A tragic incident unfolded in San Antonio, Texas, when a mother, Savannah Kriger, asked her 3-year-old son to “say goodbye to daddy” on camera before shooting him in a ditch and then taking her own life. This heartbreaking event occurred just a day before Kriger was scheduled to appear in court for a custody hearing with her ex-husband.
Kriger, 32, and her son Kaiden were found deceased with gunshot wounds to their heads at a San Antonio park on March 19. Authorities worked tirelessly to piece together the events leading up to the murder-suicide.
Prior to the tragedy, Kriger shot at her wedding photos, vandalized her ex-husband’s home, and sent threatening FaceTime videos and texts. She ominously warned him, “You won’t have anything at all by the end of the day.”
The sequence of events began when Kriger left work on the afternoon of March 18 and proceeded to her ex-husband’s residence while he was away. After causing damage to his property, she returned to her own home, where her wedding dress and portraits were discovered laid out on the bed.
“We believe that she fired two shots into her wedding portraits,” Sheriff Javier Salazar stated.
Kriger then picked up her son from daycare and began sending distressing messages to the boy’s father.
The final text message to her ex-husband read, “Say goodbye to your son.”
A 21-second video recovered from Kriger’s phone depicted her and her son sitting in the ditch at the park where their bodies were later discovered. In the video, she instructed her son to “say goodbye to daddy” before apologizing for his father’s absence and kissing him.
Subsequently, Kriger searched for children’s cartoons on her phone while they remained in the ditch, according to authorities.
Although the video did not capture the actual shootings, Sheriff Salazar noted that Kriger’s intentions were evident.
The bodies were found approximately 19 hours later following an Amber Alert and extensive search efforts. The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the cause of death as a murder-suicide.
It was revealed that the little boy was the subject of a custody dispute at the time of the tragic incident.
Kriger had filed for divorce and obtained a temporary restraining order against her ex-husband on March 7, as reported by MySA. The couple was scheduled to appear in court for a custody hearing on the day the bodies were discovered.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can contact the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or visit SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
