on November 20th 2018 an English Backpacker named Grace main arrived in New Zealand on a two- we trip after spending a month and a half in South America but just 10 days after she landed in Auckland she suddenly disappeared leaving her loved ones concerned what initially began as a search for a lost tourist became a homicide investigation and the details that followed were harrowing a man named Jesse kempson was arrested and charged with murdering Grace main how did Grace meet kempson why did he killer and how did the authorities reach him watch this video until the very end to find answers to all these questions and discover shocking details about the case of Grace main hi there I'm Mark welcome to true crime stories today we're looking at a story that captured headlines around the world a case that began as a young woman's adventurous backpacking trip soon spiraled into something far darker Grace main had come to New Zealand to explore its stunning Landscapes and culture but within days of her arrival she vanished what started as a search for a missing tourist soon turned into a haunting investigation uncovering a string of disturbing clues that led authorities down a chilling path what came next were twists Hidden Truths and a trial that revealed details even seasoned detectives struggled to comprehend this is the case of Grace main Grace Emmy Rose main was born to David and Julian on the 2nd of December 1996 in Wickford Essex England she was the youngest of three siblings and shared a very close bond with her parents and her two older brothers being brought up in a Down to Earth family Grace was a humble caring and fun-loving girl who was loved by everyone in her family and friends after attending St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Brentwood ersen Covenant high school and St Thomas Moore High School Grace main went to the University of Lincoln for higher studies there she graduated with a degree in advertising and marketing throughout her educational career Grace was a popular kid among her peers because of her personality confidence and outgoing nature it was because of her full energy nature that in 20 8 she took a gap year after graduating and decided to explore the world on her own as a Backpacker Grace had a high school boyfriend when she started University but the couple broke up in the first year of college Grace was an independent and confident single woman and openly discussed her sex life with her friends according to people close to her she told them she had a particular interest in BDSM and enjoyed having rough sex she had accounts on different social media platforms and was part of several fetish communities online in her posts in those groups Grace expressed her openness to experimentation one of Grace's former sexual partners also told the media that Grace had practiced BDSM with them but she was always very careful about the physical and psychological effects since Grace was open about her sexual likings she often worried that her openness might lead her to trouble someday as it made her vulnerable to sexual predators and that is exactly what happened while she was on her backpacking trip in late 2018 but before we move further if you had interests or likings that could land you in trouble would you share them with your friends or keep them close to your chest let us know in the comments below Grace was an extremely hardworking person and was passionate about art she would frequently post her paintings on her social media and participate in art exhibitions after exploring her passion for art she wanted to experience traveling around the world alone this is what led to her taking a year off from her routine and going on a solo World Tour as a Backpacker in October 2018 she used her savings to buy tickets and started off her trip from South America Peru was her first destination during her trip Grace regularly posted about her activities on her social media and frequently talked to her family she traveled to other South American countries as well and remained in the continent for 6 weeks before leaving for New Zealand in mid November according to her family Grace was the most excited about exploring New Zealand during her trip and planned on going to Fiji in Australia too before ending her trip and returning home on November November 30th 2018 Grace main checked into a hostel for Backpackers called base Backpackers ever since breaking up with her High School boyfriend Grace was active on Tinder and that continued into her international trip too on the night of her check-in into base Backpacker Grace matched with a man named Jesse kempson on Tinder she talked to kempson over messages for a while before deciding to meet with him the next day December 1st while Grace agreed to meet him she didn't like his advances but eventually kempson persuaded her to meet him at the Sky City hotel at 5:30 p. m. on December 1st Grace left her hostel and went to meet kempson at Sky City since she was new to both the city and the country Grace hoped she would have a fun night out but things didn't go as planned the next day on the 2nd of December 2018 it was Grace's 22nd birthday since she was close to her parents other family members and friends her loved ones started sending her birthday messages as soon as the date changed but there was no response from her and this was unusual from a person who shared dozens of pictures from her activities with her friends and family every single day when Grace's parents tried to reach out through calls her phone was going straight to voicemail soon her family knew something was wrong because it was unusual for Grace to miss calls or leave her phone unattended for long periods of time the family kept trying her number for the next 2 days but when no one received any response from Grace they decided to contact the Auckland police on December 5th 2018 Grace main was reported missing but the police didn't show much urgency to find her initially the reason is that the police believed that Grace might have stayed with some newly made friends after a night out another assumption was that her phone might have died and she would contact her family soon but when the authorities contacted Bas Backpackers hostle to get information about Grace main they were surprised to know that she hadn't checked in after December 1st the day she left to meet Jesse kempson what was even more surprising was that all of Grace's belongings were still in the hostel the Auckland police now expedited their search for Grace main they began Gathering CCTV footage from the local bars hotels and restaurants this is when the authorities discovered that Grace had last gone to Sky City to meet someone the CCTV footage showed that Grace was approached by kempson confidently but then he hugged her in an awkward manner after the exchange of greetings the two left the place and went towards Andy's Burger Bar the footage obtained by the police didn't just capture Grace meeting kempson but also showed what happened in the following hours in the bar while enjoying their drinks the couple looked as if they were having a good time and Grace's actions didn't show any alarming signs both Grace and kempson embraced each other on multiple occasions and even kissed a few times fast forward to 9:40 p.
