01x03 - Grace Millane

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: A 22-year-old
back-packer from the UK is m*rder*d

after going out on an online date
while on vacation in New Zealand.

Police immediately zero in
on a young strapping stranger

she spent the night with.

Hi, love. Hi.

A 21-year-old British
college graduate

is about to set off

on the most exciting
trip of her life.

A solo vacation
around the world.

Travelling alone is dangerous.

I've been to 50 countries,

and I made a rule that I never
even went to the coffee shop

unless I went with
somebody else.

I always wanted to
make sure I had a witness

in these places that I went,

because you just
don't know the culture.

On 20 November 2018,

after spending the first
leg of her trip in Peru,

grace arrives in
Auckland, New Zealand.

She immediately
begins taking selfies,

she immediately
begins taking selfies,

sending them to
family and friends,

excitedly sharing
her journey with them.

Everything about her trip
seems to be going smoothly.

But seeing the sights isn't
the only thing on grace's mind.

A little more than
a week goes by

before grace is able to set up
her first tinder date in Auckland.

Her potential date was
26-year-old Jesse kempson.

A well-built, handsome young man
aggressively pursuing her via text.

On 1 December 2018,

cctv cameras captured
grace waiting at the sky tower

until she sees Jesse and they
embraced with a warm hug.

Until she sees Jesse and
they embraced with a warm hug.

The two head over to
Andy's burger and bar,

a restaurant on the first
floor of the sky tower.

After a few drinks,

the two of them head to
dinner at a Mexican cafe

where they drank even more.

As far as first dates go,

these were very safe options.

Both places were out in crowd,

in crowded areas, public
spaces, security cameras.

Coupled with grace being
in touch with her family

on a consistent basis,

seemed like this date
would go smoothly.

Jesse then takes
grace to his hotel bar

where he had begun his night.

It's at the bluestone room

where their night
really begins to heat up.

I will be right back. Alright.

Jesse excuses himself,

allowing grace to update her friend
about how the great date was going.

Grace told her friend via text.

Grace was doing exactly what
she was supposed to be doing

in order to stay safe.

She had a friend who
knew what she was up to,

and she even updated
that friend while on the date.

All signs pointed to this
being a fun and carefree night.

As Jesse returns to the table,
grace leaves for the bathroom.

I gotta go to the
bathroom, be right back.

Jesse capitalises on this alone
time to find his mate on Facebook.

He comments on her profile picture,
describing how beautiful she looks.

He comments on her profile picture,
describing how beautiful she looks.

Seeing how well
the date is going,

Jesse knows this is the time
to take it to his hotel room.

He extends the invitation to
grace, and she is convinced.

Having fun, it's your
vacation, you got to let loose.

It's true, yeah.

9:30pm that same night,

cctv cameras caught the
pair heading from the pub

and into the
citylife hotel lobby.

Shortly after, the couple
is captured on camera

in the elevator going
up to Jesse's hotel room.

This was the last
time grace was seen.

Grace was newly single

and on this exciting world trip,

however, her 22nd
birthday was the next day.

She possibly felt
a level of loneliness

being so far from home.

But here was Jesse
ready to relieve her from it.

Grace and Jesse seemed to be
having the dating app dream date,

but after a few days passed,

grace's family still
haven't heard from her

since the night of her date.

This was a huge
red flag for her family.

As someone who was
actively sending pictures,

texting and posting
on social media,

for her to suddenly go silent

was extremely
worrisome and suspicious.

Police began
investigating... Hello.

..And they immediately
turned to grace's social media.

What stood out to them the most,
a comment left by Jesse kempson.

Truth be told, there
wasn't too much to go on.

All it did was establish that
kempson was with grace that night.

But it opened up kempson to
some pretty heavy questioning.

Police called kempson,

asking him what he
had been up to that night.

How did the evening pan out?

He claims grace had left the
hotel at about 10pm that evening.

Are you going to arrest me
for something I didn't even do?

Scott beard: We get missing
persons reports every day,

but this one had some
red flags, you know?

It was an overseas
tourist who's 21 years old,

it was an overseas
tourist who's 21 years old,

she was in contact with
her family every day.

