The Bucket List Murder - Aaron Pajich

mic testing, and it made the best splat sound. And then so I was laughing, and I gave it to Nicole so she could throw it in my face and then she made the splat sound and she was laughing. It was it was a great way.

no reason to stop, no reason to look twice. Now, House number twenty two zat comfortably within that normal space. It was a modest brown brick house with a small front yard and a narrow driveway, indistinguishable from the others that lined the street. There were no signs that would suggest anything out of the ordinary here. It was the sort of place people passed every single day without ever

registering it at all. Now, later, after everything came to light on this story, some neighbors would try to remember if they had noticed anything strange. Most, in fact, hadn't. The house hadn't drawn attention. It just simply blended in perfectly. The most noticeable feature was the presence of security cameras mounted around the exterior of the home, which were in place to help protect motorcycles that were kept on the property. Nothing about that house suggested that it would soon become

the focus of a homicide investigation. Now, in the morning of June thirteenth, twenty sixteen, eighteen year old Aaron Pageech walked through the gate and into number twenty too without any hesitation. Aaron was a bit of a small individual for his age, and he was quiet and unfailingly polite. You see, he lived with autism and was on that spectrum, something that kind of shaped how he understood the world around him and people that were in it. He was

trusting by nature. He never assumed the worst in others because the worst has never been part of how he related to them. He loved computers and video games and fixing things that didn't work, so when someone asked him for help with something technical, he rarely said no. Helping to him, you know, it just made him feel useful, capable, and included. That morning, he believed he was doing exactly that,

helping someone he knew install software on a computer. The invitation came from someone familiar, someone he'd known for years, in fact, so there was no reason that he shouldn't be able to trust this person. He arrived expecting a normal visit with a short task and then a try home. Aaron had no way of knowing that this was the last place that he would ever go. When he didn't return home that day, his phone went unanswered and messages

weren't returned. People told themselves there were explanations for this, that he simply stayed out longer than planned, or he forgot to check in, that he would turn up soon enough, But as the hours stretched into days, a missing person's report was filed and police began their work following the last confirmed movements before he went missing. That day, phone records were checked, CCTV footage was reviewed, Names and locations were you know, gone over, and slowly, inevitably, the same

address began to surface. It was on Broaton Way and when police showed up to number twenty two, there was still no certainty, just details that didn't quite sit right. Explanations they were beginning to you know, be given. They felt thin. And in the backyard after a search, something stood out. The backyard was recently altered. There was a section of concrete that looked new, even rushed. After a week of Erin's disappearance, officers returned to this house, this

time with forensic teams. The concrete was broken apart in the search, and what police uncovered there would change the case entirely. Because this was not a disappearance, This was not an accident. What investigators were beginning to uncover was something far colder, a killing that was anticipated, a killing that was discussed and prepared for long before Aaron even

stepped through the front gates. Of that home. This is when a quiet house on an unremarkable street became the setting for a murder that should never have happened in the first place. Now it all began on June thirteenth, twenty sixteen, in Rockingham, Western Australia. This Monday morning didn't feel special. It didn't have a bunch of bad weather in the forecast, or any sort of urgency or anything

that would later stand out. It was simply just another quiet start to the week, the kind of morning where people were heading to work, grabbing coffee and thinking of nothing more than what they had ahead of them, or perhaps maybe not even thinking much, but instead shutting their brains down, going into that autopilot mode in preparation for that workday. Amongst all the people and normal lives, there

was Aaron Prajch. He was eighteen years old and living a small, predictable life, the kind that thrives on routine.

people simply made sense to him. It was who he was, and if you could help anyone, then why not.

Shame on me. So the person starts recoiling and not trusting so much anymore because they feel that it's their fault when it's not.

