41yo ‘zombie-like’ man convicted of killing girlfriend in hot tub after court hears chilling testimony

A Canadian couple who moved to Scotland ended up in a brutal case of femicide when 41-year-old Aren Pearson stabbed his girlfriend, Claire Leveque, 25 times in the neck and chest. As the case unfolded, Pearson’s mother’s witness account of his zombie-like behavior on the day of the killing was key to his conviction.

According to the BBC, the couple moved to Scotland in 2023, and Pearson is believed to have been abusive even then. Police now describe their relationship as “violent and controlling.” When Pearson first took the stand, he pleaded not guilty and claimed that his girlfriend had stabbed herself multiple times after catching him talking to her father about her drinking problem. It’s a strategy that would sound absurd if it hadn’t already succeeded elsewhere — such as in Philadelphia.

But regardless of what Pearson later said, the night of the murder was too visceral and had too many witnesses for him to “successfully” change his story. The couple were in Sandness on Feb. 11, 2024, visiting Pearson’s mother. It’s unclear what triggered Pearson’s fatal outburst, but Judge Lord Arthurson wasn’t too interested in his motive, describing his actions as “feral butchery and exceptional depravity.”

That night, Pearson reportedly walked into his mother’s kitchen covered in blood. Much like Tyler Robinson’s parents, she immediately knew that the authorities needed to be called. Pearson apparently tried to stab himself, drink brake fluid, and drive his car into the water to stage a struggle. But his mother had already contacted the police, telling them her son looked like a “zombie” and that she had seen Leveque’s body stuffed in her hot tub, which was filled to the brim with red water.

Later, when Pearson was taken to a doctor and asked why he killed Leveque, he replied, “I’ve been trying to get rid of her for a while.” In his closing statement, the judge told Pearson, “Your much younger girlfriend — your victim in this case — was isolated and vulnerable in Sandness.” He continued, “You have sought to blame Ms. Leveque for your own assaults against her, and you have, in a grave insult to her memory and to her bereaved family, put forward a defense that Ms. Leveque inflicted these catastrophic injuries upon herself — a defense that the jury has unanimously rejected.”

Pearson was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend. He must serve a mandatory sentence of 25 years before becoming eligible for parole. From the look of his defense, Pearson still has a long way to go in his rehabilitation.

Leveque’s friend from Canada, Hope Saunders, told reporters, “It’s sickening that someone so bright and so young and so beautiful could have her life taken away from her in the flash of a moment like that.”

Her father, Clint Leveque, also refuted the claim that he had ever had a misunderstanding with his daughter. He shared that Claire was a typical daddy’s girl who would text him goodnight every night. Clint added that her sweet demeanor would immediately discredit anyone who tried to say anything negative about her.