And on her
birthday, of all days,

she didn't contact the family
and they couldn't contact her.

According to those who knew him,

kempson was framed
as a failed salesman

who found himself addicted
to the online dating world.

To Jesse, dating apps
were the perfect platform

to feed his large ego
and engage in rough sex.

According to one of grace's
friends she spoke to during the trip,

grace had told her that kempson
was a manager of an oil company.

This would turn out to be one
of many lies kempson has told,

from being an heir to a
successful Australian restaurateur,

to saying he had g*ng
connections to threaten girls.

While dating apps have
become the ideal way

to meet somebody new
outside of your circle,

it's also evolved into a
world of zero accountability.

Men and women,
for the most part,

can get away with
telling any kind of lie

to get what they want.

As police turn to cctv footage
to verify kempson's claims,

as police turn to cctv footage
to verify kempson's claims,

they're able to piece together
almost the entire evening.

From meeting at the sky tower,

to getting in the elevator
at the citylife hotel.

Lo and behold, there was no
record of grace leaving the hotel.

Grace did herself a huge favour

ensuring that any interaction
with kempson was out in public

under the watchful
eyes of the city.

If those cctv
cameras weren't there

to keep an eye on her,

we may never have known
what happened to her.

Police bring kempson in again
and ask him what happened.

This time, he admits to
murdering grace millane.

Kempson explains to police

that he had accidentally
k*lled grace during rough sex,

and out of fear and anxiety,
had attempted to cover it up.

I got the cleaners...

Was this just an intimate
night gone wrong?

Kempson had already
admitted to lying once,

who's to say he
isn't lying again?

Who's to say he
isn't lying again?

Scott beard: We'd contacted him

because we had seen
that he was the last person

on her Facebook page
to make a comment.

And we arranged an interview,

and he even in fact
told us some lies,

even straight away.

He came in with a story,
yes he'd met grace on tinder,

yes they'd gone out to dinner,

and then they'd gone
their separate ways.

But we also have a team
out there looking at cctv.

And cctv's crucial.

And it just turned out
that during that interview,

one cctv phase people

had seen where he's
walking across the road,

walking down the road with her

when he'd said
he'd already split up.

So, we knew he was lying.

Despite sex being consensual,

it can still be very dangerous,
without the proper communication.

So, sure, it's very possible

that grace's death
was indeed an accident.

But it was kempson's
actions after the death

and his behaviour
prior to meeting grace

that prevented him

from looking like a
victim of circumstance.

Upon further investigation,

upon further investigation,

police find that kempson's
interaction with grace

are not exactly unique.

Is that what it is? Yes.

Police discover while
grace was still missing,

kempson had set up and
gone out on another date

with a woman he met on tinder.

Honestly, it's a tad
insane, I mean it's a date

and you're curious
about whether I'm willing

to give the rough stuff a row.

The former journalist described
him as intense but calm,

immediately getting
a strange vibe.

Is that how you
charm all the ladies?

They talked about a m*rder
trial she once attended,

and he gives an
insightful comment,

"it's crazy how guys can
make one wrong move

"and go to jail for
the rest of their life."

End up in jail for
the rest of his life.

I do know that...

Kempson continues to
give an example of a friend

whose girlfriend
died during rough sex.

Stay and have another beer?

Well, you can have my drink
and I'm gonna head on out of here.

No, but that's not right. No.

Why would kempson
be so forthcoming

why would kempson
be so forthcoming

with a woman he went
on a tinder date with?

It's possible that
he was nervous,

I don't think so,

and that talking through it
gave him a sense of relief.

I don't buy it,

but prosecutors
would later call it out

as an attempt to test his story.

Other women would come forward,

describing their
experience with kempson

including an ex-girlfriend
as an a*usive relationship,

this was a date that engaged
in consensual rough sex,

days before meeting grace,

and a tinder date said

that he had r*ped her
in an Auckland hotel

a few months back.

Jesse even claimed that
he was in pain due to cancer.

And the Internet played

to this guy's
sociopathy I think,

and his narcissism.

It permitted him to create
another reality about himself.

