The Horrors Of Room 308: The Case Of Grace Millane

on behalf of new zealand i want to apologize to grace's family your daughter should have been safe here and she wasn't and i'm sorry for that [Music] grace emmy rose mullane was born in essex england in 1996. born to parents david and jillian she was the youngest of three siblings and had two older brothers michael and declan she was sociable lively family orientated and loved all things creative and artistic grace attended the university of lincoln and graduated with a degree in advertising and marketing she was excited for a new adventure before she started the next phase of her life she had saved up for a year-long backpacking tour after her graduation grace was described as compassionate and caring and before she left for her trip she cut her long hair off and donated it to the little princess trust so it could be turned into wigs for children with cancer in october 2018 grace left her family home and set off on her travels the adventurous and outgoing graduate travelled to peru before spending six weeks in south america she met up with other travellers along the way and was keen to share her journey with everyone back home [Music] on november 19 21 year old grace arrived in new zealand alone and 11 days later she reached auckland she checked into a hostel called the base backpackers on queen street sharing a room with some other travellers saturday evening december 1st 2018 grace left the hostel just before 6 pm and headed out into the city center dressed in a knee-length black dress white shoes and carrying a small handbag she had made plans to meet someone she had matched with on tinder initially grace didn't seem too sure on meeting up but after some more talking her and her date eventually made a plan to get some drinks [Music] to grace met her date at a place called sky city an entertainment complex with bars restaurants and a casino [Music] grace had been sending messages to her friend amina back home saying i click with him so well he's an oil manager he lives in a hotel by all accounts the evening appeared to be going well about an hour later they visited a place called the bluestone room [Music] at one point grace got up from the table and the mystery man for some reason picked up her handbag and started searching it [Music] but just after 9 30 pm they both left the bar arm in arm and headed down the street the next day was sunday december 2nd and it was grace's 22nd birthday her family and friends at home were sending messages and reaching out to her over social media but grace unusually wasn't responding to anyone and her two phones were going straight to voicemail her brother declan said she had been bombarding them with details and pictures of her trip so far and no response from her on her birthday was immediately alarming grace was a home bird and this was a red flag her parents contacted the auckland police and reported her as missing on december 5th police reached out to the hostel grace was staying at and they confirmed that she had not checked back in on the night of december 1st initially the police didn't suspect any foul play the majority of her belongings were still at her hostel maybe she had just stayed with some new friends and forgotten to contact people fortunately for detectives it didn't take long to track down where grace had been on that saturday evening due to the vast amounts of cctv from around the city the mystery man she was spotted with that night was quickly identified the very night grace was last seen she had changed her profile picture on facebook a comment was posted underneath the picture saying beautiful very radiant the person that commented was also the tinder date seen drinking with grace this man was jesse kempson who was currently residing at the city life hotel in auckland jesse had written a post prior to the comments which caught more attention extracts of the post stated he was sorry for his mistakes his arrogance and his selfishness but who was jesse kempson 26 year old jesse was born in wellington and had moved several times as a child after his parents split up he had been partially raised by his grandparents and was virtually estranged from a lot of his family jesse was described by everyone who knew him as a pathological liar he claimed everything from being the cousin of a famous all blacks rugby player to telling people he was dying of cancer he lied to employers landlords partners and his family and friends time and again jesse's fake world caught up with him and he was frequently evicted from his flats and lost jobs due to his compulsive lying a former landlord of jesse said he had claimed to be a professional softball player who had been signed up by new zealand's national softball team the black sox he'd lie and say he was waiting on contract money but after eight weeks of excuses the landlord contacted the black sox management and again jesse's lies were exposed he told his landlord at the city life hotel that he was a top manager for woolworths in reality his rent was being paid by state benefits jesse's last job was in telephone sales this also ended in a dismissal due to his lies and this all happened on the very day he met grace mullane on december 1st jesse was the last known person seen with grace that night and police knew he was the man they needed to help fill in the gaps the same day grace was reported missing on december 5th jesse was asked to come into the station to answer some routine questions tell us about grace so i was talking to grace on tinder yeah we'd matched on friday i saw that we'd matched the next day on saturday um and then we met at sky city and then we decided that we're going up to andy's burger bar which is on the first floor whose idea was it to go to that particular burger place me because i knew i didn't initially know that she was real what do you mean