Crime Weekly - S3 Ep193: Crime Weekly News: Layla Santanello Updates

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

20-year-old Layla Santanello was last seen in her hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee on June 27th, 2023. Initially, reports were that the last sighting of Layla was at an ice cream shop on North Eastman Road where she was seen barefoot and in distress, asking to use an employee's phone before telling the employee that she was going across the road to 5 Below to purchase a pair of shoes. Now we are finding out that this may have not been valid information. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod 

Bettering your business takes working with the best. With the James Hardy Alliance, you gain access to leads, training, networking, and support from the number one brand of siding in North America. Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy Alliance today. Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're not going to waste any time. We're going to get right into it this week. And this is an update from a case that we've already talked about on Crime Weekly News. And as we've said in the past, we're not just covering it to covering it, we're following it as well as some of you.

And when we have a major update in the case, we want to make sure that you have that information. So as I talk about this case, this is definitely going to be familiar to most of you. But just to recap, 20-year-old mother Layla Santanello was last seen in her hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee on June 27, 2023. We were initially told that the last sighting of Layla was at an ice cream shop on North Eastman Road where she was seen barefoot and in distress asking to use an employee's phone before telling the employee that she was going across the road to Five Below to purchase a pair of shoes. Now we're finding out that that was not a legitimate piece of information. We're going to talk about that today, as well as some other developments in the case. Stephanie, take it away. Yeah. So I've been following Layla's mother, Jennifer Santanello on TikTok. And I know that there's probably some of you who are as well.

If you're not, you should go follow her. But every day she continues to make content, trying to get her daughter's name and face out there in the hopes that this still missing woman will be found. So I really want us to put the whole force of the Crime Weekly family behind Jennifer Santanello because, you know, yes, her child is a grown adult, but it's still her child. And she wants to know what happened to her daughter and where her daughter is. And she's been really like pounding the pavement, trying to get anyone and everyone to cover Layla's story. And it really hasn't taken off in the true crime space as it should have. So here is Jennifer discussing this new information, talking about the incorrect information about Layla being seen at the ice cream shop before she went missing. So this would

mean that the ice cream shop sighting was not the last sighting of Layla. The last sighting of Layla was actually at that motel where she was seen and she was knocking on doors and acting a little out of it. And then she slept like out in a field for the night and nobody could figure out why she never was at an ice cream shop do you think they had someone dressed like her and do that at the marble slab to throw out the investigation this is a super interesting theory as it would turn out that the second sighting of my daughter eight months ago at the marble sub creamery has been debunked, I have a lot of questions myself. So I'll share a few more details about the situation. My daughter has been missing since June 27th of 2023, and it was originally believed that she was seen twice on the 27th,

alive and well. The first sighting being at a warehouse behind the hotel that she was visiting the night before around 6 30 7 o'clock in the morning. The second sighting being almost six hours later at the Marble Sub Creamery which is in a strip mall called Eastman Commons and it is connected to that hotel by a walking skating biking, biking trail called the Green Belt. But it only takes a good 15, 20 minutes to walk from one to the other. That was always something that didn't make sense to me. What's with the four to six hour window? What's with the, where was she for those hours?

That doesn't make any sense at all whatsoever. And I had been questioning it for months and months and months before I found out that the sighting wasn't actually Layla. So let's go into a little bit about who it actually was at the marble slab that day. A young woman had had an argument with her husband and taken off without a phone, purse, and no shoes on. She ended up on the back patio of the marble slab. She was a bit shaken up, upset. An employee found her out there, brought her inside, gave her some food, gave her something to drink, and tried to console her. At some point, the young woman used the employee's phone to try and call for a ride out of there.

The person on the other end wasn't able to come and pick her up. So she got off the phone and it's like, I'm going to go over to five and below and try and get a pair of sandals. And she left. When investigators questioned the employee, they got the number, they called the person that was on the other end of that call. That person said to them, I don't know what Layla Santanello. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to assume that the police didn't believe her, right? Maybe that maybe she's trying to cover things up. They needed to interview her a few more times and they did. It took quite some time, but eventually the actual person who was at the marble slab that day

was found and questioned and as it would have it, it's not my daughter. It is what it is. The most interesting part of this situation, however, is that this young woman didn't know Layla. The woman at the marble slab, she didn't know Layla. But she had just met her the weekend before. The two had run into each other at someone's house. Coincidence? Maybe. Small town stuff?

