SERIALously - 107: Savanah Soto & Matthew Guerra: Texas Missing Pregnant Teen and Boyfriend Murdered

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

This episode is the update video from part 2, “Texas Missing Pregnant Teen and Boyfriend Found Dead- Capital Murder Investigation Underway” | 18-year-old Savanah Soto, a pregnant woman from Leon Valley, Texas, disappeared one day before she was scheduled to be induced. She was reported missing by her family on December 23rd, and was last seen on December 22. Her family said she is a week past her due date and police have confirmed that she completely missed her appointment. Savanah was last seen at her apartment complex. And in a sick and twisted detail, according to her family, nobody has been able to contact her boyfriend, Matthew, since Savanah disappeared. Days later, a shocking discovery was made, and a capital murder investigation is now underway. Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/   Shop the Merch: www.shop10tolife.com  Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise   All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_   SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/   About Me: https://annieelise.com/   For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]  Sources/Audio Credits: Law & Crime A&E Denver7 KENS5 CBS Leon Valley Police Department KSAT

Changing a light bulb should be simple. Whoa, whoa, whoa! Uh-oh, that's not supposed to happen. Quickly submitting and tracking a claim on the Bel Air Direct app actually is simple. Bel Air Direct. Insurance simplified. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. Guys, this Savannah Soto case is getting crazier by the day. If you listen to my latest updates, you know there have been arrests made in this case. I released it late last night. They did

the full perp walk and the presser at 11 p.m., so I jumped on the mic to give you that information and now we have even more information. We have the affidavit that has been released, even more charges that have now come down the pike, details more about the motive, possibly a self-defense claim. I mean there is so much that it really does make your head spin. So we're going to jump into all of it right now. And we actually have quite a bit to talk about because in addition to the arrest details that have come out, there's also been new affidavits released, more information, more charges, all the way through Thursday night, which is when I'm recording this so that I can give you the most accurate and up-to-date

information. So let's start with the arrest that went down. Late on Wednesday night, it was announced that they had made an arrest of two different people in regards to this triple murder. Nobody really knew who these people were. There was a lot of speculation, but they did announce that they would be doing a perp walk within the hour and then a presser at 11 p.m. local time. So when they begin this perp walk, the first person that we see them walking out with to the police car is a very, very large man. And this man's name is Ramon Preciado, and he's 53 years old. Now, as he's walking out, what was so interesting to me is that unlike many, many cases in perp walks that we've seen, he was actually talking back to the reporters.

He was getting hounded by reporters, of course, which kind of actually, they went a little wild west in my opinion, but I get it. But they were, you know, asking him if he has any remorse, why he's a baby killer, all of these different things, to which he kind of like looked with a side eye to the camera and he said, fake fake news he also said that it is one-sided that they didn't know what was going on when they were asking him about why he did this and if he's sorry and if he had evidence and what he responded to all of these questions that were just being rapid fired off to him is he then once he was in the car looked back at reporters and said aren't you sorry for lying about what you're saying you don't even know

what's going on are you sorry for what happened did you know she was pregnant oh he's faking you this is your final chance to say something about your side hey guys we're going this way then people continued obviously talking to him as he's getting shoved in the back seat a chance to say something about your son. Hey guys, we're going this way. Then people continued obviously talking to him as he's getting shoved in the backseat of the car, like the piece of human garbage trash that he is. And he then said, it's one sided. You don't know what's going on. And when asked why he did this and if he's sorry, and if he hid evidence, he just kept saying, it's one sided. You don't know the whole story. You don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, guys, always one-sided.

You don't even know what's going on. Back up, guys. Back up. Back up. Back up. Not that guy. You sorry? They want to know why.

Why did you do that? Get this one settled. You sorry? Did you do it? Why did you do it? Did you know she was pregnant? Huh? Did you hear? Why was it the Did you know she was pregnant? Huh? Did you need- Why was it the whole family?

Close to Christmas? Remorse? Anything? Why man? Any remorse? You sorry? Aren't you sorry for lying about what you're saying? You don't even know what's going on. Well tell us. Tell us. What's going on?

Did you shoot them? You shoot them? Tell us what's going on. An unborn baby. Did you kill them or did you just hide the evidence? This man was a very large man actually and I think everybody kind of knew that he was going to be a large man based on the surveillance camera footage. But we now finally got a look at Ramon. Now, the second person who came out for the perp walk and was being arrested and taken into custody was Christopher, and it's Ramon's 19-year-old son. Christopher actually has very, very long hair, and it was a little difficult at first to tell if it was a man or a woman that's not throwing shade it's just the truth I feel like nobody could really tell at first but it is his 19 year old son so he had nothing to say to the camera unlike

his dad who kept saying little snide remarks are you sorry for what happened? Anything to say to your family? How does it make you feel, an unborn baby? What do you want to say to your family, to Matthew's family? I'm sorry? You're sorry? Nothing to say, an unborn child.