m. on the same night and the CCTV footage shows the couple heading towards Jesse kon's apartment Grace looked extremely comfortable with her date and it seemed as if the two had known each other for years their arms were wrapped around each other showing the young couple had a good night out up until that point in the CCTV footage everything seemed normal except one thing while the couple was in the bar Grace left her seat to use the restroom and as soon as she left Jesse kempson immediately started going through her belongings in the purse that she had left on her seat while on the date Grace was in touch with her friend in England Amina Ashcroft while amina's statements later revealed that Grace was having a good time with kempson and liked her date she also told the media that from her texts it was clear that Grace was pretty drunk Mina also revealed that while she saw some red flags in kemon when Grace described him she didn't say much because Grace was having a good time Grace told her friend that she clicked with her date well and in her last text she told Amina that she would contact her tomorrow and let her know what happened next up until this point the authorities didn't know exactly who Grace's date was but when the police were going through Grace's social media they noticed that soon after Grace returned from the restroom a person named Jesse Shane kempson commented on her Facebook profile picture with the comment reading beautiful very radiant that comment was what led the authorities to their suspect linked to Grace's disappearance the 26-year-old Jesse kempson was born on December 28th 1991 in New Zealand and grew up in Wellington his parents separated when he was nine and afterwards he was mainly brought up by her father and his grandfather the police investigation later revealed that Jesse had a volatile upbringing with trauma the complete opposite of Grace's childhood when his family and friends were interviewed nobody seemed to like him and almost everyone called him a compulsive liar Jesse's stepbrother told the police that he was a pathological liar who loved having power over people so much so that Jesse had even lied to some people that he was dying of cancer his landlord told the police that he initially believed that Jesse was a top manager for a company called Woolworth and was making six figures a year but that turned out to be a lie when the landlord found out that Jesse hardly left the apartment building and it was the state benefits that were paying his rent Jesse had lied to multiple people about his profession some people thought he was a successful businessman While others believed he was a professional softball player in reality Jesse was working as a telephone sales operative what was more interesting was that he was fired from his job for lying on the same day he met Grace Maine immediately after connecting the dots and identifying Jesse kempson the authorities knew he was their Person of Interest and there was some link between him and Grace's disappearance the investigators went to Jesse's apartment building but he wasn't there after after a while he arrived at the building but as soon as he saw the police he hurly turned around and tried to hide his face from the officers one of the officers spotted him and chased him as people stood by and watched the police eventually caught up to Jesse and brought him in for questioning when Jesse kempson was asked about the events of the night Grace main disappeared he told the authorities that he met Grace at Sky City because he didn't know whether or not Grace was a real person since a lot of catfishing also goes on on Tinder he further shared that when they ended the night the couple gave each other a hug and a kiss kiss and went their separate ways after agreeing to keep in touch with each other the investigators didn't buy Jesse kempson stories because of the CCTV footage they had seen according to the footage Jesse and Grace got off an elevator and headed towards his apartment when the authorities searched Jesse kempson studio apartment and looked into him through different sources they discovered that he had an unusual personality he was estranged from his family and also claimed to have been diagnosed with anxiety recently what caught the investigator's interest was a post on on Jesse's Facebook profile from a couple of weeks before he met Grace in the post he was extremely apologetic and asked for forgiveness from all the people he had wronged in one of the sentences of the post Jesse wrote that his arrogance and selfishness had affected his relationships with people in his personal life Jesse seemed to have shown red flags to almost everyone who had interacted with him including the girls he had dated all of them described him as overbearing and controlling even if he had just started seeing them he ini portrayed himself as a sophisticated and well-dressed person but soon showed his true colors he repeatedly asked his dates about their sexual experiences and tried to get as much personal information from them as possible the authorities went through nearly 6 terabytes of data from the CCTV footage and closely looked at each and every one of Jesse kon's movements on the 2nd of December 2018 the day grace main was supposed to celebrate her 22nd birthday the cameras in Jesse's apartment building captured him getting into an elevator at 8: a. m.
