I click with him so well
Final text sent by backpacker Grace before she was killed on date
BACKPACKER Grace Millane texted a friend describing how she ‘clicked’ with the man accused of murdering her while on a date with him the night she died, a court heard yesterday.
But, as the jury viewed CCTV images showing the graduate out on the town with the accused before they headed back to his hotel, the friend told how the texts began to ‘ring alarm bells’.
Miss Millane body was found days later crammed inside a suitcase buried in a shallow grave outside Auckland, New Zealand.
She had sent texts to university friend Ameena Ashcroft throughout the date as she and the man drank in several bars in the city centre on the eve of her 22nd birthday.
Jurors heard how Miss Ashcroft began to fear for her friend, and thought ‘something seemed out of place’ when Miss Millane described her date as an ‘oil manager’ who lived in a hotel.
She said ‘alarm bells rang’ when Miss Millane referred to her birthday and said ‘we are getting smashed’ – but she didn’t want to overreact and ‘ didn’t show Grace’ she was concerned. Miss Millane then sent what is thought to be her final message: ‘I click with him so well.’
Earlier, Miss Millane’s parents, David and Gillian, were in court to watch extensive footage of their daughter’s final evening with the man she had just met on Tinder.
The images begin with the advertising and marketing graduate from Wickford, Essex, meeting the 27-year-old man outside the Sky City building in Auckland city centre just before 6pm on December 1.
They strolled to nearby Andy’s Burger Bar for drinks before moving on over an hour later to the Mexican Cafe, where they drank jugs of margarita and sangria.
Around 8.30pm they went to the Bluestone Room, where they are seen kissing repeatedly and Miss Millane is seen texting on her phone. The last footage of Miss Millane alive was captured at 9.41pm in the lift of the CityHigh hotel opposite the Bluestone where the accused lived.
The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of ‘contorting’ her body into a suitcase and driving it to a beauty spot near Auckland and burying it.
But the court has heard that even before he set out on that mission, he had left her body in the suitcase in the boot of his rented car while he met another woman on a Tinder date.
He denies a single charge of murder, but admits causing Miss Millane’s death, claiming it happened accidentally during ‘rough sex’, and disposing of her body.
Miss Millane’s mother Gillian left the court in tears as detective Samuel Luker described a series of defendant’s They photographs showed phone. intimate found photos on the of a woman’s body, the detective said, which prosecutors allege were taken of Miss Millane after her death. The defendant, wearing a navy blue suit and black shirt, did not react as Mrs Millane walked out of the courtroom. Miss Millane’s father David looked directly at the defendant as the detective confirmed pornography was viewed on his phone.
But he cast his eyes down when he heard the defendant had searched online for ‘rigor mortis’.
Searches showed the man had used Google to browse websites for large duffel bags, suitcases and car hire. The defendant’s phone was also used to search for ‘flesheating birds’ and ‘are there vultures in New Zealand?’ days later, on December 5, 2018. Records showed the defendant had searched online for ‘the hottest fire’, ‘large bags near me’ and ‘Waitakere Ranges’ – the area where Miss Millane’s body was later found. The trial continues and is expected to last five weeks.
‘Something seemed out of place’