All language subtitles for T.T.A.M.M.S02E01.1080p.WEB.DL.H264.BTN_track3_[eng]

(Richard Shepherd)
When a murder is committed,

it's always a race against time
to find the truth,

to separate fact from fiction,
to catch the killer,

and to make sure
that justice is served.

But what happens when the truth
vanishes with the victim?

I'm Dr Richard Shepherd,
and I've spent

my entire career
as a forensic pathologist,

performing nearly 23,000 autopsies.

I've learned that the dead
don't hide the truth,

and they never lie.

Through me, you'll be hearing
directly from the victim.

With the aid
of a state-of-the-art laboratory,

using ground-breaking technology,

I'll be investigating a series
of intriguing crimes

where, from the victims' bodies,

are revealed to you
the truth behind these murders.

(camera shutter snapping)

In June 2021,

a family on holiday
in Salcombe, Devon,

made a horrifying discovery.

While out walking, they came
across a headless human body.

This gruesome discovery sparked
a police investigation and a hunt

for the truth,
which was 200 miles away.

Salcombe is a very quiet
seaside village.

It's very picturesque.

It's very beautiful.

It's popular with holiday-makers.

I know people say this all the time,
but it's really not

the kind of place
you expect to find a dead body.

A family was out for a walk.

And they were walking
along a footpath,

and they saw
what they thought was a...

doll or a mannequin

by the side of the footpath.

And as they got a bit closer, they
realised it wasn't a mannequin.

It was actually
the headless corpse of a woman.

(Jane Carter Woodrow) It was
a gruesome discovery for the family.

You would have
a sense of unreality.

It would have been pretty hard
for the family,

particularly as the head
was missing.

(Richard)
Devon and Cornwall Police

dashed straight to the scene.

The police attended the area,
and an investigation commenced.

The police initially treated
the case as an unexplained death.

Clearly, the discovery
of a body in these circumstances

has particularly distressing
features about it.

And I think really what would
kick in is the officers' passion

to find answers, answers for
the family of whoever that person

may be as to how
this situation arose.

How did this person
come to be here?

(Richard)
Scenes of crime officers

were called to the location.

The next steps for the police
are to cordon off the area,

ensure that it's secure and that
no more contamination can be made

from people entering the scene.

That would allow them
the time and space

to conduct a thorough
investigation,

looking for any evidence
that would indicate

why the body came to be where
it was, who might be responsible.

The person's body had no head.

It was... clearly been
sort of decapitated somehow.

So obviously,
this raises suspicions.

It doesn't look like
it's a sort of natural death

on the face of it.

So they began a fingertip
search of the area

to try and find out, firstly,
if there's any clues

and, secondly, to try to locate
this person's head,

which had become detached
from the body.

When looking
for missing body parts,

a specific strategy would be
prepared and considered,

depending on the circumstances.

In this case, the body
was in a wooded area.

And there wouldn't be
any assumptions made

as to whether the remaining
parts would or wouldn't

be local to the initial finds.

The parts of the body
that were discovered

would ultimately be
removed from the scene

to allow for a full forensic
examination by a pathologist.

The headless body showed
extensive decomposition.

It had clearly been outside,
but no-one knew for how long.

The first question that needed
answering was, who is this?

There was enough soft tissue
remaining to identify

that this was a female.

And what even partial remains
like this can provide

is an approximate age
of the individual.

A common affliction
for older people

is arthritis, which is a wear
and tear effect on the joints.

And the chances are,
if we're looking

at fairly advanced
arthritis in the body,

we're dealing with an older person.

Another tell-tale clue was
osteoporosis in her ribs,

a condition that reduces
the density of the bones,

making them fragile and breakable.

After the menopause, women produce
less oestrogen that's needed

to generate healthy bone tissue.

So this deterioration of the bones
is a sign of older age.

In this case,
the postmortem revealed

that this was the body
of an Asian woman

who was likely to be in her 60s
at the time of her death.

So how did this woman end up
in this Devon seaside town?

There was only one way
for investigators to find out.

The next step
in this investigation...

in fact, any investigation...
is to identify the victim,

identify who the body is.

Because only by doing that,
really, can there be a real focus

to the next stages of the inquiry.

(camera shutter snapping)

(Jane) From the little
that they had to go on,

they knew it was
a person of Asian origin.