well there's a lot of so have you heard of catfish no so catfishing is where someone uses your profile or uses your photos and pretends to be you in the midst and you're a completely different person how does a how does meeting in a public place sort of protect you from meeting someone who's not as good looking as well there's security there so if she wasn't who she said she was at least in my mind i'd feel safe [Applause] yeah that's us down there yep so she's going that way and i'm going across the street i go down queen street at no i go down victoria street uh straight down to the bottom and then hang a left and i head towards the viaduct you've kind of walked in a bit of a funny direction if you were planning to go to the divider is there a particular reason you were going to do that uh i feel safer down that way and we're very very concerned for her safety obviously um it's entirely possible that she's been the victim of foul play okay you understand what that means what would your feelings be about providing us with a voluntary dna sample in the event that we can compare that against something would you be happy yeah 100 i mean i know i haven't done anything wrong so i'm happy to do it okay at this stage we don't know what's happened to this girl okay um it's possible that somebody has killed her okay i understand that yeah she might she might when i say foul play i mean that someone might have murdered her don't know if she's been murdered or not yet she may be alive and well but she might also be dead okay and it could be that you've done hey i just want to ask a question am i being arrested for something i didn't do you ever made it recently oh oh sorry holy [ __ ] he said nothing out of the ordinary had happened that night the date had ended nicely with a hug a kiss on the cheek and a plan for the following day before the pair eventually parted ways at around 10pm he said he had tried to message her the next day on tinder but noticed that grace had unmatched him and that was where his encounters with her abruptly ended but the officers hadn't yet finished looking through the cctv from the city life hotel and they were about to start gaining more answers to the remaining questions they had a sinister and disturbing picture was slowly being put together and almost six terabytes of cctv data were being analyzed despite jessie saying they parted ways on the streets they were both seen arriving at the city life hotel arm-in-arm they exited the lift together on jesse's floor but grace was never seen leaving the building the morning after on what was grace's birthday cameras did pick up jesse leaving the hotel they followed him over the coming hours tracking his every move he left the hotel in the morning and went shopping to buy a suitcase [Music] he then went to buy some cleaning supplies and just before noon he headed over in a taxi to a car rental company and rented a red toyota corolla several hours later jessie met with another woman he had engaged with on tinder she later reported that he had some disturbing conversations with her speaking about burying bodies and his friends that were police officers his date said he made her feel so uneasy she declined jesse's offer to get in his car and made her own way home never talking to him again after this jesse went out into the city centre again this time to hire a rug doctor carpet cleaning machine explaining to staff that he had some red wine stains that needed cleaning up later on at half nine in the evening jesse loaded two suitcases onto a hotel trolley and off loaded these into the toyota he had rented earlier [Music] [Music] at around 7am the next day he was picked up on camera again this time buying a shovel and two hours later he was spotted power washing the car he then returned the car to the rental company and it was subsequently rented out by someone else on the 5th of december the day grace was reported missing jesse was seen visiting various locations and dumping things in bins police arrived at the city life hotel looking to talk to him just as they reached the front desk jesse returned to the hotel himself the minute he saw the police he quickly turned around and began walking away with his head firmly facing the opposite direction the police clocked him chased after him and brought him in for questioning despite jesse denying anything had happened police still began a thorough search of his hotel room tonight with a public appeal for missing british backpacker grace mullane a short time ago police held a press conference to appeal for sightings of the 22 year old who has not been seen since 7 15 pm on saturday night on december 7th david grace's father was now in auckland he made an emotional plea for help i'm david malone crazy dad thank you thank you for coming today as you know grace has been missing for several days we last had contact with her on saturday the 1st of december and as a family we've been extremely concerned for her welfare grace is a lovely outgoing fun-loving family-orientated daughter grace has never been out of contact for this amount of time she's usually in daily contact with either her mother myself her two brothers members of the family on social media she arrived here on the 20th of november and has been bombarding us with numerous photographs and messages of our adventures we're all extremely upset and it's very difficult at this time to fully describe the range of emotions we are going through the investigation was moving quickly and although police didn't name him they revealed they had spoken to jesse and that he was a person of interest the more time ticked by the more fearful people became and the police stated that they had grave concerns for grace [Music] on december 8 as more and more evidence was coming to light jesse was eventually taken into custody and interviewed again his story had now drastically