A San Diego couple vanished five days before Christmas, leaving behind the mom’s car — and her wallet and cell phone.
Johnny Soto’s truck, along with his cell phone and wallet, are gone from the home in San Ysidro, the couple’s adult children told KNSD. And his cell phone was turned off shortly after he left the house.
Neighbors’ security camera shows troubling activity at the home on the night the couple — who were separated — disappeared.
“Even though they were separated, there were like no issues between them at all,” Alexia Soto, the couple’s oldest child, told KGTV. “They were still in contact. They still talked. She would come over [to Johnny’s house] and talk.”
The couple’s son, Vincent, said he was at the house on December 20, when his parents disappeared.
“It felt like a normal night,” he told KNSD. “He was just sitting here watching TV like he always does. And my parents, they always talk. He asked me, ‘Hey, Vinny, can you leave for a minute? We’re going to talk.’ So I left the house, not assuming anything.”
Vincent Soto said he left for about an hour and a half and returned after getting a text from his father that the couple had left the house. And they never returned.
Video from neighbor Raymond Arzola’s doorbell camera Melissa Soto’s car arrive at the house shortly before 9 p.m. Thirty minutes later, the car pulls out of the driveway and backs in. Just before 10:30 p.m., a different neighbor’s camera showed the garage door and the car’s trunk open. The Sotos’ children say police checked the trunk, which remains parked at their father’s house, and found nothing.
But at about 10:33 p.m., the doorbell camera shows Johnny Soto drive away in his truck.
“We all had high hopes that they would at least come back for Christmas,” Alexia Soto said.
“They left with no clothes,” their aunt, Christina Sandoval, 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 here.”
Alexia and the couple’s middle child, Elise, had a message for their parents.
“Even if they did go somewhere and plan to stay out for a while, at least message or call one of us to let us all know they are both ok,” Alexia Soto said. “And that we love them,” Elise Soto added.
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[Featured image: Melissa Soto and Johnny Soto/Facebook]
