A British woman was on Thursday found guilty of murdering her church friend and dumping her remains in a seaside town after the pair had an argument about home renovation money.
Jemma Mitchell, 38, was convicted of killing 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong, also known as Deborah Chong, in June 2021.
During the trial, the jury heard how the two women had become friends through a church group, with Mitchell even acting as a spiritual healer for Chong. Last year, Mitchell was in the process of renovating her house but was running short of cash. Chong kindly offered to gift around $230,000 to Mitchell in order for the work to be completed, but at some stage Chong changed her mind and rescinded the offer.
Chong was seen alive for the last time on June 10. The next day, Mitchell traveled to Chong’s house in Wembley, in northwest London, and killed her. Security cameras later captured Mitchell leaving the house, pulling two large suitcases behind her. Her actions in the footage suggested that the luggage was heavy.
It’s thought Mitchell took a taxi back to her own house, where she then kept Chong’s remains for about two weeks. She then drove to Salcombe—a town on the southwest coast of England—and dumped Chong’s body.
In a bid to cover her tracks, Mitchell made a false report to a missing persons charity and told the lodger who lived with Chong that the victim had gone to spend time with her family. In a disturbing detail, Mitchell specifically told the lodger that Chong had planned to stay “somewhere close to the ocean.”
On June 27, Chong’s remains were found near an overgrown pathway—with her head discovered several feet away from her body. The decomposition of the remains was such that it took a few days for Chong’s identity to be established. A post-mortem exam showed Chong had sustained a skull fracture along with other injuries consistent with an attack. The exam also determined that Chong’s head couldn’t have been removed by an animal, indicating that Mitchell—who had experience in human dissection and a degree in osteopathy—most likely cut it off.
When news emerged that a body had been found in Salcombe, Mitchell then made another fraudulent report to the missing persons charity, saying Chong had contacted her to say she was staying with family by the sea. Mitchell also forged Chong’s will to leave 95 percent of Chong’s estate to herself, using identity documents belonging to a neighbor who died in May 2021 to witness the bogus will.
Once Chong was identified as the deceased, suspicion quickly fell on Mitchell. She was arrested on July 6 and refused to answer detectives’ questions before being charged with murder three days later.
“The cold facts of this case are shocking,” Detective Chief Inspector Jim Eastwood, who led the investigation, said in a statement. “Deborah Chong was a vulnerable lady—in the weeks before her murder, she was seeking help for her declining mental health. 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.”
DCI Eastwood said it may always remain a mystery why Mitchell chose to dump Chong’s remains where she did. “However, 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 added.
Mitchell is set to be sentenced at London’s Old Bailey on Friday.
