The chilling moment Jemma Mitchell was arrested for murdering and beheading her friend is featured in a new true crime documentary.
Mitchell, an Australia-born English former osteopath befriended Mee Kuen Chong - who was also known as Deborah - after the pair met at a church in north London.
Watch the exclusive clip of Mitchell's arrest below:
Mitchell offered spiritual guidance and her services as an osteopath to her new friend, who was vulnerable and suffering from declining mental health.
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To set their friendship in stone and since both women were devout Christians, Deborah agreed to lend Mitchell money to help with repairs at her family home, however this act of kindness would become fatal.
Mitchell, who had boasted about her skill in human dissection, then plotted to inherit the money she felt she had been promised by meticulously planning Deborah’s murder.
She entered Deborah’s house on 11 June 2021 with a large blue suitcase, with which she was seen leaving four hours later.
She drove for hours from Deborah’s house in Wembley, north-west London to Devon and on 27 June 2021, Deborah Chong’s headless body was discovered in Devon by horrified walkers.
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The pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination of Chong’s body was unable to determine the cause of death due to the level of decomposition, but could determine that her skull was fractured.
The Old Bailey later heard that the injury was likely to have been caused by being hit with a weapon and that Chong’s ribs likely broke when her body was put into the suitcase.
Mitchell became the first murderer and the first woman to be sentenced on television in England and Wales on 28 October 2022 following a change in the rules to allow cameras in the courtroom. She was sentenced to life in jail.
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Through interviews with Criminologist Honor Doro Townshend, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Sohom Das and Consultant Forensic Psychologist Keri Nixon, the complex motives and circumstances behind an unlikely friendship that ended in a brutal murder are unpicked in the two-part documentary Body in the Suitcase: The Murder of Deborah Chong.
Chief Superintendent at Devon and Cornwall Police Ben Deer - who led the investigation - and Specialist Crime Consultant Simon Harding reveal in the doc how CCTV evidence played a vital role in identifying Mitchell when no forensic evidence could link her to the murder.
Barrister Sam Thomas examines the court case and the maximum sentencing for this ‘cold-blooded’ female killer. Plus key witnesses reveal patterns of behaviour that were possible warning signs that Mitchell was a person capable of murder.
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Chillingly to this day, Mitchell protests her innocence and in a TV first, the filmmakers have interviewed Mitchell’s mother, Hilary Collard, who, despite the wealth of damning evidence, continues to plead her daughter’s case.
Body In The Suitcase: The Murder Of Deborah Chong will premiere on Crime + Investigation and Crime + Investigation Play on 11 September 2023.
Topics: TV And Film, True Crime
Gregory Robinson