vocational studies and through her son as well. He was kind of friends with them. They shared a love of video games and gamed a little bit. Now, Trudy asked Aarin if he could come over and help install some software on her computer, then afterwards they could play video games. Right Adrian overheard this part of the conversation. There were

no red flags at all. It was casual, and when Aaron hung up, she agreed to drive him to Rockingham Center, where Trudy said that she was going to pick him up just before ten o'clock that morning, Adrian dropped Aaron off at the shop and watched him walk away, carrying his iPad with him. Now this, unfortunately, was the last time she would ever see him. Security cameras later showed Aaron waiting in the car parking lot, standing calmly, exactly

where he said he'd be. Rockingham Center was already busy by that time. Cars were moving in and out of the car park, people crossed between shops, and nothing about the scene suggested that it would later become a very crucial piece of a murder investigation. Aaron waited here just like he said he would. He stood near the parking

law holding his iPad, very calm and very patient. There was no signs of anxiety because to him this was just another chance to help with a computer problem, maybe spend some time gaming afterwards with people that he knew. Security cameras captured the moment that would later be replayed again and again. A car pulled up. Two people were inside, Trudy Lennon and her roommate Gemma Lily. Aaron approached the vehicle and opened the door and simply got in the car,

then pulled away from the shopping center. And merged back into traffic. No one noticed that this happened in the intersection, It blended into the crowd of people in the cars. There was no reason that this should stand out, because for all intents and purposes, this was normal.

exchange in the busy parking lot. But to understand what happened to Erin, you first have to understand the two women that were in that car and the private world that they had built together behind the front door of a small unit in Aralia. Gemma Lily had arrived in Australia years earlier, carrying with her a past than never quite stayed behind her. See, she was originally from England and had moved to Perth as a teenager, eager for a fresh start. On the surface, she blended in rather easily.

She worked night shifts at a supermarket, spent time at a tattoo parlor, rode a motorcycle and lived quietly in the southern suburbs. But beneath that ordinary exterior was a long standing fixation on violence. From a young age, Gemma had been drawn to horror films, serial killers, and stories built around suffering and control. She wrote obsessively, creating a fictional character named Sos, a character who wasn't just a villain, but also a kind of an alter ego for her,

a powerful, feared, and admired one. Now, over time, Sos became more more than a character on a page and became something that she talked about, referenced, and even embodied. Now. Trudy Lenin came into Jemma's life in twenty sixteen. She was older, a mother of three, and studying at Vocational College, which is where she met Erin. Trudy had spent years on the edge of stability, struggling financially, navigating failed relationships,

and seeking connection wherever she could find it. She was also deeply involved in BDSM communities, where she took into a submissive role under the name Corvina. Now, if you don't know, BDSM stands for bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism. Now, this is consensual sexual practices which involved things like roleplay, dynamics centered around power, exchange, control restraints, that sort of thing. It's very intense sensations.

It's typically summed up under simple sayings like whips and chains. Let's put it that way. Now, these two women connected quickly and what began as a casual friendship turned rather intense in a matter of weeks. They shared interests, secrets, and eventually fantasies that moved far beyond anything healthy or abstract. Their dynamics settled into something clearly defined. Gemma was a dominant figure and Trudy was eager to follow as a

bit more submissive. They even adopt their chosen names in real life, Sos and Corvina, reinforcing the roles that they had created for one another. Now, despite this dynamic, though, it's very important for the story that there is no there's no evidence to suggest that there was a sexual relationship between the two.

day to day. Yes, so when people role play in the sexuality part of it, they're kind of living that role play without getting into the sexual part, if that makes sense.

nice people. They're taking it that step further where for example, we're listening and talking about true crime right now, right, we're in this genre, we're in this niche. But then there's people who take it that step farther and they obsess over the perpetrators, the serial killers. There's that line in the sand that they're stepping over.

in something and going a little too deep. So what might have looked like all this themed decor was much more specific, and the house stopped feeling like a shared living space and began to feel while felt sealed off from the outside world. Conversations started to happen inside the walls, and they stayed there. Ideas were reinforced with each other, and the longer they lived together, the more the space well. It started to reflect their shared fixation to the outside world.

It was just that other suburban unit along the row of houses, but the women inside with them. It became a place where their fantasies and reality started to blur, where violent thoughts were encouraged instead of challenged, and where

boundaries were quietly disappearing. By late May, whatever line once separated fantasy from reality had quietly vanished online through text messages and such, Gemma and Trudy began speaking less like people imagining violence and talking about crime, that sort of stuff,

and more like people who were actually preparing for it. Instead, their conversations shifted in in tone, and they talked about killing not as a distant idea, but as something inevitable, something that needed to happen, like a morbid snowball building mass until it was undeniable. In one exchange, they told one another that they were ready, quote unquote. It wasn't framed as a joke or some sort of early conversation that may have been taken a different way. This was

instead a real statement of resolve. They were ready.

