A sadistic cat killer is facing life behind bars for murdering a stranger as part of a warped sexual fantasy.
Scarlet Blake, 26, targeted Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, as he walked home alone from a night out in Oxford in July 2021.
She led him to a secluded riverbank before hitting him on the head with a vodka bottle, strangling him and pushing him into the water to drown.
Blake, who is transgender, had a fixation with murder and killed for her ‘sexual gratification’, according to prosecutors.
The Weird Valentine’s Gift She Gave Her Girlfriend
The murder came four months after she filmed herself mutilating and dissecting a neighbour’s cat before putting its body in a blender as a Valentine gift to her girlfriend in the US.
Blake had been inspired by the Netflix show Don’t F*** with Cats, about a pet killer, and she grinned and ‘meowed’ as she tortured the animal during a sickening live-stream video.
She remained free for more than two years after Mr Carreno’s death and the case was blown open only when her now-former partner, a gun-obsessed trans escort, told police that she had confessed to the murder following a blazing row.
Verdict of Jury
A jury of five women and seven men yesterday reached a verdict of guilty to murder after deliberating for six hours following a trial lasting eight days. Blake will be sentenced on Monday.
Detectives said Blake had been convicted of a ‘barbaric and chilling’ crime, adding: ‘There can be no beginning to understanding this senseless act.’
Two years after his body was pulled from a secluded stretch of river popular with summer bathers, the investigation into Mr Carreno’s death was going nowhere until police received a phone call completely out of the blue that would lead them to Blake.
The Initial Ruling From Coroner
Even though the Thames Valley Police probe was officially still open, a coroner had concluded Mr Carreno had probably drowned while drunk.
Police appeals for the identity of a sinister figure in a military-style coat who was seen wandering the streets of Oxford with the Spanish engineer on the night of his death had yielded nothing.
It was only when detectives received that transatlantic call from a woman who claimed to know what had happened that the case could be solved.
Blake was so confident she had carried out the ‘perfect murder’ that she had boasted about it to her girlfriend.
But a blazing row between her and sex worker Ashlynn Bell – during which guns were pulled – led to police being tipped off about her confession.
EmmanuelsBlog know that the case rested on information provided by Ms Bell, who didn’t give evidence because prosecutors feared she would ruin their chance of a conviction.
Messages between the pair recovered by detectives showed a dark fascination with violence and death, with scarcely an exchange passing without reference to murder or self harm.
Photographs show that Ms Bell has a fearsome collection of military-grade weapons and equipment as well as a liking for Nazi memorabilia.
She also advertises herself on a website for trans prostitutes in Texas, where she charges $100 an hour for her services. Photographs on the site show her posing with an AK-47 assault rifle and wearing cat ears.
The pair met during the pandemic on Discord, a secretive online messaging platform. They joined an invite-only group dedicated to ‘artistically rendered gore’ in which users would trade in sickening self-harm images.
Some Incriminating Evidences Found on Her Phone
The messages between Blake and Ms Bell recovered by detectives showed them openly discussing killing, including one in which Blake said: ‘F*** I need blood, this is bad.’
In another, Ms Bell said the combat jacket Blake wore to kill Mr Carreno had a ‘serial killer musk’ after she had posted it to the US at her lover’s request. Ms Bell has not responded to requests for comment.
Photographs recovered from Blake’s phone included a collage of female serial killers, while another entitled ‘first date with me’ showed pictures of duct tape, a knife, rope and a gun.
When she was arrested, Blake stunned police by revealing she had an animal microchip implanted in her chest and said her details could be found in an online animal database. She insisted during questioning that she loves cats and hates animal abusers.
It was during one of the pair’s many exchanges that Blake couldn’t resist sharing details of how she killed Mr Carreno after targeting him as he sat alone in the early hours of the morning.
The Day She Murdered Carreno
The 30-year-old had been on a night out with colleagues on July 24, 2021 – the first Saturday night after Covid restrictions were eased.
While the rest of the country had, like Mr Carreno, flocked to pubs and bars to meet friends after months kept apart, predatory Blake went out that night looking for somebody to kill.
The daughter of two respected doctors, Blake’s arrogance was clear as she gave evidence at her trial. After killing the cat, she thought could get away with anything, including murder. And, for more than two years, she did.
Who Tipped Police Off?
But in April 2023 police received information from Ms Bell and were sent the combat jacket and sick photographs of a memorial to Mr Carreno that Blake had taken as a memento of her crime.
Detectives travelled to Colorado to interview her and Blake was arrested in August 2023.
The People She Blames
Throughout the trial Blake sought to blame anyone but herself – her parents for her mental health problems, her ex-girlfriend for ‘forcing her’ to kill a defenceless cat and, ultimately, an innocent man.
Blake moved to the UK from China when she was nine and came out as transgender three years later, using a number of different names since then.
She went by Alice Wang while at school, but told the trial that she doesn’t now as this person ‘sort of stopped existing’ one day.
Blake, who referred to herself as ‘us’ and ‘we’ during the trial, has used at least six different names, including Scarlet and Candy, who she said is ‘still here’. She is also known to have used pseudonyms to mask her identity when lurking in dark corners of the internet.
One of these – ‘Blood Moth’ – she explained is a metaphor for her obsession with blood and her attraction to damage like a moth is drawn to a flame. Ms Bell’s nickname was ‘Murder Mutt’.
What You Need to Know About Blake
Blake was brought up in the leafy Marston area of Oxford, where she lived in a £415,000 bungalow in a quiet cul-de-sac.
Her mother, Fang Chen, 60, is a former cardiac surgeon who is now a respected clinical research fellow at Oxford University. She attended the trial each day and showed no emotion as her daughter was found guilty.
Ms Chen came to the UK in 2002, first to London to study cardiology on a scholarship before taking a job in Oxford in 2006, around the time that Blake said she moved to the UK from China.
Her father, Henry, lives in China because of work but was present in court at the beginning of the trial.
Neighbours in Marston remember her as a ‘quiet child’ doted on by her parents. But that changed in her teens when she dropped out of Cherwell School in Oxford.
One neighbour said: ‘I did hear that she was bullied at school because she was a trans girl, and that led to her leaving halfway through the sixth form.
‘We used to see her with friends tinkering with cars in the garage. She was always very pleasant, but there were times when police would be called to the house. Her mum came here once to say she had been self-harming.’
Blake was in the army cadets while at school, and she wore a combat jacket as she stalked the streets looking for a victim on the night she killed Mr Carreno.
She came out as transgender when she was 12 and this caused a ‘strained’ relationship with her parents and ‘caused a very large emotional rift’.
Blake was given puberty blockers when she was 17 and also received hormone treatment from the age of 18 after a referral to the Tavistock NHS gender clinic. She is still receiving hormone replacement therapy but has been kept in a Category A men’s prison.
