Murder With My Husband - 101. Grace Millane - Tinder Date Tragedy
Episode Date: February 28, 2022On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the well-documented murder of British Traveler, Grace Millane. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband MERCH: ht...tps://fanjoy.co/collections/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: Security Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jObWH2jgn7Y&t=38s https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-51581275 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/22/love-grace-handbags-collected-in-memory-of-grace-millane https://www.heritagehotels.co.nz/citylife-auckland https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/grace-millane-remembered-as-young-woman-full-of-big-dreams-and-energy-for-life/FLZA3IPBSBNMKUCMJS3ZRUOP7U/ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/indepth/national/grace-millane-life-before-new-zealand/ https://www.pointsoflight.gov.uk/love-grace-x/ https://www.littleprincesses.org.uk https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/22/grace-millane-murderer-raped-another-british-tourist-months-earlier https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7714323/Grace-Millane-killer-GUILTY-Jesse-Kempson-27-convicted-murdering-backpacker-sex.html https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases/SC-111-2020-Kempson-v-R.pdf https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0081/latest/DLM3360362.html https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/several-legal-reasons-grace-millanes-killer-continues-to-have-name-suppression/WJL37INGE7DZXOWMCFIOHMSYW4/?c_id=1&objectid=12288193 https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0081/latest/DLM3360362.html https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-55346213 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-46492477 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-51563388 https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases/2021/2021-NZSC-74.pdf Links: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Ads: Just Thrive: www.justthrivehealth.com use code HUSBAND Cat Person: www.catperson.com/HUSBAND use code HUSBAND Embark: https://shop.embarkvet.com/discount/HUSBAND Pretty Litter: www.prettylitter.com use code HUSBAND True Bill: www.truebill.com/husband Betterhelp: www.betterhelp.com/husband Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast.
This is Murder with My Husband.
I'm Peyton Moreland.
And I'm Garrett Moreland.
And he's the husband?
And I'm the husband.
Well, I guess I know last time we said that the live was over when we were recording,
which it was.
But now, officially, the live is over.
Now that we're recording this, and oh my gosh, it was. But now officially the live is over. Now that we're recording this and oh my gosh,
it was so awesome.
I'm still riding a high from that night.
Like seriously, it was so fun celebrating the 100 episode
with you guys.
I loved the comment stream.
It was so fun.
Like talking to you guys, hearing what you had to say,
I mean like, like I said, I'm still riding a high from it.
Yeah, thanks everyone who came and everyone who continues
just to support and listen.
It means a lot to us.
And then before we get to your 10 seconds, I did just want to remind everyone that the
Strangie, Daingee merch and the Where the Camus merch is available right now.
So if you haven't got it, go and check it out.
It's at fanjoy.co slash MWMH or the link is in the episode notes and also on our social media channels.
And also it'll be up for another, I want to say two weeks maybe.
Right.
And then we'll be doing another drop in a few months.
Yeah, we actually, I saw someone comment and was like, Hey, can you guys do crewnecks?
And we did crewnecks last time.
So just if this drop doesn't have what you want, stay patient, stay tuned, we'll be doing
different ones each time.
So, all right, Gare, what's your 10 seconds? So I still need to post a picture of my truck
I had a couple of people ask me and I haven't posted a picture yet
So I'm so sorry. I'm so bad at like posting stuff on Instagram
So I need to do that and also I don't know the pickable tournament coming up next
Weekend
It'll just be fun. It'll just be for fun. Nothing. I'm not that good. What it'll be fun
We're gonna go to Vegas and play in a tournament and not we I mean, we're going to Vegas
But I'm not playing it. We tried playing together and I'll tell you what it did not reg up very well because we're both a little
Competitive it's been snowing a lot just reminding me how much I do not like the cold and
Oh, I just remembered people keep
like asking about different sour candies.
Oh, yeah.
And so I don't know, I wouldn't have to do something,
but keep sending the request over
because I love trying to use sour candies.
Okay, all right, let's get into it.
Today's case sources are bbc.com,
the guardian.com heritage hotels,
NZHerald.co, which there's a lot of these sources
actually have multiple
articles under one source. So I'm not going to, I'm just going to say the source and then
we'll list the articles. Okay. Point to flight.gov.co, littleprincess.org, dailymail, legislation.gov.nz,
courtsofenzy.gov. All right. So before we get into this, I did just want to preface this case by saying that we are kind of in a day and age where meeting strangers, not in person, but online is very common, and it's almost like you can get to know someone before you know them. You know what I mean.
Totally. I mean, we texted in DM the couple of times before we went on our first date.
Right, like this, I feel like this is kind of a newer thing that's happening. And to go with that, if it's happening in everyday life, it's definitely happening in the true crime world.
