A forensic science student has admitted stabbing a woman to death in a makeshift “kill room” modelled on the US television series Dexter.

Benjamin Day, 20, changed his plea during his trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, pleading guilty to the murder of 24-year-old Maria Saceanu.

Day had been expected to argue that he acted in self-defence. His case was that he had prepared the room to record a “tribute” to Dexter for TikTok.

Following an hour-long delay on Tuesday, Day was brought back from the cells to the dock. He appeared to smirk as he nodded towards the court clerk before entering his guilty plea.

Wearing a dark suit and maroon patterned tie, Day was remanded in custody. He is due to be sentenced on December 4.

Day is the son of a company director. At the family’s executive home in Redditch, a woman believed to be his mother responded to the guilty plea by saying: “It’s fine. It is what it is. It is what it is.”

She declined to make any further comment.

Day attended Trinity High School in Redditch. A local source described him as “a bit of a loner” but recalled that he had been a fan of Dexter and would speak about the show.

He was arrested in December while wearing a khaki top similar to clothing associated with Dexter, after stabbing Ms Saceanu 78 times and beginning to dismember her body.

The court heard that Day, an undergraduate at the University of Worcester, had prepared the room in Tividale, in the West Midlands, as a tribute to the American crime drama.

The series, which aired from 2006 to 2013, centred on Dexter Morgan, played by Michael C. Hall. The character is a forensic technician who secretly lives as a vigilante serial killer.

Jurors were told that Ms Saceanu was a sex worker whom Day contacted through a website using a burner phone.

Opening the prosecution case on Monday, Rachel Brand KC said Day lured Ms Saceanu to the Airbnb before killing her and attempting to dispose of her body.

Day was arrested after injuring his hand and calling 999 for assistance. Prosecutors alleged that he cut himself while beginning what they described as the “gruesome task” of dismembering Ms Saceanu’s body.

The prosecution said Day had “planned this murder in some detail” and intended to dispose of the body without leaving evidence of what had happened. But Ms Brand told the court that “it all went wrong and he was caught”.

She said Day had become “fascinated” by Dexter, adding that his actions were those of a copycat imitating events he had seen in the programme.

Detailing what she called the “similarities” between the killing and the television series, Ms Brand told jurors: “Dexter Morgan works as a forensic scientist in a police department, and the broad premise of the programme is that he is a serial killer who knows how to cover his tracks. The defendant changed his university course from journalism to applied biology and forensics.

“Dexter wears a khaki T-shirt. The defendant had purchased just such a T-shirt and was wearing it when he was arrested, as you will see. He had changed into Dexter clothing before Maria Saceanu arrived at the house.”

‘In the TV series, Dexter prepares a ‘kill room’ when carrying out his attacks, lined with plastic sheeting which he fixes using a staple gun or duct/gaffer tape.’

Ms Brand said Day had been planning the killing since November 18 last year when he made a ‘shopping list’ on his phone of items required. 

These included knives, scissors, a mask, an apron, disposable gloves, plastic sheeting, duct tape, a staple gun, a T-shirt, trousers, cleaning chemicals, a pipette, microscope slides (which the court heard were a ‘trophy’ from the killing) and ‘hefties’ – an American word for heavy duty black bin bags.

All the items on the list were found at the scene more than a month later, the court heard.

There was no evidence of sexual contact between Day and Ms Saceanu but she answered a text message from him shortly after 9.30pm on December 20 last year. 

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She drove to the Airbnb where Day had been ‘preparing’ since 5.30pm, arriving around 10.20pm.

The prosecution said Day killed Ms Saceanu within a short time of her arrival, before trying to dismember the body and injuring himself. 

He then walked some distance away and ditched a ‘burner’ phone before calling 999 at 12.50am. 

He told police his hand had been cut by a fox or dog and was taken to Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley before messaging the Airbnb landlord to ask if he could extend his stay there to a week.

However, a guest staying in another room at the Airbnb noticed a trail of blood and told the landlord, who called police.

Officers found Ms Saceanu inside and Day was arrested at 3.42am in hospital A Home Office pathologist said Ms Saceanu probably died as a result of wounds to her neck. 

They added that ‘a number of wounds to her hands [were] consistent with efforts to protect herself’. 

On Tuesday, before he changed his plea, jurors were shown bodyworn footage of him claiming to have been attacked by a ‘wild dog’ or fox.

