Criminology Student Who Killed
Student Wanted to Star in His Own Murder Mystery
I thought I would bring you something a little different this time. It is amazing just how the criminal mind works and how killers make their attacks.
20-year-old Nasen Saadi was a criminology student at The University of Greenwich who was fascinated by violent crime. On the evening of May 24th 2024, Saadi fatally stabbed a gay personal trainer, Amie Gray, 34, 10 times as she sat beside a fire on Durley Chine Beach in Bournemouth, Dorset.
The crazed student went on to attack Amie’s friend Leanne Miles, who had been sitting close by, leaving her with some 20 knife wounds. He then left the women to bleed on the beach whilst he tried to disappear into the shadows of the night.
During a trial at Winchester Crown Court tutors from Greenwich University told the jury how they had asked Saadi if he was planning a murder as he had asked them various questions about self-defence mitigation in murder cases and how long DNA stays behind at a murder scene.
This case certainly puts a whole new twist on ‘understanding the criminal mind’ as this guy had to have been more than just very interested in violent crime.
During the trial, the jury heard how in the days leading up to the killing Saadi went to the cinema to watch The Strangers- Chapter One. According to the prosecution, this is described as ‘A slasher movie in which both the male and female leads get stabbed’.
He also booked into a local Travel lodge in Bournemouth and then moved on to a different hotel, I can’t help but wonder why he moved. Was it in order to have a better view perhaps? You may see this as irrelevant but did he perhaps watch women pass his hotel at night? Plan his route of escape?
He may have booked a different hotel as he had tried to make sure he paid for everything in cash as he knew card transactions could be traced back to him and would put him in the Bournemouth area.
The jury heard a recording of a telephone call to the emergency services from 39-year-old Leanne Miles who was heard crying with the pain of her injuries. She told the call handler at 999 “I have been stabbed loads of times. Oh my God, I am getting dizzy, please hurry up, please hurry up.” “I am bleeding everywhere, I have been stabbed loads of times.”
Police reported that they had searched the home of Saadi’s aunt where he had been living and although they didn’t find the murder weapon or the clothes that he had been wearing on the night of the attacks, they did find five knives including a machete.
His laptop revealed that since January 2024 he had been regularly making internet searches of reports about the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, Levi Belfield, Brianna Ghey and Eddie Ratcliffe. The laptop search also revealed that Saadi had a Snapchat account with the user name “Ninja Killer”
He had regularly visited sites selling knives and made specific searches for things such as “Why do criminals get away with crimes in rural areas” and “Why is it harder for a criminal to get caught if he does it in another town”.
Saadi seems to have been what I can only describe as a true crime addict who had literally allowed it to overtake his mind. He wanted to know how it felt to kill and to have the police searching for ‘the crazed killer’ as he had seen on TV and in films. He had told friends that he wanted to be star in a true crime episode
I believe he really thought he may get away with killing and I can only imagine what he may have gone on to do had he not been caught.
During police interviews, Saadi said, “I am not responsible and I have no reason to attack someone for no reason.” He neither admitted nor denied the person in the CCTV being him saying “Beaches are popular places… many people… CCTV shows there were many people walking, it’s not just one person.”
During the interview, Saadi told police that he believed he was being ‘wrongly accused’ of a serious offence that he had ‘nothing to do with’ — and that he was being ‘blamed’ because they were ‘under pressure’ to find a suspect.
The prosecutor said that Saadi had obsessed over methods of murder and ‘high profile’ stabbings such as the murder of teenager Brianna Ghey — and looked up ‘busiest beaches’ as he plotted his crime. He wanted to know how it would feel to kill someone and what kind of fame it would bring him.
Tutors at The University of Greenwich told the court that he had shown a ‘degree of specific interest in matters that were not related to the subject of his lectures’ and ‘plied’ them with questions relating to forensics, DNA, self-defence, and policing methods.
Academic Lisa-Maria Reiss told jurors Saadi asked her questions on ‘how to get away with murder’ and asked ‘how often’ a self-defence argument would ‘go through’ if a ‘person was attacked first’.
Saasi will return to Winchester Crown Court on March 25th 2025 in the meantime he remains remanded in custody in prison. I will of course revisit this story once he is sentenced.
Until then as always, thank you for taking the time to read this and please offer me a tip or buy me a coffee if you can.
I will be happy to hear from you to discuss this case or to look at any other UK true crime and encourage you to get in touch.
lolly.truecrime@gmail.com
or
Coldcaseinvestigations@proton.me
See you again soon
