Update: Authorities confirmed on Dec. 27, 2023, that the bodies of Melissa Soto and Johnny Soto were found in a car parked at a casino in Campo, California, on Dec. 26, dead in an apparent murder-suicide. Click this link to read the latest story.
Three San Ysidro siblings are still looking for their parents who have been missing for almost a week. Ring video from a neighbor who lives next door offers some new details to their search.
Melissa and Johnny Soto have been missing since Wednesday, Dec. 20, according to the family.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
“We all had high hopes that they would at least come back for Christmas,” 23-year-old Alexia Soto, the eldest sibling, said.
The youngest sibling, Vincent, said he was the last person to see their parents that Wednesday they disappeared.
“It felt like a normal night,” Vincent recalled. “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.”
Local
Vincent waited for about an hour and a half before his dad texted him saying they’d left and he could come back home.
Melissa and Johnny’s family said their marriage was rocky. After more than 20 years together, they separated in July.
Raymond Arzola lives next door to the family. He says the couple seemed happy three years ago when he moved in.
“They like to go to Mexico,” he said. “They like to go to eat at different restaurants in Mexico, seafood places. They would love to go camping. They would love to take these long motorcycle rides.”
Once they split, he noticed a shift.
“There was one incident I asked him, ‘Hey, you think that you and your wife are going to get back together again?’ And he looked at me and laughed. He is like, ‘Nah, nah, nah.’ I was like, That's kind of strange.”
Surveillance video from neighbor
Arzola showed NBC 7 the footage his Ring camera captured last week night when the pair disappeared.
It begins at 8:51 p.m. when Melissa’s car pulls into the driveway.
“You can see someone getting out of car,” Arzola said. “You could tell it's most likely a man because of the jeans and the blue jacket. I usually see Johnny wear a blue jacket.”
Then at 10:19 p.m., Melissa’s car pulls out of the driveway and then reparks in reverse.
A different neighbor’s surveillance video shows the garage door and car trunk both open six minutes later. Family said police checked the trunk and didn’t find anything.
“He reverses at 10:32, and then you can see someone come out of the truck, come back out, and when we zoom in the camera, you can actually see it's Johnny.”
He never saw Melissa on his footage. He said he saw Johnny get back in his silver Toyota Tacoma before driving off at 10:33 p.m.
As the hours passed, the siblings started to worry. They called the police in the morning and reached out to their aunt Christina Sandoval.
“They left with no clothes,” 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.”
The siblings are still leaning on each other.
“We've always had like a really strong, like, sibling dynamic,” said the eldest sibling, Alexia Soto. “No matter what happens, we're always making sure we're watching out for each other.”
Sandoval started an online campaign to help the siblings care for their puppy, pay for groceries and any bills that their parents normally take care of.
For the past six days, the whole family’s lives have been on pause.
Melissa’s mother's intuition tells her that her daughter is alive but in trouble.
“I feel like she's asking for help,” Concepcion Romero Domingo said. “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.'"
Melissa put up a Christmas tree at her parent’s house before she disappeared. The gifts still sit below it untouched.
The gifts are too painful to open, the siblings said.
“We’re worried, scared,” middle sibling Elise Soto said. “It's not like them to do this. We just want them home.”
NBC7 reached out to San Diego police again for an update in this investigation. We’re still waiting for more.
