turns out that they ended up using their cyber investigation team to kind of crack the case way open. Do you think that's why it took an extra hot second before he was arrested for the second time and later charged? Yeah, absolutely. Apparently they interrogated him numerous times, something like eight times, I believe I read. And so they must have become suspicious. There probably was, you know, significant evidence to suggest he did it. But then they have this really strong alibi that showed he was in a completely different place at that time, live streaming. And so eventually I guess that led them to bringing in the right experts to try to investigate. Could he have faked this live stream, which ultimately he did do it? It makes you wonder, did he know that he had this weakness? Was he worried that they might be able to figure out that it wasn't a live stream that had been pre-recorded? But it's still a very unique way to try to present yourself as in one place when you're committing a crime in another. Yeah, it's all of it is, like I said, I think there's showing huge pre-meditation here, the fact that he went through and created this, that he presented this alibi to detectives and was like, hey, I wasn't even there, I was good to go. And I think the deception is really what stands out to me and something that you brought up to why a lot of people are really interested in this case Because we have the unique factor that he was kind of well known on YouTube the fact that he had this alleged alibi with this live stream And then on top of that I just have to say it again the deception here I mean the fact that he was very publicly saying oh my god I love to Natalie so much he went to her wake. He consoled her family He posted on social media talking about this tragedy I mean, do you think when this eventually did go to trial if you were one of the prosecutors that you would highlight this the fact that This is the guy who turns out to be the killer is also consoling her family Yeah, I think they absolutely would highlight that and that was definitely from what I read part of the sentencing You know decision that it impacted the sentence that he got the judge noted that he had You know engaged in this behavior where he pretended to be You know so to be mourning her to be you know commuting with her family over the tragedy of it to be you putting things out there on Social media about how upset he was messaging with his friends about her I mean, he was a complete act and I think that influenced the very significant prison sentence that he received Yeah, that's what's so scary in cases like this because if a tragedy like this happens and we cover it all the time There's a murder. Obviously people react in different ways. We can't necessarily blame them But if they're coming together with the family and you know They're mourning the loss you feel for them and then when it turns out that they're the person who committed this act It's so scary at the very least and I guess if we're talking about how Natalie actually was killed This to me. I'm wondering if you think prosecutors would really focus on this to the way that she died I mean, it seems so intense there were multiple stab wounds Strangulation, have you blows to the head blunt force trauma and to me when I'm hearing all of those things kind of added up It seems like this was a very intense crime and emotional. It's not like this was a sniper from you know across a football field away and It seems like a very intimate crime to actually have to strangle someone. It doesn't happen Intaniously, what are your thoughts about all that? Yeah, I completely agree with you You know first of all this also does play into Intent and in order for the prosecutors to get a murder charge They had to show both that he did it and that he you know intended to kill her or cause serious bodily harm and The way first of all the way it played out how violent the killing was that he stabbed her and strangled her I mean, there's there's no doubt what he was trying to do Plus the fact that he had created this alibi in advance also shows intent the way he traveled to her her place and In you know ways that he hoped he would not be traced. I mean all of that went to you know help prove the intent But the crime was brutal and you know part of that may be that it's very much harder to get a handgun in Northern Ireland and in the United Kingdom and so maybe he wasn't able to get a handgun When the handgun probably would have been maybe less violent in a way a quicker death But maybe he also wanted a slow death and sometimes you know Unfortunately, you can see from the way the crime is carried out someone it intends to actually Create you know enhance the amount of violence because they're so angry at the person and that is also probably maybe what the jury thought That's what I would be thinking in a case like this when it's all laid out the facts of how she died and Something that I don't want lost here. Of course, we have a 32-year-old woman who died and was didn't just die She was brutally murdered, but on top of that she was pregnant too at the time I mean is this something that would pull in the heartstrings of the jury even more? Yeah, absolutely. I mean he killed an unborn child Supposedly his unborn child and and and you know and the judge noted that he intended to do that too He was aware that she was pregnant and so it it also you know Makes you wonder why did he do it in such a violent way when he knew she was you know carrying someone inside her. It's really sad I mean the facts of this case are really really disturbing and we've talked a lot about the prosecution because of course We know how the case ended, but let's pretend that he's just been charged We haven't gone to trial yet, but we're preparing and you're the defense attorney. What sort of defense would you even come up with for this guy? Well, notably he did not testify and so Because he chose not to testify and did not he probably made that choice or his You know in consultation with his lawyers because he did not want to be Cross-examined then they're limited in what kind of defense he could provide what they tried to do likely is just pick holes in the prosecutions