The Fake Livestream Alibi: Stephen McCullagh and the Murder of Natalie McNally
On 18 December 2022, millions watched Argentina and France contest the World Cup final. In Lurgan, Northern Ireland, thirty-two-year-old Natalie McNally spent the afternoon with her family before returning to her home at Silverwood Green. She was fifteen weeks pregnant. The following evening, her body was found inside the house.
Her partner, Stephen McCullagh, appeared to possess an extraordinary alibi. His YouTube channel had shown him gaming from home for six continuous hours. He spoke as though the broadcast were live and supplied an explanation for his lack of interaction with viewers. Police initially accepted the apparent proof and released him. The footage had been recorded four days earlier and arranged to play while he travelled to Lurgan.
The Fake Livestream Alibi reconstructs how McCullagh prepared the false broadcast and crossed seventeen miles in disguise. His recorded image continued speaking from an empty room until he returned. The book follows the PSNI investigation from the first arrest through the cyber examination that exposed the recording. CCTV and transport evidence carried the case into Belfast Crown Court, where prosecutors presented a murder planned around digital deception.
Drawing on public court evidence and official records, Sam Shadow examines the complete Natalie McNally murder case, including the prosecution timeline and the defence challenge to the circumstantial evidence. The book explains how computer activity and phone silence combined with CCTV footage and witness accounts to dismantle the YouTube alibi.
Natalie's life remains present through family memories and her work, including her campaign for better diabetes care. Her pregnancy and the future her relatives imagined for Dean remain inseparable from the harm examined during the trial and sentencing.
This extensively researched Northern Ireland true crime account follows Stephen McCullagh's fake livestream from its creation to its collapse. It then examines the 2026 murder trial that ended with a unanimous guilty verdict. McCullagh received a life sentence with a minimum term of thirty-one years.
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