changed indicated that you're willing to speak to us about the events class center is that correct yes tell me what happened last saturday she started talking to me about fifty shades of grey we started having sex at first it was it was just normal um um and then she asked me if we could get into uh bondage having i guess more violent sex we ended up on the floor and then she told me to hold her throat and so i went into the shower um and then all i remember is falling asleep in the shower i i need i mean stop i need to go jesse said that when he had awoken the next morning and realized grace was dead he went into shock he panicked and put her body in a suitcase and drove out to bury her he still denied any guilt however i didn't know what to do um i went downstairs and i was just i don't know i was all over the place you've come out of the shower yep the light's been on the shower you've put a towel around you you've turned the light off and then you've returned to your bed and you've gone to sleep in your bed and at that point when you exit the shower you don't look around at your assumption from the science i i thought that she'd gone i i thought she had left we're going to head out of here very very soon and you're going to take us to where you've buried here um she will likely be exhumed tomorrow at some point and after that they'll a pathologist a specialist doctor will perform a post-mortem they're very skilled at establishing people's causes of death do you understand that yeah did you kill grace mullane okay gc clemson you're under arrest for the murder of gracefully the forensic search of jessie's room added more to the already disturbing story despite jesse's attempts to clean up grace's blood covered the floor of the hotel room given what jesse had told them it didn't take long for police to start searching an area on scenic drive near the waitakere reservoir shortly after 4 pm that day officers found a body around 10 yards from the road was identified late last night as a location of interest as a result of our investigative work i can now advise that a short time ago we located a body which we believe to be grace the formal identification process will now take place however based on the evidence we have gathered over the past few days we expect that this is grace the focus now is to piece together exactly what happened to a young girl who came to new zealand on her oe obviously this brings in a search for grace to an end it is an unbearable time for the mullaine family and our hearts go out to them any father any parent in this situation will struggle yeah i feel for my other daughter in her twenties so yeah we're putting a lot of support around him it's difficult because he's here with a brother from england and the rest of the family are back home d.i scott beard had been heading the investigation and was working closely with the malayan family for him and his team that had been hoping to find grace safe and well and bring good news to the family it was clear how much of a painful moment this was for everyone involved in the search the grief was shared throughout the nation thousands of people paid tribute to grace and held vigils [Music] the new zealand prime minister jacinda ardern publicly apologized to grace's parents and offered hers and her country's full support see i cannot imagine the grief of her family and what they will be experiencing and feeling right now and my thoughts and prayers are with her father david who is in the country her mother julian who cannot be here and her wider family friends and loved ones and so on behalf of new zealand i want to apologize to grace's family your daughter should have been safe here and she wasn't and i'm sorry for that i've advised the family through the police that if there is anything we can do to assist we are here to help with that following this jesse kempson was formally charged with the murder of grace mullane on december 10 just five days after grace was reported missing jesse appeared in court in auckland he was granted an interim name suppression to ensure a fair trial which is why so much of his interview footage was blurred out for a long time following an autopsy a pathologist confirmed that grace had been strangled and had bruises on her arms and chest consistent with being pinned down considerable force would have been required and the pressure on her neck must have lasted between four and five minutes to be enough to kill her at around 1 30 am on sunday as grace lay dead in his room jesse carried out a number of internet searches using his phone he looked up hottest fire flesh-eating birds and waitakere rangers the location where he would later try to bury grace's body after this he trawled through a pornography site he then took several intimate photos of grace's dead body just over a month after grace was found hundreds of people turned out for her funeral at brentwood cathedral in essex detective inspector scott beard who had been looking after the case flew to england to pay his respects and support the mullane family six days after grace was laid to rest jesse appeared in the high court and he pled not guilty his trial began in november later that year the trial would last just three weeks and for much of it jesse remained stoney face showing no emotion he occasionally glanced down at court papers or held his head in his hands jesse's defense team argued that although tragic grace's death was caused by nothing more than consensual rough sex that had gone horribly wrong they claimed that grace had engaged in sexual encounters like this before meeting jessie and this time it had been a tragic case of sexual misadventure they said that jesse had simply panicked and attempted to hide grace's body after he realized the sexual encounter had accidentally taken her life the defense cases that this is not a murder and that's still