Totally.
And that has everything to do with today's episode.
So our case begins on December 2, 1996.
Just eight days after I was born, another little girl named Grace Emma Rose Malaine was also born in Brentwood Essex.
If you don't know, Brentwood is a town in the borough of Brentwood, which is the country of Essex,
which is in the east of England. So I looked it up for everyone in America if you didn't know,
or anyone listening that's not there. Little Grace Malaine was born to her parents,
Jillian and David. David actually already had two younger sons
named Michael and Declan from a previous marriage,
so Grace was Jillian and David's first child together.
Michael and Declan adored Grace.
She was their brand new baby sister.
And as she grew up, Grace became a force to be reckoned with
as the only girl in her family.
She loved to play hockey, which we are a big
hockey family over here. So I think that is so cool. Grace also acted as a mentor at hockey
for the younger players as she got older, always teaching them, making them feel included,
and was always very kind to them. By her teenage years, Grace really felt like she could achieve
her dreams and never felt like a dream was too big. And she kind of kept that attitude all the way to university. In September of 2018, Grace actually
graduated from University of Lincoln and England East Midlands with a degree in advertising
and marketing. And after graduation, she decided to leave the country for a gap year. She
wanted to travel and really start living
those dreams that she had dreamed.
But before she left, she decided to cut off
her long brown hair and donate to the little princess trust,
which is a charitable organization
that provides free real hairwigs to children
and young people who have lost their hair
through cancer treatments.
And I mentioned this because Grace really had her life together and had a sweet and
kind soul.
I think, I mean, maybe not all women fill this way or men, but my hair is something that,
you know, I've loved growing up my whole life and to cut it off and be able to donate
it to someone else really says something about who you are.
She came from an amazing and loving family who wanted nothing but the best for her.
Yeah.
So I assume this is recent then,
because she's going to university or college.
Right.
And 2016, 2017.
2018.
OK.
Perfect.
So finally, in October, 2018, Grace begins
her year-long backpacking overseas excursion around the world.
And she started with a group tour from
Lima, Peru, before traveling on her own toward the Patagonia region, stopping in Bolivia
and then flying to New Zealand. That's awesome. After arriving in New Zealand on November
20, Grace spends 10 days traveling around the upper North Island, including the Bay of
Islands before finally heading to Auckland.
Where's that? New Zealand. Okay, the Bay Islands. Is it like a bunch of different islands?
Yeah, so the Bay of Islands actually encompasses 144 islands. So it's definitely a big Bay of Islands.
You did your research today, didn't you? Yes, so by... Well, I just... I know the questions you're
going to be asking a little bit more. Yeah, that's funny. So by December 1st, 2018, Grace checks into City Life, Auckland, which is a hotel.
And this is where she is staying on this leg of her trip in New Zealand.
And it's safe to say that it has been a busy but eventful two months for Grace.
She has visited so many different places, met so many new people, and the gap year of her
dreams was really everything she had hoped it would be.
After checking into the hotel, the next day, December 2, 2018, was actually Grace's birthday.
Friends and family began blowing up her phone with birthday wishes.
They wished for her to have the best day and to keep enjoying her travels. But as morning turned into afternoon and Grace had not returned even one message from anyone that day,
her parents began to wonder where she was. They called and called, but there was no answer.
And this was immediately strange to Grace's father back home because Grace had been bombarding
the family with photos and messages of her adventure
the whole time that she had been gone. So why was she now radio silent especially on her birthday?
But I mean, Grace is a 22 year old university graduate who had been traveling the world on her own
for the last two months. She doesn't necessarily need to respond right away.
She's independent, trustworthy, and thriving.
For all they know, she's spending a couple days hiking
or touring out of service and just forgot to mention it
or didn't know she would be out of service.
As Grace's birthday comes to a close
and no one has heard from her,
friends and family try not to overreact.
Which I guess is a little weird though,
because if you think about it,
like I always talk to my family on my birthday usually,
you'll always talk to your family.
I know everyone's different, but it seems,
it sounds like it was normal in their lives too,
to talk on their birthday.
I think it was definitely quite alarming
for her parents to not be receiving a text,
but they didn't want to overreact
because she had been gone traveling on her own for months.
So all of her friends and family go to bed that night with Grace in the back of their mind.
Three days later, when Grace's phone is still going straight to voicemail and no one has heard
from her, her parents decide to reach out to the police to report her missing. New Zealand
police listened to Grace's parents and begin the investigation into her possible disappearance.
So you have to remember they're back home and they're having to call New Zealand police.
Yeah, that would be rough.
And be like, so our daughters, they're traveling alone.
This is the last known place we knew.
Can you go check it out?
