A 20-year-old forensics student pleaded guilty to murdering a woman in a plastic-lined Airbnb room modeled on TV killer Dexter, after his disposal plan failed when he cut his own hand.
Benjamin Day changed his plea mid-trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday and admitted murdering 24-year-old Maria Saceanu. He had denied the charge before an hour-long delay. He returned from the cells, entered the guilty plea, and was remanded in custody. Sentencing is set for December 4.
Prosecutors told the court Day contacted Ms Saceanu through a website on a burner phone, lured her to an Airbnb in Tividale in the West Midlands, stabbed her, and began trying to dismember her body in a room he had prepared with plastic sheeting.
He was arrested after injuring his hand and calling 999. Officers later found Ms Saceanu inside the property.
Prosecutor Rachel Brand KC opened the case by laying out what she called detailed planning and a string of parallels to the U.S. drama Dexter, which ran from 2006 to 2013.
"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."
Brand told jurors Day switched his university course at the University of Worcester 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."
She said the show’s killer prepares a “kill room” lined with plastic sheeting fixed by staple gun or duct tape. Day, she argued, did the same.
"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."
Brand said Day had “planned this murder in some detail” and “planned to dispose of her body without leaving signs of what had happened.” Then, she said, “It all went wrong and he was caught.” She described him as “fascinated” with Dexter and said his actions “were those of a copycat, imitating the things he had seen in that programme.”
Court evidence put a shopping list on Day’s phone dated November 18 the previous year. It 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, and “hefties.” Prosecutors said those items were later found at the scene.
On December 20 last year, Day had been preparing at the Airbnb from 5.30pm. Ms Saceanu answered a text shortly after 9.30pm and arrived around 10.20pm. Prosecutors said he killed her soon after, then tried to dismember the body and injured himself in the process.
A Home Office pathologist concluded she probably died from wounds to the neck. The pathologist also noted hand wounds consistent with efforts to protect herself. Reporting on the case stated she was stabbed 78 times.
Day walked some distance and ditched the burner phone. At 12.50am he called 999 for help with his hand. On bodyworn footage played to jurors before the plea change, he claimed an animal attacked him.
"It was like a kind of brown orangey colour." "I was by a bush and it jumped out at me." "I don't know if it was a wild dog or a fox."
He told police duct tape was in his car and said he had been going to drink in Dudley and came looking for a “random girl” in a bar. After transfer to Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, he messaged the Airbnb landlord asking to extend the stay to a week.
A fellow renter noticed a blood trail, looked into the room from outside, and later gave a statement read to jurors.
"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 guest took pictures, left, and warned the landlord. The landlord called police. Officers arrested Day on suspicion of murder at 3.42am while he was on a hospital bed. He was wearing the khaki top.
Before the guilty plea, the defense had been expected to claim he set up the room to film a “tribute” to Dexter for TikTok and that any force was self-defense. The mid-trial plea ended that path. As he nodded toward the court clerk after pleading guilty, he appeared to smirk.
Day, the son of a company director, attended Trinity High School in Redditch and lived in the family’s executive home there. A local source recalled him as “a bit of a loner” who “liked Dexter” and “would talk about the show.” At the family home after the plea, a woman believed to be his mother said, “It's fine. It is what it is. It is what it is,” and declined further comment.
Maria Saceanu answered a late text, drove to a rented house, and never left. A student who studied how crimes are solved built a plastic-lined room, filled a shopping cart with tools of concealment, and still could not hide what he did. Courts exist for nights like that one. December 4 is when the sentence lands.