what i say to you now nothing has changed it was an accidental death that took place in the context of sexual activities that if done incorrectly by inexperienced and or intoxicated people can go wrong but the prosecution were already armed with a mountain of strong evidence and witnesses they argued that jesse did not panic and this was not simply something that went wrong it was very clearly deliberate and intentional they said that he had calmly and callously set about covering his tracks creating what they called a labyrinth of storytelling and lies as he went in this case to have killed grace mullane the defendant the gentleman over here at the back behind me had to have had her under his grip suffocating her strangling her is probably the correct term for a total of 5 to 10 minutes at some point of which she lost consciousness and would have become under his hand whole unconscious and limp and lifeless and he had to carry on and if that's not reckless murder in this country ladies and gentlemen somebody will have to explain to me what is do you find the defendant jesse shane kempson guilty or not guilty guilty despite his protests of innocence on the 22nd of december 2019 after just five hours of deliberations jesse kempson was found guilty of the murder of grace mullane jesse was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years you are a large and powerful man she was diminutive in those circumstances ms malaine particularly vulnerable you were in a position of total physical dominance on a daily basis i torment myself over what you did to my grace the terror and pain he must have experienced at your hands as a mother i would have done anything change places with her i did full of guilt knowing i couldn't help her but i should have been there she died terrified and alone in a room with you the verdict of murder today will be welcomed by every member of the belain family and friends of grace it will not reduce the pain the suffering that we've had to endure over the past year grace was taken away from us in the most brutal fashion a year ago and our lives have been and family have been ripped apart this will be with us for the rest of our lives we would like to thank several people auckland police force been professional diligent and thorough all through this investigation last but not least we would love to thank the people of new zealand they've opened their hearts to grace and their family i cannot express our gratitude enough for all the offers and gifts of kindness that we've received over the last year i've always thought that if it wasn't grace it was going to be someone um now i'm not a psychologist i can't talk about psychological profile but what we do knows he's a liar you know a number of times we proved he lied to the police he lied to others the case prompted many people to express their anger at how grace's life had been presented during the trial and how her death had been explained away by her killer many feeling it was shameful and grotesque victim blaming rather than placing the blame on the murderer himself jesse's family branded him a pathetic fantasist his step-brother said he lied over pointless things all the time and continued to lie until the point where he's got no out and then he breaks down cries and runs away after he was found guilty of murdering grace in the highly publicized trial jesse faced a further two trials the following year these were judge alone trials and no jury was present two women had gone to the police when they had seen the blurred images of jesse after he was arrested for grace's murder they knew instantly it was him and they both had horrific stories to tell the officers about jesse in the first of these two trials in october 2020 an ex-partner spoke of the physical sexual emotional and financial abuse she had suffered while with him jessie would hold knives to her throat choke her force her to perform sex acts and drain her account of ten thousand dollars jesse was found guilty of eight charges and jailed for seven and a half years in november 2020 he was put on trial again this time for raping a young british tourist he had met on tinder eight months before he had murdered grace mullane he forced himself on her and said if you don't do this i will kill you and i will kill your family and you know i will he was then found guilty and given another three and a half years in jail for this crime this brought the total to an additional 11 years which will run concurrently alongside the sentence he received for the murder of grace when justice geoffrey vening found him guilty of rape it prompted an aggressive outburst from jesse you have no reason to convict me tragically in november 2020 grace's dad david mullane passed away after a battle with cancer in december 2020 the name suppression concealing jesse's identity finally lapsed when the supreme court denied his last-ditch appeal against his sentence in grace's murder it is alleged that jesse is working on appeals in both of the sentences for the 2020 trials as well to honor grace's memory her family and friends raised a record amount of money for the white ribbon campaign the white ribbon campaign is a charity looking to end male violence against women by engaging with men and boys to make a stand against violence and challenge behaviours grace's family and friends raised over 11 000 pounds in her name the love grace campaign was also set up in grace's honor the campaign asks for donations of handbags filled with essential items to help provide support for women seeking refuge from harmful and abusive relationships i've left links to these and a few more resources in the description box below [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Truly Criminal

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Length: 32min 51sec (1971 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 05 2021