Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Son Says 'Bye to Daddy' Before Mom Does the Unthinkable

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

The sheriff of Bexar County, Texas released chilling details about the final moments of a 3-year-old boy's life before his mother killed him. Law enforcement searched for Savannah Kriger and her son, Kaiden, after receiving a 911 call from the boy's father, alerting them that she had damaged his apartment and might run with the boy. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober about the disturbing case and describes how Kaiden's father is remembering him in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.If you’ve used Incognito mode in Google’s Chrome browser, find out if you have a claim in a few clicks by visiting https://incognitoclaims.com/crimefixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Dr. Daniel Bober https://www.instagram.com/drdanielbober/?hl=enCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Some concerns regarding Savannah Kreider, who resides at that residence with her young son, Caden. A mother and her three-year-old son found shot to death in Texas. Savannah instructs Caden to say bye to daddy, which Caden does. Now the sheriff says his suspicions have been confirmed. I have the sad case of Caden Krieger and his mother, Savannah Krieger. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. There are so many cases that just leave me absolutely heartsick and stunned, and this is one of them.

Three-year-old Caden Krieger should be here, but on March 18th, the sheriff in Bexar County, Texas, says his mother picked him up early from daycare with the intention of killing him and herself. Sheriff Javier Salazar briefed the media on March 19th about the investigation at Tom Slick Park in San Antonio. Last night, what started all this off is we got a call about 6.30, 8211 Dover's Den at a residence not too far from here off Culebra for a report of a welfare check. There was some concerns regarding Savannah Kreider, who resides at that residence with her young son, Caden Kreider. Kreiger, my apologies.

When we initially arrived, there was no vehicle there on scene, and deputies were not able to make entry to the residence. So later in the evening, we were able to make contact with a family member that eventually was able to get us into the residence with consent. And we were able to get in and found some things. I won't go too much into detail on what was found, but they did find some things that led us to believe there was certainly cause for concern for the child,

as well as for Savannah. This is a law and crime legal alert. Google Incognito tracked users browsing data without their knowledge. Mass Tort Alliance, one of our legal sponsors, is helping users file for compensation because Google misled users about the privacy of its Incognito browser. If you've used Google Incognito anytime since 2016, you can start your claim by answering less than 10 questions. Log on to incognitoclaims.com slash crime fix. I'll have more on what the sheriff says deputies found in just a bit,

but as the sheriff was briefing the media back on March 19th at the park, he talked about the sad, grim discovery that officers made after searching for Savannah and Caden. Throughout the night, we were searching the area. We were able to get some phone pings out in this area here. During the night, we were able to find her vehicle, Savannah's vehicle out here at the park, and that vehicle was recovered. But utilizing SAPD Eagle and park police, we were not able to find them last night in the park. The plan was to wait till daybreak and then resume the search out here. This morning, a Park Police officer was out here accompanied by our SCORE deputies and a Park Police officer was able to find two bodies in the ditch

back there off the backside of the park. At this point, we're not even clear that it's park property, but there's a drainage agent that runs behind the park. And that's where we were able to find two bodies. At this point, we are operating on the premise that it is Savannah and the child that we have found. It appears that there's some evidence that there may have been some gunshots fired. But again, at this point, it's just too early to give anything beyond tentative identification. An autopsy confirmed that the bodies found in the drainage ditch were in fact Savannah Krieger and three-year-old Caden.

Caden's death was ruled a homicide. He had indeed been shot, but it would take further investigation to determine that Savannah's manner of death was a suicide. Sheriff Salazar elaborated on what was going on in Savannah's life back in March. There's been some sort of a custody battle going on ongoing with the custody of the baby. And there was concerns from family members that they were not able to make contact with her. There was some, her phone was going straight to voicemail another family member or friend typically has it where they can they have a family plan where they can track phones

and her location services were off and so there was just general cause for concern the last time she was seen is there she had signed out of work a bit early to go pick up the baby from daycare and so that was the last time that she was seen but there were no indications from from employers that there was any cause for concern other than she was going to pick up the baby to take them to a medical appointment. And then that was the last time they were seen. Now, the sheriff said that Caden's father was cooperating with the investigation and trying to fill in some blanks for him. Caden's father, Brian, shared that video of them together with me. I'll have more on what Brian Krieger said about Caden later in the show.

Savannah and Caden's father were actually due in court for a custody hearing the day that the bodies were found in the park. Sheriff Salazar said at the time that they found a firearm where Savannah and Caden's bodies were found, and they suspected that she had killed Caden's bodies were found, and they suspected that she had killed Caden and then turned the gun on herself. Now, after weeks of investigation, Sheriff Salazar laid out exactly what happened that day according to the information they've uncovered. They were both found deceased from gunshot wounds. I'm sure you all know by now that the medical examiner's office has released a cause and manner of death on Savannah as a suicide. Obviously, we knew from early on that Caden's death was ruled a homicide.

