pic: Janelle Duncan-Bailey

A man charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend was remanded in custody today at the Old Bailey.

Jerome McDonald, 30, of Fairlands Avenue, Croydon, will stand trial for the murder of mother-of-two Janelle Duncan-Bailey, 25.

Duncan-Bailey was reported missing on January 2, after failing to collect her two young children from a friend’s house in Bromley after a family function.

After leaving a friend’s house at approximately 4am on the morning of January 2 she visited her former partner’s home in Thornton Heath at 4.30am. Police were called after reports of a domestic incident and Duncan-Bailey left the address with the officers.

It is thought she then asked to be taken to another friend’s house in Limpsfield Avenue, Thornton Heath. She was last seen between 5am and 5.30am walking towards flats in Limpsfield Avenue.

Mcdonald was arrested on Friday on suspicion of murder. Duncan-Bailey’s body was found in the boot of a parked car in Mayfield Crescent on Saturday, two streets away from McDonald’s home.

A post-mortem conducted on Monday at the Croydon mortuary revealed death by asphyxiation and compression of the neck.

McDonald will be remanded in custody and is due to appear again on April 5, 2013.