Texas father and son arrested in killings of pregnant woman and her boyfriend
A father and son in Texas have been charged in the killings of a pregnant 18-year-old woman who disappeared before Christmas and her boyfriend, who authorities say were fatally shot in the head before their bodies were moved and discovered days later in a car.
The arrests Wednesday night came more than a week after the bodies of Savanah Nicole Soto, 18, and Matthew Guerra, 22, were found in the parking lot of a San Antonio apartment complex, a crime scene that the city’s police chief originally described as “very, very perplexing.”
San Antonio Police Sgt. Washington Moscoso told reporters that the couple’s deaths appeared to be the result of a drug deal, but did not elaborate.
Soto’s family has said she was overdue to deliver her baby and had been scheduled to have induced labor when she went missing the weekend before Christmas. Moscoso said investigators now believe the couple were killed Dec. 21, meaning they had been dead for several days before police found them in Guerra’s car the day after Christmas.
The killings have drawn attention beyond Texas, and Moscoso said “misinformation” about the case had taken off on social media.
“These two individuals are the only suspects that we were looking for,” he said of the arrested pair.
In 2023, 115 people have died in 22 mass killings. Experts point to lax gun laws; politicians’ inability or unwillingness to change, violence in U.S. culture.
Police said Christopher Preciado, 19, was charged with capital murder, and his father, Ramon Preciado, 53, was charged with abuse of a corpse for allegedly helping his son move the couple’s bodies.
As he was placed in a patrol car late Wednesday, reporters asked Ramon Preciado whether he had remorse.
“Aren’t you sorry for lying about what you’re saying?” he said. “You don’t even know what’s going on. You just make stuff up like always.”
His son did not comment as police escorted him to a separate vehicle.
The recent shootings of three college students of Palestinian descent in Vermont’s largest city come as the small rural state is grappling with a spike in gun violence.
Moscoso said prosecutors may pursue more charges against the men, whom he described as the only suspects in the killings. He said information on Soto’s cellphone, which was found in the car, led them to another vehicle seen in surveillance footage, which authorities publicly released last week in hopes that someone would recognize the people in the video.
That vehicle led police to a house where they found the Preciados. Moscoso said Ramon Preciado answered the door and cooperated with the investigation.
“He knew why the police were there,” Moscoso said.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office had ruled both deaths homicides from gunshot wounds to the head. Moscoso did not specify where the killing took place before the couple was moved to the apartment complex.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for the L.A. Times biggest news, features and recommendations in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Soto had been scheduled to have labor induced at a hospital the weekend before Christmas, her family told KENS-TV. But her mother said she got no answer when she knocked on the door of Soto’s apartment in the suburb of Leon Valley.
The family spent Christmas night searching the area, and Leon Valley police issued a missing-persons alert.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
