How A Tinder Date Turned Deadly For Grace Millane

Grace Millane, 21, made the decision to take a year off after graduating from college in 2018. That fall, the young British woman went on a backpacking vacation with the goal of seeing the world.

She traveled to South America for six weeks before flying to New Zealand for a two-week trip. While Millane was there, she had hoped to celebrate turning 22; however, she was never given the chance.

Millane never replied to her parents’ birthday greetings, which they sent on December 2. Their concerns led them to file a missing person’s report three days later. It wasn’t long before Auckland police realized she wasn’t just missing. She was dead.

They were able to identify her killer in less than a week: Jesse Kempson, a 26-year old with a past of abusing women. Millane met Kempson on Tinder and they had gone on a date the evening of December 1. Kempson had killed Grace Millane by strangulation in his hotel room even before she had a chance to reed her parents’ greetings for her birthday.

The Investigation

In 2018, Millane’s parents informed BBC that she had been bombarding them with numerous photographs and messages of her adventures during her journey.

On December 2, the day Grace turned 22, everything came to an end.

The police started retracing Grace Millane’s last steps on December 8, the day they formally declared that her case was being handled as a homicide investigation. They were able to track her movements the night of her murder thanks to a security camera video.

Security footage from nearby reastaurants and an Auckland hotel provided a crystal-clear image of her last few hours. Throughout that evening, Millane was spotted getting drinks with a “male companion” at three seperate places. At 9:41 p.m., a camera caught her with the same man in an elevator at the CityLife hotel.

Investigators then discovered that she had met with this man on Tinder, and they were certain of his identity since, on the night he killed her, he had left a comment on one of her Facebook pictures.

“The Tinder Date Killer”, Jesse Kempson

Jesse Shane Kempson, 26, worked as a bartender. He removed his last name on Facebook and went as Jesse Shane. On the evening of December 1, after noticing his comment on Millane’s page, police used social media to get in touch with him and ask for an interview.

Kempson gave the impression of being kind, helpful, and open to conversations throughout that initial interview. He reported to the authorities that he had not seen her since they parted ways at 10 p.m. on the evening of December 1.

But the CCTV tape had previously been seen by the police , who were aware that Kempson and Millane had used the elevator to go to the third floor of CityLife. The next morning, Kempson was spotted leaving, but Millane was never seen by the cameras again.

Kempson had just went from being a person of interest to the primary suspect in the murder og Grace Millane, and it was obvious that he was lying to the police. On December 8, he was placed under arrest. Millane’s corpse was found in the mountains the next day, approximately 12 miles outside of Auckland.

What Happend The Night Of The Murder?

The mystery surrounding Millane’s death started to come to light when detectives located her body, looked through her autopsy report, and spoke with Jesse Kempson more.

Kempson and Millane had gone back to his hotel room at City Life after their date on December 1. Kempson said that Millane had invited him for “ rough sex” there and that he had choked her consensually and unintentionally murdered her.

But his behaviour in the hours and days that followed gave quite a different impression. At 1:30 a.m., Kempson reportedly went to a porn website, looked for terms like “hottest fire” and “flesh eating birds”, and shot seven pictures of Millane’s lifeless body while posing her limbs in different ways.

He sent a date request to another woman on Tinder the next morning. He told her a strange story of a man who had urged his lover to have violent sex and then unintentionally murdered her.

Kempson bought a luggage and rented a carpet cleaner that same day. In the newly bought bag, he snuck her body out of the hotel and down the elevator less than twenty-four hours after killing Millane.

After that, at 6:15 a.m. on December 3, Kempson left CityLife, made a quick detour at a shop to buy a shovel, and buried Grace in the Waitakere Ranges.

The Trial Of Jesse Kempson

Kempson’s claim that Millane died as a result of an accident during “rough sex” was not veru persuasive. After being found guilty of killing her, he was given a life sentence with the chance of parole after 17 years.

According to testimony given by Dr. Simon Stables at the trial in 2020, Millane would not have died by accident; Kempson would have needed to exert considerable pressure on her neck for at least four to five minutes.

Also, Kempson had a history of serious sexual offenses. He had sexually assaulted a fellow British tourist he met on Tinder in his motel room during a date, just eight months prior to killing Grace Millane. She kept the attack a secret from others until she recognized Kempson from news reports after his trial for Millane’s murder.

In another trial, when Kempson was found guilty of raping her, the lady said, “I would see your eyes popping out of your head, staring at me in anger, every time I went to sleep.”

Some other women also come forward with alarming allegations of Kempson’s behavior. He’d admitted to one of them that he enjoyed “dominating, strangling, and feet” because “it made him feel more superior and in control.”

Kempson was found guilty a third time, this time for abusing his ex-girlfriend when they were living together, in a trial. He had coerced her into performing sex acts she wasn’t comfortable with and threatened her with a knife.

Sadly, Grace Millane did not live to share her story, even though she was one of the many women who Jesse Kempson injured.

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