Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - UNSOLVED: SICK RANSOM TEXTS -MISSING WOMAN'S FAMILY TOLD SHE'D BE "CHOPPED INTO PIECES"

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Layla Santanello, a young mother from Tennessee, has been missing now for over two years. She was last seen  June 27, 2023, in a field next to the Americourt Hotel. Employees and guests reported that she appeared erratic and paranoid. Surveillance footage captured Layla walking around the hotel, reportedly knocking on doors and searching for someone. The events leading up to her disappearance began on June 24, three days earlier. Jennifer Santanello, Layla’s mother, received a message from Layla’s Facebook account. The message, sent by Layla’s boyfriend, asked if Layla was in jail or the hospital, saying he hadn’t seen her in more than 24 hours. Later that night, Layla messaged her mother from the same account, writing, “I’m fine mom,” and adding, “I been with a friend. I don’t have a phone to text or call. I’m using someone else’s.” About two weeks later, a series of strange Cash App requests were sent from Layla’s account to both her stepmother, Brittany Zeitler, and her mother. One request for $100 included the subject line “twlmg.” Several more requests followed in quick succession with the same subject line. Jennifer sent $1 to the account and asked if Layla was okay. As the transactions continued, she came to believe that “twlmg” meant “they won’t let me go.” Another message allegedly read, “We have Layla. She owes a drug debt, and if she doesn’t pay, you’ll find her chopped up into pieces.” Joining Nancy Grace today: Brittany Zeitler - Stepmom to Layla Santanello George Emmett - Dad to Layla Santanello Ben Powers - Criminal Defense Attorney; Facebook: Legal Powers PLLC Caryn Stark -  Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and consultant; Instagram: carynpsych, FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice Rick Shaffer - Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Rebekah McNerney - Writer / Reporter at Kingston Times News; Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekah-mcnerney/INSTA:- https://www.instagram.com/rebekahmcnerney    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The family of a missing woman last seen running barefoot from a hotel just told she would be chopped into pieces and a sick ransom text. I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. Thank you for being with us. Layla Santonello is a young Tennessee mom living with her boyfriend Michael and baby daughter Nova. Things take a turn when Layla and her boyfriend get into an argument and Layla leaves the house. This is Layla Santinello, a young mother from Kingsport, Tennessee, who hasn't been seen in nearly two years. Layla is mom to now four-year-old Nova Grace, who now lives with her grandmother, Jennifer Santinello.

Jennifer, Layla's father, George Emmett, and stepmother, Brittany Zeitler, are all desperate to bring Layla home and reunite her with her daughter. Where is Layla? Again, thank you for being with us tonight in our search for missing mom, Leila. What do we know? Joining me and All Star Panel to make sense of what we're learning right now. But first, listen to this. She had the suit on with me on, and there was a pink teddy bear. exactly like literally the same color and everything and he was sitting in the chair and he was holding her like this right and he had his other arm like this just in his lap i took the pink teddy bear and i put it in an arm i took a picture because like he had two teddy bears there you see

leila telling a story about her most precious prize and that would be her daughter nova grace talking about a pink teddy bear you know what i want to see that one more time guys look at Lila now missing she had the suit on and there was a pink teddy bear exactly oh like literally the same color and everything and he was sitting in the chair and he was holding her like this right and he had his other arm like this just in his lap I took the pink teddy bear and I put it in a lot I took a picture because I looked like he had two teddy bears let me go straight out now to Lila's father and stepmom and George Emmett and Brittany Zeitler to both of you. Thank you for being with us.

George, tell me about Leila. When I see her singing along to music or talking about her baby Nova Grace, it's hard to believe that she's out of Nova's life. I mean, tell me about her. I understand she was a very, very loving mother. Yeah, she was a very loving mother. She loved her daughter very very much. She loved her family. She was always doing things with her daughter, you know, she was always trying to strive to, you know, do better in life. So she's, she's a wonderful person and I just want her back home. What has it been like, George, without her? Miserable. I can't sleep, can't think right. It's hard to work. I got other kids I got to take care of. It's just been very stressful. It's every parent's worst nightmare.

