Dating App Encounter Turns Violent: Woman Stabbed Nearly 30 Times After Meeting Man

A 27-year-old man from Arizona has been accused of luring a woman to his apartment via a dating app and then stabbing her nearly 30 times before fleeing the state, as reported by authorities.

According to Fox affiliate KSAZ, 18-year-old Yessenia Norman left her residence at a transitional facility under the Arizona Department of Child Safety on January 15. She informed friends that she was going to meet someone she had connected with on a dating app. When she failed to return, a friend reported her missing four days later. Tragically, on January 28, police found her body in an apartment located in Tolleson, a suburb of Phoenix. She had suffered 27 stab wounds.

Norman’s body was discovered in a horrifying state, covered by blankets and towels. While the motive for the crime remains unclear, the apartment where she was found is reportedly linked to Randal Basilio Santillan, who was listed as the tenant. Detectives issued an arrest warrant, and Santillan was apprehended on Friday in Biloxi, Mississippi, approximately 1,600 miles away from where the crime took place.

Authorities managed to trace Santillan’s vehicle through traffic cameras in New Mexico, Illinois, and Missouri before he finally arrived in Mississippi, as reported by KSAZ.

Santillan is currently held at the Harrison County Adult Detention Center, awaiting extradition back to Arizona. He faces charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping.

“I can’t imagine,” Norman’s mother, Jessica Calderon, told KSAZ. “I just can’t imagine. Who would do that to her? I just don’t understand.”

A GoFundMe account description called Norman, who went by Sisi, a “young woman of deep compassion and strength for everyone she knew.”

“She loved all of her friends’ children endlessly, treating them as if they were family too,” the account that is raising funds for her mom stated. “She was a very talented young woman who had a very bright future waiting for her. She recently signed up for community college and was very eager to start her adult life.”