EVERETT — An Edmonds woman who fantasized about becoming a serial killer faces more than two decades in prison after admitting that she tried to murder a man she met on Craigslist.
Amy Caroline Brown, 24, told a Lynnwood police sergeant in January that she’s a psychopath who’s been plagued by homicidal thoughts since middle school. She said she planned to kill the Lynnwood man she met online, rip out his heart and eat it. Brown stabbed the man in the chest, collapsing a lung, a potentially fatal injury.
Brown said she intended to kill until she was caught.
“My plan was to not get caught until 50 years from the future when I just say, ‘Hey, I’m a serial killer, put me in prison because I can’t afford retirement,’” Brown said.
Brown was charged with attempted first-degree murder. Prosecutors alleged that Brown had shown no remorse for stabbing the man at a Lynnwood motel Jan. 29 after the two met up at Cliffhangers, a local bar.
Brown pleaded guilty Friday on the eve of her trial. Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Jarett Goodkin plans to ask a judge to sentence Brown to 18 years in prison. The defense will ask for leniency. Court papers indicate that Brown had been suicidal in the past and had stopped taking her medications before the attack.
Because Brown admitted that she’d “demonstrated or displayed an egregious lack of remorse,” a sentencing judge can send her to prison beyond the range established by the state’s Sentencing Guidelines Commission. The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
The victim, 29, who lives with his parents, said he posted a personal ad on Craigslist because his therapist recommended he become more social, according to court papers. “Good Evening! Let’s go zombie hunting!” was the title of the online ad that attracted Brown’s attention.
Brown, a dog walker and groomer, had spent most the day watching “Hannibal,” a television series whose main character is a cannibalistic serial killer.
“All Day?” the sergeant asked her.
“On and off. I can’t binge watch things so I was just watching an episode, eating something, knitting, watch another episode, do something else,” Brown said.
Brown answered the personal ad using an alias and suggested they meet up. She later told the man she’d used a fake name because she was worried he could be a serial killer.
The pair met at the bar but didn’t stay long. They walked around the area, talking about television shows and movies. Brown asked the man if he wanted to have sex and the pair decided to find a motel room because they both lived with their parents.
Brown drove the man home so he could get some cash from his parents for a room. Brown told police the couple stayed clothed and cuddled on the bed for about 10 minutes before she made her true intentions known. She was straddling the man and told him she was a serial killer. He thought she was joking until she pulled a knife and lunged at him. They struggled over the knife before the man overpowered Brown and fled the room.
The man asked the motel clerk to call 911 and realized he’d been stabbed.
Officers spotted Brown running across the motel parking lot. “Am I caught?” she asked them.
Police recovered a note in her pocket, reading, “If you are wondering what I do with the heart … I eat it. I will strike again,” according to court records.
Detectives searched her home, collecting her “Hannibal” DVDs, a journal outlining her plans to become a serial killer and drawings for what she dubbed a “murder shack.” Police also searched her car. There was nothing of note in the car but they reported that a bumper sticker on the back window read, “I’ve got a perfect body. But it’s in the trunk and beginning to smell.”
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