Possibly. Or maybe something like this comment my question at this point would be all of this is going on right and if i'm the girl at the marble slab and my friend is being interrogated by the police pretty regularly because they think i'm the missing girl why not come forward why not show up at the station and be like hey hi i was the person at the marble slab that day why not come to me and i don't none of it makes any sense, of course. I don't know. Here we are. Okay, interesting. What's your thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, it's kind of crazy. And this is an example of how incorrect information gets out in the media and then it never gets corrected, right? So we've all been thinking this was Layla and using that as part of her story and wondering, you know, what was going on with her. And then it turns out it's not her at all. And yes, this commenter asked Jennifer Santanalo, do you think that it was somebody who was somehow affiliated with whoever has Layla or whoever's responsible for her being missing? And they did it as a red herring like to distract to have this misinformation get out there and obviously you heard her Jennifer says I don't know maybe it's kind of a weird coincidence that they just met a week before Layla went missing but obviously we don't have any proof on that and I agree if you were the person who was at the like it was a very specific story

no shoes asked the the employee for phone, was going across the street to Five Below to get sandals, you would know that was you. And you would know that they're thinking that this is a missing girl. And wouldn't you come forward and set the record straight a lot sooner? I don't know. So I take a couple of things from that TikTok and this is just basing it off what Layla's mom's telling us, not knowing the intricacies of it. There's always three sides to every story, no matter where you fall on it. And the two big takeaways I have from this is just the affirmation of what I've been saying to you guys for years, which is that you would be so surprised what witnesses do or choose not to do in these cases. Because like you just said, Stephanie, why wouldn't you just come forward?

Now, this person, if it's not for nefarious reasons, didn't come forward for a very long period of time. And there's got to be a reason behind it. And I will tell you that one of those reasons, because I've experienced it, is, oh, I didn't know you were looking for me. Like, and they genuinely didn't. And I will tell you that one of those reasons, because I've experienced it is, oh, I didn't know you were looking for me. And they genuinely didn't. And I see your eye roll and it's like for you and I. No, I didn't. It was a look of speculation, I guess. It's so hard to believe, but it has happened to me numerous times where we put out a be on the lookout for a specific vehicle with a type of damage. And we're looking for that car for months. And then all of a sudden someone rolls in and goes, Hey,

heard you're looking for me. Yeah, I was in that area. I was delivering pizzas and we were able to confirm that. And it's all, it all checks out. There was nothing criminal about it, but we're chasing our tails, trying to find this car for months. And the more and more time that goes by, the more we think that maybe this car is involved because the person's not coming forward. And we're thinking we're going to find this car at the bottom of a river 20 years from now because it's evidence. And in actuality, it's the pizza guy, right? So that's one element of it where witness cooperation, not only on the part of the woman who was going to get the shoes, but also the

misidentification from the employee of the ice cream parlor. This is, if I was following her correctly, and I got a little confused, what Layla's mom was saying is that the ice cream employee, if I'm hearing that correctly, had met her daughter a week prior to that, or was it the woman in the shoes? The woman in the shoes. Okay. The woman in the shoes okay the woman in the shoes but it was the ice cream employee who said that they saw layla or just described a woman no they described the woman and they thought that it was layla okay so they didn't know because here's the question i have right like when law enforcement comes in and i'm hoping that they show this employee multiple pictures of Layla and I'd have to see what this woman who was in the, you know, who had no shoes on,

how much she resembled Layla. Pretty big coincidence, but there would have to be a pretty strong resemblance there for me to be like, okay, I get it. I could see how this person misidentified Layla as this other woman. But that's another thing where the witness might've said to them after looking at the picture, yep. Oh yeah, that's definitely her. That's her. I've had that happen too. So we start going down that path thinking that the witness is leading us on the right trail, come to find out it's the wrong person. So that's one thing you have to consider. The other thing-

You think they said she was inside and outside. There's no surveillance cameras inside or outside of the police. Well, we talked about that, if you remember. I just covered a case that I don't- Have you ever heard of Rachel Hansen? No. I covered it on Detective Perspective. It's coming out next week, but you got to listen to it.

Because this young girl, 19 years old, her door was kicked in. She shot one time inside of her apartment. She calls 911 and says, I've just been shot. They find her dead on her bathroom floor. No surveillance footage. And this happened in 2022. No surveillance footage in the hallways. This gunman walked in, walked out, not caught anywhere. And I went on this whole tangent about how these commercial buildings, especially if people are residing there, should be legally required to have that for the protection of not only their building, but also for the residents. But I'm getting off. Do you think hotels should also have surveillance cameras in the hallways? Right? Absolutely.

