A forensic science student obsessed with the US television drama Dexter has admitted murdering a 24-year-old woman after luring her to a plastic-lined ‘kill room’ inside an Airbnb rental in the West Midlands.
Benjamin William Day, 20, changed his plea to guilty on the second day of his trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Prosecutors said Day had carefully planned the killing of Maria Saceanu on Dec 20, preparing a room with plastic sheeting and gathering items intended to help him murder her and dispose of evidence.
Day, who was 19 at the time of the murder, has been remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on Dec 4.
The University of Worcester undergraduate, from Yeadon Close in Redditch, Worcestershire, had been expected to argue that he acted in self-defence and had prepared the room to film a tribute to Dexter for TikTok.
However, after proceedings were delayed for an hour, Day returned to the dock and appeared to smirk as he entered his guilty plea.
Dexter obsession and preparations for the killing
Prosecutor Rachel Brand KC told the court that Day had been fascinated by Dexter, a television series centred on a forensic scientist working in a police department who secretly operates as a serial killer and knows how to cover his tracks.
Day had rented a room in the Tividale area of the West Midlands and prepared it to resemble the setting associated with the character. He covered the walls and floor with plastic sheeting and assembled what prosecutors described as a ‘shopping list’ of items, including an apron, a plastic visor and cleaning chemicals.
Saceanu, a Romanian national who worked as a sex worker, had been contacted through a website using a burner phone before Day lured her to the rented room.
The first day of the trial heard that Day inflicted 78 knife wounds on Saceanu. He later abandoned an attempt to dismember her body after cutting himself, prosecutors said.
False account and discovery of the body
Prosecutors said Day left the Airbnb after the killing and walked some distance before calling emergency services at 12.50am on Dec 21 to request medical assistance.
Body-worn camera footage played to jurors showed Day sitting in a police car with his hand wrapped in duct tape.
He told officers he had been planning to drink in Dudley and had been looking for a ‘random girl’ in a bar. He claimed he had been injured near a bush by an animal that might have been a fox.
When questioned about the duct tape around his hand, Day said it had been in his car, although he could not remember where the vehicle was parked.
A male officer told him that his account did not quite add up. Day replied: ‘I don’t know if it was a wild dog or a fox.’
Police were alerted to the Airbnb by the landlord after another resident, who had booked a different room in the property, discovered a trail of blood.
In a statement read to the court, the resident said they had pushed open the door and seen ‘a lot of blood on the floor’ and what appeared to be a doll.
‘The doll was lying on the floor on its back,’ the resident said.
Day was arrested on suspicion of murder at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley in the early hours of Dec 21. He was wearing a khaki top resembling one worn by Dexter.
Pathologist details fatal injuries
A Home Office pathologist told the court that Saceanu probably died from neck wounds that damaged her carotid arteries. Several wounds to her hands were consistent with attempts to protect herself.
Defence barrister Gurdeep Garcha KC said Day was aware of the nature and inevitability of the sentence he would face.
Given Day’s age and the absence of previous criminal offending, the defence said the court would be assisted by a pre-sentence report.
Day remains in custody ahead of his sentencing on Dec 4.
