Savanah Nicole Soto and Matthew Guerra: Chilling CCTV footage released in connection with couple's death
LEON VALLEY, TEXAS: Texas cops have been searching for persons of interest after officials confirmed that pregnant Texas teen Savanah Nicole Soto and her boyfriend Matthew Guerra both died of gunshot wounds to their heads, as per the New York Post.
The revelations come after the bodies of 18-year-old Soto and 22-year-old Guerra were found on Tuesday, December 26, in a car park outside a Northwest Side apartment complex in San Antonio. Their unborn baby was also declared dead.
Cops haven't established if Matthew Guerra's death is homicide or suicide
A spokesman for The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office told the outlet, “Soto’s death has been ruled a homicide from a gunshot wound to the head."
According to the spokesman, the coroner also reported Guerra's cause of death as a "contact gunshot wound to the head" but they haven't yet established if it was a homicide or suicide. “Guerra is still a pending matter," he said.
No firearms or cellphones were discovered at the crime scene where cops found the couple’s bullet-riddled bodies. The San Antonio Police Department released surveillance footage on Thursday, December 28 showing two persons of interest near where the couple’s bodies were found.
In the footage, a suspect driving the victims' silver Kia Optima is seen pulling up to a dark-colored pickup vehicle driven by another suspect in a parking lot with its lights off.
A large man in a tank top gets out of the truck, unlocks the Kia's driver-side door, and seems to talk to the driver. The video revealed that after a brief conversation, both drove off in different directions.
One day before she was supposed to be induced and give birth to their child, whom they had already named Fabian, Soto disappeared on Friday, December 27. Her body was found in a car alongside Guerra’s the following day after alarmed family members reported her missing to police because she did not show up for her appointment at Stone Oak Methodist Hospital.
Savanah Soto's mom feels Matthew Guerra was involved in criminal activity
Savanah Soto’s mother Gloria Cordova said that her daughter was found in the front seat with a car seat on top of her, while Guerra was sprawled out across the backseat. As per the New York Post, she said, “I hope they pay for whatever they did to my daughter,” adding that she believes Guerra was involved in criminal activity.
“He used to abuse her and I told her to get out of the relationship, but she was hard-headed, she wouldn’t listen. But I think this time, she was going to leave him already. That’s what I’m hearing," she said, adding, “They took an innocent, an innocent girl that was going to be a mommy, they just took her life for nothing.”
In June, a judge granted Guerra probation in the family violence case and permitted him to have contact with Soto as long as it was not “harmful or injurious,” according to court documents.
According to the document, Guerra was charged with other, unconnected offenses such as reckless driving, unauthorized carrying of a weapon, and eluding arrest in a vehicle. As a result, the probation was supposed to end in June 2024, but a judge decided to extend it until February 2025.
