The Final Drive: A Triple Homicide That Shattered San Antonio’s Holiday Spirit

In the winter of 2023, San Antonio, Texas, was preparing for Christmas—a time of brightly lit suburban streets and family reunions. But in an apartment complex on the city’s West Side, a young family was preparing for something far more significant. Savannah Soto, just 18 years old, was in the final days of her pregnancy. She and her 22-year-old boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, had already named their unborn son Fabian. They had finished the nursery, purchased the car seat, and were counting down the hours until Savannah’s scheduled labor induction on Saturday, December 23rd.

But Savannah never made it to the hospital.

What began as a frantic search for a missing pregnant teenager quickly spiraled into one of the most “complex and perplexing” crime scenes in the city’s history. It was a tragedy that didn’t just claim two lives, but three—extinguishing a future before it even had a chance to begin. This is the story of a drug deal gone wrong, a father-son cleanup crew, and a digital trail that led police to a house of secrets on Charlie Chan Drive.

The Empty Induction: A Christmas Nightmare Begins

The alarm bells first rang on December 23, 2023. Savannah’s family, led by her mother Gloria Cordova, expected Savannah to be at the hospital for her induction. When hours passed with no word and her phone went straight to voicemail, the excitement of a new baby was replaced by a cold, suffocating dread.

Savannah was reliable; she was “inseparable” from Matthew, and neither would have missed the birth of their first child. By Christmas Eve, the family was organizing searches around the Grissom Road apartment complex where the couple lived. On Christmas Day, while most families were opening gifts, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a “CLEAR Alert”—a notification for missing adults believed to be in imminent danger. The target: a gray 2013 Kia Optima belonging to Matthew.

The Discovery at Colinas at Medical Apartments

On the afternoon of December 26th, the search ended in the worst way imaginable. A resident at an apartment complex on Danny Kaye Drive, several miles from Savannah’s home, noticed a gray Kia Optima that had been sitting in the lot for days. Inside, the resident saw something horrific and called the police.

When officers arrived, they found Savannah in the front passenger seat with a baby car seat resting on top of her. Matthew’s body was in the backseat. Both had been killed by gunshot wounds to the head. Savannah’s unborn son, Fabian, had not survived the trauma. Investigators believed the car had been sitting in that residential lot, unnoticed by hundreds of passersby, for three to four days.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus initially called the scene “perplexing.” There were no guns or cell phones in the car. It was clear the couple had been killed elsewhere and moved to this location in a calculated effort to delay discovery.

Digital Ghosts and the White Silverado

The breakthrough in the case didn’t come from a witness, but from Savannah’s own pocket. Although her physical phone was missing, detectives—working with the U.S. Secret Service—were able to extract cloud data and recent communications. The digital trail revealed that on the night of December 21st, Savannah and Matthew had arranged to meet someone to sell marijuana.

The data placed the couple at a residence on Charlie Chan Drive around 11:50 p.m. that night. This was the moment the “missing persons” case became a capital murder investigation.

Surveillance footage from near the Danny Kaye Drive apartments provided the final piece of the puzzle. It showed Matthew’s gray Kia Optima pulling into the lot, followed closely by a white Chevrolet Silverado with a bed cover. A man stepped out of the truck, walked to the Kia, and was seen wiping the door handle—a blatant attempt to destroy forensic evidence.

A Father, a Son, and a Step-Mother: The Preciado Arrests

On January 3, 2024, police descended on the Charlie Chan Drive residence. There, they found the white Silverado and two men: 19-year-old Christopher Preciado and his 53-year-old father, Ramon Preciado.

Ramon reportedly told police he “knew why they were there.” During interrogations, a chilling narrative emerged. Christopher admitted that the couple had come to the house for a drug deal. He claimed an argument broke out and that Matthew pointed a gun at him, forcing him to fire in self-defense. However, medical examiners noted that the wounds were “contact gunshot wounds,” suggesting an execution-style killing rather than a chaotic struggle.

The investigation soon expanded. A third suspect, 47-year-old Myrta Romanos (Christopher’s stepmother), was arrested on January 10th. Police alleged that the gun used in the murders actually belonged to her and that she had assisted in the cover-up.

The Legal Reckoning: Capital Murder and 2026 Trials

Because Savannah was carrying a full-term fetus, Texas law allowed for the death of the unborn child to be counted as a third victim. Christopher Preciado was charged with Capital Murder, a charge reserved for the most heinous crimes, carrying a potential sentence of life without parole or the death penalty.

As the case moved through the Bexar County court system, it faced numerous “snags.” In late 2025, charges against Myrta Romanos were unexpectedly dropped due to “procedural issues” and delays in forensic testing, though prosecutors hinted they could be re-filed. Ramon Preciado, charged with abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering, was released on bond in February 2025 while awaiting his own trial.

In early 2026, the case returned to the headlines. The lead prosecutor, Ryan Groomer, resigned just weeks before Christopher’s trial was set to begin. Despite this, the District Attorney’s office remained adamant: “The wheels of justice will roll into the station.” Christopher Preciado’s trial is currently scheduled for February 2, 2026, in the 290th State District Court.

The Legacy of Fabian: A Cautionary Tale

For the families of Savannah and Matthew, the upcoming trial offers a chance for closure, but not for healing. The tragedy was amplified by a cruel history; just a year prior, Savannah’s 15-year-old brother, Ethan, had also been shot and killed. The family has now lost two children to gun violence in 24 months.

The San Antonio community remains haunted by the image of that gray Kia Optima sitting in a busy parking lot for days, holding the bodies of a mother, a father, and a child who never took his first breath. It serves as a grim reminder of how a single decision—a meeting over a small amount of marijuana—can spiral into an irreversible nightmare.

Awareness in this case isn’t just about the dangers of the drug trade; it’s about recognizing the digital trail we leave behind and the terrifying reality that monsters often live just a few blocks away, wiping fingerprints off car doors while a city sleeps.

Savanah Soto and Matthew Guerra Case Update

This video provides the original surveillance footage of the victim’s car and the suspect’s truck, which were pivotal in identifying the Preciado family during the early stages of the investigation.