Brittany is Leila's stepmother. Brittany, thank you for being with us. What has it been like for you guys trying to move forward? You've got Nova Grace that doesn't have her mother. You're missing Leila. What has that been like since she went missing? It's been really difficult, especially on all of us. It definitely impacted us in many different ways, especially with having to take on a little girl that is definitely missing her mom and needs her need to be met for that little girl. She needs all the extra TLC that she could potentially get. And we can all, as a whole blended family, give her the best life that we could possibly give her at this time. I mean, we've learned during this unexpected tragedy that we've been faced with, life doesn't stop.

life keeps going, whether we want it to or not. And we still have to pick up all the pieces and there's still a lot of work that has to get done. And we just keep holding on to a little bit of hope that she is in fact still out there. You said something very striking, Brittany. I remember when my fiancé was murdered, I felt like the whole world had just stopped. And then I looked back and was stunned to see that the world just kept on turning. I was the only one that stopped. It feels like everything froze in time. George, what do you tell Nova Grace about her mom?

What does she ask? She just basically, I guess. Where's mommy? Where's mommy? Where's mommy? Is that my mom? Yeah. She doesn't really know.

She was really young at the time. We're talking two years. So she didn't really know much at that time. But she is starting to question where her mom is. And in fact, do I have a mom? You know, she'll see cartoons. She'll watch other kids call mom, dad, whatnot. You know, and here she is wondering, where's my mom?

So she is starting to ask those questions, where is my mom? And, of course, we get stunts all of us too. And we try to, you know, re-change, you know, the topic and show her her face and show great pictures of Lila and Nova together. So she can at least see the good times that they did have together and just hope that she can have more. Brittany, you just broke my heart to think of baby Nova Grace saying, do I even have a mom? Do I have a mom? What did you do when she said that? When she just started talking about mom, I just had to fight back all my tears and just say, oh, you know, you'll see mommy soon and just try to redirect her into a different, you know, topic or do something different just to kind of get that off the topic because I honestly don't know what to even say at this point.

We could say so much and we're going to run out of things to say. And there's going to come a point in time where what do we say? Guys, the family of a missing woman, Leila, last seen running barefoot from a hotel. I want to put the cart before the horse. Let's start at the beginning. Listen. Just a few months after having her daughter, Nova Grace, Lela Centinella loses her grandfather, with whom she was very close. In the roller coaster of emotions

between the joy of becoming a new mom and the grief of doing so without her grandfather, Layla leans on Michael Thompson for support. The two quickly become inseparable, and Layla moves in with Michael's family in Kingsport, Tennessee. The grief that she went through when the grandfather died unexpectedly.

To Karen Stark, joining me renowned psychologist, joining us out of Manhattan, Radio Trauma Expert Consultant at Karenstark.com. Karen, you never know how the loss of that father figure or grandfather figure will affect you the rest of your life. And for Leila, the loss of her grandfather was devastating. It was a real turning point in her life. I have no doubt, Nancy, that she was feeling that she would be able to share her daughter with him. She was very, very close to him and briefed him in many forms, as you know.

And in this case, with somebody so close, it could have led to devastation. Here she is. She's so confused. She loves her daughter and is excited, but a tremendous loss and trauma when it came to her grandfather. And, you know, very often we don't understand why people do the things they do when they're functioning with immense grief. How did the death of the grandfather affect her, George? Really, really bad. She was really talking to nobody.

wasn't eating right, just crying, constantly crying every day. I've tried to hug her, hold her, and love her. She just didn't want to be bothered, really. We were lucky enough to have her present when she found out that her grandfather passed away. She was actually in New Jersey taking her family vacation with Nova, her mom, and the mom's boyfriend. And I want to say we were more fortunate enough to be there for that traumatic time in her life as a whole. And yes, she was very devastated over the loss of her grandfather, absolutely. And you know, Karen, start with me, psychologist. You think that someone that would be traumatized when they lose their mom or their dad, which they are typically. But I can identify that when I lost my grandmother. My mother's

