Warrants: Raleigh man accused of stabbing wife to death fascinated with serial killers

Matthew James Phelps, 27, is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the Sept. 1 death of his wife, Lauren Hugelmaier Phelps, 29, in their Patuxent Drive home.

"I had a dream, and then I turn on the lights and she's dead on the floor," Matthew Phelps told a 911 dispatcher. "I have blood all over me, and there's a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it."

Matthew Phelps told the dispatcher he took too much Coricidin cough medicine the previous night to help him sleep.

According to an autopsy report, Lauren Phelps had been stabbed or slashed 123 times.

Police conducted searches of the couple's home, their cars, their phones and their social media accounts last fall, but the details were sealed for six months during the investigation. The applications for the warrants provide several new details in the case.

Matthew Phelps had an Instagram account, for example, in which he posted scenes from "American Psycho," which is about an investment banker who kills people indiscriminately. Phelps also posed as the main character in some of the posted photos, according to a warrant application, and "expressed interest to a friend regarding what it would be like to kill someone."

In an application to search a Matthew Phelps' iPhone, police said Lauren Phelps' family said the couple swapped texts and calls the night she was killed in which she was angry he was out late.

"Interviews suggest the couple was arguing over finances and that the victim was preparing to end the relationship," the application states.

Lauren Phelps' family also told police that Matthew Phelps "was spending more money than the couple made" and that his wife had taken "drastic steps" to curtail his spending, according to an application to search the couple's Facebook accounts.

The Phelpses had been married for less than a year when she was killed. She was an auditor at Quintiles, which runs drug trials for pharmaceutical companies, and he worked for Dunlap Lawn Service.

Police seized documents, phones, computers, videogame systems, and books from the home and a diary, handwritten notes and medication from the vehicles, according to search warrants.

Investigators also obtained warrants to take a sample of Matthew Phelps' blood to test it for any narcotics on the night of the stabbing and for a sample of his hair because Lauren Phelps was clutching some hair in her hand when paramedics found her body.