A Beauty and the Geek star charged with the murder of her boyfriend was seen by Port Lincoln locals with her head shaved and acting oddly in the weeks beforehand.
Police are still searching for the missing head of local man, Julian Story, after Tamika Chesser allegedly killed him, decapitated him, carried his head in a bag to an unknown location and dumped it.
Police and SES are desperately searching cliffs and bush in Port Lincoln and the waters off the Eyre Peninsula as Mr Story’s family are subjected to an agonised wait to bury their loved one.
Two residents in the famous South n fishing port told Daily Mail that Ms Chesser only arrived in town a few months ago and they only remembered her as having a shaved head.
The 34-year-old, who finished second in the second series of Beauty and the Geek in 2010, visited KMart and other shops in central Port Lincoln, usually accompanied by a small dog.
One shop worker said Ms Chesser ‘acted normal, but she was, like, bald’, however, the reality TV star has since been caught on CCTV or filmed by locals acting strangely.
In one video, obtained by Channel 7, she is shown at a Port Lincoln hotel wearing a long dark wig and a hat, which she then ripped off as she yelled.
In another video she is also sporting a shaved head while doing gymnastics on bars outside a coffee shop, and in a third she is standing bare-chested at the Port Lincoln War Memorial.
Julian Story, 38, whose family still live in Port Lincoln, was living in a dingy rented flat along the town’s Flinders Highway reportedly on his own until Ms Chesser moved in with him a few months ago.
She appears to have been living in Port Lincoln since at least last December.
Earlier this year, Mr Story was charged with two counts of dishonestly take property without consent, and last year was charged with two counts of disorderly behaviour.
He also has historical charges of damage building or motor vehicle and driving charges including drive motor vehicle with cannabis in blood.
It is unclear how Mr Story met the former cocktail waitress, whose full name is Tamika Sueann Rose Chesser, but it is believed she moved to South from Queensland.
Police allege that Mr Story was murdered on about June 17, but it was not until June 19 that neighbours of the unit she shared with him were alerted to a fire coming from within.
Justin Ware said when he expressed concern at the smoke billowing out of the next door unit, that Ms Chesser ‘reckoned everything was okay’. He went inside anyway and threw some water on what he thought was a pile of smouldering rags, but was allegedly Mr Story’s headless remains.
When emergency services responded, they found Mr Story dismembered and missing his head on the bathroom floor of the apartment, according to police.
Police later obtained and released CCTV images and video which showed Ms Chesser walking three dogs and carrying a bag while apparently wearing a Hijab-style head covering.
Police charged her with murder and, after being released from Port Lincoln hospital, she was admitted to James Nash House, a forensic mental health care facility.
Detective Darren Fielke told a press conference it was ‘crucial’ Mr Story’s head was returned to his family so they could hold a funeral.
In an effort to find Mr Story’s head, officers are appealing to the public for help in tracking Chesser’s movements in the week of the alleged murder, particularly between midnight on Tuesday night (June 17) and around the report of the fire at 3.30pm on Thursday afternoon (June 19).
‘We know that Tamika did not drive a vehicle and regularly walked around the township of Port Lincoln,’ Det Fielke said.
Tamika’s sister, Kiya-May Chesser, told Daily Mail about the final phone call Tamika made before she was charged with murder.
Kiya-May said her family were reeling from reports their loved one had been charged.
‘Please report how my sister is in a mental psychosis,’ she said, ‘this is not her… She would never do these things.’
In Tamika’s last phone call to her sister, a week before the alleged murder, she was worried about one of her dogs because it had ‘pooed on the floor’.
Mr Story, who was ‘not in a good mind space himself’ had on earlier phone calls been ‘going off in the background’ when the Chesser family spoke with Tamika.
‘There is more to this story,’ Kiya-May said.
She said ‘a lot has happened’ in Chesser’s life since she appeared on Beauty and the Geek and ‘in the past five years she’s become very mentally ill’.
In addition to the murder charge, South n police have charged Chesser with assaulting police and with knowingly performing an act or omission intending to result in human remains being less likely to be found for the purposes of concealing the commission of an offence relating to the human remains, court documents state.