milestone rather than a crime. They were so disattached from reality. The preparation didn't stop at words, though. Between mid May and the days leading up to June thirteenth, the pair made several trips to hardware stores across Perth. On separate occasions. They purchased items that, on their own were very legal and didn't draw attention, things like a circular saw, actone

bleach cement and a large plastic barrel. They also bought an extraordinary amount of a hydrochloric acid, spreading the purchase across multiple stores, and altogether they purchased around one hundred liters of it.

one would catch on to what they had planned. Now. On June thirteenth, when the two women picked up Erin from the parking lot, the drive from rocking Ham Center to Aurelia didn't take very long, and when they pulled up outside the unit and brought in way. Nothing about the place looked unusual. There was a small sign on the gate that read Elm Street, which was a detail that meant nothing to Erin at the time. CCTV cameras installed outside the house. A later show of the three

of them entering together. Just after ten o'clock in the morning, Aaron walked through the gate on his own, carrying his iPad, following Gemma and Trudy inside. Now in that house, everything again, just like everything else so far today seemed normal. Erin was given a cup of coffee and directed towards the computer that needed his attention. He sat down and began his work, focusing on the task in front of him. Now, for those few minutes, nothing was wrong, but the window

between safety and violence was short lived. Police would later piece together the sequence using the homes outside, CCTV cameras, forensic evidence, and witness testimony, and what they found is that around ten thirty am, a camera outside the house captured Trudy leaving briefly, then re entering while holding a large knife in a sheath. Not long after that, the cameras on the home were switched off of course they were,

and what happened next unfolded extremely quickly. Investigators later determined that Erin was attacked from behind while he sat at the computer, focused on the task that he'd been invited there to do. In the blink of an eye, a wire ligature was wrapped around his neck from behind in an attempt to restrain him, but Erin fought back and the wire snapped during the struggle, leaving clear signs of

resistance on his hands. What followed was rapid and chaotic, held down and then stabbed viciously, sustaining fatal injuries to his neck and his chest. According to forensic evidence, the sequence unfolded in a matter of only minutes, and it began as an ordinary visit, but it ended quickly and fatally. Now, what came next wasn't panic in the way most people would expect. There was no frantic call for help or immediate attempt to flee, you know, or maybe a sudden

rush of what the fuck did I just do? Flooding into someone's mind. But instead, what followed was a series of decisions that suggested Gemma and Trudy believe they still had complete control over what they had done. You see. In the days leading up to June thirteenth, the two women had discussed dissolving a body using one hundred liters of hydrochloric acid.

or simply the reality of what they were facing. Investigators would later conclude that the acid was never used on Aaron's body. Instead, the women pivoted to something faster and far less effective. Aarin's lifeless body was dragged through the home, away from the main living area, out of sight. The goal was now not exactly disposal, not really anyways. It was now instead more about concealment. From there, the two dug a shallow grave in the backyard, only about thirty

centimeters deep or about twelve inches in total. Basically, it was just enough to hide what lay beneath. Concrete was then mixed and poured over this shallow grave, and bright red tiles were laid on top. It was uneven and hastily done. The work was amateurish at best. It looked rushed and obvious to anyone who knew what they were looking for. But at the time, the women were confident it would be enough, and they thought that they were getting away with murder, just like they talked about.

other spots of potential blood. And you know, the efforts that they tried to put into this to erase what had happened. It was sloppy. It was incomplete. Like you have a chunk of carpet missing cut out and you just move a couch over it, for example, like really, like, no one's going to notice that?

Erin was not someone who disappeared without explanation. He kept very close track of his schedule and stayed in regular contact with the people around him, and he almost never turned off his phone. He liked routine, he liked stability, and this was not that. The following morning, after still hearing nothing from him, his landlady, Adrian reid Well, tried one last time to reach him, and the call went

straight to voicemail, which alone is unusual. Aaron's phone was rarely out of reach and Well he was known for answering very quickly. As the hours passed and repeated attempts went unanswered, it was June fourteenth was still no sign of Erin that police were notified and a missing person's report was filed, so it was the next day.

think you have an invisible trail or not. It's ridiculous. And we just thought they were good.