So then they would look on missing
persons lists and that kind

of thing, you know, but they would
have to establish their identity,

really, to get anywhere with this.

(Matt Bonner) It's likely
that the first consideration

would be that... is this
the body of a local person?

It's unusual for people
to travel long distances

to deposit a body somewhere

unless they have good cause
to do so.

So if this was a deposition site,
as it presented,

then the chances are
that the initial focus would be

on local lines of inquiry.

Clearly, the body hadn't
been there for very long

because it was out in the open.

You could see the body
from the road.

So she would have been seen
by someone

if the body had been there
for a long time.

So you got a fairly narrow window
of opportunity for the body dump

before it being found.

From there, the police are able to
conduct house-to-house inquiries,

ask the local community if they've
seen or heard anything,

but also, very importantly,

checking CCTV cameras
on people's houses

and ANPR traffic cameras
in the area

just to try to locate
any potential suspect vehicles

that might have been used
to transport this body

and dump it just on the other side

of a low wall near a footpath.

(Richard) With few clues
to go on initially,

the police turned to the press.

(Emily Pennink) The local police
force put out a public appeal

through the media, asking anyone
who might know who this person was

or anyone who had any information
at all that could shed light

on what had happened to get in
touch with them and talk to them

and make a statement
and help them solve this puzzle.

I think it would have been
very worrying.

You know, you've got an extremely
concerned local community who are,

you know, desperate for answers.

And you have the pressure
of the national media

descending
on this quiet community,

also looking for answers.

There would have been
a degree of fear and shock

because people just really
don't expect something

like that to happen in a sort of
small, tight-knit community

like that.

It's like a horror story
on their doorstep

in this beautiful spot
down in Devon

and... where they have tourists,
holiday-makers coming.

So this is the last thing
that you'd want.

(Richard)
With a potential killer

on the loose in the height
of the holiday season,

investigators needed
a breakthrough.

(Emily) For people
to sort of start looking

at their neighbours
and wondering,

you know, it must have been
a very sort of frightening,

tense kind of time
because, obviously,

until you know otherwise,
the assumption is that this is

a local crime,
which would indicate that

the perpetrator is also local.

Every day, you know,
this person wasn't identified,

the pressure on the police
is increasing,

and also the concern and worry of
the local community is going up.

It was a complete mystery.

In 2021, police in Devon
were searching

for the head of a decapitated body
in the hope

of identifying the victim
and unlocking the investigation.

At this stage,
all detectives knew was

that the victim was in her 60s
and she was of Asian origin.

So a huge search was underway
by Devon and Cornwall Police

in the surrounding woodland.

(Jane) They need
to find the head, basically.

It must have been quite
a challenge for them.

Identifying her would have been
critically important

in finding out
what has happened

and how she ended up there.

So they've got a really
big job on their hands.

They obviously searched
for several days.

(Richard) The window to find
new leads from the wider public

was also closing.

(Matt) As the holiday
season progresses,

people go back
to their normal homes,

and it could become quite
a disparate investigation then.

That kind of transient population
in terms of holiday-makers coming

and going would be... it'd be
quite critical to start conducting

house-to-house inquiries
and local inquiries

to ensure that you captured people
who were there at the time.

The fact that it was holiday
season would place added pressure

and priority in getting
resources out in order

to conduct those inquiries
whilst people were still local.

(Richard) Suddenly,
police made a breakthrough.

Four days into the search,
approximately 30 feet away

from the original find,
police search officers

recovered the head of the body.

This is a really significant
find for the investigation.

Firstly, it kind of completes
the puzzle in terms of,

is this the only scene?

Attention can now be drawn to
identifying who that victim was.

But unlike the body that had
been discovered a few days before,

the head was very,
very badly decomposed.

It was effectively a skull.

The first thing to determine
is whether the head and the body

have a physical fit.

And in this case, they did,
showing that they'd

come from the same person.

The head was said to be de-fleshed,
a bit like this.

But when human remains
are left out in the open,

insects and animals
begin to destroy

the soft tissues very quickly,

making identification
much more difficult.

But if animals were responsible,
it's unlikely this skull would

have been so cleanly de-fleshed.

And the headband
the woman wore wasn't disturbed,

suggesting the flesh
had been stripped by a human.

