Couple hid their murdered toddler in a stroller while going shopping

Scott Jeff was in two-year-old Isabella Jonas-Wheildon’s life for just 36 days.

After he began a relationship with his mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, and left their hometown in Bedfordshire, he subjected the toddler to sustained attacks that killed him.

Fleeing to the Norfolk coast and then to Ipswich, where the pair were under the influence of drugs, Gleason-Mitchell turned a blind eye to Jeff’s brutality and even wheeled the boy’s body around in a pram to conceal the crime.

They were eventually arrested after leaving Isabella’s body in a locked bathroom, and on Friday Jeff was found guilty of murderGleason-Mitchell pleaded guilty to charges of murder and cruelty to children.

He said Jeff’s anger towards the child increased when Isabella had an accident during potty training.

Smiley-faced, blonde-haired Isabella was described as an “engaging and happy” child with an attentive mother – so how did things go so terribly wrong?

Warning: This article contains distressing details

The two-year-old boy, who was found under a pile of blankets with “traumatic injuries from head to toe” on June 30, 2023, officially died due to bone marrow embolism as a result of skeletal trauma.

Gleason-Mitchell and her boyfriend Jeff, 24, from Biggleswade, were arrested the day after Isabella was discovered.

They had spent the previous night drinking at the Corn Exchange pub in Bury St Edmunds.

Harrowing details of Isabella’s final weeks were told during her seven-week murder trial at Ipswich Crown Court.

The jury found Jeff guilty of murder but acquitted Gleason-Mitchell of the charge.

Jeff was also found guilty of causing or permitting the death of a child, cruelty to a child in relation to cocaine, and cruelty to a child in relation to marijuana – crimes to which Gleason-Mitchell previously pleaded guilty.

The couple first dated in 2019 but split before Gleason-Mitchell met Thomas Wheildon, with whom Isabella had a relationship.

Throughout this relationship their daughter was said to be “a happy, healthy, engaging and contented child” with “absolutely no suggestion of anything other than good parenting”.

But after splitting from the child’s father, Gleason-Mitchell was reunited with Jeff on 21 May 2023, before leaving Bedfordshire and fleeing to Great Yarmouth.

They attempted to secure council housing by claiming they were fleeing Gleason-Mitchell’s former partner, who they claimed was violent.

The pair stayed at the St George Hotel in Great Yarmouth and then spent three nights at a local caravan park, after sleeping on towels and blankets in a tent on a beach in Caister-on-Sea.

During this time, Isabella was regularly left alone and made to repeat phrases about how her real father had hurt her. These were said to be “learned words” that he had to repeat.

They were offered a flat at the East Villas housing complex in Sidegate Lane, Ipswich, on June 19 – 11 days before Isabella’s body was found and a week before she was murdered.

Throughout the trial, both defendants blamed each other for the violence, and each claimed they never physically harmed Isabella.

Gleason-Mitchell said she witnessed Jeff repeatedly kicking and stamping on his daughter, and that her death ultimately “caused” violence from anger over potty training.

Sasha Wass KC, representing Gleason-Mitchell, said: “She was aware of what was happening to her child, but she stood by and did nothing and said nothing.”

But she has said in the past that Isabella’s health was at the forefront of Gleason-Mitchell’s mind.

“Isabella’s medical records showed full engagement with healthcare – Isabella had attended the vaccination and there was no cause for concern by anyone,” he added.

He took full blame for the injuries Isabella suffered with Jeff.

However, this version of events was disputed by Christopher Paxton KC, who represented Jeff and described Gleason-Mitchell as “cunning”.

But what was not discussed throughout the hearing was the severity of Isabella’s injuries.

Bone pathologist Prof Anthony Freemont said he had never seen such a serious pelvic injury in a child in his 40-year career.

It was also said that the little boy died with injuries usually seen in “high-speed traffic accidents” or “being kicked by a horse”.

However, even after she died, Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff chose not to report the situation to the police, choosing instead to pretend she was still alive.

They wheeled her body around Ipswich in a stroller while they shopped, drank and took cocaine.

Toxicology reports even revealed traces of marijuana in Isabella’s body, as well as drugs that appeared to have been ingested secondhand as a result of the couple’s own drug use.

The alarm was only raised on June 29, when Gleason-Mitchell confessed to her friend Joanne Gardner that Isabella had been dead in the stroller for nearly three days.

He said that he did not contact the authorities for fear that his work would be terminated due to the bruises on his daughter’s body.

Instead Gleason-Mitchell and Jeff decided to abandon Isabella and move out of their flat on 30 June, taking a bus to the city centre, where they were caught exchanging CCTV and going to McDonald’s before going to a bar.

The pair then took a taxi to Ipswich railway station before catching the train to Bury St Edmunds in the afternoon.

While at the Corn Exchange bar, Jeff was said to have been texting his mother, Sandy Duncan, insisting she hand him over to the police.

She replied: “I can’t be a mother; it’s hard enough to lose a daughter without them blaming us.”

Photos were also taken while the couple were at the bar, showing Gleason-Mitchell smiling while drinking.

Unbeknownst to the couple, Mrs. Gardner had called the police about 10 minutes before leaving their home, expressing concerns about Isabella.

The pair were later arrested in Bury St Edmunds in the early morning hours of July 1.

After the jury delivered its verdict, the High Court judge, Mr Justice Neil Garnham, told Jeff: “I am obliged by law to sentence you to life imprisonment. I will need to set a minimum term for you to serve your sentence.”

The couple will be sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on December 13.

The BBC contacted Central Bedfordshire Council, Norfolk County Council and Suffolk County Council. Authorities have not yet confirmed whether the couple and Isabella had any contact before her death.