SAN ANTONIO, TX - On Wednesday, December 27th, law enforcement officials stated that days after being reported missing, a pregnant woman and her boyfriend were found dead, each with a gunshot wound.
According to the Associated Press (AP), a medical examiner has not yet confirmed that the bodies found in a parked car outside an apartment complex are in fact 18-year-old Savanah Nicole Soto and 22-year-old Matthew Guerra. An unborn child was also killed.
NBC News reported that a representative with the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office said that at this time there is no additional information to release about the case.
In an earlier statement, the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) said that Soto was last seen in a Kia Optima, the same car that the two dead bodies were found in, around 2:00 p.m. on Friday, December 22nd in the 6000 block of Grissom Road in Leon Valley.
In that statement, investigators said that they believed her disappearance posed a "credible threat to her health and safety." On Tuesday, December 26th, SAPD Chief William McManus said during a news conference that the bodies inside of the Kia could have been there for three or four days. The Kia, he added, belonged to Soto's boyfriend.
While near the crime scene, McManus said, "There are two people in the car ... They are deceased. We believe that it is the missing woman and her boyfriend." Law enforcement officials have offered limited details on the case, which is reportedly being investigated as possibly a capital murder.
A SAPD spokeswoman said that there are no known suspects and that there is not an ongoing threat to the public. Soto's disappearance triggered a CLEAR Alert. CLEAR stands for Coordinated Law Enforcement Adult Rescue and was created back in 2019 to help law enforcement find and rescue missing, kidnapped or abducted adults who are in immediate danger of injury or death.
Soto was reportedly a week overdue to deliver her baby and was scheduled to have an induced labor at a hospital on Saturday, December 23rd. However, her mother said that when she knocked on her daughter's door of her apartment during the afternoon, she got no answer.
Soto's family spent Christmas eve searching the area and on Monday, December 25th, Leon Valley police issued the missing-person alert, later saying that the boyfriend, Guerra also could not be found. Speaking with News4SA, Soto's mother said that she believed her daughter was in trouble. She said, "There's no reason why she would just get up and go off and do that."
McManus said that the bodies found were in the Kia Optima matching the description of the one that belongs to Guerra. He said that investigators believe them to be the missing couple, but could not say for sure without confirmation from the medical examiner. He added, "What we're looking at right now is a very, very perplexing crime scene."
According to court records obtained by WOAI-TV, Guerra was arrested on Christmas of 2022 for assaulting Soto. He was sentenced to probation for that incident. After being arrested on other charges unrelated to that incident, a judge extended the probation sentence through February 2025.
The conditions of his probation barred him from possessing a weapon and from having "harmful or injurious" communications with Soto. Her family accused Guerra of being "abusive."
Soto's brother, 15-year-old Ethan Soto, was also killed in a shooting in May of 2022 in alleged revenge for a THC cartridge robbery.
According to the Associated Press (AP), a medical examiner has not yet confirmed that the bodies found in a parked car outside an apartment complex are in fact 18-year-old Savanah Nicole Soto and 22-year-old Matthew Guerra. An unborn child was also killed.
NBC News reported that a representative with the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office said that at this time there is no additional information to release about the case.
In an earlier statement, the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) said that Soto was last seen in a Kia Optima, the same car that the two dead bodies were found in, around 2:00 p.m. on Friday, December 22nd in the 6000 block of Grissom Road in Leon Valley.
In that statement, investigators said that they believed her disappearance posed a "credible threat to her health and safety." On Tuesday, December 26th, SAPD Chief William McManus said during a news conference that the bodies inside of the Kia could have been there for three or four days. The Kia, he added, belonged to Soto's boyfriend.
While near the crime scene, McManus said, "There are two people in the car ... They are deceased. We believe that it is the missing woman and her boyfriend." Law enforcement officials have offered limited details on the case, which is reportedly being investigated as possibly a capital murder.
A SAPD spokeswoman said that there are no known suspects and that there is not an ongoing threat to the public. Soto's disappearance triggered a CLEAR Alert. CLEAR stands for Coordinated Law Enforcement Adult Rescue and was created back in 2019 to help law enforcement find and rescue missing, kidnapped or abducted adults who are in immediate danger of injury or death.
Soto was reportedly a week overdue to deliver her baby and was scheduled to have an induced labor at a hospital on Saturday, December 23rd. However, her mother said that when she knocked on her daughter's door of her apartment during the afternoon, she got no answer.
Soto's family spent Christmas eve searching the area and on Monday, December 25th, Leon Valley police issued the missing-person alert, later saying that the boyfriend, Guerra also could not be found. Speaking with News4SA, Soto's mother said that she believed her daughter was in trouble. She said, "There's no reason why she would just get up and go off and do that."
McManus said that the bodies found were in the Kia Optima matching the description of the one that belongs to Guerra. He said that investigators believe them to be the missing couple, but could not say for sure without confirmation from the medical examiner. He added, "What we're looking at right now is a very, very perplexing crime scene."
According to court records obtained by WOAI-TV, Guerra was arrested on Christmas of 2022 for assaulting Soto. He was sentenced to probation for that incident. After being arrested on other charges unrelated to that incident, a judge extended the probation sentence through February 2025.
The conditions of his probation barred him from possessing a weapon and from having "harmful or injurious" communications with Soto. Her family accused Guerra of being "abusive."
Soto's brother, 15-year-old Ethan Soto, was also killed in a shooting in May of 2022 in alleged revenge for a THC cartridge robbery.
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Comments
2023-12-29T05:12-0600 | Comment by: Bobbi
OMG I feel so sad for that poor girl's parents 😢 Lost two young children within a year. I wish she had gotten away from that awful abusive boyfriend. All that money he's holding in that pic, you just can tell he was up to no good. Probably drug money. Prayers for this family 😞🙏
2023-12-29T05:12-0600 | Comment by: Bobbi
OMG I feel so sad for that poor girl's parents 😢 Lost two young children within a year. I wish she had gotten away from that awful abusive boyfriend. All that money he's holding in that pic, you just can tell he was up to no good. Probably drug money. Prayers for this family 😞🙏