Reality TV star Tamika Sueann Rose Chesser, charged with murdering partner, mounts mental health defence

A reality TV contestant charged with murdering her partner will mount a mental health defence.

Tamika Sueann Rose Chesser, 36, was seated in a wheelchair when she appeared via video link for arraignment in the South Australian Supreme Court on Monday.

She has pleaded not guilty to murder and destroying human remains to pervert the course of justice.

Chesser, who was runner-up on Beauty and the Geek in 2010, allegedly decapitated Julian Story, 39, and disposed of his body in June 2025.

She was charged after Story’s dismembered body was found at the couple’s home at Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula.

Prosecutors have received a medical report from the defence that found Chesser was unfit and provisionally mentally incompetent to have committed the offences, the court was told on Monday.

In those circumstances, prosecutor Eilis Noone said both sides sought a court order for a further report on Chesser’s mental competence and her fitness to stand trial.

Justice Adam Kimber made the order.

Chesser, who is being held in psychiatric facility James Nash House on a mental health detention order, spoke twice during the hearing to confirm not guilty pleas to the charges.

She was reported to have been pregnant at the time of her arrest and gave birth in early 2026.

Police found Story’s body after firefighters were called to the Flinders Highway property to investigate reports of a blaze.

Major crime detectives issued a plea for public help to find Story’s head.

They released still images and video recorded after Story’s death of a woman they allege was Chesser walking on Port Lincoln streets.

The images show a woman wearing a black headscarf and black full-body coverings, carrying a bag.

A Port Lincoln resident told police on July 31 they had found a skull in scrub while pursuing a wandering dog.

Forensic tests later confirmed it was Story’s skull.

-AAP