'I'm setting you free': Chance Seneca's chilling words to Grindr date he tried to kill Jeffrey Dahmer-style
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised.
LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA: A Louisiana man was sentenced to 45 years in prison after he allegedly kidnapped and attempted to murder a gay teen Jeffery Dahmer style. Suspect Chance Seneca, 21, and victim Holden White, then 18, reportedly met on Grindr and after a month-long chat, the pair decided to meet.
Senaca lured White to his isolated Lafayette home, where he strangled him before stripping him naked and putting his body in a tub. Horrified White witnessed his wrist slit open while Seneca allegedly told him, "let go … I’m setting you free." However, Senaca was unable to murder White after he reportedly called the police confessing to his crime saying, “I really f**ked my life up tonight."
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What really happened?
Chance Seneca allegedly spent months trying to perfect a murder-kidnapping similar to the infamous serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer who targeted gay men, killed them, and ate their remains. Recalling the horrifying night when White met Seneca on June 19, 2020, he said, "Everything seemed fine.” He detailed the assault and said, "He left the room to get something, and then he came back,” he told KLFY. “And when he came back, he had come up behind me and that’s when he wrapped a cord around my throat.”
Seneca reportedly pulled out a handgun forcing the victim into handcuffs. He repeatedly stabbed, strangled, and battered White until he believed the 18-year-old had died. Police claim he "attempted to dismember him," reported the source. “The next thing I remember I was in the bathtub, and he was slicing open my left wrist,” hazy White said. “I was saying my final words to myself which were just, ‘Stay calm.’”
However, after the suspect himself called the police and confessed his actions, police found Seneca smoking inside the house. They found White’s body, whose wrists were “slit to the bone” and was “severely injured," with “strangulation marks” on his neck. He pleaded guilty to his crimes in September 2022 and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
'Keep him in prison!'
Following the assault, White claimed his goal in life is to keep Seneca locked in jail as much as possible and to avoid an assault like this to happen to another person. “My one goal that I would say would be to keep him in prison, and then number two, to let everyone know if you have a traumatic experience happen to you, it’s okay to be sad about it but you need to not stay sad the whole time,” said White.
“The facts of this case are truly shocking, and the defendant’s decision to specifically target gay men is a disturbing reminder of the unique prejudices and dangers facing the LGBTQ+ community today,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.