mother who raised us, Lucy, that I then named my daughter after, my grandmother raised us when my mom worked, and we were extremely, extremely close. So a lot of people can't relate to someone falling apart when they lose a grandparent, right? But for many of us, it can be devastating. Without a doubt, this is sort of a father figure for her. Even though she has her dad and loves her dad. She was extremely close to her grandfather. And so the behavior that you have after a loss like that, Nancy, anything is possible because you're in trauma. You're really feeling extreme PTSD sometimes where you can't get over the event and you can't get over the loss. You have to come to terms with it. It also makes me think, of course, I'm just an armchair psychologist. I'm

like you, Karen Stark. But it makes me wonder if that's not why she, She then got so attached to the boyfriend Michael Thompson. Listen. On Friday, June 23rd, Layla gets in an argument with her boyfriend Michael Thompson. And while the pair are usually attached to the hip, Layla takes off, leaving most of her belongings, including the couple's shared phone behind. Layla stays with several friends, but is not in contact with family without her phone. Oh, my stars. This, to me, that starts the dominoes falling.

when she leaves the boyfriend's place without a cell phone. Okay, let me understand this. Brittany Zeitler, they were sharing one account? Yes, they were working off of one working phone. The other phone had a Wi-Fi connected phone. So that was when they were able to get a hold of one another. Layla would stay behind. Michael would go run his errands and they stayed with one phone on the one account for many months.

So those two are sharing one phone, then that phone disappears. That right there marks for me, the beginning of a timeline. Why? Because nobody can be in touch with her. Rick Schaefer joining me, former FBI supervisory special agent. I mean, in this day and age, Rick, your cell phone, I mean, let's talk about the Alex Murdoch case for Pete's sake. Murdoch charged in the double murder of his wife and son, Maggie and Paul, the digital footprint, the cell phone data, the nav system in his vehicle told a story. I mean, as far as I was

concerned, you put that one digital analyst on the stand, case closed, because it places Murdoch at the scene of the double murder, at the time of the double murder. You hear his voice in the background of a video taken. And then with the nav system, you see what time he leaves, goes, hies out at his grandmother's 30 minutes away. You can even see where he slows down, lets the window down. Yes, you can tell that from a nav system and throws Maggie, his now dead wife's phone, out the window and then takes off. You can tell all that from modern, digital science. So when you don't have a phone, that greatly, greatly, greatly, impedes a criminal investigation.

Absolutely. You're absolutely correct. You know, not only are you going to be able to determine where that phone is, but who's in possession of it at time, not only from the cell tower it's pinging off, but any metadata that can be extracted from photos or texts or anything of that nature. It looks like the police department has done everything they can from a cell phone data collection standpoint, looking at cameras, any digital technology that would help track her whereabouts. And the reality of it is that she's clearly vanished. And that's a very difficult thing to do in today's environment out there where everything is digitally captured.

Lela is last seen in an open field before seemingly vanishing into thin air. Now her family is looking for answers as to the whereabouts of the young Tennessee mom. where is lila after a sick money grab where the family gets threatening ransom texts threatening to chop lila into bits if money isn't forked over this during the search for the missing mom as it goes on we were just describing how lila and the boyfriend that she suddenly moves into after the death of her grandfather have an argument they have an argument she takes off without a cell phone then what happens Saturday morning Michael Thompson sends Jennifer Santinello a message on Layla's Facebook profile Jennifer is immediately worried it's unusual that Michael wouldn't know where Layla is Michael says he hasn't seen Layla in more than 24 hours Jennifer spent several hours trying to track Layla down Layla isn't hospitalized anywhere

Finally, Jennifer's niece gets word from a mutual friend that Layla spent the night at his house and was okay when she left. Okay, so there, even after she takes off without a cell phone, which destroys everybody because they can't get in touch with her, we find out she's at a friend's house. Okay, everything is okay. But finally, we actually hear from Leila herself. Sunday morning, Jennifer Santonella wakes up to another Facebook. message, this time from Layla. Layla says she's okay in doing fine, much to her mother's relief. Jennifer asks a few questions, but when Layla is vague, Jennifer assumes it's because Layla knows Michael can access the account. She doesn't want him to know where she is.