part of the story was checked out. Phone records even showed the last answered call on Aaron's phone had come from Trudy Lennin on the morning of June thirteenth, so it's not like they didn't just try and hide a phone number. Even it was very easily tracked. Oh that's the person who contacted him. Go to the parking lot in the CCTV footage, Oh, there she is. There's her car, there's her license plate. Where are they going to her house to help with the computer? Gotcha gone? Like it was,

they tracked her so fast. So obviously that CCTV footage, like I said, filled in the next gap heading you know, over to that home. Cameras captured Aaron waiting in the car parking lot being picked up with Trudy and Gemma in the passenger seat. The footage showed nothing unusual, Aaron willingly going in the car and being driven away, So they simply followed that evidence to where it led, which

was the house on Broughton Way in Aurelia. When officers first stopped in at this address, both the women there told the officers that Aaron had visited briefly, had worked on the computer, and then left on his own. Now the statement and timeline that they were given didn't sit right with investigators. Aaron's phone had gone silent after that morning, his belongings hadn't resurfaced, and every verified movement after rocking him center pointed back to the very same place that address.

So by June twentieth, police returned to the Aralia property, no longer treating it as just another address in a missing person's inquiry. This time they were prepared to look closer, not just of what the women were saying and what they were telling police, they wanted to see what the house itself would reveal. So by that point, Aaron had been missing for a full week and investigators were no longer working on an assumption, you know, that he'd wandered

off or lost contact, something like that. Something was clearly wrong. The evidence had narrowed the timeline, narrowed the location, and narrow the list of people who had last seen him alive. So now entering inside this house under a search warrant, officers searched carefully, noting details that seemed insignificant days earlier. Then the attention shifted outside. The backyard was small and enclosed.

It was bordered by fencing and was partially paved, but one section immediately stood out, a square of freshly laid concrete covered with bright red tiles that sat awkwardly against the other older pavement. The workmanship on it was extremely crude and uneven, noticeably different from the surrounding area, not

only that it looked very new and rushed. At first, the women offered explanations, you know, just renovations and repairs, nothing unusual to see here sort of thing, But the timing clearly didn't sit right, and neither did the haste of the work. Police left the property that night, but they didn't walk away from it. They made sure that they had cordoned it off, and they returned hours later with a forensic team prepared to dig up that concrete

to check underneath it. As the tiles were lifted and the concrete was broken apart, the smell reached them first beneath the slab, less than a foot below the surface, wrapped in plastic in a drop sheet, Aaron Pajech's body was slowly uncovered in that backyard. The discovery confirmed what investigators had begun to suspect but hoped not to find that Erin never left that house, that he'd been killed there and hidden beneath this concrete.

roughly cut missing square from the carpet. It was an odd detail on its own, but taken alongside what has already been uncovered. It pointed very clearly at an attempt to clean up beneath furniture and rugs. Forensic testing revealed bloodstains consistent with violent assault as well. This investigators concluded was likely where Erin had been attacked. Elsewhere in the house, though the findings were even more disturbing. One room had

been deliberately sealed off from the rest and inside. When they entered, they found that the floor was freshly tiled, the walls were lined with blue tarps, and there were tools knives of various sizes, bone saws, scalpels, a machete, bleach, and a large plastic tub. A gurney stood against one wall. A towel and a mop were nearby. The setup was crudely clinical and chillingly obvious on its purpose. This was a murder room.

there was the CCTV system. See, Gemma had installed motion activated cameras around the exterior of the property to protect her motorcycles. Those same cameras captured evidence that would become very central to this case and will be repeated many times. The footage showed Erin entering the house with both Gemma and Trudy on the morning of June thirteenth. Another clip, timestamped shortly afterwards, showed Truly leaving and re entering the

house holding that large knife in a sheath. Then, as I mentioned already, not long after, the cameras were manually switched off. What the system did not record is just as important as what it did. There was no footage of Aaron ever leaving the property. Now digital evidence added another layer to the story too. Messages exchanged between the two women in the weeks before Aaron's death revealed a

clear escalation from fantasy to intent. They spoke openly about being ready, about a first kill, about blood and control. The language was very direct, mutual, and time specific. These weren't abstract ideas, jokes or writing exercises. They were real. With the forensic evidence mounting, police separated both the women, Gemma and Trudy, and began formal interviews with both of them. Up to that point, both women had maintained a version of events that painted Aaron's visit as very brief and

rather uneventful. Now face with what had been uncovered in the house and the backyard, those stories soon began to change. Gemma was adamant that she had nothing to do with aaron death. She told investigators that after Aarin arrived and began working on the computer, she went into another room and fell asleep conveniently.

violent struggle ensued. Trudy claimed that she did not deliver the fatal blows, but she did admit to helping clean up and conceal the body afterwards. The problem for both women, though, was that their statements conflicted one another, and also the evidence conflicted their statements too.