I mean, that's such a complicated situation.
It is. And I wonder, I don't know much about it,
but I wonder when someone calls from another country and asks for help.
I wonder if the cases aren't taken as serious. It is just like you when someone calls from another country and asks for help,
I wonder if the cases aren't taken as serious.
It is just like, you're in a whole another country, right?
So it seems like it would be a really difficult
to navigate that.
Exactly.
And I don't want to spoil anything,
but I do feel like New Zealand police
does a really good job with that,
because I think that was a worry on my mind as well,
but it's definitely not the case here,
which we don't see often.
Now this is going to seem fast, but not even a day later on December 6th.
Police announced that they have brought in a 26 year old man for questioning in the Grace
Malaine disappearance, but they leave him unnamed.
So not even a day after her parents have called, police are like, yep, we want to check
it out and we've brought a man in.
What in the world?
Right.
So they're kind of like, what?
But they're not naming the man.
And it's covered on the local media in New Zealand.
And so everyone's like, oh, this British traveler came over here.
And she's disappeared.
And now they're questioning a man from our area.
Everyone is pretty confused how they had gotten here so fast, but that was only the beginning.
Because two days later, on December 8, 2018, Auckland police declared that
Grace's missing person investigation has now become a murder investigation.
But they haven't said that they found anything yet?
No details. They do announce that the man that they had
Questioned was also being charged with her murder. Okay, so they're there's going right into it. Do three days
Like that's what I'm saying. We don't have to worry about it because they really did go all in and I know you are
Overwhelmed and confused just like the public was but I have to keep going. One day later, on December 9, 2018, around 4 p.m.,
Grace Malaine's body is found in some bushland
around 12 miles west of Central Auckland.
Now, I looked this up, and this was an estimated 50 minutes away
from the hotel that Grace had last been staying at.
Dang, okay.
So, basically, her parents report her missing
and then boom, they found the body.
It's 50 minutes away from where they had said she was last seen.
And now everyone's like, well, how did this happen so fast?
How do we get here?
How did police know where to find her?
So I'm gonna tell you now.
Like I said, the last known place that Grace had been
was the city life hotel.
And the thing about 2018, a hotel, and a very busy city, they have the one thing that Garrett is always asking about.
Cameras.
Extensive CCTV footage everywhere.
And this is exactly where police is.
Thank goodness. Finally, there's a case.
I mean, there's some cases.
Right. But where there's cameras. And you can see what happened.
Right. And I mean, police are like, well, we know where to begin.
Her parents said she was here. So that's where we begin looking on all of our CCTV footage.
Now, I don't know much about Auckland. I mean, I tried to look it up, but they have like
serious cameras really way more than any anywhere, I would say it's similar
to like Vegas maybe.
I would say that in the United States,
Vegas, the strip probably has a ton of cameras.
And that's what this area that she was missing
and kind of feels like.
The CCTV footage in this case has definitely
exploded the coverage on it.
Very, very rarely do we have the
possibility of knowing the exact time, even down to the exact minute of when events in a
crime took place. And this case has it. Police quickly found this out. It would be solved
obviously very fast once police located grace on the cameras and began tracking her movement.
There is a 55 minute compilation of all the footage involved in this case from the
Enzy Herald on YouTube.
Now I watched the whole thing and narrowed it down here.
55 minutes.
That's how much footage there is.
So what does that mean?
Is that her just like a camera of her walking to here, then a camera of her walking to
here, then a camera of for walking to here than a camera for walking to here than
a camera for walking to here?
Correct.
It's almost like watching a movie because they keep cutting to the correct camera.
Yeah.
So you could almost follow her exact movements.
That's crazy.
Okay.
You can check it out.
The link will be in the episode notes, but like I said, I'm obviously just going to narrate
it here.
So if you're watching on YouTube, we're not going to play all 55 minutes, but there will
be sections clipped in.
Now watching this footage is so unnerving
because it's like watching Grace's murder playout
in real time.
You just wanna scream through the screen,
like to warn her, like don't do that.
Oh man.
But we can't.
And I'll tell you where this all started
and how police discovered what exactly happened
to Grace Malayne on December 1, 2018.
Police eventually find the footage of Grace walking out
of the hotel that her parents had told them she was at.
And she's walking out alone on December 1,
around 5.37 pm.
She's wearing a black t-shirt dress, white flat lace-up shoes, a white
watch, and she's carrying a purse. And that wasn't described in a case source. I'm telling you
that because that is how clear the footage is that I was able to see that she was wearing a white
watch. I was just going to ask, so it's in color then. It's in color. Most of it's in color. There's
one place that's black and white. It's clear. Like, you could almost see color then. It's in color. Most of it's in color. There's one place that's black and white.
