A pregnant teen vanished a day before giving birth. She and her boyfriend are now dead
The bodies of Savanah Nicole Soto, 18, and Matthew Guerra, 23, were found inside a Kia Optima on 26 December. Now a father and son face charges. Mike Bedigan and Martha McHardy report
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A major breakthrough has been made in murders of a heavily pregnant Texas teenager and her boyfriend - while heartbroken loved ones await more answers.
The bodies of Savanah Soto, 18, and Matthew Guerra, 23, were found shot dead on 26 December inside a Kia Optima in San Antonio. Their unborn baby was also dead in the car.
A search had been launched for the couple after their families became alarmed when Soto didn’t turn up on 23 December for an appointment to have her labour induced.
After the murders were discovered, police released chilling footage showing the couple’s Kia Optima and a dark-coloured pickup truck with a bed cover. Police said that one person of interest was driving the Kia Optima and the other the pickup truck.
A week later, San Antonio police arrested and charged two people in connection with the deaths.
Many questions remain about the circumstances leading to the couple’s disappearance and deaths. Here’s what we know so far.
When did the pair go missing?
Soto was last seen on 22 December at the Valencia Lofts apartment complex in Leon Valley, a city in Bexar County, Texas. The teen lived there with Guerra, the father of her child, according to family members.
She was described by police as a 5-foot-1-inch pregnant female with brown hair and brown eyes.
Her family became concerned when she didn’t show up for a hospital appointment the following days. She was a week past her due date, and scheduled to have an induced labour, the family told local station KENS-TV.
Her mother, Gloria Cordova, said that she last heard from her daughter on Friday afternoon and got no answer when she knocked on her apartment door on the afternoon of 23 December.
Ms Cordova added that she also hadn’t been able to contact Guerra since her daughter’s disappearance.
Leon Valley police issued a CLEAR Alert for Savanah on 25 December and later said that her boyfriend was missing too. Savanah’s family organised a search of the area near her apartment on Christmas night.
“Savanah was so, so happy because she was going to be a mommy. It breaks my heart,” her mother told KENS-TV.
Where were they found?
The pair were found dead on 26 December in a parked car in San Antonio, Texas.
Someone spotted the car in the parking lot of an apartment complex in San Antonio and alerted the family, KENS-TV reported. Relatives then called the police.
Two bodies were found in the Kia Optima. Police Chief William McManus told a press conference that the bodies may have been there for three or four days.
Who are the suspects?
Police arrested two people in connection with the deaths on 3 January.
Christopher Preciado, 19, was arrested and charged with capital murder, while his father, 53-year-old Ramon Preciado was charged with abuse of a corpse for helping his son move the bodies, police said.
Police Sgt Washington Moscoso added that Ramon did not participate in the murders.
He said more charges are possible with respect to the unborn baby.
The suspects were tracked down after a key piece of evidence was recovered from Soto’s cellphone, which pointed authorities to the possible location of the pickup truck, and ultimately to the two suspects’ home.
What was the motive?
While an exact motive for the killings has not yet been established, Sgt Moscoso previously said a botched drug deal was apparently involved.
In a press conference on 28 December, police released a video that captured two persons of interest wanted in connection to the murders.
In the video, a dark-coloured pickup truck with a bed cover is seen driving into a parking lot in San Antonio.
The couple’s Kia Optima is seen driving and coming to a stop side-by-side with the truck.
Police said that one person of interest was driving the Kia Optima and the other the pickup truck.
One of the persons of interest is seen emerging from the pickup truck and approaching the driver’s side of the victims’ car, appearing to speak to the individual inside.
The second person of interest is then seen getting out of the driver’s side of the Kia Optima.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters that none of the victims are visible in the footage.
The police chief would not confirm whether or not the video was believed to have been captured before or after the murders took place.
It is unclear if the suspects were previously known to the victims.
Family members of the couple have also offered conflicting theories about what might have happened.
Soto’s sister-in-law alleged that she was being abused. “i won’t allow you to be one of those statistics of what happens when u have an abusive boyfriend,” she wrote on social media, in a post viewed by The New York Post.
Her mother also posted on Facebook: “I’m worried about her safety she is [with] her boyfriend who is no good.”
But according to the NY Post, Guerra’s mother wrote on social media: “If anyone knows my son Matthew Guerra he and his pregnant girlfriend are missing. I know my son and he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.”
A grieving family
It is not the first time that tragedy has struck the Soto family.
In 2022, Savanah Soto’s 15-year-old brother Ethan Soto was shot and killed. “It’s hard, it’s like one after another,” Gloria Cordova told KENS.
“It still hurts because what I tell my kids, I’m not complete, I’m not complete, and now I don’t have my daughter,” she said.
In October, the man accused of Ethan’s murder was beaten in the courtroom. According to The Daily Mail, footage allegedly showed members of the Soto family launching themselves towards him as he took the stand.
The footage showed several individuals jumping over a partition and throwing punches at the man - who allegedly made a gesture at the group.
After Soto and her boyfriend were found dead, her sister-in-law Mariana Delgado wrote on Facebook: “It's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year but it's not it's the WORST.
“Trying our best to give my daughter's a good Christmas but it's so hard to want to feel happy instead we are just heartbroken.. Savanah & baby Fabian ARE supposed to be celebrating with us , this isn't fair.”
In a separate post, Ms Delgado later requested the family to be allowed to grieve.