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Man Looked Up ‘Flesh-Eating Birds’ And Porn After Killing Tinder Date, Prosecutor Says
A New Zealand man is accused of strangling British backpacker Grace Millane, but claims she died accidentally during rough sex. Prosecutors say his internet searches point to something more nefarious.
A man accused of killing a woman he met on Tinder is alleged to have intermittently searched for both porn and ways to dispose of her body after her death before then going on a Tinder date with another person as her body remained stuff in a suitcase in his room.
These disturbing details were laid out in court this week by prosecutors as they presented their first pile of evidence in the trial of the 27-year-old New Zealand man accused of killing British backpacker Grace Millane, the BBC reports. The suspect has not been named based on New Zealand law.
Prosecutors said in the Auckland courtroom that Millane was strangled to death after meeting up with the suspect last December. The suspect, meanwhile, denies murdering Millane and instead claims that she died after consensual sexual "acts designed to enhance sexual pleasure went wrong,” according to the BBC.
A close friend of Millane’s testified that she was receiving texts from her pal during her Tinder date. She said she began to worry after Millane claimed that her Tinder date was an oil manager who lived in a hotel, according to The Guardian.
“I thought something seemed out of place,” she testified, but added she didn’t want to overreact and didn’t think she was in any danger.
“I click with him so well,” Millane reportedly texted her friend about her now accused killer.
Prosecutors noted that the defendant initially claimed that he and Millane parted separately after sharing some drinks but later admitted that he took her back to his hotel room where they engaged in rough sex. He claimed he only noticed the next morning that Millane was dead when he saw her on the floor with blood coming out of her nose, the BBC reports. The prosecution, however, argues that evidence points to him strangling her.
Prosecutors also pointed to the suspect's behavior after finding Millane dead as suspicious. They accuse him of alternately searching online for pornography and ways to dispose of her body. He even took photos of her dead body, they said.
"He wasn't distressed or concerned by her death," prosecutor Robin McCoubrey said, according to the BBC alleging that in between porn searches, the suspect looked up "large bags near me" and "rigor mortis.”
He also looked up “flesh-eating birds” and “are there vultures in New Zealand,” according to the Guardian.
The very next day, the suspect went on another Tinder date with another woman while Millane’s body was stuffed in a suitcase in his hotel room, McCoubrey said.
Millane had been traveling solo around the world. Before visiting New Zealand, she'd spent six weeks in South America. Her remains were found in a suitcase in a shallow grave by the side of a road a week after she vanished.
The trial is expected to last about a month.
