Emma Collins thought she was just defending herself. What started as a heated argument with her roommate spiraled out of control. One push. One fall. One scream. And suddenly, it was over.
At first, she told herself it was an accident. It had to be. The police hadn’t come yet, no one had seen—surely it wasn’t her fault.
Then came the memories. The way she had planned her “alibi” earlier in the day. The text messages she deleted, the careful moves she’d made to avoid suspicion.
And that’s when the horrifying truth hit her: she hadn’t just acted in a moment of anger. She had thought ahead. She had planned it.
Emma’s stomach sank. Her heart pounded. The line she had crossed wasn’t blurred—it was crystal clear. She had committed first-degree murder.
“I kept replaying it over and over,” she later said. “I couldn’t deny it. I had done it. And nothing could change that.”
Experts say that realization—the split second a person understands they are legally and morally responsible for premeditated murder—is a moment of complete psychological collapse. For Emma, that moment came alone, in the middle of her living room, long before the law caught up with her.