In the video, police officers can be seen helping Day with a hand injury, which was wrapped in duct tape. 

During his conversations with police, Day said he had been going to drink in Dudley and came over to look for a ‘random girl’ in a bar.

Asked by an officer if he had been set up and attacked, Day said he had been injured near a bush by an animal that ‘might have been a fox’.

During the video recordings from two officers’ cameras, Day said of the animal: ‘It was like a kind of brown orangey colour.

‘I was by a bush and it jumped out at me.’

Questioned as to where he had got duct tape to wrap around his hand, Day told police it was in his car, although he could not remember where it was parked.

Officers offered Day a blanket and told him to keep his hand raised, while a male officer told him that his story did not quite check out.

Day answered: ‘I don’t know if it was a wild dog or a fox.’

He was arrested on suspicion of murder at 3.42am, the court heard, as he lay on a bed in hospital.

As part of his plan Day had placed the victim’s possessions into a black bin bag, ready for disposal.

In a statement read to jurors on Tuesday, the renter who had booked a different room at the Airbnb said: ‘The blood was in drips and I thought that someone must have hurt themselves.

‘I didn’t go into the room – I just looked from outside.

‘I could see a white plastic sheet placed on the wall on the right.

‘I then pushed the door open but stayed outside, I could see lot of blood on the floor and a doll.

‘The doll was lying on the floor on its back.’

The renter added that he took pictures which he sent to the police, left the property, and warned the landlord to be careful and to enter the premises accompanied by the police.

Southern California’s relentless heat wave is adding another hazard to the morning commute, with officials urging drivers to inspect their tires before heading out.

Temperatures climbing into the triple digits can cause tires to overinflate, crack or blow out, potentially increasing the risk of a serious crash.

“Warm pavement that our tires drive on and the increased pressure from the heat, all of those different circumstances definitely make driving potentially a little bit more dangerous, especially if we don’t maintain our tires and vehicles,” California Highway Patrol Officer Jordon Church told ABC 7.

A tire blowout can be particularly dangerous, and officials say underinflation is the leading cause. If a blowout occurs, drivers should remain calm, keep control of the vehicle, safely pull to the side of the road and call 911 for help.

Extreme heat can also raise tire pressure, resulting in higher readings while a vehicle is on the road. The Department of Transportation warns that overinflated tires may affect handling and safety. Tire pressure typically increases by about one pound per square inch for every 10-degree rise in temperature.

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Drivers should check that their tires are inflated to the manufacturer’s recommended level and examine the tread with a penny. Insert the penny into the shallowest groove with Abraham Lincoln’s head facing down. If his head is covered, the tread is generally considered adequate; if his head or hairline remains visible, it may be time to replace the tire.

The ongoing Southern California heat wave has also shattered October records. According to the National Weather Service, downtown Los Angeles has experienced its longest-ever October run of four consecutive days with temperatures reaching triple digits, tying the record for the longest such streak at any point this year.

Nine daily high-temperature records were broken across the region, including in downtown Los Angeles, Oxnard, Camarillo, LAX, Burbank, Long Beach, Woodland Hills and Santa Ana.

Extreme heat warnings continue across large portions of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Residents are encouraged to reduce outdoor activity, drink plenty of fluids and check on family members, friends and neighbors who may be vulnerable to the heat.

CBS LA Chief Meteorologist Paul Deanno described the intensity of the heat wave as “rare territory” for Los Angeles.

“A gallon of gas cost 30 cents in the summer of 1963. That is the last time we had five straight days above 100 degrees in downtown LA until today.”

Authorities said DNA testing has identified a body recovered from a Texas creek as Rana Nofal Soluri, a missing flight attendant whose former roommate is accused of killing her and throwing her remains from a bridge.

A fisherman discovered the remains of Soluri, 47, on June 13 along Brushy Creek beneath a bridge in Montague County, roughly 70 miles northwest of Fort Worth, police and local media reported. The remains were sent to the University of North Texas Health’s Center for Human Identification, where DNA analysis recently confirmed they belonged to Soluri, a Fort Worth Police Department spokesperson told NBC News.

Soluri worked for Envoy Air, a regional airline owned by American Airlines. She had been missing since March 2025, after taking leave for a minor operation and failing to return to work as scheduled on March 31. A co-worker reported her missing on June 11, 2025, when Soluri could not be reached, police said.