Layla reminds her mom that she isn't carrying a phone, but she'll do her best to check in as much as possible. Jennifer's niece places Layla at a friends again, confirming Layla borrowed their phone to message her mom. Okay, now we have a genuine lead. I was suspicious about those messages because they didn't sound like Lila and I don't have to talk about Gabby Petito who went on a cross-country trip with fiancé Brian Laundry. He murdered her and was using her phone and her Ford Transit and her credit cards and her money and was texting odd texts. They wouldn't seem odd probably to you or to me, but to the family that was getting them,

They knew that wasn't Gabby. For instance, when she asked about her grandfather, she said, in my case, well, how's Walter Malcolm and Grace, Sr.? She would never have said that. She would be saying, how's granddaddy? So they knew something was wrong. Well, they were right. It wasn't her texting. It was Brian Laundry trying to give the appearance.

Then Gabby was still alive. However, in this case, there was another reason that Leila was not being forthcoming in her text. to Brittany Zeitler, her stepmom, and George Emmett, her father, to Brittany, apparently, because they shared the same cell phone. And we had this occur recently in the case of glam yoga instructor, Caitlin Armstrong, who murdered her boyfriend, Colin Strickland's former girlfriend out of a fit of jealousy. she, the yoga instructor, was sharing an account with Colin Strickland, the boyfriend. So when he was texting the victim, Maureen, she could see it all. She could see it all. It popped right up on her iPad, right?

So here, do you believe that that was Leila messaging, but that she was intentionally being vague because she shared that account with the boyfriend that she just walked out on? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. We really did think that it was Layla for the moment. So we, you know, we're like, okay, maybe she doesn't want to know where she is at. He wants to stay away from her, vice versa. So we just let it be at that moment in time. But when we didn't hear from her voice, we started to question. Yeah, what about it, George? When you found out about that Facebook message, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm at so-and-so friend, and then that was corroborated by someone else. Yes, that's where she is. Everything's fine.

At that point, you were not concerned. Is that right? Yeah, at that point, I thought maybe she did get an argument with him and tried to want to get away from them at first, but then when I tried to reach out to her and didn't get a response back, that's when I started getting a little nervous. The case moves forward. Now it's Monday morning. Monday morning, Michael Thompson is becoming more insistent that he can't find Layla,

claiming she asked him to pick her up from a friend's house but wasn't there when he arrived. Jennifer still believes her daughter is avoiding Michael and doesn't want to tip him off to where she is. Michael then reaches out to Layla's dad, George Emmett, making him intensely worried. Okay, right there, when did you become concerned? George that something was a miss when I texted I didn't get no response

the next day that's when I was I was really worried because that's not like my daughter she picks up for me and no matter what so that's when I really got worried and decided I was going to

call and make a police report on my daughter you know I want to talk about what you just said George joining me is Lila's father George and stepmom, Brittany. Joining me now is a renowned defense attorney, Ben Powers. You can find them at Legal Powers online.

Ben, thank you for being with us. Ben, it's called routine evidence. And I don't like that description because it sounds like you're talking about typical run-of-the-mill standard evidence. But what it means is evidence of someone's routine, right? A routine. Right. a routine that you unintentionally carry out or repeat every day.

I do the same thing every single morning in an effort to get my children to school, take care of my mother who lives with us, take care of a multitude of pets before I can start my real job, right? It's a routine that has been perfected to save time and accomplish things, right? That's a routine. And here, when George Emmett says she didn't call, a lot of people will go, Hey, I don't hear from my daughter for two weeks at a time. And that's okay.

I called my mom and dad, say what you want, every single day in the morning and at night, at a bare minimum. That has been my routine. I wanted to hear from them. I wanted to hear their voice. So routine evidence is very powerful, Ben Powers. I guess some defense attorneys would argue it means nothing. I would say routine evidence can be important, but under these circumstances, the routine

was clearly turned upside down and inside out. You know, she has a big argument with her boyfriend that they're basically attached at the hill because of extenuating circumstances. They're relegated to one phone instead of two. And so she could be separated from him and the phone. She could be separated from him with the phone. You know, that type of distinction in the timeline definitely throws the routine into question and isn't as reliable as maybe under regular circumstances that the routine,

exists within. She had the suit on with her arm and there was a pink teddy bear exactly unlike, like literally the same color and everything. And he was sitting in the chair and he was holding her like this, right? And he had his other arm like this, just in his lap. I took the pink teddy bear and I put it in an arm. I took a picture because I looked like he had two teddy bears. George, with me. This is Lela's dad. Why are you crying? It's devastating That's been too long It's very stressful

On me, my family I just It's a lot That's why I'm crying That's every parent's worst nightmare You know what I was thinking George After You know my fiancé was murdered

I never ever thought That I could ever remarry That I would ever have children I thought that that was just a journey that was just over. And it was, it was for over 20 years. Then suddenly I have a family. Can I tell you the greatest thing that happened to me was having the twins. And let me see those videos in New York control room. I mean, this was the time of Lela's life. She finally had. She has Nova Grace, just the love of her life.