Things were looking
bad for kempson.

These women were painting a
picture of a man who found pleasure

regularly dominating women
and using lies to manipulate them.

Regularly dominating women
and using lies to manipulate them.

You tell a lie.

That's true.

While things looked
bad for kempson,

it would come to what
happened to grace.

So, how did a romantic night
in a foreign country turn tragic?

Scott beard: I thought,
"he's dismembered her."

That was my first thought,

seeing all the blood
through the room.

1 December 2018,

after a romantic
night on the town

grace millane and Jesse
kempson head up to his hotel room.

What happened in the hotel room

will never be known for certain,

but according to the autopsy,

whether it was
intentional or not,

grace died with bruises
on her arms and neck,

indicating that she
died from strangulation.

Police also found traces
of blood on the hotel floor,

lining up with kempson's story

that she bled from the nose
after losing consciousness.

By using a substance
called luminol,

and other forensic techniques,

police would be able to
detect blood on any surface,

even if those surfaces had
been cleaned with bleach.

Kempson's phone history reveals
that shortly after grace's death,

he looked up a number
of disturbing queries

including "hottest fire,"

"waitakere ranges,"

"large bags nearby,"
and "flesh-eating birds."

He would also visit pornhub,
a popular p*rn*graphy site.

But what was most disturbing
was the pictures he took of grace,

arranging her body in
provocative positions

and taking pictures
on his phone.

To prosecutors, this would be
seen as psychopathic behaviour,

clearly showing that
he had zero remorse

for the poor girl who's life he
had only ended moments before.

After he had searched
"the hottest fire,"

so it must have been
after the fact of her death,

he then takes very
intimate photographs of her,

he then takes very
intimate photographs of her,

particularly, and
they're staged,

and it's of her genitalia.

And you can tell it's staged

because in one
of the photographs,

you can actually see a human
hand pulling apart the anatomy.

So, you can see
that he has staged

these very intimate
photographs after her death.

The obvious reaction to her death
would be to call an ambulance,

call 911,

and kempson claims that
fear caused him to panic.

But taking pictures
of your victim

are not actions taken by
someone in a frantic state of mind.

As prolific of a
liar that he was,

he probably believed
he was savvy enough

to get away with it.

The next day, while
grace lay dead in the hotel,

kempson would arrange
another tinder date

for later that day,

for later that day,

but planned to run
errands before meeting her.

First, he goes to purchase a
suitcase from a nearby store.

He would later complain
to his next tinder date

that he had trouble finding a bag
big enough for all his sports gear.

Then he would go
buy cleaning supplies

and a carpet cleaner,

claiming that he had
spilled red wine on his carpet.

Finally, he would rent a car.

All things kempson would
need to construct his next big lie.

Every one of these events was
caught on camera for a jury to watch.

Clearly, a lot of thought and effort
went into concealing grace's m*rder.

Even if her death
was an accident,

her disappearance
definitely was not.

After his date with
the former journalist,

kempson arrives back at the hotel
with the suitcase and carpet cleaner.

He begins his cover-up,

starting with cleaning
grace's blood off of the carpet.

Even though his
efforts would be in vain.

He then takes grace's body
and stuffs her into the suitcase.

He then takes grace's body
and stuffs her into the suitcase.

It's a tight fit.

He finishes the job by loading
the suitcase into the rented car.

Kempson probably assumed

that hooking up with
the next and final tinder

was still on the table,

so getting grace's
body out of the bedroom

and cleaning the blood
was his highest priority.

3 December 2018,
after a night alone,

kempson starts early

and begins driving towards
waitakere at 6:15am.

He stops only to buy a shovel.

It is in waitakere where kempson
buries grace millane's body

and where police
find her only days later.

It would be a few days

before police would view
kempson as a prime suspect

and reach out to him.

Who knows what
he did until then.

You've indicated that
you're willing to speak to us

about the events of last
Saturday, is that correct?

Yes.

Tell me what
happened last Saturday.

From the beginning?

From the beginning?

Four days after
burying grace millane,

the Auckland police arrest
Jesse kempson for her m*rder.

