Savanah, 18, and her boyfriend were about to become parents, but disappeared without a trace before Christmas.
On Tuesday, they were found shot to death – and the Texas police are looking for two people who were caught on film.
– It was a confusing crime scene, says William McManus, police chief in San Antonio.
Savanah Soto, 18, and Matthew Guerra, 22, would have become parents at the end of December. Instead, they disappeared, were found shot to death, and are now one of America’s most talked about murder investigations.
The last sighting of Soto alive was on December 22, in the Leon Valley area of the city of San Antonio in Texas, USA, where the couple lived, reports the Texas Department of Public Safety according to NBC.
On Christmas Day, the authority called for the pregnant teenager. She was already overdue and on Saturday she had missed an important appointment with the midwife.
– I tried to call her all morning, but she didn’t answer. It went straight to voicemail, Savanah Soto’s mother Gloria Cordova told the television station KSAT.
– We went to the hospital anyway. She hadn’t turned up, and that’s when I called the police.
Found shot
On Tuesday, Savanah Soto and Matthew Guerra were found shot to death in a Kia Optima car in a San Antonio parking lot, five kilometers from Soto’s apartment. The unborn child in her womb had also died. The car had probably been in the same place for several days, the police said ABC News.
Both Soto and Guerra had died of gunshot wounds to the head, but police technical investigators have yet to determine how that happened, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said during a press conference Thursday. Police do not believe it is a murder-suicide, although McManus said “the possibility is still there.”
The case is currently being investigated as murder with such a level of severity that the penalty will be long prison terms or the death penalty. In Texas, the death penalty is on the penalty scale.
– It was a heinous act, it is impossible to put into words what a tragedy it is, said McManus according to ABC News.
Looking for two people
Police are looking for two people in the investigation and have shared a 79-second video clip where the two people may have been caught on camera. One of them comes driving in the Kia Optima car believed to have belonged to Guerra. The second person gets out of a dark pickup truck and walks up to the murder victim’s car to talk to the driver. They open the door and look inside the car before the driver of the pickup truck and the person in Guerra’s car drive off in different directions.
McManus said they don’t believe either victim appears in the video. After the bodies were found, the police chief called the case “very, very puzzling”.
– It’s a very confusing crime scene, McManus said according to KSAT.
– Investigators see it as a possible murder, but we don’t know for sure. It’s a complex scene.
At the press conference, McManus’ picture of the situation had become somewhat clearer.
– It was not determined at that time whether we would treat it as a murder-suicide or as a homicide investigation, he said according to ABC News.
– I think we’re past that stage right now, unless we get evidence that would make us believe otherwise.