A young Tennessee mom who vanished in June had been secretly seeing a mystery man while still living with a boyfriend, according to her panicked family.
Layla Santanello, 21, was last seen barefoot and looking disoriented at the Marble Slab Creamery in Kingston’s East Stone Commons Shopping Center around noon on June 27, the Times News reported.
She was believed to be heading to a nearby Five Below store to purchase shoes – but she never showed up, her family told the US Sun.
The mom of one vanished just a few days after an argument with her live-in boyfriend – one now thought to have been about another man she was seeing, Santanello’s stepmother, Brittany Zeitler, told the outlet.
Santonello reportedly fled without any belongings from the home she shared with her then-partner, who was not identified but has been helping with appeals, the family said.
She then spent a few nights couch-surfing with friends – including her mysterious supposed new love interest, according to the stepmom.
She eventually checked into a motel on June 25, where another friend was staying — and other guests recalled seeing her go door to door in clear distress, the report said.
She had another altercation at the hotel with someone — also not identified — before marching off to some woods, Zeitler said.
“Based on her paranoia, her panicking and her being freaked out, it could be that she was running from whoever she spoke with at the motel,” the stepmom suggested.
Her mother, Jennifer Santonello, had reached out to her when her boyfriend said she was returning his messages, the mom told the US Sun.
“I’m fine mom,” she wrote, according to messages shared with the outlet. “I been with a friend. I don’t have a phone to text or call. I’m using someone els’s [sic].”
When her mom said “Ok. I love you,” Jennifer responded: “I love you so much more.”
About two weeks after Santonello was last seen, Zeitler and Jennifer both received bizarre CashApp requests from the 21-year-old’s account – but the requests were eventually determined to have been a sick hoax, Jennifer explained.
Five months later, the family is grasping at straws as to what might have happened to Santonello – who left behind a two-year-old daughter, Nova Grace.
“A lot of things pop into my head. I wonder about trafficking, but also aren’t serial killers the type to pick a specific height and weight and that kind of thing?” Jennifer told the US Sun, referring to the October disappearance of another local woman who was petite like Santonello.
The Kingston Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for a comment on the case.