But that's not where the evidence stops, because there's also a coworker. See. Five days after Erin disappeared, before his body was found, Jemma spoke to a male colleague at the supermarket where she worked. According to his later testimony, she told him that she had quote finally done it end quote. She described coming up behind a victim with a garat explained that it hadn't gone as planned and that she had needed help finishing the job.

it all became extremely clear. Each woman attempted to minimize their own role while placing the responsibility on the other. Neither could explain the planning, the shopping trips, the prepared room, or the messages discussed as a quote first kill, and most importantly, neither could account for why Aaron never left the house alive. When the trial began in October of twenty seventeen at the Supreme Court of Western Australia, the case against Gemma, Lily and Trudy Lenin was already heavy

with detail. Over the course of five weeks, jurors were asked to follow a precise timeline, one that showed not just what happened to Erin, but also specifically how it had been set in motion. The prosecution's case in this trial walked the jury through the relationship between the two women and the escalation of their online conversations, and then

the purchases made in the weeks before June thirteen. Hardware stores, receipts, chemical purchases, CCTV footage were all introduced piece by piece, each one reinforcing the idea that the killing was planned and not impulsive whatsoever. The most confronting moment came when the jury was shown the CCTV footage outside the house, showing Erin entering, then less than a half an hour later, Trudy leaving and re entering the house carrying the large knife.

Then the sudden absence of any further footage as the cameras were specifically turned off from inside. Text messages were read aloud in court, as well, messages about being ready, messages of blood and a first kill. Messages sent after the murder, even that spoke of empowerment and exhilaration rather than shock and regret. The defense attempted to pull the women apart from each other and defend themselves as individuals.

Jemma's lawyer leaned heavily on her claim that she was asleep during the attack, arguing there was no direct evidence placing the knife in her hand at all. Trudy's defense acknowledged her role in luring Erin into the home and helping hide the body, but they argued that she had not intended for him to be killed and that she had been dominated by Jemma. The jury also heard testimony from Gemma's coworkers, including the man who said she confessed

days before Aaron's body was even discovered. They saw photographs of the crime scene, the cut carpet, the prepared room, the shallow grave, and they were shown how the women's stories shifted as evidence closed in around them. After closing arguments, the jury retired to deliberate. In total, it took the jury less than three hours to return with their verdict on both of the women. Both Gemma Lily and Trudy

Lenin were found guilty of murder. When the verdict was read aloud and the words echoed across the court room, there was no visible reaction from either defendant. On February twenty eighth, twenty eighteen, nearly four months after the verdicts were delivered, Gemma and Trudy returned to the court for sentencing. By then, the facts of the case were no longer in dispute. What remained was simply the court's assessment of motive, responsibility and the weight of what they'd done. Justice Stephen

Hall did not soften his words. He described the murder of Aaron Pagech as morally repugnant, making it clear that this was not a crime driven by anger, desperation, or even fear. It was, in his words, a killing carried out for pleasure, the result of a deliberate pursuit of gratification at another person's expense. The judge acknowled that it was not possible to determine which one with certainty inflicted

the fatal wounds, but that uncertainty did not matter. The evidence showed that both had intended for Aaron to die that day, and that both had played essential roles in luring him, in attacking him, and concealing his body. So in the eyes of the court, responsibility was shared equally. Justice Hall pointed directly to the messages exchanged between Gemma and Trudy before and after the murder. They showed anticipation

beforehand and complete lack of remorse afterwards. There was no indication, he said, that either woman regretted what they had done or felt any empathy for Aaron or his family. Instead, they derived satisfaction from the suffering they caused. As a result, each woman was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of twenty eight years before being eligible for parole, which was one of the longest sentences handed down in Western Australia at the time. In the public gallery, Aaron's family

