A Louisiana man was indicted on March 18 for allegedly attempting to kidnap and murder gay men he met on the queer dating app Grindr.
Chance Seneca, 19, of Lafayette, faces hate crime, kidnapping, firearm, obstruction, and other charges related to an alleged scheme to kill queer men and eat their body parts, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
Last June, Seneca unsuccessfully tried to kidnap one man after engaging with him on Grindr, according to the indictment, but he didn’t stop there. He remained on Grindr and allegedly wound up capturing two other men. Authorities said the perpetrator attempted to hide the alleged plot by deleting messages to the victim of the attempted murder.
According to the indictment, which notes that Seneca attempted to murder one of these men because of his “gender and sexual orientation,” the accused perpetrator allegedly planned to dismember the victim and keep parts of his body as “trophies, mementos, and food.” Seneca had a gun and planned to use it to carry out his hate-driven attacks, authorities said.
According to the Associated Press, an unsealed affidavit notes that Seneca called the police — apparently during one of his attacks — and the officers who responded to the scene discovered 18-year-old Holden White in a bathtub with strangulation marks and “wrists slit to the bone.” White, who survived, described the gruesome attack he suffered in an interview with KATC, an ABC Affiliate station in Louisiana.
“It wasn’t just one swipe,” White said. “It was literally him sawing into my wrist and I was like screaming and crying in pain.”
He added, “This is a hate crime due to a fact that he made it a point to choose a gay man on a gay app. He made sure I was a gay man and then in the same breath, he also idolized Jeffery Dahmer. What Jeffery Dahmer did was he chose gay men and lured them back to his house, and he would kill them.”
A hearing in Seneca’s case has not been scheduled. The FBI is handling the investigation, and if convicted, he faces up to life in prison for the offenses.
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