Solved Murders - True Crime Stories - The Sinister Deception of Santino Gadini The Tragic Murder of Valentina Cancela PART2 #70

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

#horrorstories #reddithorrorstories #ScaryStories #creepypasta #horrortales #truecrime #argentinamurdercase #darkdeception #realhorrorstory #coldbloodedkiller After taking Valentina Cancela’s life, Santino Gadini’s deception reached disturbing new levels. With shocking calmness, he pretended nothing had happened — posting online, smiling in photos, and even sending messages to Valentina’s friends as if she were still alive. While the community searched desperately for the missing girl, Santino maintained his façade, manipulating everyone around him. This second part reveals the terrifying coldness of a killer who believed he could outsmart everyone and hide the truth beneath a mask of innocence. But every lie has a limit — and Santino’s would soon collapse. horrorstories, reddithorrorstories, scarystories, horrorstory, creepypasta, horrortales, truecrime, realhorrorstory, argentinacrime, femicidecase, deception, coldkiller, obsessioncrime, manipulation, darktruth, psychologicalthriller, shockingcase, realcasefile, chillingstory, twistedmind

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and see how your smart meter can work for you. ESP Networks, energizing your everything. The juvenile justice system had supposedly stepped in to investigate the situation. Report said both teams, Valentina and Santino, were being monitored. But as it later turned out, Santino's complaint wasn't new at all. It actually referred to that same altercation back in February, when Valentina had admitted to kicking him in self-defense. That earlier fight had been twisted around, repackaged, and used by him to make himself

look like a victim. With that background hanging in the air, Tuesday, August 15th, started out like any other day for Valentina Kinsella. She woke up early, had breakfast with her mom, and headed off to school. Her classes ran from 7.30 a.m. to noon, and that morning felt completely ordinary. Her friend said she seemed fine, maybe a little quiet, but nothing that suggested anything bad was coming. No one noticed anything unusual, no tears, no weird comments, no clues. Normally, after school, Valentina had private English lessons. But around 11.40 a.m., while she was still in class, she messaged her English teacher to say she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't make it to the lesson that day.

It sounded casual, harmless. No one could have guessed that message would be one of the last she ever sent. When her mother, Lilliana, got home that afternoon, she found the house empty. It wasn't that weird at first, Valentina often hung out with her friends after school without warning. She figured her daughter was just out with Isabel or one of the other girls, maybe grabbing ice cream or walking by the beach. Still, a little voice inside her whispered that something wasn't right. Around 2.55 p.m., Lilliana sent her first text, Everything OK, Valentine's. No response. Half an hour later, she tried again, where are you, sweetie? Again, nothing. That's when the worry started to grow roots. By 4 p.m., she couldn't take it anymore. She started messaging Valentina's friends to ask if anyone had seen her or knew where she was. Each reply was the same, no, we haven't seen her since school. Panic began to set in.

The friends group chat blew up within minutes. One by one, everyone started calling and texting, trying to reach Valentina. None of their calls went through. Her phone had been silent since around 3 p.m., completely off the grid. Isabel, one of her closest friends, decided to reach out to Santino directly, hoping he might know something. Half an hour after speaking with Lilliana, she sent him a message asking if he was with Valentina. His reply came fast, he said no, that he hadn't seen her all day. To make his story more believable, he even sent a selfie, smiling, relaxed, saying he was at home with his dad.

A kind of, see, I'm here, I'm innocent, picture. He even offered to help with the search, like a concerned boyfriend who had nothing to hide. That image, his smiling face, would later become the most chilling proof of how far his deceit went. Meanwhile, Lilliana's anxiety was growing by the minute. She later said she felt this heavy pressure in her chest, like something was physically squeezing her heart. That mother's instinct, that unexplainable gut feeling, told her something was horribly wrong. She couldn't just sit still. She called Valentina's godmother, and together they started driving around the city, down the streets near the peninsula, past the bus stops, around the

boardwalk anywhere her daughter might have gone. But they found nothing. Lilliana kept calling over and over again. The phone rang and went straight to voicemail. When she realized Valentina had been completely unreachable since around three o'clock, panic turned into fear. That's when she decided to go to the police. She officially reported her daughter missing. That night, the city of Punta del Esté came alive with flashing lights and urgent radio calls. A full-scale police operation was launched. Patrols covered the coastal roads, drones took to the sky, and volunteers joined the search. Friends, classmates, and even strangers came together, combing through the beaches and streets

with flashlights, shouting her name into the wind. While everyone was searching, Santino was still pretending to care. A few hours after the report, he texted Isabel again, asking if there was any news about Valentina. They exchanged a few messages. Take a second. Notice how you're moving. Turning the steering wheel. Holding your baby. Running on the treadmill. Kicking the ball. Your lungs are expanding. Your heart beating. Life is full of movement and you are full of life.

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probably the last person who saw her. That confession didn't sound like concern. It sounded rehearsed. According to some sources, that same night, a few of Valentina's friends even went to Santino's house. He met them outside and acted cooperative. Together, they tried to organize the search, drawing routes, sharing numbers, planning to spread flyers. He seemed calm, too calm, smiling and talking about Valentina like she. she was just lost somewhere.