It was an entire family. You're sorry? Now, what's interesting about all of that as well, and we'll get to it, is that for trying to combat what the reporters were saying and say that it was all fake news it's pretty interesting because in the arrest affidavit and in the presser they pretty much say that the dad was actually very cooperative from the get-go and kind of just like told them what they needed to know so now why he was saying you don't know what you're talking about who knows maybe he was just being defensive so anyways there were rumors that

were going around during the early morning hour i'm sorry early evening hours that it was a father and son it hadn't been confirmed until this moment so everybody was wondering what could possibly be the motive here right so they held a press conference immediately following the perp walks where sergeant washington spoke out. He made the official announcement of the arrests of 53-year-old Ramon and 19-year-old Christopher, and he said that Christopher was being charged with capital murder and that his dad Ramon was being charged with abuse of a corpse. But they did also say that they expect more charges to be pending, which there are more charges, and we will get to that at first he wanted

to clarify too that sometimes when people hear abuse of a corpse their mind often goes to pretty revolting things and truly abusing a corpse whether that be sexually or however and he made it clear that this charge was happening because he tried to hide the bodies and he tried to dispose of the bodies and the evidence so the way that they say that they caught on to bodies and he tried to dispose of the bodies and the evidence. So the way that they say that they caught on to this and what led to these arrests is that investigators had actually collected Savannah's cell phone at the crime scene. If you tuned into the last episode, you'll remember that Matthew's cell phone was missing. I had mentioned on that episode that it was my belief that his cell phone was missing. I had mentioned on that episode that it was my belief that his cell phone was missing because whoever committed these murders had potentially arranged a meetup with him via text message or calling him or him calling the other guy or whoever it was and that the murderer needed

to take his phone with him from the scene in order to then not have that kind of forensic digital trail that would catch him. But they did collect Savannah's phone so then secret service and the forensic search team found a possible location of the suspect's vehicle from that surveillance footage so that location was then located they did surveillance on the location and then they determined whose house that vehicle belonged to and then when they went up to the door and knocked the dad answered the door and apparently cooperated fully. So they then started interviewing both of them, both the dad and the son, and then that led to the interrogations. Apparently they had enough based on what was said in those interrogations to then lead to an arrest warrant and, of course, then to charges.

So, as I said, we're going to get to the additional charges as well, which we learned more about today. So what they believe at this moment, or at the presser at least, they believe that the son committed the murders and that the dad helped with the cleanup. Police also mentioned the misinformation going on around social media right now and how so many different people were named and targeted and implicated and all of these things and that it kind of became a little bit of a witch hunt so to speak um and they said that these are currently the only suspects when talking about motive they said that it was a narcotic related deal gone bad and i want to talk with you about that in a minute here but i'm just again going through what we learned after the arrest. They also said there was no connection to that apartment complex where the car was dumped

and that it was strictly just a dump site for the bodies and for the vehicle but again they reiterated that there was some sort of drug connection and a drug deal. They also said that they are unsure about charges related to unborn baby Fabian and that that is all pending and undecided and that they were going to be partnering with the DA's office and ultimately the DA's office will be the ones to decide what those charges will be if any they also believe that Savannah Matthew and Fabian were killed at a different location and then were taken to that apartment complex just to dispose of the vehicle and dispose of the bodies. They also said that they don't believe that the dad was there

during the commission of the murder, so he will not be charged with murder because of that. Christopher himself at 19 has no previous criminal history, but his dad did have some. They didn't mention what exactly, but they said he did have a little bit of a record. So talking about these new charges, police initially had charged Christopher with capital murder, but then Thursday they added abuse of a corpse and alter or destroy a human corpse. His father Ramon had a charge of alter or destroy a human corpse added to his charge after initially facing the abuse of a corpse charge, this for helping his son move the bodies after the murders. Now, at the time of this recording, both are still in jail, but there have

been rumors of the dad bonding out. Now, according to all of the law enforcement websites, those rumors are untrue. Again, just at this moment of recording, who knows what's going to happen after I press live, but his bond is still showing being set at 600,000. Overnight after the arrests one of their family vehicles we're not sure whose was tagged at some point. Somebody took a can of spray paint can't say I blame them and they wrote baby killer in huge letters on the side of the vehicle. Again honestly I can't say I blame them. Now I want to play Matthew's family's reaction to these arrests, and then I'm going to talk with you through the affidavit,

which really brings a lot more details to light and actually kind of shows that Christopher might be alluding to this all being self-defense, even though police have said the crime scene doesn't match his version of events. But we are going to talk through that in detail. But first, let's hear from Matt's family. Did you know she was pregnant? Oh, he's faking you. That is a man accused of helping to hide the bodies of Savannah Soto and Matthew Guerra. Ramon Preciado and his son Christopher arrested last night for their alleged parts in the murders. But today, more charges have been filed against the father and son. Christopher Preciado charged with capital murder.

