Dahmer Fanatic Sentenced to 45 Years in Grindr Cannibal Case

The Louisiana man who confessed to the kidnapping and attempted murder and dismemberment of a gay man he met on Grindr was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison this week.

Chance Seneca, 21, of Lafayette, had pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping a man identified only as H.W. The attack took place on June 20, 2020. Seneca had been charged with six counts, including hate crime, kidnapping, firearm, and obstruction charges, and faced a possible life sentence if convicted on all charges.

In his plea agreement announced yesterday, Seneca admitted that he used the dating and hookup app Grindr to meet a gay man he would then kidnap, kill, and dismember. He also admitted he intended to continue targeting and killing gay men until he was caught. Prosecutors said Seneca, who has been described as a fan of the late gay serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, “intended to eat and preserve the bodies of his victims, as Dahmer had done.”

“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,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement announcing the sentencing.

While not identified in previous DOJ announcements, Holden White previously came forward as Seneca’s victim.

He said Seneca had attacked him and left him for dead before calling the police.

Only 18 at the time of the attack, White said Seneca choked him with a cord before his wrists and neck were cut and he was left bleeding in a bathtub.

“When I wake up, I am in his bathtub naked. The water is running, and it’s cold,” White told The Advocate, a Louisiana newspaper unaffiliated with this publication, in 2021. “He is in the process of doing my left wrist. It was to the point that he was basically trying to cut off my hands.”

After slashing both White's wrists and neck, Seneca left White lying in the bathtub bleeding as he stood over him, according to the victim and prosecutors.

“I was laying in the bathtub, naked, bleeding out, the water red and cold, and I remember thinking, ‘Well, this is it,’” White recalled. “The last words I said to myself were just ‘stay calm,’ over and over and over in my head I was just repeating to myself to stay calm.”

Thinking he had killed his victim, Seneca called the police and turned himself in. He was immediately taken into custody and held without bail.

“No one should ever be subjected to the type of horrendous actions that this defendant inflicted upon the victim in this case,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana Brandon B. Brown said in a statement. “The victim never thought that he would find himself falling prey to a predator in such a way. Hate crimes such as this are a top priority for the Department and this office, and we take these kinds of cases very seriously.”