Body is found in backpacker murder probe
Man charged as New Zealand police make grim discovery
A 26-YEAR-OLD man was last night charged over the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane after a body was found in dense rainforest. Jesse Shane Kempson was named by New Zealand prosecutors in court documents and was due to appear at Auckland District Court late last night.
Grace, who was on a year’s break abroad after graduating, was last seen meeting the suspect at a hotel in Auckland. Kempson’s address was recorded as the hotel.
Detectives yesterday dashed hopes that the 22-year-old might still be found alive after a body was discovered at a beauty spot 24km outside Auckland. Hours before the tragic announcement, police revealed the arrest of the suspect.
His alleged victim’s body has yet to be formally identified but Detective Inspector Scott Beard, who is leading the investigation, said it was ‘believed to be Grace’.
The body was found 30m from a roadside in the Waitakere Ranges, a row of hills that leads to the beaches of West Auckland. Police cars and large white tents stood at the spot yesterday as forensic officers went to and from the scene carrying plastic evidence bags. The grim discovery was made after 20 detectives tracked mobile phone records.
They are also looking for information about a rental car believed to have been used to take Grace to the location. It is not known if she was alive or dead at the time.
The red 2016 Toyota Corolla hatchback was rented in Auckland at lunchtime on Sunday, December 2.
Particular interest surrounds its movements between 6am and 9.30am the following day. It was recovered on Saturday, 273km away in Taupo, in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island. Grace’s millionaire property developer father David, 60, flew out to the country late last week and made an emotional appeal for information on Friday. Mr Beard said yesterday: ‘He is here with a brother from England and the rest of the family are back home. It is an unbearable time for the Millane family and our hearts go out to them.’
Grace’s mother Gillian, 57 – who is recovering from an operation and was unable to travel – and her sons Michael, 29, and Declan, 26, were too devastated to comment yesterday.
But one friend said: ‘They are a really tight family and this is a like a hammer blow to every one of them. Grace was such a fabulous girl with everything ahead of her. I don’t know how they’ll ever recover.’ Grace, from Billericay, Essex, England, was caught on CCTV with friends at 7.15pm on December 1, her birthday, near the landmark SkyCity tower.
The advertising and marketing graduate was seen entering the €145-a-night four-star City Life Hotel at 9.41pm with the man who has been accused of killing her.
It is thought they met on dating app Tinder. The €11-a-night ‘party hostel’ she was staying in was just a few hundred yards away.
Grace’s brother Declan yesterday put pictures on social media of him and his sister as well as the lyrics of You Are My Sunshine.
New Zealand MP Ruth Dyson wrote: ‘It is so hard to believe that a young woman… celebrating her university achievement, could come to our country and just three weeks later lose her life.’
Grace had spent a month in Peru before arriving in New Zealand. She had been ‘bombarding’ her family with photos and messages through social media during her travels.
They were last in contact with her on November 29 and became concerned when she failed to respond to messages on December 1. Mr Beard said the ‘methodical’ process of establishing exactly what happened would continue despite the arrest and discovery of the body.
‘Too devastated to speak’