By then, the story was spreading fast. On social media, posts with Valentina's photo began circulating, accompanied by desperate messages, missing teenager, last seen in Punta del Estée. Her picture flooded Instagram stories, Facebook groups, and local WhatsApp chains. Friends begged for information, parents shared the post, and soon, even local media picked it up. Her smiling face was on every screen, a 17-year-old girl with light hair, bright eyes, and a look of pure life. While everyone was searching for her, the police were doing their part.

Investigators reviewed municipal security cameras, checking every street she might have walked through after school. And that's when they found the first clue, footage showing Valentina heading toward Playa Brava, along the Rambla, shortly after leaving school. At first, that didn't seem odd. It was common for locals to walk along that stretch of beach. But what the footage revealed next changed everything. Around 3 p.m., Valentina was seen meeting with someone, Santino. The two appeared together near Parada 6, one of the beach's most popular access points. They had met in secret.

No one knew about it, not her friends, not her mother, no one. Both families had forbidden them from seeing each other because of all the violence, the police reports, and the restraining orders. But somehow, they'd found a way. The footage showed them walking down toward the beach together. That was the last time anyone saw Valentina alive. Two hours later, another camera captured Santino leaving the same area, alone. He was walking casually, not running, not crowsy. crying, not looking back. Just walking.

The police immediately took note of the location. Playa Bravo wasn't just any beach, it was known for its rough waves and deep waters. It was popular with surfers, not exactly the kind of place you'd choose for a peaceful stroll. That detail made investigators even more worried. As the hours ticked by, the search intensified. Santino's story started falling apart. When questioned by police, he finally admitted that he had met Valentina that day, but insisted that after talking for a bit, she left on her own. He said they'd argued, but that she walked away.

He claimed he watched her disappear down the beach path. But that explanation didn't match what he told her friends earlier. He told them he saw her around 1 p.m., yet the camera-com. clearly showed them together at 3 p.m. That two-hour gap was too big to ignore. Detectives began doubting every word, he said. The timeline didn't add up, and his calmness seemed unnatural. Something was off. By now, the entire city was on alert. Poster's with Valentina's face were everywhere. Police cars patrolled through the night. Search teams, aided by the naval prefect, the branch responsible for coastal safety, joined forces with the Republican Guard, expanding

the operation by land, sea, and air. There was still hope. Everyone clung to it desperately. Maybe she'd just run away to clear her head. Maybe she was staying with someone. Maybe she'd show up the next morning with that sheepish teenage smile and an apology. even checked bus terminals, scanning through security footage in Montevideo and nearby towns. They thought she might have taken a bus to escape for a while.

But that hope started fading fast when they realized she didn't have enough money with her. The cash found at home showed she could barely afford a local bus ticket, let alone a trip to another city. By Wednesday, August 17th, at around 11 a.m., the mood had changed completely. Search dogs and drones were deployed near Playa Brava, focusing on the dunes. With an ESB network smart meter, you're in control. Track your daily, weekly, and monthly electricity usage so you can choose the right plan for your home. Smart meters help all of us make smarter energy choices, so we can work together for Ireland's cleaner electric future.

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Her notebook, some makeup, her water bottle, and most notably, her cell phone, which had been turned off since the moment she went missing. That small detail hit everyone hard. A teenage girl never leaves her phone behind, especially not without telling anyone. During a press conference later that day, the chief of police explained how crucial that discovery was. He said, if we had found the backpack hanging on a tree or somewhere out in the open, the story would have been very different. But finding it buried meant something else entirely. It wasn't just a lost item. It was evidence.

By then, the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together, and none of them painted a hopeful picture. Behind the scenes, officers already suspected what the public didn't yet know. The location of the backpack, the silence from Valentina's phone, the contradictions in Santino's testimony, it all pointed toward one terrible conclusion. The boy who said he wanted to help find her, the one smiling in that fake selfie, was hiding something much darker. As investigators kept digging, literally and figuratively, they noticed more signs of disturbed. sand in the same area. The smell of freshly moved earth mixed with the salty sea breeze. Officers used shovels, their hands, anything they could find. Every scoop of sand revealed more truth, and more horror. Meanwhile, the search above ground continued. Friends refused to go

home. They kept posting updates online, hoping for a miracle. They organized candlelight gatherings, prayed, and begged anyone with information to come forward. But in the hearts of those who knew her best, hope was slipping away. Liliana, exhausted and trembling, waited at the police station. Every time the phone rang, her stomach dropped. She told reporters later that she already knew, deep down, what had happened. A mother knows, she said. You can feel it in your bones.

and as authorities worked through the day, the truth they uncovered would confirm her worst fears. But that part of the story, the discovery, the confession, and the aftermath, would come later. For now, the only thing anyone knew for sure was that something terrible had happened by the dunes of Playa Brava, and that the smiling boy in that photo had been the last person to see Valentina alive. Her disappearance had started like a typical teenage mystery, a missing phone, unanswered messages, worried parents, but within 24 hours, it turned into one of the most chilling cases Uruguay had seen in years. Everyone who'd known Valentina, teachers, classmates, neighbors, struggled to process it. They'd seen her laugh, seen her post pictures of sunsets and beach days, never imagining that the same ocean she loved would become her. final resting place. The investigation, though, was far from over. The police had their suspect. They had evidence. They had inconsistencies. But what they didn't yet have was the full truth,

and the truth, when it came out, would shock everyone. To be continued.