It's clear.
Like you can almost see facial expressions.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
So Grace makes her way to Enfut to Sky City, Auckland,
which is an entertainment complex and casino
in the central business district in Auckland.
Now the whole complex includes the Sky Tower,
the Sky City Theater, many bars and restaurants and three different hotels. Sky City is a
point two mile walk away from the city life hotel she was staying at. The
images and footage almost make it look kind of like I was saying a Las Vegas
strip. So think of it that Grace is walking from her hotel to a neighboring one
which is very normal in Vegas and here as well.
Grace is then tracked on camera to an open area around the dining in Sky City, where you can see her walk into this area, she stops,
and looks around as if she's waiting for someone kind of staring at her phone at the same time.
Okay.
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blue unbuttoned shirt seemingly walks up grace, and then they share a very quick
awkward hug. Together, they begin walking through Sky City, and you can watch them the
whole way on various clear security cameras. They seem to be making casual conversation,
they aren't holding hands, they're walking side by side, kind of sharing smiles here
and there. The footage then shows them entering into a bar called Andes.
They walk up to the bar, smiling,
and they quickly read through the menu while standing there.
They are talking the whole time,
and they even talk to the bartender for a minute.
After getting drinks here, they then
make their way to the Mexican cafe for more drinks,
around 7, 16 PM.
And at this point in the footage,
you can tell they're bar hopping.
Like they're kind of just going from place to place to get new drinks. After spending roughly
an hour at the Mexican cafe, you can see them paying for drinks and they are definitely
more comfortable than they were before. They're standing closer, they're brushing arms,
kind of placing hands on elbows. Okay, so it's a date. Yes, and police are assuming that as they're watching.
At 8.30 p.m., Grace and this man end up
at the Blue Stone Room this time for dinner.
This is definitely the most blurry footage so far,
but it still puts like most footage that we see to shame.
It's the first footage in black and white.
At this point, Grace and the unknown man
have definitely loosened up over dinner.
They are sitting together at a high top table
and they eventually end up sharing a couple kisses.
The man throws his arm around her
and they continue talking and laughing,
looking like they're having a good time.
At 8.56 p.m., the man leaves to use the restroom
but gives Grace a kiss goodbye before he does.
And to me, this was a big signal that the date was going.
She, as he's gone, gets her phone out of her purse for the first time and kind of hangs
out on it until the man gets back.
And when the man returns and Grace gets up to go to the bathroom, she leaves her bag
on the table.
So it kind of took turns all stay,
you know, now you stay, I go.
And as soon as Grace walks out of frame,
the man can be seen grabbing Grace's purse
and shuffling through it before
then placing it back on her seat.
What?
Yes, so this is the first sign of strange behavior
from the man as police are like watching.
They note that up until now, it seemed like a normal date,
but for this guy to take her person, she's in the bathroom and shuffle through it is really weird.
I, we've been married for almost five years.
I don't even touch your purse now.
Right.
I can't imagine on the first date just go rabbit it and shuffling through.
I'm curious.
Hey, what's going on in here?
Yeah.
That's weird.
So Grace and the man then leaves Sky City walking with their arms around
each other, holding hands all the way back to Grace's hotel city life. They make their way through the lobby and into the elevator up to Grace's floor, which is the third floor.
I will say that this part in the footage goes on to become the most eerie and infamous part of all of this
security footage. Because as police soon discover grace and him go up the elevator to her floor
and grace will never be seen on camera again. Oh my gosh. Okay. Question before we keep going.
Is there cameras in the stairwell as well? Yes, okay
So I said elevator, but stairs she'll never be seen coming down from that floor again
Police have obviously searched the hotel at this point like the second they got the call
They went to the hotel. Yeah, they searched her hotel room and they couldn't find her
So when they realized that they couldn't place her on any camera after this, they are confused.
If she's not in the hotel, how did she leave without being caught on camera?
As police realized they can no longer trace grace, they began scanning for the unknown man.
He had to have come back down at some point unless he too has vanished with grace.
No way. Police discover that at 8 a.m. the morning after the apparent date. So after they've
gone up the next morning, they spot the man in the elevator going back down at the city
life hotel. Okay. All right. So now it's starting to all make sense where they charge him and so on and so forth.
Right.
And the man in this footage is no longer wearing his blue button down shirt that he had
on buttoned, that he wore up to the room.
He's just wearing the black undershirt that he was wearing underneath on their dates.
And you know, I just, I still can't comprehend the fact that like, dude, did you not know
like where you were?
Like I said, it seems like a mini Vegas.
So there's a camera on every corner.
And for me, I think the biggest tell tell while watching this is that when the man enters
into the elevator that morning, he glances at the camera.
