{"id":851270,"date":"2026-08-11T09:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851270\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T09:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:36:13","slug":"tamika-chesser-pleads-not-guilty-to-murdering-and-destroying-remains-of-julian-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851270\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamika Chesser pleads not guilty to murdering and destroying remains of Julian Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A former Beauty and the Geek contestant accused of murdering her partner has denied the allegation and has flagged a potential mental health defence, a court has heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Warning: This story contains content some readers may find distressing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Tamika Chesser today appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court and entered not guilty pleas to murdering Julian Story and destroying his remains to pervert the course of justice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A lawyer for Ms Chesser told the court that investigations were underway into the 35-year-old&#8217;s mental competence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Story&#8217;s dismembered body was found in the couple&#8217;s unit at Port Lincoln, on Eyre Peninsula, in June last year after emergency services responded to reports of a fire.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A man with short brown hair wearing a black tshirt is kneeling down and patting a dog. \" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/b09c97483ab733d38a12dc2b74e4948c.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">The body of Julian Story, who was allegedly murdered, was found last year. (Supplied: SAPOL)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The 39-year-old&#8217;s head was found by a member of the public in scrubland east of the town in July, and was confirmed to belong to Mr Story in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ms Chesser was a contestant on the television show Beauty and the Geek in 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">She has been housed in secure forensic mental health facility James Nash House since her arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ms Chesser will next appear in the Supreme Court for arraignment later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Beauty and the Geek contestant accused of murdering her partner has denied the allegation and has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[32484,78964,33607,180481,43,31589,2968,44,54920,33603,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-851270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-accused","tag-alleged","tag-beauty-and-the-geek","tag-contestant","tag-headlines","tag-julian-story","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-plea","tag-tamika-chesser","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}