The ‘Dexter’ copycat who botched his own plan

Ana Garcia (0:00)

A word of warning. This podcast explores graphic and disturbing stories and includes some strong language. It therefore may not be suitable for our young listeners or other folks who may find it disturbing. Hello and welcome to True Crime News, The Podcast, covering high profile and under the radar cases from across the country every week. I'm your host, Ana Garcia. Our case this week, he set up a kill room inspired by the TV show Dexter, and he succeeded at killing his victim, say police. But when he started to dismember her body, he cut his own hand. And while he may not have valued anyone else's life, he for sure loved himself and called police for help. So just look at this police video as they are trying to patch him up. And he claims that he has been attacked by a fox.

Mike King (0:51)

I'll be honest with you, he still doesn't quite check out.

Will Updike (0:57)

So where did it actually happen?

Mike King (0:58)

I said, I don't know.

Ana Garcia (1:00)

If a fox had just tried to bite your hand off, wouldn't you know where it happened?

A few hours after getting him to the hospital, police arrested him on suspicion of murder, and he has since entered a plea of guilty. We are recording this on Friday, October 9th of 2026 Our guest today is Mike King, the host of Profiling Evil. Mike is also a renowned cult investigator set to embark on a speaking tour called The Psychology of Cults, which we will talk about later in the program. Mike, welcome back. How are you?

Mike King (1:33)

I'm doing well, Ana. And thank you so much to you and the team for letting me come back and hang out with you for a minute.

Ana Garcia (1:39)

Oh, you're a fan favorite. Everyone loves to hear from you. It's like we talk about the most horrible things, but you have this really soothing voice and way about you. So somehow it all works out.

Mike King (1:50)

I, it must be all that prison lasagna over my career with inmates. I don't know.

Ana Garcia (1:57)

I didn't know that prisoners got lasagna.

Mike King (2:00)

Oh yeah, but it never has real good meat in it. So.

Ana Garcia (2:04)

Good to know. Good to know. We're going to tell, hopefully, you know, you won't be getting any lasagna, the guy that's just entered a guilty plea for this case. This case is crazy. When I found this, I said to Will, we really need to do this case because it's, of course, it's very disturbing, but it's not the first time that the show Dexter, right, has inspired copycat killers.

And in this case, you know, you've got this Dexter-obsessed killer who has just admitted to killing a woman to live out this sick fantasy that has been inspired by a television program. How crazy is this?

Mike King (2:47)

You know, the whole thing is really disturbing because it really helps us understand this process you and I have talked about so many times on this show. And that is this idea of fantasy and the role that fantasy plays in these criminal cases.

And you can, you can see the build up that's going on. I mean, and you know, there are legitimate kinds of fantasies, there are legitimate role models and some that that kind of make you blink twice, you know, when you drive by Comic Con happening and you watch the people walking up and down along in front of the San Diego Convention Center or someplace like that, you think, holy cow, people get so spun up and so invested in a character. But when it starts becoming a character who commits violence, it really becomes frightening.

Ana Garcia (3:36)

Yeah, it really is. This case is actually out of England and it's from the Tivadale-Sandwell communities and the closest big city would be Birmingham.

And everything about this accused killer in this case is as creepy and as disturbing as it gets. The accused, who is now an admitted killer, is 20 years old and he is a forensic college student studying forensics. And his name is Benjamin Day. He was 19 when the murder was committed according to police. Now, the victim really was a stranger to him, just a person to kill.

24-year-old Maria Saceanu, a sex worker, he hired for the sole purpose of killing. And police say sex was not what Benjamin Day wanted. And there were no signs, say police, of a sexual attack as part of this murder. And police say that the murder took place at an Airbnb room that Benjamin rented. And then he turned it into a kill room. He took plastic sheeting and he stapled it to the walls. He covered the bed. He covered the floor. And again, inspired by the show.