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Teenage strangler’s chilling Google history predicted online date’s death: court

The disturbing search history of a killer teen who strangled an online date has been revealed in court, with Jamie Lee Dolheguy making a chilling prediction after she hatched a sex plot ruse involving “choke play”.

Jamie Lee Dolheguy Picture: AAP Image/James Ross
Jamie Lee Dolheguy Picture: AAP Image/James Ross

A killer teen who strangled a man she met online made a chilling prediction about the death just hours before meeting him for the first time.

As she sat waiting for Maulin Rathod to arrive at her home on July 24 last year, 18-year-old Jamie Lee Dolheguy googled: “I’m going to kill someone tonight for fun.”

It was the first of three internet searches Ms Dolheguy made that night.

She followed that first search by searching “I’m going to kill someone tonight help” and “I will kill someone tonight, I want to commit murder”.

Shortly after Mr Rathod, 24, arrived at her Sunbury home, Ms Dolheguy strangled him with a USB cord.

She then phoned police and confessed to killing him.

Ms Dolheguy is now on trial in the Supreme Court where she has pleaded not guilty to a single count of murder.

Her lawyer Sharon Lacy told the 13-person jury today that there was no dispute Ms Dolheguy killed Mr Rathod.

Jamie Lee Dolheguy’s chilling search history was revealed.
Jamie Lee Dolheguy’s chilling search history was revealed.
The teenager killed her date with a USB cord.
The teenager killed her date with a USB cord.

But she said she had no murderous intent.

Ms Lacy said her client suffered a childhood marred by extreme abuse and complex psychiatric difficulties.

“Ms Dolheguy is so damaged, her mind was in such chaos, you couldn’t be satisfied she had murderous intent,” she told the jury.

The court heard Ms Dolheguy had been under care since she was 10 years old.

She presented with such complex psychiatric problems that she was housed in a purpose-built home under the watch of two carers 24 hours a day.

But an executive decision in February 2018 meant Ms Dolheugy was left to live alone.

Hours before she killed Ms Rathod, Ms Dolheguy messaged a support worker to say she had forgotten her medication and was worried about the effect that could have.

She was advised to put her “emergency plan” into action.

Ms Dolheugy met Mr Rathod using the online dating app Plenty of Fish.

Her dating profile told potential matches that she was dating for the first time, suffered from borderline personality disorder and suicidal ideations, and had extreme sexual fetishes.

On the night she met Mr Rathod, she invited him to take part in sexual “choke play”.

Jamie Lee Dolheguy smiles as she arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria for her trial. Picture: AAP Image/James Ross
Jamie Lee Dolheguy smiles as she arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria for her trial. Picture: AAP Image/James Ross

“She set upon him under the ruse of a sex plot,” crown prosecutor Patrick Bourke said in his opening address.

“The accused invited this man to her house, and she informed the intent to kill him before he got there,” he said.

“And, she did just that. She killed him. And she did so, at least in part, under this ruse … that they were going to engage in some consensual sexual activity that would involve choke play. That’s what he thought was going on.”

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“So what reason did she have? It’s a little unclear, but you’ll hear some evidence about her anger during the course of the trial.”

Mr Bourke said there was no onus on the prosecution to prove a motive.

“Sometimes there’s no reason. But it doesn’t matter,” he said.

“The killing of this man, by the accused, was her desire. That’s what she wanted to do. She acted upon her desire to kill him.

“Her intention at the time, was the only thing in dispute in this trial. Did she have murderous intent?”

“He was in the wrong place, with the wrong person, at the wrong time. That’s it.”

The trial, before Justice Peter Almond, continues.

shannon.deery@news.com.au

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/teenage-stranglers-chilling-google-history-predicted-online-dates-death/news-story/a8ccb56d7b787748dd487a9d7b0cdd5b