Couple laugh 30 minutes after toddler’s murder and push her body around in pram in harrowing CCTV

Harrowing CCTV shows a couple laughing 30 minutes after toddler Isabella Jonas-Wheildon’s murder - and continuing to push her body around in a pram for days afterwards.

On June 30 2023, the body of two-year-old Isabella Jonas-Wheildon was discovered in a buggy at the temporary accommodation in Ipswich where Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, Isabella’s mother, and her partner Scott Jeff had been staying.

It is believed Isabella died four days earlier, during the evening of June 26 2023. She had begun to have difficulty breathing and the pair claimed they attempted to perform CPR on her. Gleason-Mitchell stated when they realised she had died, she looked at her watch and it was 11.37pm. 30 minutes later, the couple went out to the shops and CCTV footage shows them joking, apparently unaffected by what had just taken place.

On June 27 2023, Scott Jeff’s phone was used to make the following searches on Google: “Flight to Scotland price”; “train to Amsterdam”; “Do u need a passport to Amsterdam”. Detectives believed this was the beginning of a plan to hide their crime and flee the country.

Over the course of the next three days, they proceeded to carry on as ‘normal’, pushing Isabella’s body around in a buggy. This included getting the bus into town to go shopping and going to the pub.

During a trip into town on June 29 2023, Jeff bought a second-hand games console and was captured on CCTV placing the bag on top of Isabella in the buggy.

The defendants, who were both of no fixed address, but formerly from Bedfordshire, were arrested in the early hours of July 1 2023 in Bury St Edmunds, having fled Ipswich after police found Isabella’s body.

Isabella’s cause of death was determined to have been bone marrow embolism and skeletal trauma. She had sustained fractures to both of her wrists and her pelvis, injuries consistent with having been kicked or stamped on, and also had extensive bruising all over her body. Bone marrow from her pelvic injuries entered her bloodstream and lungs, causing the embolism.

A world-leading bone expert told the court that in his 40-year career Isabella’s injuries were the worst he had seen. Such was the severity of her fractures, he likened them to what you would expect to see following a high-speed road collision.

Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were both charged with murder on July 4 2023 and were later additionally charged with two counts of cruelty to a child after tests found traces of cocaine and cannabis in Isabella’s system.

On December 13 2024, Scott Jeff, 24, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 26 years after being convicted of Isabella’s murder.

Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell was acquitted of murder, but had previously pleaded guilty to allowing the death of a child and two offences of cruelty to a child and was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Both Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were sentenced to terms of six months and three months imprisonment respectively for the two child cruelty offences and these will be served concurrently.