Man Charged In Grindr Attack Planned To Kidnap, Kill Other Gay Men: DOJ

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A southwest Louisiana man was charged with federal hate crime and kidnapping charges Thursday after prosecutors said the 19-year-old tried to kill and dismember one of three men he abducted after luring them using social media and the dating app Grindr.

Chance Joseph Seneca, 19, of Lafayette, was charged Thursday in what a Justice Department news release called “an overarching scheme to kidnap and murder” gay men.

According to the indictment, Seneca admitted he invited an 18-year-old he met on Grindr over to his father’s house with the intention of murdering and dismembering him. He intended to keep parts of a victim’s body as “mementos, trophies and food.”

The victim spent nearly a month in the hospital but has luckily recovered.

Lafayette police responding to a call from Seneca last June found Holden White, 18, severely injured in a bathtub with strangulation marks on his neck and “wrists slit to the bone.”

Seneca told the FBI agent he considered the Grindr app to be his “hunting ground.”

The affidavit was filed in August by an FBI agent and was based on information from Lafayette police and a conversation the agent had with Seneca. It said Seneca told police he had called 911 after the attack “in a self-described effort to be put into a mental institution.”

White survived and later told KATC-TV that he is certain he was targeted because he is gay. “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 said in the November interview.

“Seneca is in state custody, already facing attempted murder charges and a state hate crime charge in the June 20 attack,” reports NBC News. “He has pleaded not guilty to the state charges, his public defender, Clay Lejeune, confirmed Thursday. Federal hearing dates had not been set as of Thursday afternoon. Lejeune is not representing Seneca in the federal case and declined immediate comment on the latest charges.”

The federal indictment charges Seneca with three counts of kidnapping and one “hate crime with intent to kill.” The indictment says Seneca kidnapped two other men on June 19 but gives few details.

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