The Murder of Grace Millane
Grace Millane was a 21-year-old from Wickford, Essex. She had recently graduated from the University of Lincoln with a bachelor's degree in advertising and marketing, and was on a backpacking tour during her gap year.
Millane was on a two week stay in New Zealand after spending six weeks in South America. She entered New Zealand on November 20th, 2018 and travelled around the upper North Island. She arrived in Auckland on November 30th. At 9:00 p.m. on December 1st, she was seen in Victoria Street in Auckland's central business district, and 15 minutes later she was seen via CCTV at Sky City. She was last seen at 9:41 p.m. at the City Life Hotel on Queen Street with Jesse Kempson, a 27-year-old man that she had met on Tinder.
Grace Millane's parents became alarmed after they received no response to the birthday wishes they sent her on December 2 2018. Millane's Tinder date with Kempson had taken place the night before, on the eve of her 22nd birthday. Police started investigating after she was reported missing by her parents three days later.
The hotel she was staying at reported that she did not go back to her room on the night of her disappearance. Police initially said that there was "no evidence of foul play", but later gathered evidence that she was "no longer alive".
Kempson was caught on CCTV leaving the hotel room with a porter's trolley, which was carrying two suitcases. Information taken from Kempson's phone showed that he had been searching online for information that would help him cover up the murder in the hours immediately afterwards.
Grace Millane's body was found on December 9 2018, in a suitcase that Jesse Kempson had buried in a wooded area outside Auckland.
After returning to Kempson's hotel room together just before 10 p.m. on December 1st, 2018, Millane was murdered. It's not known exactly what happened in the hotel room, but after her body was discovered, just over a week later, it was determined that Millane had been strangled, and bruises on her body were consistent with being restrained.
Police had taken Kempson into custody the day before, after he had been identified him as a prime suspect in the case. His second formal interview with the police took place on 8 December and it was then that he admitted to murdering Millane. However, he claimed that Millane's death had been accidental after the two of them engaged in rough sex.
Jesse Kempson is serving time at Auckland prison, after receiving a 17-year minimum sentence for the murder of Grace Millane. He was sentenced to a further 11 years in 2020 after being convicted of attacking two more women.
He met both the other women on Tinder - the same way he met Millane - and in October 2020 was convicted of eight charges relating to various attacks, including using a knife against a woman between November 2016 and April 2017. He was convicted by a separate judge sitting alone of raping another woman on a date in April 2018.
Initially, Kempson could not be named by the media because of a court order banning his identification due to the other two trials he was facing. The court order was in place to avoid biasing the judge in the following cases and allow for a fair trial. The ban was lifted in 2020, following his final conviction.
