SAN DIEGO — A neighbor's security camera caught what appears to be Johnny Soto pulling out of his garage in San Ysidro around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
He then walks over to his estranged wife's car and puts her keys on the windshield before getting back in his truck and pulling away. Johnny and Melissa Soto haven’t been seen since.
“My brother wouldn't hurt his wife,” said Johnny’s sister Christina Sandoval. “He loves her and he loves his kids. I think they just went for a drive and are stuck in the mud. I don't know.”
Christina Sandoval says it all started around 9 p.m. on Wednesday when Johnny asked his son, Vincent, to leave their home so he could talk with Melissa - who had moved out of the house over the summer.
“They got together to talk occasionally like every two to three weeks [or] so. Them getting together wasn't weird at all to us,” said the couple’s two daughters, Alexia and Elise.
Around 10:30, Johnny called his son and told him they had left the house and that he could come home.
“Sounded normal,” Vincent said. “He didn't sound like he was distressed or anything. he just sounded like he was driving the car. I could hear the tire on the road.”
Around that same time, Johnny's youngest daughter, Elise, texted her dad asking for a ride home. He said ok, but then never showed up. Hours later, she called her sister for a ride.
When they got home, nothing seemed suspicious. There was no sign of a struggle.
“The living room was fine,” Alexia said. “His room was fine. There was nothing weird out in here and we checked the garage and nothing was different there either.”
Police are now investigating the couple's disappearance, but with no leads and no signs of their dad's truck heading to Mexico or being involved in a crash, the kids are taking matters into their own hands.
They’ve been posting missing flyers around the county.
Their message for their parents: “That we just love them and we just want them to come home safe or even give us any type of sign or contact that they're okay,” Elise said.
Their mom's phone was found in her car and their dad's phone shut off 15 minutes after he talked with his son. Now the kids are hoping someone who has seen them will come forward with information.
“Neither of them would go this long without talking to us - or at least letting us know that they're ok,” Alexia said. “That they're safe.”
Too distraught to celebrate Christmas, the family's presents remain under the tree - unopened.
Without question, the greatest gift they could get is their parents coming home safe and sound.