Left: Yessenia Norman (GoFundMe). Right: Randal Basilio Santillan (Harrison County Adult Detention Center).
Authorities report that a 27-year-old man from Arizona lured a woman to his apartment via a dating app, where he allegedly stabbed her nearly 30 times before fleeing the state.
According to Fox affiliate KSAZ, 18-year-old Yessenia Norman left her residence at a transitional facility overseen by the Arizona Department of Child Safety on January 15, telling friends she planned to meet someone she connected with on a dating platform. Her disappearance was reported by a friend four days later. On January 28, police found her body in Tolleson, a suburb of Phoenix, with evidence of 27 stab wounds.
The victim’s remains were discovered battered and concealed under blankets and towels in an apartment purportedly leased by Randal Basilio Santillan. While the motive remains unclear, detectives quickly secured an arrest warrant. Santillan was apprehended in Biloxi, Mississippi, approximately 1,600 miles from where the crime occurred.
Authorities traced his vehicle’s journey through traffic cameras in New Mexico, Illinois, and Missouri before he eventually settled in Mississippi, as reported by KSAZ.
Santillan is currently held at the Harrison County Adult Detention Center, awaiting extradition to Arizona, where he will face charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping.
Jessica Calderon, Norman’s mother, expressed her anguish to KSAZ, saying, “I can’t imagine. 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.”