(camera shutter snaps)

(Jane) The way in which
it had been de-fleshed

up to the headband, that's
a deliberate act, obviously.

(Matt) Seeing a body
in this situation,

there's probably a strong motive.

Whoever did this had
a strong motive to do so.

It's unlikely to be a random
attack, a chance meeting,

that kind of incident
or that kind of offence.

And then the police
would know they

are looking for
a very sadistical killer,

very dangerous person, obviously.

(Richard) Detectives
knew they had a murder

investigation on their hands.

DNA samples
from the now complete body

were compared
to police missing persons records

to identify their victim.

DNA tests confirmed this was
a 67-year-old woman,

Mee Kuen Chong,

also known as Deborah Chong.

(Emily) Deborah Chong
was born in Malaysia

but had lived in the UK
for many years.

She was a retired lady.

(Matt)
Deborah had been reported missing

from home by a lodger from
her home in Wembley in London.

(Emily)
One of her lodgers had become

concerned that he hadn't seen her.

He did expect her to be at the
house when he came back from work.

And the fact that she wasn't there
was not just out of character.

It was extremely
concerning for him.

The lodger was, of course,
immediately worried

at what had happened to Deborah

and particularly
when he saw her glasses

on the side,
which she needed,

and her mobile phone,
which she always took with her.

I know that he contacted people

that were Deborah's friends,

including someone that told that
Deborah had gone to the seaside

and she was feeling
quite depressed.

So hearing that Deborah,
his landlady but also his friend,

had sort of taken herself off,
which was extremely strange,

not only was it out of
character for Deborah

to go anywhere sort of beyond
a street away from her house.

It would be strange for anyone
who wore glasses and had

a mobile phone to leave
the house to, you know,

go down to Tesco's, let alone
to go on a trip to the seaside

without those two
important items with them.

(Matt)
So the Metropolitan Police

would have primacy for
the investigation of her

as a missing person.

Clearly, the body had
been found in Devon.

And a real focus would be,
how does Deborah

go from being missing in
London to being recovered

in a decomposed and headless
state in Devon,

an area that she seemingly
would have had no need

or reason to visit?

By now, Deborah's body was
beginning to help police form

a picture of what happened to her.

But the cause of death
was still inconclusive.

A closer look at her torso
revealed multiple broken ribs,

but there's no evidence
of bruising that

would suggest these were caused
by a weapon or a sustained attack.

We know Deborah lived
in the southeast,

but her headless body
was found in Devon.

It's possible, if she
was killed in London,

that her body sustained
these injuries whilst it

was being moved by the killer.

Detectives needed to know more
about Deborah

and the life she lived.

(Jane) They need
to find out all about her life.

That's how you find a killer.

So they've got to look
where she's from,

what her circumstances are.

(Emily) Deborah Chong first
came to Britain as a student.

She was on a student visa,
and she went to study

at Huddersfield Technical College.

And it was while she was studying
there that she met her husband,

and they settled down together
and, you know, by all accounts,

had a very happy
and loving marriage.

But unfortunately, he died
a few years before Deborah,

and she was hit very hard
by the grief of losing him.

And it affected her health.

And then,
in 2021, her sister died.

This had...
believed to have triggered

a decline in her mental health.

Deborah was vulnerable.

Deborah had schizophrenia, and
she was on medication for that.

(Emily) Perhaps because
of the problems and the suffering

that she'd gone through, she was
very kind-hearted towards others

and wanted to help people,
especially people

who were struggling
for one reason or another.

And if she could help them
either financially

or in terms of support,
then she certainly did.

And there's several examples
of how she took people in,

gave them a roof over their heads,
didn't ask for rent,

and really made it her mission
to look after others.

(Matt) Deborah
was a devout Christian

and was known to be very generous,
generous with her money,

supporting homeless charities,
homeless people.

And that vulnerability
is something that perhaps

got preyed upon at times.

(Richard) As detectives
dug deeper into Deborah's past,

one name kept coming up...

36-year-old osteopath
Jemma Mitchell,

who Deborah befriended
at her church.

(Jane) Deborah befriends
different people at the church

but particularly Jemma.

Jemma's a lot younger...

you know, she could be
her daughter in age...

also really a devout Christian,
and they seemed

quite close for a good while.