listened in silence. His stepmother, Veronica Desmond, spoke to the media outside the court after the hearing. She said the sentence would never bring Erin back, but she hoped the women lived long enough to fully understand what they had taken. Erin's parents echoed the same sentiment, relief that justice had been done, paired with grief that would never ease. For Jemma,

sentencing was not the end. She maintained her innocence and later launched an appeal, insisting that she'd been wrongfully convicted, but that appeal would ultimately fail. For Trudy, prison would bring consequences of its own. In the months that followed, the fallout from Erin Pagch's murder continued to ripple outwards through the prison system, even through the public, and through

the lives of people that were left behind. On New Year's Day of twenty eighteen, the weeks after the guilty verdict, Trudy Lenin was attacked inside Bandyip Women's Prison while waiting in line for medication. Another inmate approached her from behind and poured a container of boiling water over her shoulders and upper body. Trudy suffered serious burns to more than twenty percent of her body and spent weeks in hospital, including time and intensive care. Another inmate standing nearby was

also injured as a result. This inmate later told the court she was disgusted by Trudy's crime and had been triggered after seeing her laughing with other inmates. The judge rejected any suggestion that the attack was justified, stating plainly that vigilante punishment had no place in the justice system, and they were sentenced to five more years in prison for the attack. Now this attack reignited public anger over the case. Some expressed sympathy for Trudy's injuries, while others

openly celebrated them. The reaction highlighted the raw emotion that still surrounded Erin's death and the discomfort many felt with how neatly justice can end on paper while pain continues in reality. Meanwhile, reports later emerged that Gemma had formed a romantic relationship with another convicted murderer while in custody. Prison authorities eventually moved both women to separate facilities, citing safety concerns and management issues. For Aaron's family, none of

it mattered in the way headlines suggested it might. Appeals, prison attacks, and romance and media attention did nothing to change the central truth of this case, and that is that Erin was gone. He was ripped away from this world in a violent and nonsensical act. No development after the verdict altered the fact or softened its impact. What remained was Erin Pajeech himself, a young man too often reduced to a footnote in the story of his own death.

Erin was eighteen years old when he was killed. He was gentle, trusting, and openly kind in a way that made him vulnerable to a world that does not always treat vulnerability with care. He lived with autism spectrum disorder, something that shaped how he saw people and how he moved through this world, but it didn't shape him. Those who knew him described him as childlike, not in a dismissive way, mind you, but in the sense that he

believed in others easily. He assumed good intentions. He didn't look for danger, because danger had never been a part of how he understood friendship and relationships. He loved computers, he loved video games. He could focus for hours on technical problems when most people found these things boring or confusing. In those spaces, he was confident and capable. He had a quiet intelligence that didn't demand attention, but was always there.

Teachers remembered him as someone who needed protecting, someone they instinctively looked out for. Remembered him as loyal and enthusiastic, someone who just wanted to belong. On the morning he disappeared, Aaron thought he was doing something ordinary, helping install software, spending time with people that he trusted. There was no dramatic decision, no moment of hesitation, no warning that the path that he was stepping onto would be his last.

That is what makes this case so unsettling, not just how it ended, but how quietly it began. After his death, hundreds attended vigils and memorials in his name, people who had known him briefly, people who had known him well, people who'd never known him at all, but were shaken by what had happened to him. His stepmother later said something that stayed with many who heard it, that Erin seemed to have had more friends and death than he

ever did in life. It wasn't meant bitterly. It was a fact he struggled socially, as many people who on the spec do. In the end, he had so many people by his side willing to be there for him, being a friend. What she said she said with a heavy heart and sadness, But it was also said with love and gratitude for those who came to pay their respects for Erin. Aaron Page did not seek that attention, nor any for that matter. He did not chase notoriety.

He did not want to be remembered for anything extraordinary. He simply wanted what we all want, connection, friendship, and a place to feel safe. The story of his murder is so hard for many to accept because Erin was not killed due to who he was. No, he was killed because someone wanted to feel power to them. He was a checkmark on a page filled with a list

of cruel acts. And that's why his name matters. Because when everything else has stripped away, the planning, the evidence, the trial and sentences, the story does not belong to the people who took his life and what they aspired to be. It belongs to Aaron. And that's a story of Aaron Lee Page sweetman, who that's.