Like I'm in Atlanta. They're multi-million, if sometimes billion dollar operations, they can afford the security system. And I know they're not cheap, operations they can afford the security system and i know they're not cheap but they can afford them dude i was in atlanta a few months ago and i had like propped my hotel door open i'm saying 10 minutes i was gone i just went into another room across the hall for 10 minutes i came back my purse was gone somebody went in my purse and took it and like went into my room and took my purse and and then left with it and i know that they did because i obviously had my hotel key when i entered my room and it was in my purse and then when i went back in my room my purse was gone and my hotel key so how did i get into my hotel room

if i didn't have my hotel key kind of thing i knew it was there and then i go down to the desk and they're like no there's no cameras in the hallways and i'm like so somebody can literally be murdered in this hallway and you would have no idea? No, no proof of it. That's a problem. At minimum, you shouldn't be able, this is what I said in the episode, like basically you shouldn't be able to enter that building

or exit that building without being caught on at least one or two cameras. Like that's the most basic level. Yeah, that's the least we can ask for. The least we should have. There shouldn't be anyone who's able to gain entry to that building without being caught on camera. Unless they're purposely hiding their face.

Then that case, you know, it is what it is. But the second part of this TikTok video, which I think is extremely important, is the dissemination of information in the world of social media that we have today. And although there's a lot of negative things that we can point out about social media when it comes to true crime, which by the way, we're going to cover this week on Riley Strain. We're going to do a whole episode on it, audio on Friday, video on Sunday. A lot of people come into these cases and start giving their own opinions on what happened. But here's an example of a positive situation where mom is able to communicate with people who care about her daughter and disseminate accurate and updated information to the individuals who are potentially looking into this for her. Maybe it's PIs, maybe it's crowdsourcing, whatever it is, crowdsolving, I should say.

Whatever it is, it's an opportunity to get that information directly to the people who are interested in that information because it doesn't appear that law enforcement is actively putting out a lot of stuff. It seems like she's more doing so. And maybe, I don't know this, this is speculation on my part, maybe the public pressure being applied by social media through Layla's mom by her constantly posting was part of the reason that either this woman came forward or was able to be tracked down. I don't know what the case there is, but either way, I'm sure it helped in one way, shape, or form. So overall, witness quality and credibility, always an issue when it comes to investigations. You can never assume, even when the witness has the best intentions, that the information is credible. You always have to confirm and try to validate what they're telling you before building

your entire investigation off that statement, because it could be leading you down the wrong path. And then secondly, I'm happy to see social media being used in a great way where we are able to cover it. And also people around her that are looking for Layla are able to get the accurate information to maybe update whatever investigation they're working on privately. So there's also another update though. Okay. Because if you remember, weeks after Layla went missing, Jennifer began getting cash app requests from Layla's account. Yep, absolutely. Yeah, remember? And it made it seem like whoever was sending the request wanted money in return for information about Layla's whereabouts. Well, on February 14th, 21-year-old Michael David Thompson was indicted for identity theft, theft under $1,000, illegal possession, or fraudulent use of a credit or debit card,

and extortion as part of Layla's investigation. And Thompson was Layla's boyfriend, and at the time she disappeared, they were living together, but they'd had a falling out. Now, law enforcement says that he posed as Layla and sent cash app requests to many of her family members and friends in a sick attempt to extort her panic-stricken loved ones in a time of crisis. Police have also stated that there's no evidence that Thompson was involved in Layla's disappearance, and Layla's stepmother, Brittany Zettler, agrees that he's not involved with the disappearance, saying, quote, he was the first to report that something was wrong, expressing his concerns. I can honestly tell you that through this time of this whole thing, I've never gotten the vibe or feeling that he was responsible in any way for her disappearance, end quote. Forgive me if I'm

saying that a vibe and a feeling is not evidence of guilt or innocence, because at this point, if he's willing to capitalize on his missing girlfriend and try to steal money from her family, is there anything off the, like, you're not morally sound. So I think you might be capable of being involved somehow. And additionally, he was her partner and we know how this goes. So the statistics aren't really in his favor. His clear lack of moral fiber is not in his favor. And I don't know. What do you think about it? No, he's clearly a scumbag, to just put it bluntly. You know, I who knows if he's it is a big leap to go from extortion to murder. But well, I'm not doing that. But I think it's also a big leap to go from extortion to he had nothing to do with this.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's her opinion. I'm assuming once law enforcement identified this individual as part of this whole cash app thing, they really, you know, tighten the screws on him to see if he had any connection to this. And whether it's true or not, it doesn't appear they were able to find any connection. And I will say just be saying that, though, you know, because maybe he's got he's got associates or people, other people, and they're trying to figure out who he worked with. So they're not putting out that he's a suspect in this because then those people will get like jittery and, you know, run or hide or get rid of evidence or get rid of Layla, you know, so they could just be saying that. Yeah. I'm not, yeah. I have no reason to, to dispute you on that. I mean, it's absolutely possible sometimes, right? Well, yeah, I mean, it could be, I mean, they're not going to,

they might hold some things close to the vest and if they don't have anything concrete that they can use as, as part of their case to build, you know case to get him charged for it yet, yeah, they may be holding it back. And there may be some deals going on behind closed doors. I don't know. I would think they would kind of try to tie it all together if he was part of the extortion portion but not necessarily responsible. Extortion portion. The extortion portion and not necessarily her disappearance or her potential murder. I would think that he'd want to work a deal if he wasn't involved in that.