Finally, happiness. She has this beautiful baby girl. I mean, I guess most moms out there would agree that's the best time of your life when you finally have your children. And to think she's snatched away from her daughter Now her daughter, George has pictures and these videos. That's it and says things like, do I even have a mommy?

I mean, I get why you're crying, George. Yeah, she's all my granddaughters all I have left of my daughter as of now for two years. Oh, it's really hard and devastating. I just want answers. I love closure. Guys, we left off. We left off where George is now becoming extremely worried listen. George calls Jennifer to discuss whether they should report Layla missing, extremely concerned after his last conversation with Michael.

Based on her last text conversation with Layla, Jennifer doesn't want to jump the gun. The parents decide to report Layla missing the next morning, which would be 48 hours since Layla's last contact with family. However, George can't shake the feeling he needs to do something and after several sleepless hours makes an official report that Leila Santonello is missing in the early morning hours of June 27th. So, George, since Michael Thompson, the boyfriend and Leila had been so close, joined at the hip following her grandfather's death, when he is starting to ask you, where's Leila? You know something is really wrong. What prompted you to report her missing at that time?

Well, when I couldn't get a hold of her, and she didn't respond back to me, I already knew something was wrong, something, something was not right. So when he was reaching out to me and sending me text messages about not being able to find my daughter and everything, that just made it ten times worse for me. I mean, I went right out there. Right away, we hired a private detective. We have a private detective that's been on the case since day one. We have a private detective.

We've been, we've drove from New Jersey to Tennessee. out several. I came many times already on behalf of my daughter. Then the search is on once George reports her missing and finally a lead. Listen. Kingsport Police immediately begin investigating speaking with Michael Thompson and his family around 2 a.m. June 27th. By the end of the day, investigators have a lead. Layla checked into the AmeriCorps Hotel for the night of June 26th. Employees and other guests say Layla seemed paranoid. Lela is caught on CCTV, knocking on doors to look for someone. Join me now a very special guest, Rebecca McNary, reporter, writer at Kingston Time News.

Rebecca, thank you so much for being with us. So who was she looking for? Why are people there at the hotel describing her as afraid of something? You know, going based off the facts that we have received from the Kingsport Police Department and other local authorities, we have not been sure of who specifically she was looking for. We know that witnesses testified that she was acting paranoid and looking for something, but the Kingsport Police Department has not released any specific details regarding that certain matter. You know, Rebecca McNary, you're so right.

Speaking of a witness, perceived Good Samaritan, this is what we learn. Please let me help you. I have a room. My mom, my son are inside. You can sit down. I will talk to you. I would do anything I can to help you. She froze for a moment, took a breath, and was like, um, and she looked at my room.

She looked at me. And then she said, no, I can't. And she just ran out into the park of my, and that was the last I saw. Is that right, Rebecca McNary? She, this good Samaritan said, look, what's wrong? Who are you looking for? Why are you afraid? And apparently, Lela goes, no, no, I can't talk to you about it and takes off running.

Yeah, that is several witnesses' accounts. I believe the police department and local authorities have told me that. But again, I can't comment on that specifically because the police department has not come forward with that specific information. Where is a mom of one little Nova Grace? We're talking about Lela. Do we finally have a bead on where she may be? And now is this a break? Listen.

As police tried to determine Layla's next move, employees at the nearby warehouse provide another lead. Around 6.15 in the morning, Layla asks if she can bomb a cigarette. None of the men have smokes on them. Layla thanks them anyway and walks away. The men say Layla was perfectly polite and seemed coherent. Layla did appear slightly disheveled with messy hair and grass and leaves on her back, like she maybe had laid down in the field. Now, how does a marble slab creamery fit into this search for Leila?