He admitted to the police that
he had accidentally k*lled her

while they engaged in rough sex.

He would be charged for the
m*rder on 10 December 2018,

and his trial would begin
on 3 November 2019.

There was an overwhelming
amount of evidence against kempson

along with three key witnesses,
his former tinder dates.

Although it was made clear that
grace's death was not intentional,

due to a lack of
defensive wounds,

the prosecution would go on
to paint him as an elaborate liar.

The defence did their
best to humanise kempson,

citing that he came
from a broken family,

and he grew up
without a mother figure.

And this divide between
him and his family

would continue to grow,

possibly creating an
animosity towards women.

They would also
claim that this stemmed

from immense
personal insecurity.

But this did not sway the jury.

After three weeks of a trial,

of which grace's parents
attended every day,

of which grace's parents
attended every day,

the jury returned
with a guilty verdict

on 22 November 2019.

Unlike the United States,

New Zealand carries a
mandatory life sentence for m*rder

and a minimum ten-year
non-parole period.

Judges are allowed to
extend this non-parole period

using their discretion.

Kempson was
sentenced to life in prison

with a 17-year
non-parole period.

He would also be convicted of
multiple r*pe and abuse charges

against two other women in 2020,

separate from the
events with grace millane.

We were criticised roundly
in the media, not in court,

the court recognised that it
was relevant and admissible,

but it was the defence
team that was criticised

for introducing that evidence.

Even though, as I say,

I think it was an extremely
important part of the defence.

I think it was an extremely
important part of the defence.

When he spoke to the
police the second time,

he said that the
deceased was the one

who introduced the
notion of breath play

and an erotic asphyxiation,

and that she had said
that she'd done it before.

The police then arranged
for statements to be taken

from the deceased's friends

and former sexual
partners in the UK.

One of the previous sexual
partners said, "yes, we did do that,"

and one of her friends
said, "yes, she did like that."

So, the crown, the
police didn't include that

as part of the case.

They edited that out.

I have to say, you know,
the defence did their job,

I don't have a beef
with the defence.

But when you're in the
courtroom hearing the events,

it kind of fell flat and you
sort of felt like, "really?"

How do you think that helps
us understand what happened

inside that bedroom?

What her interests may
or may not have been

what her interests may
or may not have been

during previous
periods of time to this.

And actually, why
should we care?

She's a young woman,

perfectly entitled to do
anything that she wishes to do

with her own life.

This must have been a huge
victory for grace's parents,

but no replacement for
the daughter that they lost.

To think that what should have been
one of the most exciting experiences

in grace's life, would turn
her parent's most tragic.

Again, a person can take
every precaution possible

when it comes to dating apps,

but it's still dangerous in
ways that you can't control.

Grace could have been more safe,

but there are just bad people
out there looking to do harm.

Grace was our sunshine,

and she will be missed forever,

(sniffles)

She did not deserve
to be m*rder*d

in such a barbaric way.

We would like to
thank several people,

we would like to
thank several people,

Auckland police
force, (Sniffles)

Been professional,
diligent and thorough

all through this investigation.

David millane, grace's father,

would pass away within a
year's time of this statement.

David died one month

before Jesse kempson
would be convicted

of his daughter's m*rder.

The millane family suffered
the immeasurable losses

of their patriarch
and a daughter,

there are no words for the
wicked ways of people online

and the pain it caused.

People using dating apps
should exercise caution

when communicating with
individuals they meet online.

Criminals often
use false information

when creating profiles

and they make it
difficult to find them

by using software that changes
the ip address every 15 minutes.

In meeting strangers
they can wrong you

without worrying
about mutual friends,

users should always be weary.

Jesse and grace met on tinder,

most dates on tinder are safe

and people have found
friends and even love.

But since grace's death,

the company has made sure
that grace did not die in vain,

adding features
such as a panic button

that alerts law enforcement

and even a photo
identification system

to prevent cat-fishing.

Nothing is foolproof,

but learning how to
locate these features

and using them could save lives

and make your dating
experience secure.

Sadly, for grace millane,

a bright young soul
that came to a tragic end,

met her m*rder*r online.