David Simmonds, the father of a two-year-old boy, pounced on Jia Ashton as she walked her regular 20-minute route home from the headquarters of chocolate-maker Thorntons.
At 19 stone and 6ft 2in, tattooed Simmonds weighed more than three times as much as his six stone, 4ft 11in victim.
Officers believe that after beating and attempting to strangle the 25-year-old graduate trainee, Simmonds either stamped or jumped on his victim, fatally rupturing her heart.
No weapon was used in the attack, which police originally suspected had been committed by Mrs Ashton’s husband, Matthew.
Yesterday Simmonds, 21, whose father runs his own machinery and packaging firm, changed his plea ahead of trial to admit murdering the Warwick University economics graduate.
Mr Ashton stared intently at the killer throughout the five-minute session at Nottingham Crown Court. The case was adjourned for sentence.
Simmonds has refused to offer any explanation for the March attack, although police say there may have been a ‘sexual element’.
While Mrs Ashton had not been sexually assaulted, her clothing had been pulled up, exposing her abdomen, where ‘contact’ DNA was recovered.
Matthew and Jia Ashton on their wedding day in China: He called her his 'Pocket Princess'
Matthew and Jia Ashton on their wedding day in China: He called her his 'Pocket Princess'
Her purse was also empty, suggesting robbery as a possible motive for the attack, which became known as the Yellow Brick Road murder after the local name for a path which cut through Sleetmoor Woods in Somercotes, Derbyshire, yards from where the victim’s body was found.
Following Simmonds’s guilty plea, it can be revealed that he had temporary jobs at Thorntons over the last two Christmas periods, though police do not believe he met Mrs Ashton or her husband.
Simmonds enjoyed a middle-class upbringing with his parents Michael and Lesley, both 48, and younger brother Paul, 19, in an executive home a short stroll from the woods.
But while Simmonds’s younger brother would go on to win a place at university, his own life was heading in a different direction. After dropping out of technology college at 17, he proved unable to hold down any job of substance.
In the run-up to the murder in March, his relationship with his parents had become fraught as they tired of his failure to settle down into a career to help support his young son.
Relief: Matthew Ashton, widower of Jia Ashton with his mother Sue Ashton and Detective Superintendent Terry Branson on the day David Simmonds pleaded guilty to murdering Mrs Ashton
Relief: Matthew Ashton, widower of Jia Ashton with his mother Sue Ashton and Detective Superintendent Terry Branson on the day David Simmonds pleaded guilty to murdering Mrs Ashton
Simmonds separated from the child’s 21-year-old mother, Laura Leonardi, around a year before the killing. By early 2011, he had left the family home and registered himself homeless to obtain temporary accommodation – a move that would prove to be his undoing.
Internet postings revealed that he was in turmoil over his looks and size, which he said were his ‘biggest fall down’ (sic).
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He was nicknamed ‘Smithy’, after his resemblance to the tubby character played by James Corden in the BBC comedy series Gavin and Stacey, and once wrote on Facebook: ‘Better to be a somebody today than a no one for the rest of your life.’
Mr Ashton, 27, a music teacher, was initially the prime suspect. He stayed in a Travelodge on the night of the killing after he and his Chinese-born wife rowed over when to start a family.
He was arrested on suspicion of murder when the body of his wife, whom he affectionately called his ‘Pocket Princess’, was discovered hidden under logs and branches three days after she vanished. But footage of him checking into the motel seven minutes after his wife was seen on CCTV leaving work helped eliminate him.
Within 48 hours, a dog walker came forward to report seeing an unkempt man ‘darting’ around the woods less than an hour after Mrs Ashton left work.
Jia Ashton
David Simmonds, 21
Murder: Mrs Asthon (left) disappeared after leaving work on March 10. Simmonds (right) murdered her in what police described as a 'sustained and brutal attack'
This derbyshire police handout shows how Mrs Ashton's belongings, including an umbrella cover and coat buttons, were found scattered near her body
This Derbyshire police handout shows how Mrs Ashton's belongings, including an umbrella cover and coat buttons, were found scattered near her body
This map shows where objects were found in relation to Mrs Ashton's body (white dot)
This map shows where objects were found in relation to Mrs Ashton's body (white dot)
The walker suspected the man may have been sleeping rough. When police searched the area they discovered more of the victim’s belongings including her mobile phone, snapped into pieces, and her glasses. Both bore unidentified fingerprints.
The breakthrough came almost eight weeks later when officers sifting homeless records turned up Simmonds.
He willingly gave fingerprint and DNA samples when officers called at the family home.
Realising the net was closing, he fled to an Indian restaurant in Heanor, Derbyshire, where he was a part-time delivery driver.
He was arrested loitering upstairs the next day, after the fingerprint matches were confirmed. Officers found a letter to his son, begging the boy not to hate him.
After the case, Mr Ashton said there ‘cannot be a sentence severe enough’ for killing his ‘irreplaceable’ wife.
Mr Ashton’s father, John, 61, is married to Jia’s mother, Penny, after they met at their children’s 2006 wedding.
wedding picture
Matthew Ashton leaves Nottingham Crown Court after David Simmonds, 21,pleaded guilty to the murder of his wife Jia
A detective who led the inquiry into the murder of Jia Ashton has described her killer as 'a habitual liar' who tried his best to cover up the brutal killing.
Detective Superintendent Terry Branson, of Derbyshire Police, said: 'Without a doubt Mr Simmonds went to great lengths to hide the body to make sure that we never found Jia. He made every attempt to frustrate the subsequent police inquiry.'
Simmonds received a number of injuries to his hands during the attack, Mr Branson said, and explained those away to friends by telling them he had been chased through woods by a group of people.
But he went on to give numerous varied accounts of how he obtained those injuries.
'What he said then to what he said in interview and what he's subsequently then said in his defence statement it becomes clear that David Simmonds is a habitual liar,' Mr Branson said.
It is not known if the injuries on Simmonds' hands happened as a result of Mrs Ashton trying to fight him off.
Mr Branson added: 'The only person who knows what happened in that wood at the moment is David Simmonds and to what extent Jia fought back, it's only him that knows.'
Simmonds left school at 17 and never really had a proper job, Mr Branson said.
In the Christmas period of 2009 and 2010 he was employed as a casual worker at Thorntons, at the same time as Mrs Ashton worked there, but there was no evidence to suggest they ever met or that she became a target of his during that time.
Simmonds had a good upbringing in Swanwick, Derbyshire. His parents were a professional couple and his brother was at university.
It was only following the break-up of his relationship with a local girl, with whom he had a young son, that his family relations became strained because of concerns over childcare and he found himself homeless.
He registered himself as homeless and it was this that led detectives to him when they searched the register after receiving a description of a man in the woods around the time of the murder who looked dishevelled and unkempt.
Almost immediately after Mrs Ashton's murder, Simmonds got a job as a waiter at the Spice Inn Indian restaurant in Heanor, Derbyshire, and was able to stay in the flat above the premises.
It was there that he was arrested for Mrs Ashton's murder and subsequently charged.
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