Body dissection expert is found guilty of decapitation murder: Churchgoer beat Malaysian pensioner to death, stuffed body and severed head in suitcase then dumped it in woods after bitter row over £400,000 property loan
- Churchgoing ex-osteopath Jemma Mitchell has been found guilty of murdering Malaysian pensioner
- Medical student-turned-property developer, 38, battered Mee Kuen Chong, 67, to death at London home
- She then cut off her head, stuffed her body in a suitcase then dumped her body in Devon woodland
- Jurors were told to consider manslaughter verdict but today found her guilty of murder instead
A churchgoing expert in body dissection was today found guilty of murdering her devout Christian Malaysian pensioner friend, cutting her head off and dumping her body in woodland more than 200 miles away order to inherit hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Former osteopath Jemma Mitchell, 38, hit 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong over the head with a weapon at her London home and left her decapitated and badly decomposed body in woods in Salcombe, Devon, two weeks later, it was alleged.
The prosecution claimed she had planned to murder the vulnerable divorcee and fake her will to inherit the bulk of her estate worth more than £700,000.
She came up with the plan after Ms Chong, who was known as Deborah, backed out of giving her £200,000 to pay for repairs to Mitchell’s £4million dilapidated family home, jurors were told.
The trained osteopath, who boasted online of her award-winning skill in human dissection, had denied having anything to do with Ms Chong’s death but declined to give evidence at her trial. It was claimed on her behalf that the prosecution had failed to prove that she was involved or that Ms Chong was even murdered as a post-mortem examination found the cause of death was ‘unascertained’.
However, a pathologist said her skull fractures could have been caused by being pushed on to a protruding surface or being hit with a weapon, although none was ever recovered.
Multiple rib fractures could have been caused by Ms Chong being stuffed inside a suitcase Mitchell was seen wheeling away or during resuscitation attempts, jurors heard.
Mitchell, arrived at her home in Wembley with a large blue suitcase, knowing Ms Chong, who was 5ft 2in tall and weighed only 7st, would fit inside.
She battered the unsuspecting pensioner around the head with an unknown blunt object and may have cut her head off at the house to allow her body to fit inside the case more easily.
Mitchell left the house and called a cab with the body in the case and another suitcase full of Ms Chong’s personal documents which she would use in an amateurish attempt to forge the victim’s will in a Word document. She kept the body in her rubbish strewn house in Kilburn for two weeks and barely left the property before she hired a car and drove to woods near Salcombe, where she dumped the body and severed head.
Ms Chong was reported missing later on June 11 when her lodger returned home and found she had disappeared leaving her mobile phone and glasses.
A search was mounted for her over two weeks before a holidaymaker in Devon found her body two weeks later.
A jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for seven hours to find Mitchell guilty of murder.
Screen grab taken from CCTV issued by Metropolitan Police of Jemma Mitchell
Jemma Mitchell (left) battered Mee Kuen Chong (right) to death at her home in Wembley in June last year, before cutting off her head, stuffing the body into a large suitcase then driving all the way to Devon to deposit it in woods near Salcombe
Undated Metropolitan Police handout photo of the site in Salcombe, Devon
Ms Chong went missing on June 11 last year and her body was found hundreds of miles away 16 days later
Profile of a killer: How Australia-born former osteopath murdered her Christian friend in ‘truly despicable’ killing
Mitchell was born in Australia where her mother, Hillary Collard, had worked for the Foreign Office. When her mother and father divorced, she moved back to the UK with her mother and her sister, who later accused her of harassment and won a non-molestation court order.
Mitchell had been a brilliant medical student and studied Human Sciences at Kings College London and won a first-class degree in 2004. Part of the course was module called the ‘Structural Basis of Human Function’ where she learned how to dissect bodies.
Mitchell also completed a special study course in ‘Experimental Anatomy’ and was so adept she won the Hamilton Prize for anatomical excellence.
She worked as an osteopath in Australia for seven years but her medical career did not work out and she returned to live with her mother at their £2million home in Brondesbury Park, which had been in the family for generations.
Mitchell lived on the first floor and her mother lived on the ground floor. She began to become more religious and started hoarding items. Some of the rooms at the house were so full of junk, she struggled to get through the doors and the kitchen was filthy with rotting food on the cooker and freezers packed full of food which had passed their sell-by date years ago.
Mitchell dreamed of making a fortune through property development, particularly extending her own home.
After the first builder went bust, Mitchell was quoted £500,000 to complete the house. She hired a second contractor and paid him £100,000, but then ran out of money and the work was terminated.
Mitchell met Malaysian Ms Chong in August 2020 and within a few weeks she was talking to her about her disastrous finances.
Ms Chong was mentally unstable and wrote bizarre letters to King Charles and Boris Johnson, thinking they were her boyfriends. She was also very generous with her money and had given one friend £50,000 to buy a home.
