Murder accused walked streets with bulky suitcase for hours, court told

A woman was captured on video dragging a bulky blue suitcase around the streets of London for two hours after allegedly murdering her friend and stuffing the body inside.

Jemma Mitchell, 38, is accused of killing 67-year-old Mee Kuen Chong at her Wembley home on June 11 last year before depositing her headless corpse more than 200 miles away in Salcombe, Devon, 15 days later.

On Thursday, jurors at the Old Bailey viewed CCTV clips tracking Ms Chong’s last known sighting.

On June 9 last year, she was seen appearing to walk for exercise in Chaplin Road where she lived accompanied by her lodger, crane operator David Klein.

Just before 6.30am on June 11, Mitchell was seen on video walking from her address in Brondesbury Park in Willesden with a large blue suitcase and backpack.

She arrived in Chaplin Road at 8.01am and emerged just over five hours later at 1.13pm carrying the blue suitcase and another smaller bag allegedly containing Ms Chong’s financial paperwork.

She was captured on CCTV dragging the bags on the street and through a grass verge for two hours before being picked up by a minicab.

In that time, jurors heard she had called various cab companies nine times before a driver collected her for the 40-minute journey home.

She was dropped outside her next door neighbour’s house and then transferred the suitcases from the driveway to her home, it is claimed.

Later that evening, she went to St Thomas’s Hospital in central London to be treated for a broken finger, saying she shut it in a door – a claim the prosecution say is a lie.

The court heard the blue suitcase was not seen again until June 26 last year.

That day, it is alleged Mitchell hired a car and drove to Salcombe with the body in the suitcase stashed in the boot.

Ms Chong’s decapitated body was discovered in woods by holidaymakers the next day and her skull was found in nearby undergrowth a few days later.

Jurors have heard that Mitchell murdered Ms Chong because she wanted to get hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay for repairs to her home.

Mitchell has denied murder and the trial continues.