A British woman who decapitated her friend and forged her will to receive 95% of the victim’s estate was convicted of murder on Thursday, police said.
Jemma Mitchell, 38, murdered 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong, also known as Deborah Chong, in June 2021 after they met through a Church group.
Mitchell had acted as a “spiritual healer” to Deborah and convinced the victim to give her about $230,000 for house repairs, but the relationship soured when Deborah backed out of the deal.
“Deborah Chong was a vulnerable lady – in the weeks before her murder, she was seeking help for her declining mental health,” Detective Chief Inspector Jim Eastwood, the lead investigator in the case, said in a statement on Thursday.
“However, Mitchell – so desperate to obtain the money she needed to complete the renovations on her house – sought to take advantage of Deborah’s good will, but when Deborah changed her mind, she callously murdered her and embarked upon an attempt to fraudulently obtain her estate.”
Jemma Mitchell, 38, was convicted of murder on Thursday for killing 67-year-old Deborah Chong.
(Metropolitan Police Service)
Deborah Chong, 67, was murdered by her friend last year after she refused to give her money for house repairs.
(Metropolitan Police Service)
Mitchell, who was trained in osteopathy and had experience in human dissection, went to Deborah’s house and struck her in the head with an object, then decapitated her and put her remains in a suitcase on June 11, 2021.
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She then caught a cab back to her home in the London suburb of Brondesbury Park and kept the body there for two weeks.
As the body started to decompose, Mitchell drove to the seaside town of Salcombe and disposed of the remains near an overgrown path on June 26, 2021.
The overgrown path where Deborah’s body was found in Salcombe, England.
(Metropolitan Police Service)
One of the suitcases that Mitchell used to lug Deborah’s remains.
(Metropolitan Police Service)
To try to cover up her tracks, Mitchell sent a message to Deborah’s landlord saying that the woman had left to spend time with her family for a year and planned on staying “somewhere close to the ocean.”
Deborah’s remains were found on June 27, 2021. An autopsy determined that she had suffered a skull fracture and was decapitated.
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Police arrested Mitchell on July 6, and she was charged with murder three days later. Authorities later found Deborah’s forged will to give 95% of her estate to Mitchell in the murderer’s house.
Mitchell was arrested at her home about a month after murdering Deborah.
(Metropolitan Police Service)
“What is clear is that Mitchell – seeing her chance to obtain the funds she so desperately desired disappear – decided to attack and murder a vulnerable lady for her own gain in a truly despicable crime,” Eastwood said.
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Mitchell is set to be sentenced on Friday.