At first Mitchell suggested she could sign her Wembley property over her to her to avoid inheritance tax. Ms Chong declined but Mitchell continued to pressure her for almost a year.
Six months before she died, the victim agreed to give her £200,000 for repairs, providing the house was used for Christian worship.
But by June 7 last year, she had decided against it and told Mitchell when she when came to her home that day. The next day the victim she sent her a message saying ‘Until you sold house, I won’t want you to come to me or my house I am stress to the core.’
When Mitchell suggested visiting Ms Chong on the day she vanished, June 11, the victim told her in a text ‘not talk about house or money, stresses them both out.’
Mitchell was captured on CCTV going to Chaplin Road at 8am with the empty blue suitcase. She was filmed again struggling with the now full suitcase five hours later at 1.13pm as she left the house to take a cab home. Mitchell also had a smaller red and blue case belonging to the victim, full of her personal documents.
Detective Chief Inspector Jim Eastwood, who led the investigation, described it as a ‘truly despicable crime’.
He said: ‘The motivation for Jemma Mitchell’s actions was money and she showed a significant degree of planning and calculation as she attempted to cover up her horrific actions. The cold facts of this case are shocking.’
During the trial, jurors viewed CCTV footage of Mitchell arriving at Ms Chong’s home carrying a large blue suitcase, allegedly containing her murder kit, on the morning of June 11 last year.
More than four hours later, she emerged from the property in Wembley, north-west London, with the suitcase appearing bulkier and heavier.
The prosecution said CCTV appeared to show Mitchell struggling to carry the unwieldy suitcase because it contained a body. She also had with her a smaller bag full of Ms Chong’s financial documents, which were later recovered from Mitchell’s home.
After the victim’s lodger reported her missing, Mitchell claimed she had gone to visit family friends ‘somewhere close to the ocean’ as she was feeling ‘depressed’.
In reality, Mitchell had decapitated Ms Chong and stored her remains in the garden of the house she shared with her retired mother in Willesden, north-west London, the prosecution suggested.
On June 26 last year, she stowed the body inside the suitcase in the boot of a hire car and drove to Devon. En route to Salcombe, the Volvo blew a tyre and Mitchell was forced to drive into a service station and call for assistance. The repairman called to change the wheel described Mitchell’s ‘confused’ demeanour and an ‘odd musty smell’ inside the vehicle.
Jurors heard that none of the people who came to her aid saw the large blue suitcase in the boot, suggesting she had stashed it somewhere nearby, according to the prosecution.
Ms Chong’s headless body was found by holidaymakers beside a woodland footpath near Salcombe the next day. The victim, who was 5ft 2in and slim, appeared to have been redressed in clothes meant for a larger woman, jurors heard.
Following a police search of the area, Ms Chong’s skull was recovered a few metres away from the body. A search of Mitchell’s home uncovered Ms Chong’s fake will and personal papers. The blue suitcase had been stored on the roof of a neighbour’s shed.
Although no forensic evidence was recovered from the suitcase, Ms Chong’s DNA was identified on a bloodstained tea towel in a pocket.
Mitchell’s defence asserted that there was no evidence to confirm Ms Chong’s body was in the suitcase and pointed to the lack of evidence indicating a violent assault at her home.
But Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, suggested Mitchell breaking a finger while at Ms Chong’s house was evidence of a struggle, as well as the fact she lied about it afterwards.
Jurors heard that Ms Chong had suffered from schizophrenia and was referred for help after writing letters to the then-Prince of Wales and prime minister Boris Johnson.
In the months leading up to her murder, she had berated Mitchell for being a messy ‘hoarder’.
She appeared to change her mind about bankrolling Mitchell’s building work, telling her she should sell her house and enjoy the money instead.
Mitchell’s legal team suggested that the Willesden property, which had been in the family for generations, was worth £4million and she had £93,000 in the bank so did not need the money.
Mitchell was born in Australia where her mother, Hillary Collard, had worked for the Foreign Office. When her mother and father divorced, she moved back to the UK with her mother and her sister, who later accused her of harassment and won a non-molestation court order.
Mitchell had been a brilliant medical student and studied Human Sciences at Kings College London and won a first-class degree in 2004. Part of the course was module called the ‘Structural Basis of Human Function’ where she learned how to dissect bodies.
Mitchell also completed a special study course in ‘Experimental Anatomy’ and was so adept she won the Hamilton Prize for anatomical excellence.
She worked as an osteopath in Australia for seven years but her medical career did not work out and she returned to live with her mother at their £2million home in Brondesbury Park, which had been in the family for generations.
Mitchell lived on the first floor and her mother lived on the ground floor. She began to become more religious and started hoarding items. Some of the rooms at the house were so full of junk, she struggled to get through the doors and the kitchen was filthy with rotting food on the cooker and freezers packed full of food which had passed their sell-by date years ago.