We all know what that is, a very popular ice cream place, a shop, listen. An employee at a nearby ice cream shop, the marble slab, says a blonde woman came into the store around noon on the 27th with no shoes on. She says the woman was very disheveled wearing a white t-shirt and black leggings. The woman seemed somewhat incoherent and made a comment about her husband wanting to kill. her before asking to borrow the employee's phone. The woman walked back out of the store saying she wanted to head to a nearby five below to buy shoes. When shown a photo of Lela, the employee is convinced that's the woman she spoke to. Okay, we've all heard attacks on eyewitnesses and in this particular case, we hit a dead end. Kingsport Police intensely focus on the marble slab lead,

checking with several more nearby establishments. Authorities believe they are zeroing in on Lela, CCTV and phone records eventually proved the employee was mistaken about the woman's identity. Officers tracked the woman down who confirms it was her in the ice cream shop that afternoon, not Laila Centinello. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Joining me, investigative reporter and writer at the Kingsport, Time news. Rebecca McNary. Rebecca, that's devastating to get an eyewitness tip. The woman is absolutely convinced. This is Leela that comes into marble slab creamery and she's disproved. Tell me what happened. The woman was so convinced it was Leila. Yeah, she, according to report, she was convinced

that she had seen Leila. Again, the Kingsport police investigated and that was indeed not the case based off the records and the surveillance footage that they had. But again, something like that where you think that you have a lead and then it's dead end is definitely devastating for the family that's trying to bring Layla home. To Ben Powers joining us, a criminal defense attorney, Ben, it's also bad for an investigation and potential trial in the future because when you get a lead and eyewitness lead and the woman is absolutely convinced she sees Leila, right? Later on, a defense attorney can say, see, she saw Leila at this time on this date.

And my client, on trial now, was here in another state or whatever, fill in the blank. When you try a case, you have to go down every avenue to get to the truth. You can't leave anything out. But when you go down those avenues, for instance, if you name a person of interest or a suspect too soon, it turns out to be wrong, that's a field day for the defense, just like a false tip. Yeah, I would agree. I think the significance of the witness being mistaken is it shows that police went down the wrong thread. You know, it ultimately led to a time commitment from the investigation that ended with a dead end in the investigation. So then they've got to go back

and figure out what direction do they take the investigation. And so now that time, that effort, that dedication has been spent on something. thing that wasn't fruitful. Oh, yeah. And something like this, you know, time is the enemy of an investigation. The longer time goes on, the harder the investigation gets. Two weeks after Layla's disappearance, both mother and stepmother start getting cash app requests from Layla's account.

But the message is attached to the requests send chills down their spines. They're keeping me hostage. I owe someone 15 minutes or you'll find her in pieces. And the acronym, T.W.L.N. PMG panicked. The women send various amounts of money with messages like, are you okay? And call me in the hopes Layla would see them also reporting the activity to police. Oh, my stars. Sick ransom text to Leila's family. George Emmett, what happened? At that point, we got really scared. We got really nervous. And we were willing to do whatever it took to try to get a hold of her at that point.

I mean, in all of her history, had Lela ever sent you a text or an email like that? Never. Never. So that's why we were very concerned and worried that somebody might have had. And they actually threatened to chop her up? Yes, correct. Yes. You know, it's just actually making my stomach hurt after all you had been through

and someone is threatening to chop her up unless they get money. Look, we're showing you the sick ransom text. I mean, Brittany, what went through your mind when you get this? I was in utter shock. And of course, I reached out to Jennifer. I reached out to Lila's boyfriend, Michael. And while I am on the phone with Michael, I'm like, are you getting any cash up requests? Because I'm getting some right now saying for abbreviations.

And I gave him, you know, TWMLG. And he goes, oh, well, my brother says it, it won't. let me go or they will let me go. And I'm not processing everything that's going on at that moment. I'm just thinking, oh my God, how do we do this? I want to hear her voice. I want to know that she is in fact okay. Do they really have her? So there were so many things just running through my mind as well as George's. And we were just dumbfounded. Like, oh my, what do we do? Do we send all this money? Do we, I dragged it out as much as I possibly could to be able to get as much information as I possibly can.