Now two more additional charges of abuse of a corpse and alter, destroy, conceal a human corpse. His father, Ramon, is also charged with abuse of a corpse and the newly added charge of alter destroy conceal a human corpse. We're also for the very first time hearing from the family. Guerra's father and stepmother speaking to KSAT today. Eric Hernandez reports they are hoping for the full extent of punishment for both men. Upset, anger, all kinds of emotions, all kinds of emotions just going through. Gabriel and Raquel Guerra are breathing a sigh of relief after Christopher Preciado and his father Ramon were arrested Wednesday night in the deaths of their son Matthew Guerra,

his girlfriend Savannah Soto, and their unborn child Fabian. That was definitely a relief of mine that, you know, I can hold someone accountable. I've been talking about justice for the three of them since it started. Gabriel and Raquel say neither of them know who Christopher and Ramon are. According to the arrest affidavit, Matthew and Savannah met Christopher to allegedly sell them marijuana. We asked the Guerras about that information after they had previously stated that Matthew was trying to turn his life around. Matthew Olsen has made the best decisions but you know he um I'll make no excuses for him but whatever he did you know I don't condone that

at all but that being said like no one deserves to be murdered period for regardless of what kind of activity you're in or what you're doing. Now this case moves to the district attorney's office and the Guerra say they want nothing less than the death penalty for Christopher Preciado. Now it's on the DA. He had said something about the death penalty and I'm going to hold him accountable to his word and that's the next process for me is him confirming that. We did get a statement this afternoon from the district attorney's office about the case, and they say an additional capital murder charge could be added for Christopher for the death of the unborn child,

but that hasn't been decided just yet. As far as the death penalty, after an indictment, the Capital Crimes Committee will then decide whether to seek the death penalty or not. Erica Hernandez, KSAT 12 News. So going into the arrest affidavit, this is for Christopher, and I'm going to read certain sections from it because I think that they're important to hear

verbatim. So let me just dive right in. So it says, we observed a deceased pregnant female inside of the front right passenger seat. Due to the knowledge of the female on a previous murder case from 2022, they recognized the female to be that of the missing female. The female appeared to have trauma to her head. Now something worth noting here is that the vehicle apparently went to Christopher's house at 11 50 p.m. and then it did not start moving again for four minutes. Then it went directly to those apartments. So again, just kind of building out the timeline. It says they then observed the backseat of the vehicle. They observed a deceased male in the backseat of the vehicle.

The deceased male resembled the boyfriend to the female. The male had an apparent gunshot wound to his head. It appeared the male had been dragged into the vehicle. They did not observe any weapon near the male. Now that's really interesting because they are talking about how it appeared he had been dragged into the car which we'll talk again about and one of the biggest questions was were they murdered in the car if a deal was going bad were they murdered somebody else somewhere else and then they were put back in the car to dispose of them so I thought that that information was interesting but we're gonna get to a lot more in a second here. So they then go on to say a search warrant

was requested so entry into the vehicle could be conducted. While waiting for the search warrant, they spoke to the families of the female and the male. It was found that the boyfriend to the female sold narcotics and would also use his phone through cellular communication as well as social media to sell the narcotics. It was also advised that the boyfriend would post money and narcotics on his Instagram. It was stated that people wanted to rob the boyfriend and it was stated that the boyfriend had been shot at before. The family provided us with the phone number of the female and the family of the male provided us with his phone number as well as his Instagram. It goes on to then say that the search found spent shell casings in the vehicle.

