Jury selected for Missouri man in Chinese wife's death

COLUMBIA, Mo. – A assemblage was selected Monday successful the proceedings of a antheral charged with sidesplitting his Chinese woman 2 years agone and leaving her assemblage astatine a Missouri park.

Joseph Elledge, of Columbia, is charged with first-degree murder successful the decease of 28-year-old Mengqi Ji. Elledge reported her missing connected Oct. 10, 2019, prompting galore searches earlier her remains were found March 25 successful a distant country of Rock Bridge State Park astir 5 miles (8 kilometers) southbound of Columbia.

Boone County Circuit Judge Brouck Jacobs swore successful the jurors astir 6 p.m. Monday, aft hours of questioning from the prosecution and defense. Opening statements are expected connected Tuesday morning.

Jacobs said during a motions proceeding connected Friday that 200 imaginable jurors were allocated for the trial, and helium expected to person a implicit assemblage by Monday oregon Tuesday, KRGT-TV reported. He said helium is allowing 3 weeks for the proceedings but hopes it tin beryllium completed successful 2 weeks.

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Authorities person not said however she died, but prosecutors person suggested Elledge strangled oregon suffocated Ji earlier taking her assemblage to the country wherever her remains were found.

Boone County Chief Prosecutor Dan Knight charged Elledge adjacent earlier his wife's assemblage was found. In tribunal hearings, Knight has called Elledge a “ jealous, controlling, manipulative psychopath.” He argued Elledge killed Ji to debar a divorcement and forestall her from fleeing China with the couple's daughter.

During the trial, the assemblage volition hear audio recordings of arguments betwixt the couple. Ji secretly recorded 2 of the tapes and Elledge recorded 10 others, for a full of 13 hours of recordings.

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Elledge besides faces related charges of kid endangerment and home assault. A proceedings to find custody of the kid volition beryllium held aft the execution trial.

According to a probable origin statement, Elledge played video games and contacted his parent and a person during what helium aboriginal said were the archetypal hours that Ji was missing connected Oct. 9, 2019, but did not archer them she was missing. A person came to cheque connected Ji the adjacent time astatine the petition of Ji's mother, which prompted Elledge to study her disappearance.

In the hours aft helium said his woman disappeared, Elledge took 2 drives with the couple’s then-1-year-old girl to agrarian areas and to a fashionable biking and hiking way with entree to the Lamine River, according to the statement.

Elledge told investigators that the couple's narration had been strained for respective months and she had rebuffed his efforts to get closer. He said helium believed she was exchanging flirtatious messages with different antheral but wasn't alert of that until aft she disappeared.

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Ji came to the U.S. from China and earned a master’s grade successful mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Missouri successful December 2014. She antecedently attended the East China University of Science and Technology successful Shanghai.

She stayed successful Columbia and joined Elledge, who was a pupil astatine the University of Missouri, successful 2017.

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