San Diego parents who mysteriously vanished before Christmas found dead in apparent murder-suicide
The bodies of San Diego parents 🎃whose mysterious disappearance five days before Christmas drove fear into the hearts of their adult children were found near the Mexican border in an apparent murd🧸er-suicide.
Johnny and Melissa Soto, 52 and 45, disappeared from their San Diego house on the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 20, their kids ꩵto♛ld local news outlets.
On Tuesday, US Customs and Border Patrol found a car parked in the parking lot of the Golden Acorn Casino in Campo, Calif., with the bodies of a man who had suffered a “self-inflicted gunshot wound” to the head and a woman who died of “undetermined injuries,” San Diego police .
As the apparent mu🅠rder-suicide investigation continued, the two dead bodies were confirmed to be the Sotos by .
The tragic finding came after their children were stunned by their parents’ vanishing act and worried that something awful had happened to the couple, whose marriage was on the rocks.
“It felt like a normal night,” Vincent, the youngest son, of the night they vanished, Dec. 20. “[Johnny] was just sitting here watching TV, like he always 📖does.”
“And my parents, they always talk,” he continued. “He asked me, ‘Hey, Vinny, can you leave for a minute? We’re going to talk.’ So I left the house, not assuming anything.”
About two hours later, Vinny’s dad texted him that it was clear to come back because they’d left the house.
That was the last time anyone saw th✃em, the affiliate said.
Hours passed, and the couple — who reportedlꦍy separated in July after 20 years of𒉰 marriage — never returned.
“We all had high hopes that they would at least come back for Christmas,” Alexia Soto, 23, the couple’s oldest daughter, told the outlet.
The kids called the cops, and also reached out to their aunt, Christina S♐andoval.
Sandoval told the network that the parents hadꦛ left with nothing.
“T🌼hey left with no clothes,” she said. “They left with nothing. All his clothes that he wears normally, like the sweats there in the bedroom. Her phone was left here. Her wallet was left here. Her keys were left here, and then his phone was turne🦹d off about 15 to 20 minutes after he left.”
A neighbor’s doorbell camera captured their last moments at the house.
At about 8:50 p.m., Melissa’s car pulled into the driveway and someone got out, according to neighbor Raymond Arzola.
“You could tell it’s most likely a man because of the jeans and the blue jacket,” he told NBC. “I usually see Johnny wear a blue jacket.”
About an hour and a half later, her car pulls out of the driveway, then parks in revers🧸e.
Another neighbor’s surveillance video showed the garage door and car trunk open shortly after. Johnny went back and forth to the car at about 10:30 p.m. before driving off.
The disappearance was definitely out of the ordinary for a couple, who still got along despite their marital proble🍷ms, family members said.
“Even though they were separated, there were like no issues between them at all,” Alexia Soto “They were still in contact. They still talked. She would come over [to Johnny’s house] and talk.”
The vanished couple’s family has remained frozen in time since their disappearance, the NBC station said.
The family’s presents were still under the Christmas tree — the siblings say opening them would be too painful.
Sandoval started an online fundraiser to pay for their puppy, buy groceries and cover any billsꦑ that might arise, the outlet said.
Melissa’s mother had shared an eerily prescient premonition to the local station.
“I feel like she’s asking for help,” Concepcion Romero Domingo told NBC. “You know when you wake up and your heart is so sad because she’s asking for help. And I’m telling her, ‘Just hold on. They’re going to find you because they want to find you.’”
San Diego police did not immediatꦛely respond to a Post inquiry.
This is a developing story.