Mitchell dreamed of making a fortune through property development, particularly extending her own home.
After the first builder went bust, Mitchell was quoted £500,000 to complete the house. She hired a second contractor and paid him £100,000, but then ran out of money and the work was terminated.
Mitchell met Malaysian Ms Chong in August 2020 and within a few weeks she was talking to her about her disastrous finances.
Ms Chong was mentally unstable and wrote bizarre letters to King Charles and Boris Johnson, thinking they were her boyfriends. She was also very generous with her money and had given one friend £50,000 to buy a home.
At first Mitchell suggested she could sign her Wembley property over her to her to avoid inheritance tax. Ms Chong declined but Mitchell continued to pressure her for almost a year.
Six months before she died, the victim agreed to give her £200,000 for repairs, providing the house was used for Christian worship.
But by June 7 last year, she had decided against it and told Mitchell when she when came to her home that day. The next day the victim she sent her a message saying ‘Until you sold house, I won’t want you to come to me or my house I am stress to the core.’
When Mitchell suggested visiting Ms Chong on the day she vanished, June 11, the victim told her in a text ‘not talk about house or money, stresses them both out.’
Mitchell was captured on CCTV going to Chaplin Road at 8am with the empty blue suitcase. She was filmed again struggling with the now full suitcase five hours later at 1.13pm as she left the house to take a cab home. Mitchell also had a smaller red and blue case belonging to the victim, full of her personal documents.
Later that day, Mitchell was treated in hospital for a broken finger, which she explained she had injured in a car door. However, the cab driver told police she had the injury when he picked her up.
On June 26 she hired a Volvo from Hertz and lay a white sheet in the boot before struggling to load the blue suitcase into the back of the car.
She now was using a phone belonging to a neighbour which she had stolen from his flat after he died and reactivated under his name.
Stored in its memory were Google Maps searches for locations on the Devon and the Cornwall coast, including ‘Salcombe, North Sands, Cliff Road’ where the body was found.
When she was in Devon, the Volvo got a puncture but Mitchell drove on damaging the wheel. She eventually stopped at a Co-op garage in Salcombe Road, Marlborough, close to the south Devon coast and was ‘shaky and distressed.’
Mitchell told customers who tried to help her that she was ‘visiting family in Paignton and had come to Salcombe for a scenic drive.’
An AA man who changed the wheel noticed the car had ‘a strange smell – sort of musty and damp.’ .
Mitchell insisted that the damaged wheel should be placed on the back seat of the car and not the boot before she continued on her journey. She drove out of the garage and turned towards Salcombe at 8.49pm.
Later that evening the car was captured on a CCTV camera overlooking Bennett Road, close to the location where the body was to be found the following day by a family on holiday.
By 6.30am the following morning Mitchell was back in London and dropped the car off at the hire company telling staff the tyre had ‘just blown.’
When police contacted Mitchell as they searched for the victim, she left a voice mail saying: ‘I tried to return your call yesterday… I was getting in touch to let you know that Mee said she was planning to stay with friends near her sister’s family on the coast. She said she felt neglected on 7 June 2021 and wanted to leave.’
On July 6 police arrived at Brondesbury Park to arrest Mitchell. After she was cautioned Mitchell said: ‘I know that she has gone away.’ She then turned to her mother and said: ‘It’s not true.’
But police had found a handbag next to the victim’s body containing a length of orange rope of which an Identical type was found among the rubbish at Mitchell’s home. Police also found a 2021 wall calendar with an entry written by Mitchell for June 26, the day she drove to Salcombe, in two different inks. It read: ‘8am collect body back C letter will copy 2 hr walk.’
In a box in the bedroom was a copy of Mitchell’s will, written in 2017 and a will in the name of the victim, dated October 27, 2020, which made Mitchell the main beneficiary.
It left 95 per cent of the deceased’s estate to the defendant ‘to be applied for the benefit of ‘Brondesbury Park’s projects’ and five per cent to the defendant’s mother, Hillary Collard.
The will had been faked by Mitchell who had forged the signatures including that of a witness who had not seen Mitchell since 2013.
Detectives searched her computer and found the Word document of the will which she had created on 1st July 2021, three weeks after she murdered Ms Chong.
Officers also found a torn-out newspaper article in Mitchell’s bedroom entitled ‘The Do’s and Don’ts of Claiming an Estate’ dated June 28, 2021.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer told the court: ‘A large sum was needed to complete the repairs on the defendant’s house.
‘In Mee Kuen Chong, the prosecution say the defendant found someone from whom she thought she could get that money – by persuading Mee Kuen Chong to give it to her, or if not when she was alive, then by forging her will after she had killed her.’
Source: Read Full Article