Jemma Mitchell came to the
attention of investigators

as someone who had been in regular
and recent contact with Deborah.

And they had started to spend

increasing amounts of time
together.

(Emily) We know
quite a bit about Mitchell.

She studied osteopathy.

And then she set up
her own practise

after many years away
in Australia.

She moved into the family home
with her mother.

It was a huge family house,
and it had been in the family

for many generations.

But over time, it had become
rather dilapidated,

and it was in dire need
of renovation.

It needed hundreds of thousands
of pounds' spending on it

just to sort of make it
habitable again.

The sorry state of affairs
dated back to 2016

when Mitchell's mother instructed
a firm of builders to do the work

and paid them
her entire life savings.

The first builders,
she paid 135,000 pounds to,

but that builder then went bust.

(Emily) So Jemma Mitchell
took over managing the project,

and Mitchell found
another firm of builders.

And she gave them 100,000 pounds
and had promised more,

but the money never materialised.

As a result, the second builder
left the site

and just left the house
in a state of disrepair

with the... no roof
and a tarpaulin cover.

(Emily) Having this project
sort of half done

had put Mitchell
in a terrible situation.

And I think she felt responsible
as well,

having promised her mother
that she could do this project

and could be trusted with it.

And everything was just
going horribly wrong.

And by this point, I think she was
getting really quite desperate.

And she knows
that Deborah has money.

And so she asks her
if she'll loan her some.

And Deborah, being a very kind
lady, agrees to that.

(Richard)
Deborah agreed to give Jemma

a massive 200,000-pound loan.

(Matt) Deborah initially offered
to support her

on the condition that the house

would be used
for Christian worship.

(Emily) Because Mitchell
was so desperate,

you know,
she accepted all the terms

and was just keen to get moving
and prove to her mother

that she could actually do this.

(Richard) But Deborah Chong
soon had a change of heart.

Something rang alarm bells,
and she thought,

this is just going to be
a bottomless pit, this house.

So Deborah perhaps thought,
best to cut her losses,

tell her friend Jemma the truth,
that she wouldn't

be able to give her that money.

She wasn't willing to do that.

Jemma probably felt let down,
and that could

have built up a lot of resentment.

Things seemed to go
from bad to worse.

She was extremely angry.

(Richard)
In June 2021, police

were investigating the discovery
of a decapitated corpse

with its head discarded close by.

It had been brought 200 miles
from the victim's home in London

and dumped in Woodland
in Salcombe in Devon.

67-year-old Deborah Chong's
decapitated body

was about to reveal more secrets
about her gruesome murder.

(Emily) Having the head
recovered was very important

because so far, apart from
the obvious decapitation,

there was no clear sign
of violence that might,

might be a cause of death.

Having the complete body
means that a pathologist

can do a proper postmortem
and look for possible injuries.

Deborah's head was
extensively de-fleshed,

but it could still reveal clues and
tell us what might have happened

to her in her final moments.

The skull showed a fracture
above the eye socket.

Now, the bone here is
about 1 centimetre thick,

and a fracture
of this part of the skull

indicates major blunt force trauma

associated
with the use of a weapon,

but no weapon was ever recovered.

Would this blow have been
enough to kill Deborah

before she was decapitated?

(Matt) The findings
from the pathologist

lend an investigation to look

for somebody with a strong motive,

and that's more likely to be
someone that's known to the victim

than somebody who's not known.

(Richard) During a search
of Deborah's home

when she was reported missing,

police found Jemma Mitchell's
number stored in the mobile

she left behind.

Whilst Deborah's disappearance
was being investigated

by a local missing person unit,
officers on that team conducted

inquiries that had
led them to contact

Mitchell to ask if
she knew anything

about Deborah's disappearance.

And she does, in fact, reach out
to the missing persons inquiry

and say that she will come
and talk to them

about what's happened.

(Matt)
And on the 29th of June

and followed up with an email
on the 30th of June,

Mitchell had left a message
for the officers

conducting the missing person
investigation

to the effect
that she knew that Deborah

had intended
to spend some time away,

visiting family by the coast.

(Richard)
This was the last time police

ever heard from Jemma Mitchell.

But while scanning
Deborah's mobile,

they uncovered a string of texts
about her 200,000-pound loan.

