Jemma Mitchell, 38, is accused of killing Mee Kuen Chong, 67, over money (Picture: PA)
A 38-year-old woman accused of murdering her elderly friend was caught on CCTV dragging around a large suitcase containing her body, a court has heard.
Jemma Mitchell allegedly battered 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong to death with a ‘blunt object’ at her home in Wembley, north London, before decapitating her in June last year.
Her body was found 200 miles away in a Devon woodland two weeks later, while her head was dicovered in the undergrowth nearby a few days later.
The court heard Mitchell, who denies murder, was trained in human dissection and had fallen out with Ms Chong over money.
Footage played to jurors was said to show Mitchell walking from her address in Willesden to Ms Chong’s home carrying a large blue suitcase and a backpack.
She arrived at 8.01am and emerged around five hours later carrying the suitcase and another bag containing the victim’s financial paperwork, the Old Bailey heard.
Reconstructed CCTV clips showed her walking through streets and a grass verge for two hours, during which she allegedly called various cab companies nine times before she was picked up and dropped off outside her address.
That evening she was treated in hospital for a broken finger, saying she shut it in a door.
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Mitchell, a devout Christian, allegedly said she was ‘attuned to the dissection of humans’ (Picture: Archant)
‘Vulnerable’ Ms Chong was allegedly pressured to hand over £200,000 (Picture: Central News)
More footage was said to have showed Mitchell stopping her Volvo near Bristol and, later, turning into a Co-op garage near Salcombe with a flat tyre.
After a wheel change, the car was seen on a road just a few metres from where Ms Chong’s body was found.
Mitchell, a devout Christian, had studied osteopathy and her professional website said she was ‘attuned to subjects in neuroanatomy, genetics and dissection of human cadavers’, jurors were told.
Mitchell’s movements in the hours after Ms Chong’s death were traced through CCTV (Picture: PA)
After working as an osteopath in Australia for seven years, she returned to the UK and has not worked since, the Old Bailey heard.
She was said to have been living with her mother at a dilapidated house in Brent when she befriended Ms Chong through church.
Ms Chong, who was described as vulnerable with concerns around her mental wellbeing, agreed to hand over £200,000 to help with repairs before having a change of heart, prosecutors say.
The trial continues.
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