Woman found guilty of murdering friend and dumping body in Devon

An alternative therapist has been found guilty of killing her friend and dumping her body more than 200 miles away.

Jemma Mitchell, 38, has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of the murder of Mee Kuen Chong, 67, whose headless body was dumped in Salcombe in Devon.

She has been remanded into custody to be sentenced on Friday (28 October).

Mitchell was charged with the murder of Chong at her home in Wembley, north-west London, on June 11 last year.

It is alleged she stuffed the headless body into a large suitcase before depositing it in woods near Salcombe more than two weeks later, on June 26.

The Old Bailey heard that it was found by holidaymakers the next day.

After her corpse was discovered, police found a forged will of Ms Chong's leaving the bulk of her estate to Mitchell.

The prosecution claimed Mitchell 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 £4 million dilapidated family home, jurors were told.

The trained osteopath 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.

A jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for seven hours to find Mitchell guilty of murder.

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