Like makes eye contact with the camera upon entering the elevator very quickly and then
turns around
and keeps his back facing it for the whole way down.
Security footage tracks the man entering,
leaving the hotel and entering the atrium mall,
which is right nearby at 807 AM,
where he then enters a store called the warehouse.
At the warehouse, the man is seen shopping around
and eventually taking something
up to the counter to check out. That item was a large suitcase.
Oh my gosh, no way. Yeah, footage then tracks the man rolling the suitcase all the way back
to the city life hotel where he once again enters the elevator and uses a hotel key, which keep in mind,
he was not checked into this hotel,
so it has to be graces to get up to the third floor
that she had been staying on.
That is so brutal, this is horrible.
Yeah, the next time the man is seen as at 8.32 AM,
again, on the elevator going down without the suitcase.
He makes his way to the countdown metro
where he can be seen purchasing cleaning supplies.
The man then takes the supplies back to the city life hotel
and once again makes his way up to the elevator
with the supplies in his hand.
I am just so, I'm beyond confused at the fact
that he thought he was gonna get away with it.
Right.
Just beyond confused.
Like the fact that they were able to track this man,
he leaves, he goes down the elevator,
we track him out the hotel,
we track him going right, then left,
then to this store where there's cameras,
and then we see him, you know what I mean?
Open in a shut case, it seems.
Yes, which is, I think explains why it happened so fast.
Yeah.
At around 10, 25 AM, a little over an hour later, the man leaves once again.
And this time, for the first time, there are other people in the elevator with him.
Remember that he's gone down two to three times already and he's been alone.
But now there's people in the elevator with him.
And I know that you are assuming to know what this man was doing at this point in the timeline.
But to be those innocent bystanders in the elevator that have no idea what this man was doing at this point in the timeline, but to be those innocent bystanders
in the elevator that have no idea what this guy is doing.
Does he have the suitcase with him?
No, he's only gone and got the suitcase
and carried it back up, we haven't seen it again.
Well, I was gonna say that's bad,
but if he had the suitcase and then he's in the elevator
with people, that's just horrible.
Right, and I think for these people,
this footage is pretty famous, like I said,
to watch this footage and be like,
oh, that's us in the elevator with him.
You know what I mean?
The man goes down and then catches a taxi,
which literally has cameras in it
that are pointing right at the man's face,
and then he ends up going to a rental car place
where he rents a red car.
He takes the car back to the city life hotel
and once again goes up to Grace's floor.
So this has been like up and down multiple times
that the police are tracking this guy.
At around 4.29 pm, the man makes his way
to the revelry bar and purchases a drink.
He leaves said bar with a woman.
So he goes to this bar, meets a woman, and then leaves the bar with the woman.
Oh my gosh.
She just, I mean, I don't know the, okay, he killed someone.
He just killed someone, and then now just went to a bar and met another woman.
On another date?
And now is leaving with her.
Right.
So eventually the man ends up alone again after he spent time on the state.
And later that night is seen driving the red car
to another store.
He rents a rug doctor.
That's a big ol' carpet cleaner machine.
And takes it back to the hotel.
Now, it's comical that I just can't believe
he's doing all this.
And it's being caught on camera, that's insane.
And it kinda to me is like,
you couldn't just make all these in one trip,
like go to the store, get the suitcase,
get the cleaner, you know what I mean?
It's like 10 times up and down.
But to me, I just don't think he's very smart.
Like we were talking about,
there's cameras everywhere.
So I'm not sure how he is able to get this rug doctor
into through the hotel lobby,
busy place, into the elevator without being stopped.
I mean, I think they just assume, oh, he works for the hotel, you know, he's going to
print carpets.
Right.
But at 8.24 pm, this man wills the rug doctor into the elevator and makes his way back
up to Grace's floor.
And people get on the elevator with him as he's just standing there with this carpet cleaning machine.
At 8.56, he wills it back down and returns it to the store.
So he rented it.
The next time the man comes back up,
he grabs a baggage trolley,
like the ones from Sweet Life of Zachankote
and takes it into the elevator with him.
I'm just gonna say a baggage trolley,
is a baggage trolley everywhere. I know, but say a bag of trolleys, a bag of trolley everywhere.
I know, but we love that.
And Cody's a good one.
Well, because they ride him on that show.
That's true, no, you're right.
I'm a Disney Channel kid.
You're a P-R, you are.
At 9.30 p.m., the elevator doors open
on the third floor once again.
And this unknown man
wheels the trolley back into the elevator with him.
And this time, it has two large suitcases and a sports bag on it.
And police now realize as they're watching this, how Grace Malame left the hotel without
being seen.
