Mitesh Patel is going to jail for the murder of his wife.
The Middlesbrough, England resident says that on May 14th, he popped out of is house to go buy a pizza. When he returned, he found his wife, Jessica Patel, motionless in the living room and the house was allegedly ransacked.
According to Mitesh Patel, a plastic shopping bag with the label “Tesco Bag for Life,” named after a local grocery store, was wrapped around her head and covered in her saliva. Plus, Jessica’s wrists, ankles, and mouth were wrapped in or covered by duct tape.
According to police and the Washington Post, Patel called in the emergency by saying, “Oh hiya, I think we’ve been burgled and my wife’s been attacked.”
But when police showed up to the scene, Jessica Patel was dead and other things didn’t add up. There was no evidence of forced entry, the house’s security camera was disabled by the uninstalling of its hard drive, and the tape was only applied a few minutes before their arrival.
Eventually, Patel was arrested as the prime suspect for the murder his wife.
Patel was been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 30 years for killing Jessica Patel. The prosecution argued that Patel did so in order to collect 2 million euros (approximately $2.27 million) in life insurance. He was then going to move to Australia to meet a doctor he was romantically involved with.
Police's first suspicions of this plot came after they discovered a picture in the lining of Patel’s bedroom dresser. The photo showed Mitesh Patel and another man. The authorities then later found that Patel was using Grindr and discovered a conversation with an Australian doctor.
In this Grindr conversation, Patel alluded to a scheme against his wife. According to Teesside Live, Patel once wrote the lines:
“Like you said, she’s a leaseholder. One day that lease will expire.”
He then later added, “What are your thoughts if she goes earlier than you think?”
Police investigation also found Mitesh Patel’s DNA underneath his wife’s fingernails. This matched up with the fact that Patel's neck was red with scratches during his first meeting with the authorities. Plus, no one else’s DNA, besides Mitesha’s and Jessica’s, was found on or near her body.
On top of this, Patel made several alarming searches on the internet such as “I need to kill my wife,” “plot to kill wife, why do I need co-conspirators,” “does life insurance pay if you are murdered,” and “Hindu funeral for a married woman.”
During the murder trial, Patel and his defense team tried to state that the marriage between Mitesh and Jessica was a happy one. This is despite Mitesh being in the closet.
Mitesh said that there were no secrets in his marriage and that Jessica was aware of his being gay. His statement was backed by the fact that Jessica once sought out Mitesh’s brother for advice.
In addition, the prosecution brought forward that Mitesh once watched a video about strangulation. Mitesh then alleged that he and his wife watched the video together.He then commented on that being an ironic twist of fate.
"For the last six and a half months, every day in that prison cell, one of the many, many things I have thought is, 'how ironic was this?'.
"The cause of Jessica's death was that, and anyone sat there would be thinking, 'What on earth is going on?’”
Ultimately, the Teesside Crown Court didn’t believe Mitesh’s stories as he has been sentenced to jail for life with a minimum of 30 years.
h/t: The Washington Post, Teesside Live, Gazette Live