However, there was no weapon recovered inside of the vehicle. There was apparent blood transfer on the outside of the vehicle that was not consistent with the boyfriend causing harm to the female. Both the female and the male had gunshot wounds to the head, and the male also had apparent drag marks on his back. It was believed that the female and the male were killed at a different location, and the vehicle was then driven to the recovered location. And then it says they provided one of the victim's cell phones to Detective Knox

at the Technical Investigations Unit, and on January 3, 2024, they received the phone download from Detective Knox. They found that the victim had recently searched the street of Charlie Chan Drive. And Charlie Chan Drive was just a couple of blocks away from where the vehicle was located for the recovery. It also says that the vehicle pinged near Charlie Chan Drive and also Cary Grant Drive, this around 11.50 p.m. on the night that they went missing. The vehicle did not start moving again until around 11.54, which was like four minutes later, like I said, and then the vehicle traveled to that location where the victims

and their vehicle were later discovered on December 26th. They also conducted computer research, and they were able to locate a vehicle that looked identical to the suspect vehicle that was seen on camera with the victim's vehicle. So they did research on the owner of the vehicle and that's how they found the owner of the vehicle matched the description of the male that exited the vehicle on camera. While at the residence on Charlie Chan, a person identified as Ramon reported knowing why SAPD was at his residence. He wasn't surprised. He knew why they were there when they knocked. Ramon informed the detectives

to speak with his son, who identified as Christopher. Then Ramon and Christopher were transported to SAPD Homicide to speak with detectives, while additional detectives searched the residence on Charlie Chan Drive under the authority of the search warrant. Ramon admitted to driving his Chevy Silverado to that dump site where he met Christopher. Ramon identified himself on surveillance video from that dump site as well as the person observed exiting the Chevy Silverado. Ramon reported meeting Christopher at this apartment complex who was driving another vehicle. This vehicle is the vehicle in which Matthew and Savannah were found deceased. Ramon admitted to assisting his son Christopher. Ramon knowingly treated the human corpse of Matthew,

Savannah, and the unborn child of Savannah named Fabian in an offensive manner by leaving them in an abandoned vehicle. They then spoke with Christopher after Christopher was read the Miranda warnings, and Christopher reported that Matthew and Savannah drove to his residence on Charlie Chan Drive to sell Christopher marijuana. Christopher went on to provide a version of events that were inconsistent with the evidence that was collected at the scene and from the victim's recovered vehicle. Christopher claimed that the male victim pointed a weapon at him, and Christopher was able to manipulate the weapon, resulting in the female being shot. Christopher then stated that the weapon had been pointed at him again, and he

again manipulated the weapon, again resulting in the male victim being shot which let me just say I guess anything could happen but we know that Matthew and Savannah were both shot behind the ear so how they both coincidentally have the exact same cause of death and location of bullet wound after a struggle with the gun and he was able to manipulate it and it accidentally fired and it fired each time accidentally into the exact same location on both people seems very far-fetched and like a fable to me but I don't know who knows I guess stranger things have happened not really so the affidavit goes on to say that Christopher's statement is inconsistent with the gunshot wounds that were suffered by Matthew and Savannah and also the evidence that was located at the crime scene. Christopher initially discharged a firearm at

Savannah and Matthew with the intention of causing the death. The actions of Christopher resulted in the death of Matthew, Savannah, and Savannah's unborn child named Fabian. And then it goes on just showing that the affidavit is signed so I mean this is all pretty interesting because I think back to to that perp walk when the dad was very like combative saying you don't know anything it's fake news this and that but then right there we're seeing in writing that he pretty much said as soon as the detectives knocked on his door like he was like yeah I know why you're here you gotta talk to my son so then to say fake news later unless he was talking about it being self defense which apparently is what Christopher is trying to sell,

the whole thing is a little bizarre. But like I said, details are literally being released every single day, so I'm going to keep you updated. Until I have more concrete updates and facts and evidence and footage, I'm not going to do another update on this, but as soon as I do have all of that information, once I do, I will give you another update update so if you are not following the podcast officially make sure you hit the check mark or press the follow button whatever you have to do so that you don't miss that episode

when I release it as I mentioned in my last one too it's always so much easier for me to just jump on the mic the day of give the quick update I don't have to wait for YouTube to approve it because they're they're trying to flag it or censor it or whatever it is. So it just makes it way faster for me to deliver the information to you guys right here on the mic. So make sure you're following if you're not yet. All right, guys, that is it for this week's case updates. I will be back with you on Monday with a brand new, very, very deep dive on a case and a very surprise angle that we're taking with it. So make sure you don't miss that

episode that is Monday morning I also have the ad free bonus episode if you are a patreon or a subscriber which comes out this Friday so more access all access a lot of new exciting tiers over on patreon I'll put that link in the show notes and as always thank you for listening and tuning in with me I love your feedback I love hearing from you guys so please leave whatever feedback you've got and I will talk with you again very soon. Until then, please stay safe. Please keep your loved ones safe and hug those next to you and just be nice. It's 2024. It's a new year. Let's all try to stay positive as long as we can, which will probably go out the window as soon as I watch the Anthony documentary tonight, but we'll see. Here's to hoping. All right, guys.

Thanks so much and I will talk with you soon. Bye.