Southwest
Texas dad reveals chilling text he received moments before wife shot 3-year-old son
A bereaved Texas father, whose wife shot their 3-year-old, then herself amid a bitter custody battle after sending a text saying “say goodbye to your son,” said that the family court system failed the toddler.
The bodies of Savannah Kriger, 32, and 3-year-old Kaiden were found in a drainage ditch with gunshot wounds to their heads at San Antonio’s Tom Slick Park on March 19, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
At 3:19 p.m. that day, 19 hours before they were found, Savannah sent a chilling text to her husband, who had filed for divorce on March 7, according to court records.
“Say goodbye to your son,” she wrote, per screenshots provided to Fox News Digital by father Brian Kriger.
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Kaiden Kriger, 3, was shot dead in a murder-suicide by his mother, Savannah Kriger, on March 18. His father, Brian Kriger, left, shared the harrowing text messages and calls he received in the hours before their bodies were recovered. (Brian Kriger)
“She sent the message on the tail end of a wire transferring all the money out of [our] joint account,” Kriger said on Friday. “I assumed she was running with him – that’s what prompted my lawyer to initiate the order for writ to make her appear in court the next day.”
About two hours earlier, per a timeline based on GPS records released by the department, the mother let herself into her Kriger’s house and destroyed property inside. Meanwhile, the department said, phone tracking showed that the unwitting father was still at work.
An hour later, after surveillance footage showed Savannah picking the 3-year-old up from daycare, she called Kriger via FaceTime call he recorded and later shared with police.
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Pictured are Savannah Kriger’s final texts to her son’s father before she shot Kaiden and herself on March 18. (Brian Kriger)
“You don’t have anything to go home to now, you really don’t,” she said. “You won’t have anything at all at the end of the day.”
“You left us for a piece of a–… Daddy left us for some woman he met on the internet… explain to your son why you’re not here,” she said, the toddler in the back seat.
When he asked why she vandalized objects in his home, Savannah replied that he “cared more about [his] material possessions than his son.”
Kriger called police and raced home to find that “every article of clothing” he owned had been cut, he said. Officers arrived at the home at 3:37 p.m.
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“What was going through my head was that I needed to get my son out of her custody as quickly as possible because of her erratic behavior after seeing the damages,” Kriger told Fox News Digital. “The only thing that [the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office] did was a welfare check to her residence, which was stupid because I told them that she wasn’t there, and she had my son and intentions to take everything from me.”
Officers called a relative to let them into the Dover Den home, where their findings “made them pause,” Sheriff Javier Salazar said at a press conference.
Savannah had laid out wedding dresses and wedding portraits displayed on the bed pierced by two gunshots. A shell casing found in the house matched shell casings later found near the mother and son’s bodies in the park, the department said.
The bereaved father is pictured with his 3-year-old son. (Brian Kriger)
The next morning, an Amber Alert was issued for the toddler, but by that time, based on phone records, the department believed the woman and child were already dead.
After an unsuccessful attempt to FaceTime her husband, a 21-second video found on Savannah’s phone, recorded at 3:21 p.m., appears to show the woman and child in the drainage ditch. She instructs the child to “say goodbye to [his] daddy,” which he does, per the department. She kisses the child and apologizes that his father “can’t be there with [him].”
Savannah’s phone records show that she looked up children’s cartoons at 3:29 p.m. – the department has inferred that these were the child’s final moments, Fox San Antonio reported.
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Brian Kriger, who asked that Fox News Digital not post photos of Savannah, said that his son “lit up a room” and had “so many friends and family that loved him.” (Brian Kriger)
Investigators found Savannah’s abandoned white 2023 Lincoln Aviator at the park off State Highway 151 East, but they did not find their bodies until the next day.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled the child’s death a homicide on Friday, KENS5 reported.
Kriger told Fox News Digital that his son was a “sweet and loving person” who “lit up the room whenever he was around.”
“He had so many friends and family that loved and adored him and I miss him so much,” he said. “I thought he was so funny and he was so smart for his age. He was going to be something special, he had so much life ahead of him.”
Savannah had a restraining order against her husband at the time of the murder-suicide, per Bexar County Court records. The couple were scheduled to meet in family court days afterward.
Brian Kriger filed for divorce on March 7, days before Kaiden and Savannah were found dead. The divorcing couple were scheduled to meet in family court later that week – a temporary restraining order that prohibited Brian from seeing his son in person, but allowed him to speak to the toddler via phone and FaceTime, had been issued. (Brian Kriger)
“There definitely needs to be more consideration for fathers in the family court system,” Kriger told Fox News Digital. “Instead of always taking the mother’s side and believing everything they say.”
“Obviously she had a motive to all her false police reports and allegations of domestic violence to take my son away from me, which proved to be successful because the court system is biased to mothers. But obviously, mothers are capable of doing the worst possible thing to get back at the fathers, which is not fair.”
The father has not been criminally charged, the sheriff’s office and local police department told Fox News Digital. However, the last time Kriger saw his son, he said, was on March 7, after Savannah claimed he threatened her life in family court after he filed for divorce.
