Cops tell missing woman's family 'they know what happened' after arrest made (2024)

POLICE investigating the disappearance of Layla Santanello told her family they're confident they know what has happened to the missing mom and that it's a matter of time before the case is solved, her stepmom claims.

The promising revelation comes just hours after Layla's boyfriend, Michael David Thompson, was arrested for allegedly impersonating Layla on Cash App to extort her family for money two weeks after she vanished.

Layla, 21, has been missing since June 27, 2023, from her hometown of Kingsport, Tennessee, in the northeast corner of the state near the Virginia border.

On Monday night, her live-in boyfriend Michael Thompson, also 21, was arrested in connection with a series of fraudulent Cash App requests sent from Layla's account last summer.

Cops say Thompson posed as Layla on the app and contacted several of her family members and friends after she was reported missing in a sick attempt to extort them for cash in a time of crisis.

Thompson has been charged with identity theft, theft under $1,000, illegal possession of fraudulent use of a credit or debit card, and extortion.

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However, investigators stressed he is not currently considered a suspect in connection with Layla's disappearance.

Layla's stepmom, Brittany Zeitler, said she knew Thompson's arrest was coming for some time.

She also claims to have received information from police at the end of last year that they believe they know what happened to Layla, giving her quiet cause for optimism that answers will soon be forthcoming to explain her disappearance.

"Police are working hard to resolve this matter," she said.

"They've been giving us very limited information, but I received a call in December, basically saying, 'Merry Christmas, we know what happened, we know who did it, we know [roughly] where she's at, but we can't tell you anything yet.

"They said they have an idea of where she might be at, but again, this was in December and we're now in March, so clearly there's still a lot of missing puzzle pieces in this case.

"It's just really hard when you're not getting all the information."

The Kingsport Police Department has been contacted for comment.

Citing a mother's instinct, Zeitler said she believes that her daughter - who struggled with addiction - may have overdosed in the company of someone else who either failed to report her death or disposed of her remains.

However, until Layla is found, she said she and other relatives will continue to cling to the hope she may one day walk back through the door, despite receiving no signs of life from the mom-of-one in the last eight months.

Zeitler said she has no reason to believe that Thompson had any involvement in Layla's disappearance.

However, she suspects he may know more than he has previously let on. And, if that's indeed the case, she urged him to share what he knows with investigators immediately.

"[Before he was arrested] he came to me saying he had information on Layla and Michael asked if I could set something up with law enforcement, which I did, but he decided not to show and the deal was off the table," shared Zeitler.

"It was a relief to hear he was arrested finally because my goal in this - with him now in custody - is to ensure he doesn't take any secrets to the grave if he does know anything.

"He might not be responsible, but he may know something, but we won't know until police speak to him and he gets clean and gets his head straight."

DOES HE KNOW SOMETHING?

Zeitler has been in frequent contact with Thompson over the last eight months.

It was Thompson who first raised the alarm that something may have happened to Layla but he never contacted police himself to file a missing persons report.

Zeitler said Thompson, who also struggles with addiction, has been hit hard by Layla's unexplained absence.

She claims he's been on a reckless path over the last few months, indulging in excessing drug use and brushing with death.

"I was honestly fearing that we weren't going to make it this far. I didn't think he was going to make it to the cell. I honestly didn't because he seemed determined to take himself out," she said.

"He hasn't been well. He's been highly affected by this too. There's been a lot of speculation about him because they were together all the time, he was her boyfriend, and she's vanished and suddenly you don't know where she is.

"But I've honestly never suspected Michael to be responsible for Layla's disappearance," added Zeitler.

"He was the first to report that something was wrong, expressing his concerns. [...] I can honestly tell you that through the time of this whole thing, I've never gotten the vibe or the feeling that he was responsible in any way for her disappearance.

"Now do I feel he might know more than what he is saying? He might know, Yes."

CASH APP CON

It was Zeitler who reported Layla missing on June 27, 2023, after receiving a series of worried messages from Michael.

Layla's biological mom, Jennifer Santanello, told The U.S. Sun in December that she'd spent the previous five months meticulously tracing her daughter's final steps in search of answers.

Three days before she was reported missing, Jennifer got a message from Layla's boyfriend via Layla'sFacebookaccount, asking if she was in jail or in thehospitalbecause he didn't know where she was, messages viewed by The U.S. Sun showed.