Sheriff Salazar said investigators used cell phone records and data, and those showed on March 18th, Savannah Krieger left work and went to her ex-husband's home. During this time, it is believed from what we have now on the investigation, during that time, it's believed that Savannah entered the residence of her ex-husband and damaged various items of personal clothing, furniture items, miscellaneous items like towels inside the residence. While Savannah Krieger was doing this, Sheriff Salazar said phone records showed her ex-husband was at the car dealership where he worked. Her Lincoln Aviator leaves her ex-husband's residence at 1.57 p.m.

That 2023 Lincoln Aviator travels 27.2 miles, arriving at Savannah's residence, which is at 8211 Dover's Den. During this time, it's believed that Savannah enters the residence. And at this point, you know, we did verify or we did refer early on in the case that there were some things at her residence that gave us pause, that there were some indicators that there were some shots fired within her residence. Again, all the indicators we have is that she was at this residence alone during this time. But what we know is that there were some wedding dresses that seemed to have been laid out on the bed, and that we believe that she fired two shots into her wedding portraits that were positioned on the bed. They seemed to be displayed on the bed, and there were gunshot bullet holes in them that indicated she had fired into those pictures. It should be

noted that the shell casings found in the residence from what we believe those shots that were fired into those portraits, those shell casings match the shell casings found at the crime scene where we ultimately found the bodies of Savannah and the little boy. Those were matched on a system that we have that's able to match shell casings. Shortly after firing the shots at the wedding photos and dress, Sheriff Salazar said Savannah checked Caden out of daycare and then started calling her ex-husband. The parking lot and facility surveillance cameras show Savannah exiting the driver's seat of the vehicle and officially checking Caden out of the facility

at 2.33 p.m. The surveillance video shows Savannah loading Caden into the rear passenger seat of the vehicle before re-entering the driver's seat. At 2.42 p.m., the Lincoln Aviator leaves Cadence Daycare Facility. At 2.46 p.m., Savannah's call history log shows a FaceTime call made to her ex-husband who ends up utilizing another phone to record his phone where he's engaging in the FaceTime call with her. Simultaneously, his location data from his cell phone shows him at his place of employment, again, the car dealership off of Southwest Loop 410 during that time. During the two-minute and 13-second phone conversation, Savannah states in the video, you don't have anything to go home to now. You really don't. You don't have anything at Dover's

Den house either, and you won't have anything at all at the end of the day. What the sheriff is describing is absolutely horrifying. Savannah Krieger was literally melting down with her son in her care. The sheriff said that Caden's father drove to his home and called 911 to report the damage that he found. And he filed a criminal mischief report. Savannah's call history log shows another attempt to FaceTime her ex-husband. Savannah then sends her last text message, say goodbye to your son. At 3 21 p.m. Savannah's call history log shows yet another attempt to

FaceTime her ex-husband. It appears that that was an unsuccessful attempt. At this point, Savannah then records a 21-second video where she and Caden appear to be already seated at the drainage ditch where their bodies would eventually be found by law enforcement 19 hours later. Savannah instructs Caden to say bye to daddy, which Caden does. Savannah also apologizes to Caden for his daddy not being there and then kisses Caden. At this point, and I can describe the video to you, we've seen the video here. There's nothing graphic about the video except for the fact that now knowing what we know now about what happened in the moments thereafter, it's pretty obvious what's about to happen in the video. Now Sheriff Salazar says that video does not show what happened next.

But on Savannah's phone, there were searches for kids content. The sheriff said police searched the park to no avail. Night fell and the next morning officers found Savannah and Caden's bodies in the drainage ditch. Joining me to discuss this case is Dr. Daniel Bober. He's a forensic psychiatrist. Dr. Bober, I am horrified by this case. I can't imagine getting to the point where I would kill my son and then take my own life. Your first thoughts on what happened here with little Caden and Savannah Krieger. You know, truly tragic.

I think at this point we have more questions than answers, and it's just, it's really horrifying. This woman was obviously melting down, obviously melting down on the day that this happened. It was March 18th. I mean, she's going over, according to the sheriff, to her ex-husband's house on the eve of a custody hearing, trashing the house, then shooting up her wedding dress and her wedding photos at her own home, and then killing her son, recording videos of him sending it to the ex-husband, almost torturing him, and then taking her own life. How does one get to this point? I mean, we don't know if she was on the verge of losing custody.

Obviously, there was something going on where there was going to be a hearing about who had custody of this child. You know, I was involved in a case that was very similar to this many years ago, and it involved actually a patient who went to a custody hearing and the morning of the hearing waited for the wife to come to the hearing, killed the wife, killed the lawyer, and killed himself in the parking lot. So I think there's actually an element of rage here that just boils over and the person kind of thinks, you know, if I can't have them, you're not going to have them. No one's going to have them. And it's sort of a narcissism in a way. And I've seen this before. And it's very chilling. This is why, for example, I don't get involved in a lot of these child custody cases, because there is so much rage as there should be, because when you're going to lose your children, I think there's nothing more primal than that.