“We exchanged at the police station,” Kriger said. “The last time my son saw me [in person was] while I was crying that I didn’t want to give him up.”
Kriger said that Savannah “hid her mental health problems from everyone, including her closest family members, for years.”
“She never sought help for her trauma and never showed signs that there was anything wrong until it was too late,” Kriger claimed.
Kaiden Kriger is pictured in an undated Facebook photo. (Sav San on Facebook)
The bereaved father also claims that the judge overseeing their custody dispute was aware that she “had thoughts about suicide two times prior to [his] filing for divorce.”
“The justice system failed my son,” Kriger said. “I do feel like the judge who ordered me to surrender Kaiden did not have his safety in mind.”
Fox News Digital could not reach the attorney representing Savannah in her custody dispute at press time.
“We will never know the complete picture,” Marta Prada Pelaez, the CEO of Family Violence Prevention Services, told KENS5. “We only know of the level of despair that this mother must have had… The community’s attention should now go to those members of the family who are left with no real answers.”
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Southwest
Arizona governor vetoes Charlie Kirk memorial license plate, sparking GOP outrage: ‘This bill falls short’
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Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing fierce backlash after vetoing a bill that would have created a specialty license plate honoring slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a move Republicans are blasting as a stunning act of partisanship after his assassination.
Kirk, who was assassinated while speaking at a Sept. 10 Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University, lived in Arizona with his wife, Erika, and two children.
The proposed specialty plate, referred to as the “Charlie Kirk memorial” plate or the “Conservative grassroots network special plate,” featured a photo of the late Kirk and the TPUSA logo in front of an American flag background.
Below the license plate number were the words “FOR CHARLIE.”
A custom Arizona license plate, featuring a Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk design, shared by state Sen. Jake Hoffman. (Senator Jake Hoffman via X)
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Of the $25 fee required for the plate, $17 would be an annual donation deposited into the Conservative Grassroots Network Special Plate Fund, according to the legislation.
While the recipient of the Grassroots Network Special Plate Fund was not explicitly designated as TPUSA in the bill, it noted the director of the fund would allocate revenue annually to a nonprofit organization, founded in 2012, that focuses on restoring traditional values, maintaining a grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses in Arizona, and assisting college students with voter registration and absentee ballots.
People gather at a memorial to mourn Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk outside Turning Point USA headquarters Sept. 12, 2025, in Phoenix. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
TPUSA, founded by Kirk in 2012, is well known for its grassroots activist networks on high school and college campuses. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
The $25 fee and annual $17 donation are consistent with the fees for the other 109 nonprofit license plates offered by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT).
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The state Senate passed the bill, 16-2, with the House of Representatives voting 31-23 in favor prior to Hobbs’ veto.
Specialty plates in Arizona are authorized by the legislature and sent to the governor to be signed into law. They have been offered since 1989.
In a letter explaining the veto, Hobbs cited concerns with the bill “bring[ing] people together,” claiming it would “insert politics into a function of government that should remain nonpartisan.”
Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing fierce backlash after vetoing a bill that would have created a specialty license plate honoring slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
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“Charlie Kirk’s assassination is tragic and a horrifying act of violence,” Hobbs wrote. “In America, we resolve our political differences at the ballot box. No matter who it targets, political violence puts us all in harm’s way and damages our sacred democratic institutions.
“I will continue working toward solutions that bring people together, but this bill falls short of that standard.”
Specialty license plates with political interests already approved by the state include the “Choose Life” Plate, which benefits the Arizona Life Coalition and its mission to promote anti-abortion advocacy and education; the “In God We Trust” Plate, which benefits conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom; and the Arizona Realtors’ “Homes for All” Plate, which funds affordable housing projects.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, speaks during the Turning Point Action conference in 2023 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Lynne Sladky/AP Photo)
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Another approved plate, “Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Plate,” which benefits Solid Rock Teen Centers, features a portrait of the legendary musician, who has made political comments about social issues including gender identity.
Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman, who sponsored the bill, posted a fiery statement on social media after the governor’s action, claiming her “grotesque partisanship knows no bounds.”
“Even in the wake of a global civil rights leader — an Arizona resident and her own constituent — being assassinated in broad daylight for his defense of the First Amendment, Hobbs couldn’t find the human decency to put her far-Left extremism aside simply to allow those how wish to honor him to do so,” Hoffman wrote. “Katie Hobbs will forever be known as a stain on the pages of Arizona’s story.”
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On Saturday, TPUSA COO Tyler Bowyer shared an X post that said, “Deport Katie Hobbs.”
TPUSA, Bowyer and Hobbs’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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Southwest
Air Force veteran warns ‘cartels don’t collapse — they fracture’ after notorious drug lord killed
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Nearly two weeks after Mexican forces killed notorious cartel boss Ruben “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, questions remain about how the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) will respond and whether the blow will meaningfully disrupt the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
Carlos De La Cruz, a 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran who deployed after 9/11 and later served along the southern border, told Fox News the cartel leader’s death marked a major victory, but warned Americans should not mistake it for the end of the fight.
