Johnny and Melissa Soto missing San Diego parents found dead in mystery murder suicide. Couple’s 3 children devastated amid questions abound.
The bodies of San Diego area parents who mysteriously vanished five days before Christmas have been found dead near the Mexican border in an apparent murder-suicide. The couple leave behind their three children, the youngest being 18 years old.
Johnny and Melissa Soto, ages 52 and 45, of San Ysidro, disappeared from their San Diego house on the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 20, the couple’s children told local media. The couple who had separated over the summer were still in good stead with each other and continued to regularly see each other.
On Tuesday, U.S. 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 said in a Wednesday press release.
‘And my parents, they always talk,’
As the apparent murder-suicide investigation continued, the two dead bodies were confirmed to be the Sotos by NBC 7 San Diego.
The discovery comes amid the children expressing shock following their parent’s ‘vanishing act’ and concern that something awful had happened to the couple, whose marriage was on the rocks.
‘It felt like a normal night,’ Vincent, the youngest son, told NBC7 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 them.
Hours passed, and the couple — who reportedly separated in July after 20 years of marriage — never returned.
‘High hopes for Christmas…’
‘We all had high hopes that they would at least come back for Christmas,’ Alexia Soto, 23, the couple’s oldest daughter, told NBC7.
The kids called the cops, and also reached out to their aunt, Christina Sandoval.
Sandoval told the network that the parents had left with nothing.
‘They 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 turned off about 15 to 20 minutes after he left.’
A neighbor’s ring 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.’
Unresolved issues?
About an hour-and-a-half later, her car pulls out of the driveway, then parks in reverse.
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 problems, family members said.
‘Even though they were separated, there were like no issues between them at all,’ Alexia Soto told ABC 10. ‘They were still in contact. They still talked. She would come over [to Johnny’s house] and talk.’
News of the murder suicide has left the family in a surreal frozen moment of time.
The family’s presents were still under the Christmas tree — the siblings say it opening them would be too painful.
Sandoval started an online fundraiser to pay for their puppy, buy groceries and cover any bills that might arise.
Melissa’s mother had shared an eerily prescient premonition.
‘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.’’
