(SAN ANTONIO) — Police in San Antonio, Texas, said Wednesday night they have arrested a father and son in the deaths of pregnant teenager Savanah Soto and her boyfriend after their bodies were found in a car in an apartment complex parking lot last week.
The two suspects arrested were 19-year-old Christopher Preciado and 53-year-old Ramon Preciado, Sgt. Washington Moscoso told news media late Wednesday night. The son will be charged with capital murder and the father abuse of a corpse, Moscoso said. The sergeant said more charges are possible.
Last week, Soto and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, were found dead days after the Texas mom-to-be was scheduled to be induced.
Moscoso said Soto’s cellphone, collected at the scene, was a critical piece of information for officers. Detectives were able to use her phone to find a possible location of the suspect’s vehicle from surveillance video, which police previously released when issuing a call for the public’s help, he said.
Police then found the vehicle and the house the vehicle was connected to, Moscoso said. The father answered the door, and the authorities interviewed him and his son, the sergeant added.
Moscoso said that based on what they said during the interview, there was enough information for police to get a search warrant, which led to the charges Wednesday night.
The sergeant told the media it appeared to have been a possible narcotics deal gone bad.
The father was not there for the murders, according to Moscoso, but was called afterward.
Asked by a reporter if there would be a charge over the death of Soto’s unborn child, Moscoso said detectives will talk to the district attorney, who will decide if further charges will be added.
Both men were walked to waiting police vehicles in front of the media, and their booking photos were released by police a short while later. It wasn’t immediately clear if either had legal representation.
Police initially said an 18-year-old full-term pregnant woman and a 22-year-old man believed to be Soto and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, were discovered dead in a Kia Optima in San Antonio last Tuesday. An unborn child was also found deceased, police said at the time. The vehicle had been at that location for likely several days, according to the authorities.
In the days following the discovery, the medical examiner identified the victims as Soto and Guerra, police said.
Both victims had a gunshot wound, police said.
Police released footage last Thursday of two persons of interest being sought in connection with the case. One was captured driving the victims’ Kia Optima, and the other was seen driving a dark-colored pickup truck, police said.
Soto, 18, was last seen on Dec. 22 in Leon Valley, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. The agency issued a CLEAR Alert — used to help law enforcement locate someone in imminent danger or whose disappearance is involuntary — for Soto on Monday.
The pregnant teen had passed her delivery date, which “caused significant concern among her family members after missing an essential medical appointment,” the Leon Valley Police Department previously said.
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