Deborah had sent
a text message to Mitchell

shortly before her death,
indicating that she had

changed her mind and she was
going to withdraw

her offer of financial support
for the building work.

(Emily) Having promised
Mitchell that she would give her

all this huge amount of money to
help with the renovation project,

suddenly, out of nowhere,
she's saying,

no, I'm not going to do it,
or, you know,

she's starting to back out
of this scheme

that Mitchell thinks
is already set.

This had clearly
angered Mitchell.

(Richard) While Mitchell
was now on their radar

as a suspect with a motive,
detectives had been investigating

Deborah's last movements.

(Matt) There would be
some priority lines of inquiry

that would centre
around the home address.

It was the last place
she was known to be.

These lines of inquiry would
include the recovery of CCTV,

whether that be from
shops or restaurants

or from people's private
doorbells,

as well as
house-to-house inquiries,

conducting various visits
to different addresses

in the locality
to establish if anyone

had seen or heard anything.

(Richard) What police
found was truly startling.

CCTV cameras
around Deborah's home

revealed that Mitchell
had visited the house

on the last day that Deborah
was known to be alive.

CCTV evidence showed Mitchell
arriving at Deborah's house

with a large blue suitcase.

Suitcase appeared
to be quite light

and easy to manoeuvre and probably
empty when she arrived.

Some four, five hours later,
the same CCTV captured

Mitchell walking away
from the address.

(Emily)
And was seen lugging

an extremely heavy suitcase
behind her.

In fact, she was carrying
two suitcases,

but one was extremely heavy,
and it was so heavy,

she was really struggling
to pull it along the street.

(Richard) Detectives came
to one conclusion:

it was
Deborah Chong's body

being carried
in that suitcase.

She was weaving
the suitcase around town

for at least two hours, which

shows up on CCTV.

Clearly, she was panicking,
trying to get

a taxi to pick up
this suitcase

with poor Deborah
in it.

It's quite
an unusual

way to carry something out

and shows that she
wasn't fazed at all,

not fazed by what
she intended to do.

(Richard) Mitchell seemingly
went off the radar

until two weeks later.

At 8:42 AM,

police spotted a hire car outside
Mitchell's home.

Mitchell was then
seen loading

the heavy suitcase
into the boot.

Then ANPR traffic cameras

tracked her
on the motorway heading to Devon.

(Emily) While she
is driving down to Devon,

she suffers a blow out on the car.

So one of the wheels
is very badly damaged.

And she's forced to pull into
a petrol station to seek help.

And it's a very weird,
sort of erratic kind of scene,

where she's sort of
knocking over

things outside
the petrol station shop

and people are sort of
looking around and wondering

what on Earth is going on.

And she seems quite sort of
dazed and confused.

And eventually, somebody helps
her, and a repair man comes round.

And they get the spare wheel out
to change the wheel.

And he said, you know,
he noticed a weird, musty smell

in the back of the car.

And it was something that
he'd never smelled before.

It was just a sort of
slightly strange thing.

And, you know, it makes you wonder
if he picked up on something,

if he picked up the smell
of the body or something.

She was told by the repair man

that she really
shouldn't be driving

on the spare wheel for very far.

She'd initially said
that she wanted

to drive to Penzance
or Land's End,

but she's told, no,
that's not a very good idea.

So from there, she only drives
a very short distance

because this
is just outside Salcombe.

So really, whether Salcombe
was her initial destination

seems quite unlikely.

More CCTV was recovered which
showed that a grey Volvo hire car

that was being used by Mitchell
on the 26th of June

was captured on CCTV
driving along Bennett Road.

This is the area

immediately next to
the deposition site,

where the body was found
the following day.

(Richard)
As the pieces of evidence

started falling into place,

it was time to confront Mitchell
with the proof.

The police move quite quickly.

(banging on door)

(Officer)
Police!

(Richard) In a late evening raid
of Mitchell's home,

she was finally
arrested.

Are you Jemma?
Yeah, I am.

OK, Jemma,
just put your arms up.

They took her
into police custody.

(Officer) At this moment,

I'm arresting you
on suspicion of murder, OK?

You don't have to say anything,
but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention
when questioned

something which
you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say
may be given in evidence, OK?

They raid her property and seize
any items that they thought

might be key evidence in the case.