Dennis Day, 67, Soluri’s former roommate and longtime friend, was arrested in June 2025 and charged with murder. According to an arrest warrant cited in reports, Day told investigators he “snapped” during an argument with Soluri and then “began to strangle her with his bare hands.”

Court documents allege that Day strangled Soluri on the kitchen floor, pulled her body into the backyard, placed it “head first” into a large black trash bin and drove it about 70 miles before dumping it from a bridge.

Investigators said surveillance footage from Day’s Fort Worth home showed him dragging “what appears to be a lifeless body from the home into the backyard” on March 21, 2025. Police also said an “inadvertent call” and message recorded on another woman’s phone captured Day in a panic while asking for help moving Soluri’s body.

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Joni Thomas, also known as Joanne Walters, 63, was charged with tampering with evidence with intent to impair a human corpse. Police allege she assisted Day in disposing of Soluri’s remains. Both cases are still pending.

Before the DNA identification, prosecutors said Day had boasted to people in jail that he could not be convicted if authorities never recovered Soluri’s body. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office made the claim in a notice cited by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

A GoFundMe campaign established for Soluri’s daughter, Lulu Soluri, said American Airlines helped transport her mother’s remains to Seattle for a Muslim burial held on Sept. 29. The fundraiser said Lulu also plans to return to Texas for a future court hearing, where she is expected to make a statement.

“Lulu is a very private person, so this is a huge feat for her to face the person accused of killing her mother,” the GoFundMe page said. “Lulu thanks everyone for their support. She is always overwhelmed knowing how many people have helped her during this process.”

Whole Foods was once jokingly dubbed “whole paycheck,” a reflection of its reputation as a supermarket where customers accepted higher prices in exchange for what they believed were superior products.

Now, the grocer’s expensive store-brand chicken is drawing uncomfortable scrutiny over where—and how—it is processed.

Farm Forward says a large share of Whole Foods’ 365 private-label chicken is processed by Perdue, one of the country’s largest poultry companies. Perdue products are also sold through major US retailers such as Kroger, Target and Aldi.

The animal advocacy organization reviewed 247 packages of 365 chicken collected from 30 Whole Foods locations. Its analysis found that 92 percent had been processed at Perdue facilities.

The report raised an additional concern: 98 percent of the products came from plants where Salmonella strains associated with serious illness had been detected.

Customers are also paying a substantial markup for the supposedly premium poultry. Farm Forward reported that 365 chicken cost as much as 45.7 percent more than comparable products at other retailers, while the average premium was 19.6 percent.

In one example, Whole Foods priced its 365 chicken at $6.49 per pound, compared with $3.82 per pound for similar Perdue Harvestland chicken at Walmart—a gap of roughly 70 percent.

Some 365 chicken products are priced at nearly $10 per pound.

Farm Forward based its analysis on records from the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The organization does not claim that every package of 365 chicken contains Salmonella—or that consuming the products will make shoppers ill. Still, its findings point to potential concerns involving several facilities that supply Whole Foods.

According to Farm Forward, more than one-quarter of the 365 chicken products it examined came from three slaughter plants that had failed the USDA’s contamination standard during the preceding year.

Together, those three facilities represented nearly 27 percent of the 365 chicken in the sample. Farm Forward said the issue was particularly concentrated in Whole Foods’ California and Central West sales regions.

The group also reported that more dangerous Salmonella strains accounted for the majority of positive samples at all six plants it identified as suppliers of 365 chicken.

Salmonella Infantis, Enteritidis and Typhimurium—which Farm Forward identifies as strains frequently linked to severe illness, hospitalization and death—represented between 60 percent and 100 percent of positive samples at those facilities, the report said.

Antibiotic resistance was another issue highlighted in the analysis. At each of the six plants, at least 64.8 percent of Salmonella-positive samples were resistant to one or more antibiotics. At every facility, at least 25 percent of samples showed resistance to multiple antibiotics, according to the report.

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The concern is significant because severe Salmonella infections may require antibiotic treatment. When the bacteria are resistant, physicians have fewer effective medications available.

Farm Forward also found that more than 92 percent of the raw 365 chicken in its sample had been processed at Perdue facilities.

The findings add to a broader debate over Whole Foods’ chicken supply. On social media, some shoppers have also alleged that the 365 products they purchased suffered from quality problems.