And Jennifer and I were asking questions like, you know, what's your youngest brother's name? What's your pop secret passcode? Only things that Layla could answer, and they were left and answered. So, wait, how did he, the boyfriend, know what T-W-L-M-G means? It's not like it's IDK, I don't know. I had to figure out what does T-W-L-M-G mean, and he knew it off the tip of his tongue? That's what I was saying. And, like, I, of course, wasn't processing it at that.

exact moment, but once I had a moment to process everything on what was going on and re-reading all of the messages and everything that I had, sending it to the investigators, I was just like, wow, I know I got a lot going on, but how do you know exactly what that meant? In instance, I was just, I was rowed. I was rowed. This is what Lela's mother has to say about that ransom text. It's one thing for a stranger to try and capitalize on something like that, the way that he did is a whole other thing when it's someone that you care about. From our friends at News 5, WCYB to Rebecca McNary joining us, reporter Kingsport Time News, who is he? Who sent the ransom text threatening to chop Lila into bits? Yeah, so police later found out during their investigation that that,

That was her boyfriend at the time, Michael Thompson, who was sending those pretty alarming messages to Leila's family about two weeks after she was reported missing. He was later indicted by a grand jury here in Sullivan County on financial exploitation, credit card fraud, and identity theft. Thompson otherwise cooperates with the investigation, and neither family nor cops believe Thompson had anything to do with Layla's disappearance, but obviously tried to take advantage of this situation. Jennifer Santinello claims Thompson has taken a polygraph test, but the results were inconclusive because he was not sober for the five-hour exam. George, and I want to confirm with you what our sources have told us that you do not believe Thompson had anything to do with Leila's disappearance. No, I don't believe that, well, they cleared them first.

First, they cleared them. How do you feel? I feel he might know something or know some people that could. be involved with her whereabouts. That is possible, but he's not saying nothing to nobody. Guys, what about the search now? In addition to grid searches near the AmeriCorps Hotel, Kingsport PD have searched the home Lela shared with Michael Thompson and served at least 30 more search warrants.

Officers have also issued at least 25 subpoenas. Officers remain tight-lipped about their most current leads to protect the investigation, but have searched several other locations in addition to the field, totaling six ground searches. To Rebecca McNary, joining us from Kingsport Time News, tell me about the search as it stands right now and the reward. I know that the search, the ground searches were subsided a little bit during the colder winter months,

but that those are expected to pick up again here in the near future. As far as any kind of reward money, I'm not sure. I believe the last number that I heard was around $7,000 that her family was offering to whoever had information about her whereabouts and disappearance. To George and Brittany, this case has taken so many twists and turns, false reports, a false siding that seems so credible, the ransom text, just cold-blooded ransom text, a money grab. so where are we left in my mind we're left with the warehouse workers that didn't have a cigarette seeing her walk off into a field that's where we are what about it george um that's where we are as of right now that's the last known place that she was actually seen so that's all we know as of right now what about it brittney well so even though that's all that's all that

we have at this time. We're going to continue to work as hard as we can to figure out what direction she went and I call it the direction of the unknown since it's been two years almost now. And I know any type of surveillance footage that we have tried to grab off of weather cameras or any type of surveillance that our investigator had tried to pull. I know it. this time, it's definitely going to be extremely difficult to be able to pull. So we're got to just keep on searching and put ground searches in place to be able to gather as much resources that we possibly can from nonprofit organizations that offer cat of our dogs, drones, extensive, yes, extensive wide varieties of, you know, needs for

Leila to be able to be found since we feel like we're working next to a little of nothing at this time. If you know or think you know anything about the disappearance of Leila Santonello, please dial 423-34-9780 or toll-free 800 TBI Find 800 82434343463. There is a $7,000 reward for information in the disappearance of Leila, and that reward is growing. We now remember an American hero, senior deputy Christopher Corzilius, Travis County Sheriff, Texas, passed away in the line of duty, survived by grieving partner, Bethany, mother, Nancy, father Paul, stepmom, Patty. American hero, senior deputy, Christopher Corzilius. Goodbye, friend.