A man from southwest Louisiana was charged with a federal hate crime and kidnapping on Thursday by prosecutors who said he tried to kill and dismember one of the three men he kidnapped after luring them using social media and a dating app.
KLFY-TV
Chance Joseph Seneca, 19, of Lafayette, was charged on Thursday for what a Justice Department press release called “a comprehensive scheme to kidnap and kill” gays. The prosecution said that Seneca intended to keep parts of the victim’s body as “souvenirs, trophies and food”.
Along with Thursday’s federal prosecution in Lafayette is a recently unsealed statement that says Lafayette police in response to a call from Seneca last June found Holden White, 18, seriously injured in a bathtub with strangulation marks in your neck and “wrists cut to the bone”.
The prosecution further alleges that Seneca tried to cover up his actions by erasing communications between him and the victim of the attempted murder.
The statement was filed in August by an FBI agent and was based on information from the Lafayette police and a conversation the agent had with Seneca. According to the report, Seneca told police that he called 911 after the attack “in an attempt that described himself to be admitted to a mental institution”.
White later told CBS affiliate KLFY-TV that he is sure he was the target for being gay.
“He entered an application designed for gay people,” he told the station in January. “He chose someone who is gay and very proud of his sexuality. He said that in prison. He said he chose me because I am smaller and it would be easier to kill myself. He knew what he was doing.”
Seneca is in state custody, already facing charges of attempted murder and state hate crime in the June 20 attack. He pleaded not guilty to state charges, his public defender Clay Lejeune confirmed on Thursday. The dates of the federal hearings were not set on Thursday afternoon. Lejeune is not representing Seneca in the federal case and declined to comment on the latest charges.
The federal prosecution charges Seneca with three counts of kidnapping and a “hate crime with intent to kill”. The prosecution says that Seneca kidnapped two other men on June 19, but gives little details.