This woman stabbed and strangled a teen to death because she wanted to ‘check murder off her bucket list’

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This woman stabbed and strangled a teen to death because she wanted to ‘check murder off her bucket list’

She called it ‘euphoric’

A woman has been sentenced to life in prison for killing a teenager because murdering someone was on her "bucket list."

Jemma Lilley, a 26-year-old originally from the UK, strangled 18-year-old Aaron Pajich with a wire and stabbed him three times. She buried him in a shallow grave in her garden, pouring concrete over his body and covering it with tiles.

She and her roommate accomplice will have to serve a minimum of 28 years.

Aaron Pajich

A court prosecutor in Australia, where Lilley was living, described how the killer described her "euphoria" on having ticked off murder from her "bucket list."

Lilley was referred to in court as a serial-killer obsessive who wrote a book about a murderer, and began to assume the identity of her character.

Texts from Lilley to her roommate Trudi Lenon reveal how she said she would not rest "until the blood of a fresh screaming pleading victim is gushing out and pooling on the floor."

A court heard how Pajich was lured to his death on 13 June 2016. Lilley strangled him with a wire as Pajich installed games on her computer. When the wire broke, she stabbed him three times.

The judge in Lilley's case told the court: "The idea of killing another person was something that excited both of you. You killed for your own pleasure.

"This is a very serious case of murder… there are few if any cases in this jurisdiction which are comparable.

"The offense is morally repugnant … all right-thinking people would have feelings of horror and revulsion."

Pajich's step mom told reporters she hoped Lilley would "rot" for her crime. "I hope you live to regret what you've done," she said.

@hshukman