London woman found guilty of murdering friend and dumping body

Mee Kuen Chong's body was found in woods near Salcombe in June last year

Mee Kuen Chong
Published 27th Oct 2022

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

Jemma Mitchell, 38, has been convicted 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, 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.

Jurors have heard that Ms Chong suffered from schizophrenia and was referred to a mental health team after sending letters to the then-Prince Charles and Boris Johnson.

Giving evidence in court, Dr Curtis Offiah, who examined a CT scan of Ms Chong’s skull, identified the epicentre of fracture damage in the right frontal region. He said it was quite a complex fracture, with a number of areas of depression inwards and linear fractures.

Mitchell, trained as an osteopath and practiced in Australia.

First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Rayo app.