A university student lured a sex worker to a “kill room” modeled on the television series Dexter, where prosecutors say he stabbed her to death.
Benjamin William Day pleaded guilty to murdering Maria Saceanu during his Oct. 6 trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court in England, reversing his initial denial of the charge. Day’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Oxygen.
“Day had an obsessive personality and had become obsessed with the character Dexter,” Detective Inspector Matt Marston of West Midlands Police said in a press release. “He planned this murder in meticulous detail. It was a pre-planned brutal attack on a defenseless woman lured to the room he had rented.”
Police said the 20-year-old was studying forensic science, the same field associated with Dexter’s central character. The Showtime series follows a serial killer who draws victims into so-called kill rooms covered in plastic sheeting, allowing him to minimize the evidence left behind.
Saceanu’s death was uncovered in the early hours of Dec. 21, 2025, after Day stopped officers in Dudley and asked for medical help with an injury to his hand.
New Body Camera Footage Released of Dexter-Obsessed Killer
“What’s going on?” an officer asked Day in body camera footage released by West Midlands Police. “Have you been attacked?”
Day said the injury had happened an hour or two earlier, but claimed he could not remember where or how. “Don’t know if it was a wild dog,” he told officers. “Or a fox.”
“I’ll be honest with you,” one officer replied. “Your story doesn’t quite check out.”
While Day was receiving treatment at a hospital, police were contacted by the landlord of a rental property in Tividale. The landlord reported that a tenant had discovered blood at the bottom of a staircase.
Officers searched the property and found 24-year-old Saceanu lying on a bedroom floor. She had suffered 78 stab wounds.
Plastic sheeting covered the floor, walls and bed, with some of it stapled directly to the walls. Investigators also recovered knives, a staple gun, duct tape, cleaning products, an apron and a plastic visor.
Day was subsequently arrested at the hospital on suspicion of murder.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Day had initially planned to claim self-defense, alleging that Saceanu attacked him. He was also expected to argue that the room was a TikTok “tribute” to Dexter, according to the BBC.
Prosecutor Rachel Band told the court that Day had carefully planned the killing.
“He lured Maria Saceanu to a room that he had rented via Airbnb,” she said, according to Sky News. “He had prepared himself to kill her. He had planned to dispose of her body without leaving signs of what had happened and he planned to get away with it.”
“But it all went wrong,” she added, “and he was caught.”
Prosecutors said Day began dismembering Saceanu’s body but stopped after cutting himself, according to Sky News.
On the second day of the trial, Day admitted the murder. He appeared in court wearing a dark suit and maroon tie and was seen smirking as he changed his plea to guilty, according to ITV News.
“The evidence presented by the prosecution exposed those claims for the lies they were,” Prosecutor Jonathan Roe said in a press release. “And he has rightly been forced to accept responsibility for her murder.”
Day will be sentenced Dec. 4. He faces a mandatory life sentence.