The man then unloads the bag into his parked rental car and then goes back up to the room
to sleep the night.
No, he sleeps in the same room.
Yes.
That's insane.
I don't know what I'll tell you guys.
It's gross.
I don't know what you guys else want me to say sometimes,
but that is insane.
Yes.
And can I just stop right here and say that like,
we're tracking this man or whatever,
but when you actually think about what he's doing,
Grace is a real person.
Yeah.
She's a real person and she's a real victim.
And as you think about him, just like bringing these suitcases
down and no one knew what was happening,
but we know what is happening.
So sick.
The next morning, December 3, the man
can be seen on footage leaving the hotel around 6.14 AM
and driving his red rental car to a hardware store
where he purchases a red shovel.
I don't know what his obsession with red is,
but he just gets the red car, the red shovel.
You know, the more you go on about this too,
it seems like, I know we're gonna get into all of it,
but that it wasn't premeditated.
And I'm only saying that because he's doing all the stuff.
I mean, I know people do this stuff after,
but like, he didn't even have a shovel.
You know what I'm saying? Like, it seems the whole thing is just weird.
To me, it's almost like he had the opportunity. He's always wanted to. And he had the opportunity
so he took it. And now he's taking the steps to, right. Right. But yes, if you're saying
that he had a kill kit when he went on the state, no, obviously not. And then at 9.30
a.m., roughly two and a half hours after he purchased that shovel,
the man is seen on camera returning to the hotel.
They don't know where he went at this point because he left camera like range basically,
but he's back again at the hotel and this time when he walks in, he's barefoot.
Now these next few scenes can kind of get redundant,
so I'm just gonna sum it up here real fast.
Basically the man retrieves two more bags from the hotel,
drops some of those off at the dry cleaners,
buys another suitcase, washes the car,
washes the shoes that were inside of the car.
So now we know why he's barefoot,
because the shoes were in his car,
and then washes the shovel and actually leans it up against the wall and leaves it at the car wash. It's like one
of those hand car washes. So two days later, the man is seeing dumping items out of a bag into
trash bins. This whole time he's staying at the city life hotel in the same room on Grace's
car. Because Grace's card is the one that
is charged to that room.
At this point, in tracing the cameras, Auckland police have identified the unknown man.
They are like, we found out who he is, we got his picture out, we know who he is.
And on December 6th, they find him near the city life hotel where he's still staying
and they bring him in for questioning.
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So real quick, how long from the time that her parents called?
Okay, wait, so the time she went missing to her parents called she went missing on the first
Okay, her parents called on the fifth. Okay. He's being brought in for interrogation on the sixth. Whoa
So were they already
Inveth like were they already looking into her or did they just within that one day get all this information?
So within that one day they got
all of this information. So within that one day, they got footage of him at the hotel.
I don't think they got him going to the stores yet.
Oh, because they did that.
They hadn't pieced together.
Yeah, yeah.
But they saw them together on their date.
That was, they started tracking her
and the first time they tracked her
from the time that her parents had she went missing
is on that date.
So when did they charge him for murder?
Two days after their about.
So they're bringing him in now. From the eighth. On the eighth, they charge him for murder? Two days after they're about, so they're bringing him in now.
On the eighth.
On the eighth, they charge him with murder.
So first, to the fifth, to the sixth, now we're the eighth.
Well, we're at the sixth now, but yes, we're soon going to be at the eighth.
Okay.
So the man who gets brought in for questioning on the sixth, now keep in mind, like I said,
police don't know everything that I just explained to you yet, but they're going to find out
soon because they're still working on footage, but they just needed to identify the man on the date
with her first.
And the man alleged to police that the last time he saw Grace was at 8 p.m. December
1st after their date.
And he tells them we met on Tinder, we went on this date, and then I said goodbye to her
at 8 p.m.
And we ended the date.
Now as they're questioning him, they're still looking through and they knew at this point that he had stayed the night.
So, obviously, this contradicts the CCTV footage as we know he spent the night.
Police catch him in all of his lives because of the camera footage and they confront him.
They're like, hey, we know you're lying and as the footage keeps going more and more, they're like,
now we found this out, now we found this out.
Now we found this out two days, go by.
And then on December 8th,
they charge him with Grace's murder
and searches on his phone that they collect
once they charge him, led them to her body.
He had searched the exact place
where he had dumped her body on his GPS,
on Google everything. And so they were like,
okay, so they drove out there and immediately found her. It is unbelievable. Right. I'm glad.
And I'm super glad that they're able to find her. But it's just what? After finding Grace's body,
her funeral service was held at Brentwood Cathedral in Essex, hundreds of mourners gathered and
celebrated Grace. And a lot of her paintings were used to decorate the service.