evidence and to you know try to say that there's not sufficient evidence to connect him to the crime I'm not sure if the defense lawyers tried to stand by the live stream or not if they did they would have had to probably have a You know a tech expert to help explain that maybe there was you know some of that went on where they were kind of battling over the technology that could be confusing for the jury frankly it was confusing to me how they How the prosecutors were able to figure out that it wasn't a live stream when it was presented as a live stream It had something to do with how the data were you know runs behind the live stream when it's recorded versus when it's a live stream So you needed technicians to help do that and they likely testify to help prove that I don't know if the defense brought in their own experts But they would have had to try to pick holes in that and try to keep the alibi and allow it to stand up Yeah, that's really tough to combat because you're right. I'm no tech expert. I You know, I'm just trusting what the experts are testifying to but basically it sounds like the data is different when you live stream versus when you record and post it as if it is a live stream And that's what's so hard in so many of the cases that we cover if there's a cell phone You know a text message that sent or your phone ping somewhere It's kind of hard to combat something like that and that's obviously what ended up happening here that he was found guilty But I do want to ask this to you you mentioned something that it's more difficult to have firearms over in northern England Or excuse me northern Ireland is where this happened England too, but that's a separate thing So I mean, what are the other differences here? Do you think that the criminal justice system is pretty similar to what we see in the United States as far as the trial in northern Ireland? Like was it similar what are your thoughts? Well, it's very similar to England and because they're both part of the United Kingdom They both have common law systems and that way it's similar to here in the United States as well It's a common law system in the United Kingdom. They have different courts This would been in the crown court I believe because it's a very serious crime This was and it would have entitled him to a jury which he did have a jury So it's a bit different in terms of its procedure from a criminal case in the US and how it proceeds But there are a lot of similarities both in terms of the law and in terms of the process Yeah, you mentioned things like if he took the stand in his own defense He would open him up for cross-exam something we're obviously very familiar with here in the United States He ended up doing that however a jury still ended up finding him guilty in this case. Are you surprised by the verdict? No, I'm not surprised at all You know once the prosecutors were able to find out that this wasn't a live stream and you know You know the using tech experts probably presented pretty strong evidence that it wasn't a live stream Then I think the whole his whole excuse falls apart and it becomes evident that this is a ruse and after all He is the one that pretended to discover her a day after he actually killed her and there must have been substantial DNA Evidence linking him to the crime and so it was in some ways probably an open and shut case Especially because he probably didn't have much of defense if he did have a really strong defense Or he thought he would appear credible to the jury or he can make an emotional appeal to the jury that would stand up with the jury He likely would have testified, but he declined to do that Yeah, it's hard to combat if we have DNA if we have cell phone data You know if he had his phone with him and it was pinging in the certain locations Plus we've talked about this YouTube live stream I mean there's a lot that was stacked against him I'm not really surprised by the verdict either and I'm wondering if you're surprised by this sentence So 31 years is what he was sentenced with and here in the United States I mean obviously it depends on which state you're in whether there's you know death penalty eligibility or if it's Life in prison life in prison without parole like with or without whatever it may be But over there I feel like every time I talk to you the sentence is that they receive for crimes that over here would be you know Life you're never getting out. It's a little bit different. So can you explain the sentence to me the 31 years that he got Yeah, I mean 31 years is a big sentence there obviously there's a little bit more of an emphasis there on trying to reform and rehabilitate someone after they've committed a crime So the sentences can sometimes be lighter But this is a very substantial sentence 31 years and he's going to be pretty old when he went and if he gets out of jail and so It sounds like The general public in northern islands. I think was satisfied. I'd you know, I think the family seemed to seem to be how satisfied it didn't seeing anything from the family saying they thought the sentence should be longer. I really think the family felt like, well, we have a life sentence, you know, we've lost her for our lives. We've lost the unborn child and the grant, you know, would have been a grand child with loving grandparents. So I, you know, I guess in some ways, maybe they wish he got a life sentence too, like they did. This one, I think, you know, going through and hearing about her family. I've seen a lot of posts from her siblings or her parents. They do walks and memorial of Natalie, you know, raising awareness for domestic violence. It's just so sad to talk about a case like this because it's 100% preventable. This did not have to happen. And it's really sad. The details that we had to go through and talk about today. But David Tafiri, I do thank you for walking us through the case. Thank you. And that's where today's episode of Scandal leaves us for now. If you like what you saw and you want to see more or connect with me on social media, you can find me on places like Instagram at Sierra Gillespie. Thanks for watching today's episode of Scandal. As always, I'm your host Sierra Gillespie and I'll see you next time.