In a Reddit thread, one Connecticut shopper posted pictures of chicken bought at Whole Foods in West Hartford and Avon, claiming the meat looked freezer-burned or partly cooked and smelled more like cooked food than raw chicken.

Other commenters described 365 chicken as stringy, rubbery or unpleasantly textured, while some said they had switched to Bell & Evans instead.

One commenter claimed the 365 chicken was Perdue, and they said they had stopped buying it because of the texture, while another balked at paying around $10 a pound for chicken.

Others were more forgiving, arguing that Whole Foods can be competitive when shoppers compare similar products or make use of Prime discounts.

One Reddit user suggested the strange texture could be ‘woody breast,’ a condition associated with chicken muscle quality that can make meat unusually tough.

Whole Foods says its 365 chicken meets animal-welfare and feed standards, with product information stating that the birds are traceable to a farm or ranch and contain no added growth hormones or antibiotics.

Perdue says it has pathogen-control measures in place and is continuing efforts to improve poultry safety.

The Daily Mail has contacted Whole Foods for comment and is awaiting a response.

Concluding its report, Farm Forward says: ‘Whole Foods shoppers are not just failing to get what they’re paying for; in many cases, they’re paying more for the same types of products, from the same plants, with the same production claim, and typically the same breeds, sourced from some of the most contaminated plants in the country.’ 

For shoppers standing in front of the chilled meat case, the findings raise a simple question: is that extra money buying a better product – or simply a more expensive one?

WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reportedly told supporters in a private fundraising event that a victory by Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed could dramatically expand the political opportunities for progressive candidates nationwide.

“What we do is break open the entire political calculus in America — period,” the New York Democrat said at Monday’s fundraiser for El-Sayed, according to multiple reports.

She added, “If you can win — if Abdul can win in Michigan — then anybody can win anywhere.”

The comments come as Ocasio-Cortez weighs her own political future and considers whether to pursue a 2028 presidential bid, seek a Senate seat or run again for the House.

“We are engaged in a long-term — and I’m being very open right now — generational project,” the Bronx and Queens representative said. “Generational. We are here to break the map.”

She later argued that progressives face more than “an ascendant and fascist right wing” in the United States. They are also confronting “people with extremely small imaginations about what is possible in America,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez backed El-Sayed during his contentious primary fight with Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan. She has also sought to support staunchly progressive candidates in Democratic primaries while avoiding a major rupture with the party establishment.

According to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, Ocasio-Cortez currently ranks fourth among the Democratic figures most frequently mentioned as potential 2028 presidential contenders. She trails former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

El-Sayed, meanwhile, is locked in a close contest with Republican Mike Rogers. The latest RCP aggregate gives El-Sayed a 3.6-point advantage.

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El-Sayed has also suggested that the Michigan Senate contest could carry consequences well beyond the race itself, including for the 2028 Democratic field.

“What does it say about what America really wants, needs and deserves if our state bucks all the pundits and pontificators who say this is impossible?” he asked, according to multiple reports. “What does it tell them? It tells them how big America is and exactly what we want.”

He characterized the campaign as a contest “for all the marbles” and predicted that its outcome would produce a major “ripple effect.”

The Michigan Senate race is being closely watched as a test of whether the far left can broaden its appeal beyond reliably Democratic territory. Still, political observers have cautioned that Democrats are expected to benefit from a broader blue wave this election cycle, making it risky to draw sweeping conclusions from the Nov. 3 results.

“Why would you draw this inference from someone being able to narrowly win Michigan in a year with a D+9 generic ballot?” Matthew Yglesias wrote on X.

Comedian Bill Maher voiced a similar warning over the weekend, arguing that Democrats could misread a strong showing in the 2026 midterms.

“It’s going to be a classic, historical ass-whooping,” Maher told CNN when discussing the likely Republican performance in the midterms. He added that 2028 would be “a different story,” saying Democrats have “a crazy animal living in their house called the DSA,” or Democratic Socialists of America, and that the group “believe[s] truly insane things.”

Maher said voters appeared focused on defeating President Trump in the immediate term. “This electorate right now is saying, ‘We will get to that issue right now; we have one piece of business in front of us,’” he said. He warned that Democrats could mistake a Republican “thumping” for support of the more radical positions held by a significant part of their party.