He had transformed the room of an accommodation rented on Airbnb into a room to kill, trying to reproduce scenes from the television series Dexter.
The murderer is called Benjamin William Day, he is a British student of forensic science and is just 20 years old. The young man pleaded guilty on October 6, during the second day of the trial, to killing Maria Saceanu, a 24-year-old Romanian woman. He will remain in custody awaiting sentencing, scheduled for December 4.
The crime dates back to December 20, 2025, when Day was 19 years old. According to the reconstruction of the accusation reported by BBCthe student had contacted Saceanu, who worked as an escort, through a website, using a phone purchased for that occasion. He then arranged to meet her in the rented room in Tividale, West Midlands.
Before his arrival he had covered the walls and floor with plastic sheets and collected several objects: an apron, a protective visor and cleaning products. According to the prosecutor’s office, those preparations served to commit the murder and erase its traces.
The reconstruction of the accusation and the reference to the TV series
At the center of the trial was Day’s fascination with “Dexter”, the American series whose protagonist leads a double life: he works as a forensic expert for the police and is a serial murderer, capable of exploiting his skills to hide crimes.
Prosecutor Rachel Brand argued that the young man had set up the room specifically to imitate the character. Saceanu was hit with 78 stab wounds. According to the medical examiner, his death was probably caused by injuries to his neck, with damage to the carotid arteries. The wounds on his hands were instead compatible with an attempt to defend himself.
According to what was reported in court, Day had also started to dismember the body, but stopped after injuring his hand.
The request for help and the attempted misdirection
After leaving the accommodation, the young man walked away and, on the same night as the murder, called the British emergency number asking for medical assistance.
In footage from officers’ body-worn cameras shown during the trial, he appeared sitting in a police car with one hand wrapped in duct tape. He told the police that he had gone to the Dudley area to drink and meet a girl in a bar, then claiming that he had been injured by an animal near a bush: perhaps a fox, perhaps a wild dog.
The explanation had made the officers suspicious. The presence of the duct tape also raised questions: Day said he had taken it from his car, but could not remember where he had parked it.
Meanwhile, another guest of the facility had noticed a trail of blood and alerted the owner. Opening the door of the room, he saw the woman’s body, initially mistaken for a doll. The tip led the police to the crime scene.
Day was arrested in the early hours of December 21st. He was wearing a khaki-colored shirt which, according to the prosecution, resembled that of the protagonist of the series.
After just two days of court hearing, the young man admitted the murder. His lawyer asked for a report to be submitted to the judge before determining the sentence, citing the young age of the accused and the absence of a criminal record.