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A 2-year-old was found dead in a stroller days after she was thought to have been murdered by her mother’s partner in England, a new report has found.
According to a new safeguarding practice review — something that is undertaken in the U.K. when a child dies or has been seriously harmed and there are questions about how authorities responded — the safety of toddler Isabella Jonas-Wheildon was brought to multiple agencies’ attention before her death in June 2023.
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“Suffolk Constabulary attended a hostel in Ipswich, Suffolk, where the family were staying and discovered Isabella deceased, she was found in her buggy,” the report read. “It is assumed by the findings of the criminal investigation that Isabella had been dead for around three days and had suffered a number of significant non-accidental injuries.”
On Dec. 13, 2024, Suffolk Constabulary confirmed in a news release that 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.
“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 family ended up traveling to Norfolk in the east of England, where the suspects were reportedly staying, but they claimed they didn’t receive much help, per the review. “They told the report author that they also visited the Police Station in Great Yarmouth asking for help to find them but they felt that help wasn’t forthcoming, so continued to search by themselves,” the review said.
“The lack of contact by [Isabella’s mom] with her family was considered totally out of character and the information they had heard anecdotally about the new boyfriend worried them greatly,” the report stated.
“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.
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.
During their time in Norfolk, CCTV inquiries made by police confirmed the suspects had been seen out and about without the toddler on multiple occasions, the previous release stated, adding that they’d also left “her unattended in a caravan while they went out drinking.”
They ended up camping on the beach in Caister-on-Sea for four nights after running out of money, police said, before an employee at a nearby restaurant helped house them for free at a holiday park nearby. They were then found temporary accommodation in Ipswich, where they moved to on June 19. Police had been “alerted to their presence on the beach” on June 16, “checked on their welfare and supported a move to alternative accommodation.”
“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.
The report stated Gleason-Mitchell had engaged in self-harming behavior and suicide attempts in the past. Meanwhile, Jeff had been listed as “high risk” by the Community Mental Health Team in Bedfordshire in 2020, per the BBC.
The Central Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnerships previously said in a joint 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.”
“This has been a case that has touched many people across our counties, and all the Safeguarding Partnerships involved in this statement have been truly shocked. We all offer our sincere condolences to Isabella’s family and will continue to offer support to anyone who has been affected by her death,” it added, sharing that the independent review was being conducted to try and “reduce the risk of similar cases occurring in the future.”
Norfolk Police did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information on any investigations that are still underway.