And I think that drives people to do unspeakable acts or to commit unspeakable acts. This little boy had no control over this whatsoever. He was three years old, taken out of daycare, according to the sheriff, by his mother early, taken to a drainage ditch, shown cartoons. He's recording these videos. She's telling him to say goodbye to daddy. I mean, he's with his mom. He trusts his mom. He has zero control. I mean, is this the act? She has all the control. Is this

the ultimate exercise of control by Savannah Krieger? Obviously you have not examined her. You never examined her and you know, you can't assess assess her but it just seems like such an extreme and sickening horrifying act yeah i mean it's the ultimate betrayal because you think that you have unconditional trust in your parents and so you make yourself totally vulnerable to them and to betray that trust and to take advantage of that vulnerability is really the ultimate betrayal. The sheriff said in his press conference that he doesn't really have any statistics to show that murder suicides are on the rise or anything like that. But it seems like we do hear about this from time to time. And I've seen it in the news a couple of times recently talking about murder suicides. What goes into that? I mean, why are we

seeing these things? I've covered them in the last 15 years or so. They're horrible when they happen. I mean, they can happen with older people who are sick, older couples. Sometimes you'd see it with couples, married couples, who maybe their marriage is falling apart. But this is a woman killing her son and then taking her own life. You know, it's very interesting. I see it in the context of men taking their own lives more often. And I think a lot of that has to do with toxic masculinity, that we're in a culture where the male is supposed to be the protector and

the caretaker. And when they lose that role, it is such a wound to their ego that very often, or that will be enough to put them over the top, especially if they had a prior history of mental illness or some sort of instability. But in a female, again, I think there's a role there as a mother. And when you can't even fulfill that most basic human role, I think there's, again, I think there's a role there as a mother. And when you can't even fulfill that most basic human role, I think there's, again, a sort of insult, if you will, or injury to the ego, which causes someone to feel like they're losing control. And the only way that they can make that pain go away is to take their own lives. And again, if I can't take care of you, no one's going to take care of you. We're leaving this world together. So you found this more unusual for a woman to do something like

this than a man, because I feel like we don't really see that many crimes committed by women with firearms. Not like this, not like this, because men obviously, you know, because of testosterone tend to be more aggressive. Women tend to engage more in relational aggression, whereas men tend to engage more in physical aggression. So it is unusual for this, you know, this act of violence to occur in a woman, although not unheard of, but less common than in a male. Are there any takeaways from this at all? I mean, I can't imagine that this woman wasn't showing any signs that something was wrong. I mean, I can't imagine that this woman wasn't showing any signs that something was wrong. I mean, we don't know the nature of the custody hearing. A lot of times

those things are sealed from the public. We just know what the sheriff has released, that there was going to be some type of custody hearing. There was a custody battle going on. We see this in the news sometimes that cases involving child custody become very volatile and become violent and end in murder. Yeah. I have some clients that are divorce attorneys and they say that they keep their doors locked. They have cameras. They arm themselves because these cases can become very aggressive very quickly. When you threaten people's livelihood, when you threaten, you know, their children or taking away their children, you know,

it can erupt into violence very easily. We don't know about this woman's history. We don't know if she was psychiatrically hospitalized, if she had a history of violence, aggression, substance use, other things in her past that would have put her at higher risk of violence. We just don't know. And again, that's why I think there's going to be more questions than answers until more

information comes out. Yeah, definitely more questions than answers. And it's just so sad. And that little boy, Caden, he should be here. His dad tried to save him and sadly he couldn't. It's horrible. Dr. Daniel Bober, thank you so much. My pleasure. That's another video that Brian Krieger shared with me. He is grieving the unspeakable, horrific loss of his beautiful son. Krieger told me in a text message, my son is such a sweet and loving person. He lit up the room whenever he was around, had so many friends and family that loved him and adored him and miss him so much. Whenever I would come home, he would run to me to give me a hug and tell me that he had a good day

at school. He would tell me all his friends' names and stuff, and I thought that was so funny, and he was so smart for his age. He was going to be something special. He had so much life ahead of him. Her decision that she decided to make to end his life does not define who he was or who he was going to become. He was so special and I just don't want anyone to forget about him because he always seems to be in her shadow because of what she did. He deserves to be remembered and loved and cherished forever. Brian Krieger declined my request for an on-camera interview, but said he feared that Savannah was going to run with Caden on March 18th after she emptied their bank accounts. And that's why they were supposed to appear in court on March 19th.

Krieger said he had requested an emergency hearing. Court records showed that Savannah had filed for divorce on March 7th, 11 days before she shot and killed Caden and then herself. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here next time.