In a search of Mitchell's house,
police uncovered

a whole load of financial
documents belonging to Deborah.

Firstly, there was
a will that had been

written out in Mitchell's favour.

Which they examined and
discovered was a complete fake.

It gave all Deborah's property,
pretty much in its entirety,

to Mitchell.

So that's extremely
suspicious in itself.

And I think the value
of Deborah's home

was around about 700,000 pounds.

So it's a not inconsiderable
amount of money

that Mitchell could have claimed.

Some other items that were
recovered during the search

were a phone and a passport

that had belonged to Mitchell's
next-door neighbour

who had passed away in the months
prior to this incident.

The phone, it was established,
had been reactivated

and had been used
by Mitchell to phone

and arrange and order
the hire car.

And it's believed that
the signature on the passport

is what had been copied
and used as a witness

signature on the forged will.

(Richard)
With this news, investigators

searched the neighbour's garden.

What they uncovered
took them aback.

The police found
this blue suitcase

on top of the neighbour's shed

and took that down,
examined that.

(Emily) The large blue suitcase,

which they knew had been caught
on CCTV cameras,

you would imagine,

if, indeed, it had contained
the body of Deborah,

would be covered in DNA evidence
and forensic evidence.

But there was very little on it,
and there was no usable DNA

retrieved from it at all.

(Richard) It seemed the suitcase
had been washed thoroughly,

but it still contained
forensic secrets.

Inside one of the pockets
on the large blue suitcase,

the police retrieved a tea towel.

And that tea towel appeared
to have blood on it.

And that was examined and found
to contain the DNA from Deborah.

(Richard)
67-year-old Deborah Chong

was found decapitated.

Her skull was also discovered
completely de-fleshed.

Police investigating
the killing of Deborah Chong

now had good reason
to suspect Jemma Mitchell.

CCTV showed the devout Christian
Mitchell

leaving Deborah's home
with a heavy suitcase

that police suspected
carried her body.

Then Mitchell was seen putting it
in a hire car

and taking it
to Devon.

That same suitcase
was later found

containing a tea towel
with Deborah's DNA on it.

(banging on door)

And in a late evening
raid...

(Officer) Police!
(Richard) ..Mitchell was arrested.

(Officer) All right, Jemma,
at this moment,

I'm arresting you
on suspicion of murder.

(Richard)
Now in police custody,

Jemma Mitchell was charged
with the murder of Deborah Chong.

And in a twist of fate,
Deborah's decapitated head

was about to reveal another
truth about her murder.

The postmortem showed that
Deborah's neck was not complete.

Two upper vertebrae, the atlas
and the axis, were missing,

and these are crucial
for movement of the head.

These vertebrae overlap
and interlock together,

and dissecting them apart
is extremely difficult.

This was clearly
a surgical dissection,

and it tells me that whoever did it

was skilled at cutting up bodies
with a knife.

Now, Jemma Mitchell had studied
anatomy and dissection

as part of her training
as an osteopath.

In fact, she was so skilled,

she'd won a prize
for anatomical excellence.

Mitchell had obtained
a BSc in human sciences

from King's College London.

She's a very bright woman and
academically quite successful.

And one of the particularly
pertinent things

that was on her website
was that she

had gained particular expertise

in the dissection of cadavers

as part of her training
to become an osteopath.

(Jane) So when it came
to dissecting Deborah,

that was quite easy for her.

To actually have de-fleshed
her face right up to her hairline,

shocking.

There's no reason
for her to have done that,

other than a sadistical motive,
you know,

that she wanted, like,
some kind of revenge,

and she was going to do
what she could to extract that

from this poor woman in death.

(Richard)
At London's Old Bailey,

the trial of Jemma Mitchell began.

She pleaded not guilty
to Deborah's killing.

(Emily) There was
a lot of media attention.

It was quite a full courtroom.

And the case had been quite
intensively covered by the media

throughout.

And she gave
the impression of someone who

looked quite sort of reasonable.

There was no indication
from her that she

was some sort of depraved killer
or anything like that.

She just appeared to be
a perfectly normal woman.

Her mother, who had
supported her throughout,

was in court and sat
in the public gallery

and would occasionally
sort of wave and blow her kisses.

And, you know,
she was cheerleading

from the public gallery.

(Richard)
Deborah's relatives were

also kept up to date on the trial.