a. m. on the 2nd of December he was alone and went into the building's Lobby before heading towards the atrium on Elliott after a few minutes he arrived at the atum and went to the baggage section to get a suitcase after that he got some cleaning supplies before checking out around 11:00 a.
m. Jesse kempson went to a car rental company in Auckland and rented a red Toyota Corolla Jesse's Behavior throughout the day was unusual the authorities were surprised to see that just a few hours after getting the suitcase and cleaning supplies Jesse went out on a date with some girl but it wasn't Grace main the police were able to get in touch with Jesse's Tinder date on the 2nd of December and interviewed him to get any information that might lead them to Grace main the girl told the authorities that throughout the date Jesse kempson had made her feel extremely uncomfortable she also revealed that Jesse talked about buying a large duffel bag for sports equipment and even discussed the topic of murder with her he told her that it was both interesting and crazy that one wrong move by a murderer could land them in jail for the rest of their life have you ever discussed a topic as bizarre and scary as murder on your first date with someone comment below and let us know Jessie kempson told his Tinder date that he knew a guy who had asked his girlfriend to have rough sex with him that involved strangulation and Suffocation he then revealed the experiment went wrong and the guy tried to revive the girl but it was too late by then eventually his friend was charged with manslaughter while it was already disturbing enough for his date Jesse went on with his story and told her that the police dogs can only sniff dead bodies buried more than 4T below the ground by that point it was clear to the woman that she wasn't on a date with her usual guy and immediately wanted to leave the date when she was leaving Jesse kempson offered her a ride home but she declined kempson was unfazed by what happened during the date and went on with his day as usual he collected cleaning supplies and rented a rug cleaning machine he told the employees of the rental company that he was renting the machine for red wine stains on his carpet the CCTV footage showed that Jesse kempson returned to his apartment building a little before 9:00 p. m.
on December 2nd and took the cleaning machine to his apartment Jesse was back in the building's elevator at 9:30 p. m. but this time with a trolley that had two seemingly heavy suitcases on it he packed the suitcases in the trunk of his rental car before returning back to the lobby around 7:00 a.
m. on December 3rd 2018 Jesse kempson went on another suspicious shopping trip where he bought a shovel he then went to a dry cleaner and dropped off the suitcase before heading towards the car wash the CCTV camera at the car wash showed Jesse power washing the car before returning it to the rental company on December 5th 2018 CCTV cameras around the city captured Jesse kempson dumping bags in different dumpsters in Auckland on December 6 Grace's father flew to Auckland to help the authorities with the search for his daughter he also pleaded with the public to help find his daughter in a press conference with an official from Auckland police David main understandably looked heartbroken and stopped on multiple occasions to regain his composure the police official told the media that they had found a person of interest linked to Grace's disappearance during his first interview with the Auckland law enforcement authorities Jesse kempson had told the investigators that he had last seen Grace main at 10 p. m.
on the 1st of December when they said goodbye to each other and never saw her again he also told the police that she had blocked him on Tinder afterward when the authorities interviewed him again after a few days Jesse's story had changed during the second interview he told them when the couple returned to his apartment they were very drunk and started making out he then told the officers that Grace suddenly turned the music down and started talking about 50 Shades of Gray and bondage he said that after the talking was over they started having sex and after a while Grace told him that there were a few things that she liked doing during sex and had experienced with her ex- partner after that grace started biting him and asked him to bite her as well he asked her if she was sure about it and she consented to it Jesse continued with his story and told the authorities that Grace then spanked him and then held him around the neck and choked him she then asked him to do the same to her according to Jesse's version the two of them were on the floor by the time they were finished having sex and he then went to the bathroom to take a shower he said he accidentally fell asleep in the shower and when he woke up and came back to the bed but since the room was dark he couldn't see or feel Grace he assumed she had left but he was shocked when he woke up the next morning and found Grace lying on the floor with blood coming out of her nose just Jesse repeatedly insisted that they had just had violent sex and he hadn't murdered her when the police searched Jesse kon's apartment they found that the carpet was saturated with Grace's blood which told a different story than the one Jesse had shared when asked about Grace's body he agreed to take the police to the spot where he had buried her grace Main's body was found in weaker ranges 12 Mi west of Auckland at 400 p. m.
