Last Updated on: 11th December 2022, 03:03 pm
Who is Mengqi Ji? Biography, Wiki
Mengqi Ji was found buried in a shallow grave at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park near Columbia, Missouri on 25th March 2021.
A twist has been revealed in the case of Joe Elledge, a man accused of killing his wife Mengqi and dumping her body in a shallow grave. As it turns out, Elledge was only caught after a juniper tree over the gravesite prompted police to discover Ji’s body.
Mengqi Ji Age
Her current age was 28 years.
Murder
The woman disappeared in October 2019 while studying at the University of Missouri.
In March 2021, a hiker at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park found her body after months of police searches.
Husband Joe Elledge
Degree of murder in her death in November 2021. Earlier this year a judge sentenced Elledge to 28 years in prison for Ji’s death and 10 years in prison for separate child molestation involving his daughter. 48 Hours will revisit the case in an upcoming episode titled The Tree That Helped Solve a Murder.
Correspondent Peter Van Sant will provide a detailed account of the matter, including how Elledge’s boots and DNA from tree needles were crucial evidence in his conviction.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this in my entire career at 48 HOURS,” Van Sant said in an email to FOX 2. The episode airs at 9 or 10 p.m. on Saturday on your local CBS Network affiliate and is available to stream on Paramount+.
How Ji died remains a mystery, but prosecutors have suggested that Elledge strangled or suffocated her before carrying her body to the area where her remains were found. Before his sentencing, Elledge’s attorneys argued that Ji’s death was an accident.
Boone County’s chief prosecutor, Dan Knight, indicted Elledge before his wife’s body was found.
According to the Associated Press, Knight Elledge was a “jealous, controlling, and manipulative psychopath” in previous court hearings. He said Elledge killed Ji to prevent them from getting a divorce and prevent her from fleeing to China with their daughter.
According to a probable cause statement, Elledge played video games and contacted her mother and a friend during the first few hours Ji went missing on 9th October 2019, she later said but did not tell them she was missing. A friend visited Ji the next day at her mother’s request, prompting Elledge to report her missing.
Police Investigation Report
Investigators wondered why they spent so much time searching an area near the Lamine River and Highway 41, about 35 miles west of where Mengqi Ji was found. That’s because Elledge didn’t tell police he’d been there, despite spending 40 minutes in the area, Hunter says.
“We weren’t naïve to the fact that she might be somewhere else,” he adds.
As for Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, “we searched from the air. Especially in the winter when the leaves have gone,” says Hunter.
Hunter said police are grateful that the hiker found Mengqi Ji’s remains. “It was a great relief to bring our detectives and their family to closure,” he says.
“Our detectives did an excellent job and continued to work to see this through to the end of the indictment and they really wanted this for their family.”
