UK Forensics Student Pleads Guilty to 'Dexter' Copycat Airbnb Murder

A 20-year-old forensics student has pleaded guilty mid-trial to the gruesome murder of a woman inside an Airbnb lined with plastic sheeting, mimicking the American television series 'Dexter'. Benjamin Day abruptly changed his plea at Wolverhampton Crown Court, admitting to the December 2023 murder of 24-year-old Maria Saceanu. Day had initially planned to argue self-defence, claiming he prepared the mock 'kill room' solely to record a tribute video for TikTok.

Prosecutor Rachel Brand KC detailed how Day stabbed Saceanu 78 times, inflicting fatal neck wounds and defensive injuries, before attempting to dismember her body. Brand stated that Day’s actions 'were those of a copycat, imitating the things he had seen in that programme,' adding that he meticulously gathered equipment—including plastic sheeting, duct tape, knives, and microscope slides to keep as trophies—from a pre-planned shopping list created a month prior. Day severed his own hand during the assault, prompting him to call emergency services with a fabricated story about a fox attack.

Investigators revealed that Day lured Saceanu, a sex worker, to the rental property in Tividale, West Midlands, using a burner phone. Day, an undergraduate at the University of Worcester who switched his major from journalism to applied biology and forensics, arrived hours early to secure the room with sheeting and a staple gun. The plot unravelled after another guest at the Airbnb discovered a trail of blood and alerted the landlord, leading police to discover the victim's remains while Day was being treated at Russells Hall Hospital.

Following his formal admission of guilt in the dock, where he appeared to smirk before nodding to the court clerk, Day was remanded into custody. He is scheduled to be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on December 4, where he faces a mandatory life sentence.