2-Year-Old Beaten to Death by Mother's Partner was Pushed Around Lifeless in Stroller for Days: Authorities

Mar. 15, 2025

Isabella Jonas-Wheildon.Photo:Suffolk Police

Suffolk Police

According to a newsafeguarding practice review— something that is undertaken in the U.K. when a child dies or has been seriously harmed and there are questions abouthow authorities responded— the safety of toddler Isabella Jonas-Wheildon was brought to multiple agencies' attention before her death in June 2023.

On Dec. 13, 2024, Suffolk Constabulary confirmed in anews releasethat Scott Jeff, 24, had been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his partner’s daughter Isabella. Isabella’s mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, also 24, was jailed as well.

Scott Jeff; Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell.Suffolk Police (2)

Suffolk Police (2)

“Jeff has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 26 years, while Gleason-Mitchell was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment,” the December release read.

Jeff had been found guilty of murder on Nov. 22, while Gleason-Mitchell was found not guilty of murder, but had previously pleaded guilty to allowing the death of a child — which is a homicide offense — and two offenses of cruelty to a child, police stated.

“Isabella’s body had been discovered on Friday 30 June 2023 in a buggy at the temporary accommodation in Ipswich where Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell had been staying for the previous 11 days. It is believed she had died four days earlier, during the evening of Monday 26 June,” police said.

In the recently-released report, multiple examples of when authorities had been alerted were given, with author Dr. Russell Wate stating that Hertfordshire Constabulary had also received a call from “Isabella’s maternal grandmother asking for advice and wishing to report her daughter, as a missing person” on June 6, 2023.

“The change in Isabella’s visibility to family members and professionals from the beginning of June 2023, should have altered professionals’ decision making, as no one was seeing her and Isabella was becoming invisible,” the report later stated.

Suffolk Constabulary confirmed in December that “Isabella’s cause of death was determined to have been bone marrow embolism and skeletal trauma.”

“Isabella had sustained fractures to both of her wrists and her pelvis – injuries which were consistent with having been kicked or stamped on – and also had extensive bruising all over her body. Bone marrow from her pelvic injuries entered her bloodstream and lungs, causing the embolism,” police said in the release, adding that “traces of cocaine and cannabis” had also been found in Isabella’s system.

Isabella Jonas-Wheildon.Suffolk Police

Jeff and Gleason-Mitchell were arrested in the early hours of July 1, 2023, in the U.K. town of Bury St Edmunds, before being charged with murder on July 4 of that year.

They had left their Bedfordshire home on June 1, traveling to the seaside town of Great Yarmouth via train, police said, where they spent 11 days staying at different accommodations. They also stayed in Caister-on-Sea, which is just slightly further along the Norfolk coast, officers added.

“It is believed that Isabella had already sustained broken wrists and some bruising prior to their arrival in Ipswich and she was frequently seen wearing a winter coat whilst in Norfolk (during what was a very hot June) and large sunglasses to hide injuries,” police previously said.

Officers believe Isabella then sustained more injuries, which culminated in “what proved to be a fatal assault” on June 26, adding that Jeff had been seen that day wearing a makeshift sling, which Gleason-Mitchell previously claimed during the trial he used after hurting himself “when violently hitting Isabella during the fatal attack.”

“Over the course of the next three days they proceeded to carry-on as ‘normal,’ pushing Isabella’s body around in a buggy. This included getting the bus into town to go shopping and going to the pub,” police added.

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The Central Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnerships previously said in ajoint statement, “The circumstances of Isabella’s death have had an enormous impact on her family, friends, those who knew her, and professionals who worked with the family.”

source: people.com