Jennifer Paxton was a vulnerable woman who thought a friend was kindly offering her a place to stay – but she was stepping into hell and a trap that she never escaped from
Jennifer Gail Paxton faced plenty of challenges in her life. After being raised by her grandmother, who she regarded as a mother figure, she went down the wrong path. She developed addictions to drugs and alcohol and sometimes turned to prostitution to fund her habits.
She had seven children over a period of nine years but, due to her unstable lifestyle, they were all taken into care. While she stayed in touch with some family members, she lived in homeless camps in Knoxville, Tennessee.
But Jennifer was loved by her family and she had a talent for making people laugh with her fun personality. She tried to get her life back on track and accepted food and offers of showers from her loved ones. She would visit her grandmother each month when her social security cheque arrived, but in December 2019, she stopped going.
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Her family were worried and put posts on social media asking if anyone had seen her, but there was no trace of her. It wasn’t unusual for Jennifer, 36, to disappear at times, but it was around Christmas – a time when she would normally make contact with family and they would want to see her.
The final sighting
The last time a family member saw Jennifer, she was walking across a carpark near The Pint House bar in Knoxville. They noted she looked thinner. Jennifer would sometimes go into the bar and use the bathroom – and chat to the chef who worked there, Sean Finnegan.
Finnegan, now 57, would joke to colleagues that he had two girlfriends – Becky and Jenny. He was referring to his much younger girlfriend Rebecca Dishman, who was 22 at the time, as well as Jennifer.
Finnegan and Dishman had been in a relationship for a few months and she was living with him at his apartment in nearby Oak Ridge, with his mother who was in ill health and has since died. It would later be noted that Dishman was submissive to Finnegan and that played out in their sex life.
Finnegan was key to Jennifer’s disappearance. He likely offered her food and somewhere to stay. Perhaps the fact he had a girlfriend made Jennifer agree. But it was a trap. She went to his home and never left.
Jennifer suffered unimaginable torment at the hands of Finnegan and Dishman. She was chained to a bed, restrained with a dog collar and her arms bound with zip ties. She was repeatedly raped by Finnegan, beaten with a baseball bat and denied food and medical attention.
It’s unclear how long Jennifer had to endure the abuse for – but it would have been three or four days. Then, she was slowly strangled to death. Her body was wrapped in binbags and put in a freezer. Her bones had to be broken in order to cram her body into the tight space.
After death, Jennifer’s body was mutilated. Part of one of her breasts was cut off and her nose. Finnegan would open the stand up freezer and view her body for sexual gratification for months after her death.
In August 2020, Dishman confided in a neighbour that she wanted to leave Finnegan and she told them about Jennifer. The neighbour informed the police, who got a search warrant. Finnegan panicked and took Jennifer’s body out of the freezer and put it under the bed as he tried to clean the appliance. Despite his efforts to remove any evidence from the property and Jennifer’s body with cleaning products, when officers arrived it was clear something sinister had happened. Finnegan and Dishman were both arrested.
Shifting the blame
Jennifer’s family were informed she’d been dead for around nine months and that her death had been deeply traumatic. They were heartbroken.
When questioned, Finnegan laid the blame on his girlfriend. He said he had brought Jennifer back for sex and Dishman had killed her. “I didn’t know what to do – I got scared,” he said. “I did not kill that girl.”
He said that after he’d had sex with Jennifer, she’d gone for a shower then went downstairs. He alleged he’d raced back to find Dishman had hit Jennifer with a baseball bat.
“I don’t know what got into her that day,” he said. He said they cleaned up the blood from the attack and then Dishman restrained Jennifer on the bed. Finnegan said he returned from work on another day and found Jennifer dead. But why hadn’t he gone to the police? Why had he kept her body in the freezer?
Finnegan was charged with murder, aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping and abuse of a corpse. He faced the death penalty.
Dishman was charged too but in 2023, she made a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. She pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, plus 50 years, in exchange for her testimony against Finnegan.
At Finnegan’s trial last year, the defence said that while he and Dishman lived a lifestyle that was different to most, the jury needed to focus on who was guilty. They said Finnegan was out at work late into the night and it was Dishman who was with Jennifer during those days. They said she had more of a motive to kill Jennifer.
Dishman testified and said Finnegan had strangled Jennifer with a string over an extended period of time – and even took breaks to have a cigarette. It was a particularly horrific detail for Jennifer’s loved ones to hear. Finnegan was found guilty of first-degree murder in August 2024.
After the verdict, a statement was read from Jennifer’s grandmother. “Losing her destroyed my heart,” she said. “She was my everything.”
”We didn’t just lose Jennifer, she was taken from us,” added her cousin, Beverly Jeffers.
The court heard how Jennifer’s mum Patty had since died. Her final moments were filled with tears as she questioned whether she could have done more to prevent what happened to Jennifer.
At the sentencing, Finnegan was given the death penalty. The judge said, “It is therefore ordered that you should be put to death by lethal injection.”