Apparently, she was a very talented artist.
And so they used her own work to decorate the service.
Her remains were buried in the village of Ramadan Bellhouse,
and Grace's family was obviously just devastated,
angry, and confused.
I know we just went through all this footage,
but to them, they just called about their daughter not even a week ago,
and now they're bearing her.
Imagine just how fast and devastating that was.
How could this happen?
It all felt so random, so unnecessary.
Now, like you are probably wondering,
the public was outraged at the murder of a British traveler
and they wanted answers, what had happened.
And who is this mystery man that police are talking about
who had done this?
And why wasn't he being named?
How did no one know who he is, even though he's already been arrested and charged?
Now, despite orders, most of this information came out roughly a year later when the trial
for Grace's murder began.
Was he famous?
Was, I mean, that's my only thought process as he was someone famous or something strange
in that way.
Right.
Well, he wasn't famous.
There was actually a suppression order in place during the trial, during all of this,
since the second they found out who he was,
to keep the killer's name out of the media. In fact, it's about a 50-50 split of the sources now,
like as I was researching, who report this case still keep him unnamed and they blur his face in
the footage. Why? Now, this is for according to New Zealand, this is for protecting and preserving fairness to this case.
So the jury wasn't affected by the media coverage
or incorrect information.
I'm surprised it even went that far with all the cameras.
Like it was so obvious.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, why wasn't he just,
like why would, why didn't even go to trial?
So he pled not guilty.
So it had to go to trial.
Got it. Okay. Yeah, but this suppression order and
I you know we obviously I don't think we could get away with with this in America
But there have been cases. I mean most recently we're seeing Scott Peterson
I mean this will have already aired but he is starting a hearing on Friday because he's trying to get a new trial
Basically because of the media because the jurors were involved with the media
and spoke to the media,
and so this is kind of what they're trying to prevent
is another Scott Peterson situation.
It's crazy to me that you plead that he pled not guilty
after all the evidence.
I mean, at that point, you're just saying it's ego,
it's maybe I'll get away with it.
He obviously has to explain the footage,
so I'll tell you exactly what he says at trial
But despite the court's best efforts on this suppression the killer's name was finally revealed to the public after trial
Via overseas media which means America said there's a suppression order in New Zealand
But not here so we're gonna say his name And I want not just America, other countries as well.
And I want to note here that despite the suppression order
overseas media could legally report the killer's name.
Individuals in New Zealand, however,
could face up to six months in prison
or a $25,000 fine if they were to break suppression.
So if you see sources who still refer to the man
as just the accused or the prosecuted, that was why.
Now suppression ends once he's convicted,
but I had to look all of a sudden
just to make sure I could legally still say his name.
So Jesse Shane Kempson had matched with Grace Malayne
on Tinder back in December of 2018.
And after their date, he murdered
her in her own hotel room and spent the next five days trying to cover it up.
Almost all of those events were caught on camera.
Jesse was born on December 28, 1991.
According to one nine news from Australia and the Daily Mail, Jesse's parents separated
when he was young
and he was raised by his grandparents.
When Jessie was in high school, he played softball
but would go on to tell a future landlord
that he played professional softball in New Zealand.
Okay.
Now, like I said, I don't like to go into the,
I don't wanna give these murders any more attention
than we need to, but sometimes their backstory really
has a tell of who they go on to become, and this is Jesse's case, which is why I'm including
this.
Jesse told his landlord this lie that he was a professional softball player because he
didn't have rent money, and he promised him that his contract money was coming in soon.
So just hold off for a minute.
When Jesse never ended up paying rent,
the landlord actually called the New Zealand Black Sox team,
and they informed him that they had never heard
of Jesse Campson and he definitely didn't play for them.
Okay.
According to Jesse's step brother,
he thinks that Jesse was definitely a pathological liar.
He often lied about his potential partners having cancer
or that his parents were dead.
Basically, any lie that he could tell
to make someone have an emotional response.
His parents being dead.
Oh my gosh.
Jesse was trying to get people to feel bad for him
or help him.
It's all very, very manipulative.
Jesse had a son with a woman that he dated
but didn't maintain any contact with them
and also had no contact with his father.
A woman that met Jesse told interviewers
that he claimed to have been in the process
of buying up all the bars to add to his already existing
restaurant franchise.
There was no such thing.
Jesse did not own a restaurant.
He went on to claim that he had a bachelor's degree in international law and that he came
from a family of millionaires who owned chain restaurants.
He also told multiple people that he was buying up the top restaurants in Auckland's
viaduct harbor, which is a waterfront mixed housing and commercial development area.
It's like a more crazy version of the Tenders Windlord.
Exactly. He's just lying.
Which is why I feel like I had to include this.
