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Man Gets 50 Years for Luring Teen with Disney Cups To Commit “One of the Worst” Murders
Authorities responded to Arthur Jensen's Illinois address after neighbors reported screams coming from inside the home. Jensen told responders, "There's a girl inside, and I strangled her."
The fate of an Illinois man who confessed to a teenage girl’s strangulation death has been sealed.
Arthur Jensen, 53, was sentenced Monday to 50 years minus time served (about three and a half years) for the 2019 homicide of Adara Bunn, 17, per a press release from the Iroquois County State’s Attorney’s Office e-mailed to Oxygen.com.
According to CBS Central Illinois affiliate WCIA, the high school student was strangled to death on Aug. 5, 2019, after showing interest in a set of Disney-brand cups at a garage sale at Jensen’s home in Sheldon, Illinois — just less than 100 miles south of Chicago.
State’s Attorney James Devine told the local Times-Republic the sentence fit what the state requested. Per the release, Jensen’s defense attorney, Lance C. Cagle, recommended a 30-year sentence for his client, which was ultimately rejected.
“The family afterwards [was] very relieved and glad that this process is done, as far as the court process,” said Devine.
Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Quinlan told People that the case was “one of the worst murder cases I have ever seen.”
Bunn and her mother reportedly stopped at Jensen’s rummage sale on Aug. 2, 2019, purchasing Pocahontas-themed cups. The teen returned the following Sunday, hoping to meet Jensen’s wife to inquire about more Disney-brand memorabilia, but the wife was away for her high school reunion, Quinlan told People.
Jensen, who was then packing the sale items with a friend, instructed Bunn to come back the next day.
Deputies with the Iroquois County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to Jensen’s W. Main Street residence at around 4:13 p.m., following reports of a “disturbance,” according to a press statement. Multiple local outlets, including Kankakee’s Daily Journal, cited a neighbor calling authorities upon hearing screams coming from Jensen’s house.
Police reports stated that once authorities arrived on the scene, Jensen said, “There’s a girl inside, and I strangled her.”
Bunn was found dead inside the home, and Jensen was arrested on the scene and charged with first-degree murder.
The results of a post-mortem examination published before Bunn was publicly identified listed the victim’s cause of death as “ligature strangulation.” Authorities did not publicly reveal whether Bunn was sexually assaulted, and a motive for the attack was never released.
Defense attorney Cagle tried to have his client’s on-site confessions barred from the trial, which took place from March 3 to March 9, 2023, according to the press release. Ultimately, the jury found him guilty on two counts of first-degree murder after just one and a half hours of deliberations, the Times-Republic reported.
Jensen is ordered to serve the entirety of the sentence, which was handed down by Circuit Court Judge Michael Sabol.
“This was a young girl about to enter her junior year in a couple of weeks,” Quinlan continued to People. “She was a straight-A student who was hoping to become a veterinarian.”
Bunn was a student at Milford High School who — according to her obituary — went by “Sissy” and “enjoyed reading, fishing, school, amongst other things.”
Times-Republic reports Jensen’s defense has already started the appeals process.