“When I say that this is a significant win, I mean it,” De La Cruz said. “El Mencho ran one of the most violent cartels on the planet.”
Oseguera, who rose to prominence in the post–El Chapo era, oversaw CJNG’s aggressive expansion across Mexico and into key trafficking corridors feeding U.S. drug markets. Under his leadership, the cartel became a central architect of fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking and drew a $15 million U.S. reward for information leading to his capture.
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Smoke rises from burning vehicles after a military operation that a government source said killed Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho,” in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2026. (Screen grab obtained from a social media video. @morelifediares via Instagram/YouTube via Reuters)
But De La Cruz cautioned that removing a cartel kingpin does not dismantle the organization.
“Cartels don’t collapse when you just cut the head off — they fracture,” he said. “And part of that fracture is going to see a lot of short-term violence while all these factions fight over territory.”
Following Oseguera’s killing on Feb. 22, the U.S. State Department issued travel alerts in multiple Mexican states, citing road blockages and criminal activity tied to security operations, underscoring concerns about instability in the aftermath.
Drawing on his military background studying enemy command structures, De La Cruz described the cartel fight as a long-term campaign requiring sustained pressure.
A mughsot of Ruben “Nemesio” Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” beside graffiti depicting the letters of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, covering the facade of an abandoned home in El Limoncito, in the Michoacan state of Mexico. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP Images; Drug Enforcement Administration)
“You don’t win a war with just one airstrike,” he said. “The goal is dismantling the networks and going after their financing.”
De La Cruz, who is running for Congress and is the brother of Texas Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, argued that CJNG’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation gives U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies expanded tools to target cartel infrastructure and financial pipelines.
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A soldier stands guard by a charred vehicle after it was set on fire in Cointzio, Mexico, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, after the cartel leader’s death. (Armando Solis/AP Photo)
But he stressed that the fentanyl crisis should be viewed as a domestic security emergency, not a distant foreign problem.
“For decades, they were using their territories as launching pads to pump chemical weapons into America — because that’s exactly what fentanyl is,” he said.
De La Cruz, who said he worked side by side with Customs agents while deployed to the border, warned that cartel networks are highly adaptive and that any gains could be temporary without sustained follow-through.
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Smoke rises after violence hit Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. (Courtesy of Scott Posilkin)
“These networks, they’re going to adjust. They’re going to adapt and they’re going to adapt quickly,” he said. “We have to continue to go after the money launderers, especially on our side of the border, because that’s the full fight.”
While Oseguera’s death removes one of the most dominant figures in Mexico’s criminal underworld, De La Cruz said the mission is personal.
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“I took an oath to defend this country,” he said. “And I intend to stand by that oath.”
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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TUCSON, Ariz. — More than five weeks after the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie — the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie — Arizona authorities say cadaver dogs used earlier in the investigation are not currently being deployed as the search continues.
The elder Guthrie is believed to have been kidnapped from her home in the Catalina Foothills in northern Tucson around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 1.
While no suspects have been publicly identified, and she has not been found, cadaver dogs had been deployed earlier in the case, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. They have not been visible in weeks.
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A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office remains outside of Nancy Guthrie’s home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil; Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
“They are available if needed in the future,” he told Fox News Digital.
There are a number of reasons not to be using cadaver dogs at this stage in the investigation, according to Betsy Brantner Smith, a retired police sergeant and spokeswoman for the National Police Association.
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Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
One would be if there’s credible information that Guthrie is still alive.
“Anything is possible,” Nanos told Fox News Digital last week, adding that he would not discuss specific leads or evidence in the case.
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Brantner Smith, who is not involved in the case, said departments may hold back K-9 resources for several reasons. Those could be that authorities don’t have a good idea of where to search, they think she might be concealed in a place where dogs would have a hard time detecting her, or they believe she’s been taken to Mexico, according to Brantner Smith.
Law enforcement agents walk around the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
“I do believe that the sheriff’s department has much more information that they are not releasing to the public,” she told Fox News Digital. “And I’m not sure at this point why that would be, unless they have a solid suspect and don’t want to tip them off.”
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Most departments, including the Pima County Sheriff’s, don’t have their own cadaver dogs and borrow them from state and federal authorities or neighboring jurisdictions.
An investigator looks inside a culvert in the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
In Guthrie’s case, the sheriff’s department sought K-9 assistance from the local Border Patrol office earlier in the investigation.
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PCSD deferred further comment on the K-9s to Customs and Border Protection, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office walks around Nancy Guthrie’s home on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
The biggest lead so far has been Nest camera video showing a masked intruder on Guthrie’s doorstep the morning of her abduction.
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He is described as about 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall and of medium build.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been missing from her Arizona home since Jan. 31, 2026. (Don Arnold/WireImage/Getty Images)
He was wearing a black Ozark Trail backpack.
Authorities have said they won’t consider the case cold until they run out of viable leads to follow up on — and tens of thousands have come in so far.
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Savannah Guthrie has asked anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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There’s a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that leads to her mother’s recovery.
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