A specialist in corpse dissection reportedly killed her buddy and severed her head before making herself the principal beneficiary of the will.
Jemma Mitchell, a former osteopath, is claimed to have required at least £400,000 following a disastrous attempt to add a second story to her Willesden, north-west London, house.
The Old Bailey was informed that she had made a bargain on Mee Kuen Chong, a 67-year-old vulnerable victim, to pressure her into giving her the money.
Mitchell is accused of killing Ms. Chong when she refused, decapitating her corpse, and dumping it more than 250 miles away in Salcombe, Devon. Mitchell disputes the charge of murder.
The head, which had been “cleanly severed” from the body, was discovered 10 meters away.
Mitchell had excelled in medical school and received a coveted award for her understanding of the human body.
The corpse was subsequently relocated to Mitchell’s partially abandoned home, where she stored it for two weeks before taking a leased Volvo to Devon.
Police discovered Mitchell’s house to be empty and without a roof when they searched it at 9 Brondesbury Park in Willesden.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer told the Old Bailey, “The rooms were stuffed with items; some of the rooms were hard to access.”
There were cartons and bags, food-filled freezers, used mattresses, and construction supplies all over the place.
“The kitchen was untidy, with papers covering the surfaces and decaying food on the stove.
The restroom was filthy and in need of repair. It had the appearance of a hoarder’s home.
“The property’s second level was undergoing repair, with the walls and ceilings unfinished.”
Police discovered a 2021 wall calendar with an entry for June 26, the day Mitchell traveled to Salcombe, scribbled by Mitchell in two separate inks.
“8am collect corpse back C letter will copy,” it said. “2 hour trek.”
There found a copy of Mitchell’s 2017 will in a box in the bedroom.
There was also a victim’s will that named Mitchell as trustee and was dated October 27, 2020.
It claimed to leave 95% of the deceased’s fortune to the defendant “to be utilised for the benefit of 9 Brondesbury Park’s initiatives” and 5% to the defendant’s mother, Hillary Collard, except from certain particular contributions to charity, according to the prosecution.
According to the prosecution, the defendant created the will herself, and she also falsified the signatures.
Some of the language in this will seemed eerily similar to that in the will of the defendant.
It looks to have been duplicated by someone without legal training and has fundamental legal flaws.
Sanjay Samson, one of the will’s witnesses, hadn’t seen Mitchell since 2013.
The victim had never seen her will, but he was unaware of this.
Ms. Heer said, “The defendant’s computer was checked.”
A Word copy of the identical will was kept in its memory. On July 1, 2021, Mee Kuen Chong had already passed away when it was constructed.
It is alleged that Mitchell used Ms. Chong’s passport, which she had seized from her house after she murdered her, to counterfeit her signature on the will.
According to testimony given in court, Mitchell and Ms. Chong met via their shared Christian faith and have been close friends since about August 2020.
Within a month, Mitchell started discussing money matters with Ms. Chong and recommended she turn over the deed to her Wembley property to her in order to avoid paying inheritance tax.
The court has been informed that while Ms. Chong opted against it, Mitchell persisted in pressuring her for over a year.
Six months prior to her death, the victim consented to donate £200,000 to Mitchell’s home renovations as long as the space was reserved for Christian worship.
But on June 7 of 2021, she allegedly changed her mind and informed Mitchell when she visited her house.
The victim texted her on June 8 with the following message: “Until you sold property, I won’t want you to come to me or my place I am stressed to the core [sic].”
The victim was so tired of her friend always nagging her for money when Mitchell recommended she see Ms. Chong on the day of her disappearance, June 11, that she texted Mitchell, “not speak about home or money, stresses them both out [sic].”
Mitchell was seen on security footage arriving to Ms. Chong’s Chaplain Road residence at 8 am with a blue bag that was empty when she departed for the day at noon to catch a taxi home.
It is also stated that she stole the victim’s case, which included all of her personal papers.
She was given medical attention later that day for a fractured finger, which she said she had sustained in a vehicle door.
After Ms. Chong was reported missing that evening, Mitchell seldom left her house for the next two weeks.
On June 26, she struggled to get the blue bag into the rear of the Volvo she had rented from Hertz after placing a white sheet in the trunk.
She was using a phone that belonged to a deceased neighbor.
After his death, Mitchell was given access to his apartment, and the jury learned that he had removed his phone and private papers.
Google Maps searches for sites around the Devon or Cornwall coast, including “Salcombe, North Sands, Cliff Road,” were saved in its memory.
The Volvo developed a puncture when she was in Devon, but Mitchell continued driving, endangering the wheel.
At the end, she made a “shaky and anxious” halt at a Co-op garage in Salcombe Road, Marlborough, not far from the south Devonshire coast.
Mitchell said that she was “seeing relatives in Paignton and had come to Salcombe for a lovely drive” when customers attempted to assist her.
The prosecution said that an AA technician who replaced the wheel remarked the vehicle had “a weird smell, kind of musty and wet, a scent which he had never experienced before and could not define.”
The enormous blue bag was nowhere to be seen, but Mitchell said she planned to sleep in the vehicle and that there were blankets and pillows on the back seat and in the trunk.
Before she proceeded on her trip, Mitchell requested that the damaged wheel be put on the back seat rather than the trunk.
At 8:49 p.m., she backed out of the garage and headed toward Salcombe.
Later that evening, the automobile was seen on a CCTV camera overlooking Bennett Road, not far from where a family on vacation would discover the deceased’s corpse the next day.
The next morning at 6.30am, Mitchell returned to London and returned the vehicle to the rental agency, informing the personnel that the tire had “just exploded.”
Later, at 9 Brondesbury Park, the blue suitcase was discovered on top of the neighbor’s shed, near to the fence.
A blood-stained blue and white tea towel with Ms Chong’s DNA traces found stashed in the front pocket of the jacket.
I attempted to answer your call yesterday, Mitchell said in a message left for the police when they called her in their quest for the victim. Mee informed me that she intended to stay with friends close to her sister’s family on the coast, so I wanted to let you know.
On June 7, 2021, “she indicated she felt ignored and wanted to go.”
Police detained Mitchell on July 6 near Brondesbury Park.
Mitchell informed her that she had been warned, adding, “I know that she has left.”
It’s not true, she murmured, turning to her mother.
A piece of orange rope was discovered by the police in a purse adjacent to the victim’s corpse.
At Mitchell’s house, a similar orange rope was discovered amid the trash.
The executors of a second will pertaining to Ms. Chong were identified as her lodgers, and it said that “Brothers and Sisters of God’s Household Live in the House Generationally Eternally of 196 Wembley HA0 4UT.”
Mitchell’s computer had a copy of the identical will that had been downloaded as a PDF on June 19, 2021.
GuideToYourWill.pdf, WillStorageGuide.pdf, and SigningGuide.pdf were three other files that were downloaded at the same time and on the same day.
A torn-out newspaper article headed “The Dos and Don’ts of Claiming an Estate” from June 28, 2021 was discovered in Mitchell’s bedroom.
Police discovered Ms. Chong’s actual will at her residence, in which she bequeathed her fortune to her family and many charity. Mitchell did not get any benefits.
Money is clearly the motivation in this instance, according to Ms. Heer.
The defendant’s home required extensive repairs, which cost a significant amount of money.
The prosecution claims that the defendant found Mee Kuen Chong to be the person from whom she believed she might get the money, either by convincing Mee Kuen Chong to donate it to her while she was still alive or, if not, by forging her will after she had been slain.
Mitchell disputes the charge of murder.
The court was informed that she would argue that the murder had “absolutely nothing to do” with her.
The trial goes on.