Later the same night, Layla messaged her mom from the same account.

"I'm fine mom," she said, following up with, "I been with a friend. I don't have a phone to text or call. I'm using someone els's [sic]."

"Ok. I love you," replied Jennifer, to which Layla responded, in what would be her final message, "I love you so much more."

Zeitler reported her missing in the early hours of June 27.

The family was provided with a glimmer of - what would later turn out to be false - hope that Layla was still alive roughly two weeks after she was last seen.

That hope came in the form of a series ofstrange Cash App requestsfrom Layla's account, sent to Zeitler and Jennifer asking for money.

In the subject line of one request seeking $100, the letters "twlmg" appeared on the screen.

Several requests were made with the same subject line over several minutes, and so Jennifer sent her daughter's account $1, with a message asking if she was okay.

As a back-and-forth of transactions ensued, Jennifer said she believed the acronym in the subject line of the first request meant "they won't let me go" and so she believed her daughter was being held hostage.

She contacted thepoliceand began asking the requester of the funds more specific questions to verify it was Layla sending the messages.

"At some point, I started asking, 'What's your brother's name?', 'What's your baby brother's birthday?', and other specific questions like that, that only she would know, but this person was just ignoring them," recounted Jennifer.

"And I thought, 'No, something is wrong here.' But then, periodically throughout the next several weeks, they kept coming in [...] and then the requests got more and more threatening."

I feel like we're getting there. I feel like it's an any-day-now type of thing. And we're going to keep going head-on until Layla is found, one way or the other.

Brittany Zietler

One such threatening request was made for $95, with the caption: "For 15 mins or you'll find her n peaces [sic]."

"They were very detailed about the things they were going to do if we didn't send the money," said Jennifer.

"But that's the sad thing, over all those conversations, because you had to send $1 to send a sentence, we probably did send the money they were asking for."

Authorities were eventually able to access the account and determine who was sending the messages.

At the time, the family declined to name the culprit to The U.S. Sun.

In the wake of Thompson's arrest for allegedly concocting the sick scheme, Zeitler said she holds no resentment towards him.

Zeitler said that she was aware Thompson was behind the Cash App requests for "quite some time" and had previously confronted him about it.

"I brought it to Michael's attention a few times," she said. "He was in total denial. It was more of like, 'I didn't do it. It wasn't me.'

"I even told him, 'Michael, I'm not even mad, not even upset, because in all honesty you're a suffering addict right now, and you took advantage of a situation just as any other addict would have.

"But it's messed up. I hope he can utilize this time to get the help he needs because he definitely needs it."

'ANY DAY NOW'

Late last year, Zeitler claimed Layla and Thompson had fallen out days before her disappearance because he'd discovered she'd started a new relationship with another man.

She left home and stayed with friends for a few nights, before checking into the Americourt Hotel in Kingsport on June 25.

On June 26, other guests at the motel reported seeing Jennifer going door to door in an apparent state of distress, but she declined help from numerous strangers who offered her assistance.

At some stage in the late morning of the 26th, there was another altercation involving Layla and an unknown person.

Before that altercation, Layla, according to Zeitler, tolda friend, "I have to take care of something."

Layla was threatened with eviction from the motel because of the commotion.

She then walked off into a nearby woods around midday.

"There's a warehouse [near the woods] and there were approximately five employees that were working that said they could see Layla sticking out from a mile away," said Zeitler.

"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 last-known sighting of Layla, according to Zeitler, occurred outside of a storage facility a short distance from the Americourt.

Where she went next remains a mystery.

Despite there being no sightings of Layla since, and no calls or texts from the 21-year-old, Zeilter is clinging to a sliver of hope that her beloved stepdaughter is still alive.

She's also hopeful that answers about what happened to her will soon be forthcoming.

"I feel like we're getting there. I feel like it's an any-day-now type of thing," Zeilter said.

"And we're going to keep going head-on until Layla is found, one way or the other.

"It's been eight months and there haven't been any sightings, phone calls, or anything.

"And so the only thing we can really believe is that she isn't here anymore. I'm told there's a 5% chance she may walk through the door, but that isn't good odds, not in my eyes.

"But until we have evidence she's no longer here, we're going to hold onto that 5% of hope until we know for sure, until her body is recovered in some way.

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"We won't believe she's not here until then."