However, if he is somehow responsible, he's going to do what a lot of criminals do when we bring them in and he's going to deny it until you show him the physical evidence to discredit what he's saying. And even then they'll still deny it. So, you know, it's hard for us to go too far into it without having all the details of what's going on behind closed doors. But yeah, I mean, like you said, a vibe or a feeling that's one side of it, but didn't we just cover the Pyton massacre where there were people who felt like, oh, the Wagners, you know, they couldn't have been responsible for this. And sure enough, they were. So, I mean, it's, you never know. You never know. It could be the person closest to you that stabs you in the back. I mean, yeah, usually it is with with

something like this. You know, they were having issues. There could have been violence. She was, you know, staying with a friend, trying to get away from him. It just it doesn't if it makes me uncomfy to hear somebody just write it off directly. But that is the update there. As of the day that we are recording this, which is March 25th, Layla's mother, Jennifer, has posted another TikTok giving her thoughts on what may have happened

to her daughter. Something terrible has happened to my child. And this is a fucking nightmare. I think that in her haste to get away from the toxic situation she was in, my incredibly stubborn, independent, and willful daughter went out into the world on her own. A world that she was unfamiliar with and did not know how to navigate on her own. All of her life, I worried that her fearlessness would harm her. I was over-controlling. I suppressed her spirit a little bit sometimes because it scared me.

It scared me what might happen. She's never been afraid of anything. And that's terrifying for a mother. I think she got herself involved with people that she could not trust. I think she believed that she could trust certain individuals and I don't know what they've done with her but I know it's not good. Layla would not just leave us. She would not leave me to worry and suffer. It doesn't matter what kind of issues we were having in our relationship. She wouldn't let me worry like this, not intentionally. That's just not who she was. It's not who we are. Yeah, it's a tough clip to watch, you know, because obviously you can hear the guilt in her

voice. You can see it where she's now blaming herself for partially for what happened to Layla. And she shouldn't. Her daughter should be able to do whatever she wants and not have this be the outcome. It's the people responsible for this that take all the blame, not Layla's mom. And so that's one side of the coin. The other thing is, it is accurate. And there's probably a lot of truth to what she's saying as far as Layla going out there and getting involved with the wrong people. Out of respect for Layla and her mom, I'm not going to speculate what those things could be. I think most of you can probably put two and two together on that.

But when you surround yourself with people involved in that type of activity, it can lead down the wrong path, especially if you're a young woman and they learn that you don't really have anyone who's keeping tabs on you, who cares about you enough to call and check in on you all the time. And again, that's not Layla's mom's fault. That's nobody's fault. It's the criminal's fault, the monster's involved with this fault. But they do look for victims of opportunity. And if Layla was presented in that way, they may have potentially capitalized on that. Or she may have trusted the wrong person. A hundred percent. And I'm just hoping at this point, you know, worst case scenario, she's being held against her will somewhere and she's going to come back and we're going to find out what happened all this time. But there's also the other side to it. And I'm just hoping that that's not the outcome that we end up finding.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's very important that everybody understands Jennifer Santonello and the rest of Layla's loved ones deserve answers and they need our help, you know, as they would help us if we needed it. Jennifer has been trying to get exposure for Layla on national news media, but so far she's been unsuccessful. And the more eyes we have out there looking for Layla, the better. So go follow Jennifer Santanello on TikTok, share Layla's story on social media, keep your eyes open. And if you have any information on Layla Santanello or her whereabouts,

call 1-800-TBI-FIND. Yeah, we're thinking of Layla and her family. We're hoping for the best outcome. And maybe now with this new information, this will lead to something that we're not aware of that's going on currently behind the scenes. So we will keep you updated if there's another major development that's going to do it for us tonight. Guys, if you haven't already, if you're listening to an audio, make sure you leave a review, leave a comment. That helps. And if you're watching on YouTube right now, like, comment, subscribe. Hel helps the channel grow, gets exposed to more people and gets them aware of cases like the one we're talking about right now. That's going to do it for us. We will be back Friday on audio with a new episode on Riley Strain. We'll be out on YouTube on Sunday.

Everyone stay safe out there and we'll see you soon. Bye.