Developer, 38, trained in body dissection was ‘caught on CCTV dragging suitcase containing body’

A property developer trained in body dissection ‘was caught on CCTV dragging a suitcase for two hours that contained body of pensioner she battered to death’, a court has heard.

Jemma Mitchell, 38, is alleged to have killed 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong at her home in Wembley on June 11 last year before driving more than 200 miles to dump her headless corpse in Salcombe, Devon, 15 days later.

Ms Chong, who had lived in Wembley for more than 30 years, was found in a woodland by a holidaying family with her head ‘cleanly cut’ from the rest of her body ten metres away.

A murder trial at the Old Bailey has been told how a row had broken out between the two women in a dispute over money to pay for repairs worth hundreds of thousands of pounds at Mitchell’s home.

Mitchell, who studied Human Sciences at Kings College London and is said to have become an expert in body dissection, is alleged to have pressured Ms Chong to give her the money.

Jurors were today shown CCTV of Ms Chong’s last known sighting on June 9 last year.

She was seen walking for exercise in Chaplin Road, where she lived with her crane operating lodger David Klein.

At 6.23am two days later, a camera across the road on Brondesbury Park, where Mitchell lived, captured her leaving her home wearing a hat, scarf and backpack while carrying a large blue fabric suitcase.

Just over an hour later, Mitchell was then seen walking down Ealing Road, which leads to Ms Chong’s home in Chaplin Road – arriving at 8.01am.

Deanna Heer KC, prosecuting, told the court that Mitchell was also no longer wearing her scarf or backpack, but had donned sunglasses and a face mask.  

She said: ‘We can see there that she still has with her the blue suitcase. We can see much more clearly in this footage that she has a face mask, a surgical face mask, on.

‘She’s walking at a normal pace, pulling the suitcase on its own wheels. The cloth of the suitcase itself doesn’t appear to be bulked out…at this stage.’

At 1.13pm, more than five hours later, CCTV showed Mitchell walking away from Ms Chong’s house with the original blue suitcase and now a smaller red suitcase allegedly carrying financial paperwork.

Jurors heard she had her backpack on again, while she was also seen to pause with the two suitcases before walking on.

CCTV officer DC Dharmesh Bakrania told the court that the blue suitcase appeared to be bulkier than it had been in the morning prior to her arrival in Chaplin Street and ‘had to be kicked back by her foot to try and get it to move’ due to its weight.

Jurors also heard there was ‘something black’ covering Mitchell’s left hand. 

Cameras continued to track her movements with the two suitcases. 

Mitchell was seen on CCTV dragging the bags on the street and through a grass verge for two hours before she was picked up in a taxi.

During that time, the court heard she had called various taxi firms nine times before a driver agreed to collect her for a 40-minute journey home.

Mitchell was dropped off outside her neighbour’s home, before then dragging the suitcases into her property.

A camera across the road captured her pulling the suitcases onto the pavement outside that house before the taxi drove away and she pulled both bags through the gate to her home. 

Later that evening, she attended St Thomas’ Hospital in central London to receive treatment for a broken finger, telling staff she had shut in a door – a claim the prosecution said today was a lie.

Jurors heard that the blue suitcase was not seen again until June 26 – 15 days later.

That day, the court was told Mitchell hired a Volvo from Hertz and laid a white sheet in the boot before struggling to load the blue suitcase into the back of the car.

Later that evening the car was captured on a CCTV camera overlooking Bennett Road, close to the location where the Ms Chong’s body was found.  

Ms Chong’s body was discovered in a woodland by holidaymakers the following day, with her skull uncovered in undergrowth a few days later.

The blue suitcase was later recovered on top of Mitchell#s neighbour’s shed close to the party fence in Brondesbury Park.

In the pocket at the front was a bloodstained blue and white tea towel which bore traces of Ms Chong’s DNA, the court heard.

Jurors were also today told that Mitchell made herself the main beneficiary of Ms Chong’s will. 

The two women were devout Christians who met through the church and had known each other since August 2020. 

Within a month Mitchell began talking to Ms Chong about her finances and suggested she could sign her home in Wembley to her to avoid inheritance tax.

Mitchell continued to pressure her for almost a year, the court has heard.

But by June 7, she had decided against it and told Mitchell when she came to her home, it is claimed.

The following day, the victim 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, the victim said in a text: ‘Not talk about house or money, stresses them both out.’

Ms Chong was reported missing that night and for the next two weeks Mitchell hardly left her home, the court heard.

Mitchell, of Brondesbury Park, northwest London, denies murder and will claim the killing was ‘absolutely nothing to do with her.’

The trial continues.