Yeah.
I had to include this detail about him
buying up the waterfront property
because he's basically telling people
that he's buying all the restaurants
and the fancy as part of town.
This isn't diagnosed that I saw anywhere,
but it feels very narcissistic type
that he lies
about grandiose and fake ideas to convince people to like him.
At trial, it was reported that grace was murdered via manual strangulation.
The defense said this was an accidental murder of rough play gone wrong, which is why I was
telling you this is how he pled not guilty.
It's just so disrespectful to me to claim that.
Right.
So disrespectful.
We're gonna get into that, but yes, evidence,
however, would indicate that the crime was not accidental
because of the extent that he went to cover it up.
The Tinder messages were also released
like their Tinder exchange,
and the jury was shown how persistent and aggressive Jesse was trying to convince Grace to go on a date with him.
She didn't really want to go out.
Grace was found inside a suitcase buried in a shallow grave.
The trial was horrific for Grace and her family because all of her sexual past, her behavior was brought up when
it had nothing to do with what happened.
The trial took almost three weeks and a jury made up of seven women and five men returned
to guilty verdict after five hours of deliberation.
The prime minister at the time actually issued an apology to Grace's parents right away for
what had happened
on their soil. She said your daughter should have been safe here and she wasn't and I'm sorry for
that. After the trial ended and the name suppression was lifted, it was reported that Jesse Kempson had
sexually assaulted another British tourist just months earlier who he had also met on Tinder.
He also faced eight charges of sexual and other violence
against his current girlfriend.
Oh, he had a girlfriend at the time too?
Yes, I don't know if they were like on and off again
and whatever, up until June 29th, 2021.
Jesse Kempstson has tried to appeal his verdict
multiple times, but all have been denied.
In the UK alone, seven of the 17 killings of a woman in the last five years that went to trial found the man not guilty.
38% of UK women under 40 years old report being assaulted and experiencing unwanted violence during consensual sex.
That equates to 3.6 million women under 40 in the UK who have experienced unwanted violence
in sex.
In the US, as reported by Stop Street harassment, it found that 81% of women and 43% of men
have experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime.
Those are such high numbers.
Grace's murder is added to the list of cases, this is what you were talking about, where
the defense team tries to argue the use of rough sex to justify violence or murder among
women.
And as you might know, this isn't even new. It's been going on since the Jack the Ripper murders
and how the fixation was on the women who were sex workers
and therefore familiar with danger
and all sorts of other very toxic portrayal of victims.
I think this also speaks to how women are often blamed
for the crime, despite being the victim.
He blamed grace, even though he's the one who killed her.
And that was what you were saying.
It's so disrespectful.
Love Grace at Love Grace,
underscore UK on Instagram,
is a charitable organization that has been raising money
and awareness of male violence towards women.
It was set up in Grace Malene's honor
by her cousin Hannah and her mother Jillian.
They accept donations of handbags which are then filled with toiletries and little luxuries for women and are donated to women's abuse shelters in Essex.
So I would highly suggest going checking it out. We did. I mean, if you can donate, do it's awesome. Michael in Declan graces half-brothers actually posted many sweet messages on their social media channels in the early days of graces disappearance.
And they continue to post about her to this day.
Graces friends describe her as having an infectious smile and being the happiest person and the brightest star.
Her friend Samantha Ramsey said that grace had big dreams and encouraged everyone around her to do the same.
And she was just out there trying to see the world, trying to further her education, trying to live out a dream when she met horror.
And that is the story of Grace Malayne.
What's crazy, horrible, that's so sad, what's the craziest of fact to that grace?
If it wasn't grace,
it would have been someone else. Exactly. Which is horrible as well, because I mean, it's
so sad that it was grace, but it's scary to me that if it wouldn't have been grace, just
like the girl before her, she wasn't killed, but she was sexually assaulted. It would
have been somebody else. Almost like he, like you said, he wanted to kill someone. He
was just waiting for the right opportunity. Opportunity he, like you said, he wanted to kill someone. He was just
waiting for the right opportunity moment. Whatever you want to call it.
Yeah, I think this guy was, would have definitely become a serial predator.
Yes.
Had he not been caught, but he just got caught.
Good.
So, most of the footage that we talked about will actually be inserted into the YouTube.
So, if you just listen and you want to go check that out, that would be an easy option to check out the footage.
If not, it's linked in the episode notes.
If you wanna watch the security camera footage.
But yeah, I think today we will think about Grace and her family
and just understand that you've done nothing wrong
when you're the victim of things like this.
She was just mining her business,
trying to go about her life and evil met her.
Agreed.
All right, you guys. Thank you so much for the continued support and we will see you guys next week
with another episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.
you