Deborah's family,
who lived in Malaysia,

were given permission by the judge
to follow the trial from afar.

And they were given
a video link so that they

could watch the court proceedings.

It was quite
an unusual thing to do

but also quite a sort of
sensitive decision by the judge

to allow them to be able
to follow everything

and really understand
what had happened to Deborah.

(Matt) Mitchell continued
with her position,

really, that she had adopted
throughout the whole investigation

in one of refusing to cooperate.

She'd already answered no comment
to questions

that the police investigation
had put to her.

And during the trial,
she refused to take the stand

to give evidence
in her own defence.

(Richard)
The court heard about Mitchell

and Deborah's disagreement
over her 200,000-pound loan.

What emerged in court is that
in the weeks prior to Deborah's

disappearance and her death,
she had withdrawn her offer

of financial support to Mitchell.

This had been evidenced by a text
message that had been recovered

from Deborah to Mitchell,
saying just that,

that she no longer
wished to support

and to hand any money over.

It was clear that this
had angered Mitchell

and seemingly provided a motive
for her to kill, to murder.

Mitchell knew that Deborah
was vulnerable.

She also thought that Mitchell
was some kind of healer

and would help her.

So Mitchell took advantage
of this, her delusions.

(Emily)
She says, well, I'll come round.

She talks about, you know,
giving her a healing session.

Mitchell had clearly
made her mind up

before she even went round
to Deborah's house

that she was going to kill her.

That, again, made this crime
even more heinous,

that this lady trusted her,
and yet she was

the last person to be trusted.

(Emily)
She comes to the house

prepared with
a large suitcase

with which she will be able
to carry away Deborah's body.

And inside the suitcase,
there is a sort of suggestion

that she would have taken
with her whatever weapon

she used to attack Deborah with.

Because in all the searches
of Deborah's house,

there was no sign
of a murder weapon.

So the assumption was
by the prosecution

that not only did she take
the suitcase with her.

She also, inside the suitcase,
would have taken

what's effectively
a murder kit with her.

(Jane) The fact
that Mitchell turned up

at Deborah's house with a suitcase

and then went inside...

her friend must have thought
she was coming to see her...

and then carried out this
horrendous assault on her

and then proceeded to dissect
the body and decapitate her

and broke her ribs, actually, as
she pushed her into this suitcase,

I mean, firstly, it shows
she has clearly no empathy

and an awful lot of contempt
for her friend

but also that this was a crime

that was planned,
completely planned.

(Richard) But the surgical removal
of Deborah's head

finalised the prosecution's case
against Mitchell.

What was really important was
the findings from the pathologist

that indicated
that that procedure had

been conducted
with a degree of expertise

by someone with some training.

Once that is overlaid with
the CCTV evidence,

the only real conclusion
that can be drawn

is that Deborah was murdered
by Mitchell.

The jury was only out
for about seven hours

before they came back
with a unanimous guilty verdict.

(Richard) In the UK's first-ever
televised murder sentencing,

Jemma Mitchell heard her fate.

You have shown
absolutely no remorse.

And it appears that you
are in complete denial

as to what you did.

The sentence of the court
is one of life imprisonment.

And the minimum
term of imprisonment

that you will, in any event,
be required to serve

will be 34 years.

So that would mean that
Mitchell would be in prison,

you know, well into her old age,
and she might even die in prison.

(Matt)
The judge found that it was

a particularly shocking case,

particularly considering
the religious beliefs of Mitchell.

Can you please take
the defendant downstairs?

(Emily) The way Deborah
was killed, to have her body

desecrated in the way
that it was,

it really sort of told
a very clear story about what

a truly evil woman Mitchell was.

(Jane) To have done
such a terrible thing

to this poor, sweet lady
who people spoke so well of,

it was shocking and traumatising.

She's a cold,
very calculated killer

and a very dangerous person.

Deborah Chong was a kind friend
to Jemma Mitchell

who paid for that loyalty
with her life.

Despite claiming to be
a devout Christian,

Mitchell killed her friend
in the most gruesome way.

She severed her head from her body
with clinical precision

and attempted
to dispose of the remains

hundreds of miles
from the murder scene

and all for financial gain.

But in the end, Deborah's body
revealed the truth about her murder

and put her killer in prison
for a very long time.

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