Texas Mom Made Son, 3, ‘Say Goodbye to Daddy’ on FaceTime Video Before Murdering Child, Sheriff Says

Texas mom Savannah Kriger murdered her 3-year-old son after recording a FaceTime video for her ex-husband in which she says to the boy, “Say goodbye to daddy,” the Bexar County Sheriff, Javier Salazar, said in a May 1 press conference about their March 18 deaths.

The child, Kaiden, then said goodbye in the short video before Kriger, of San Antonio, shot the child and herself in a drainage ditch, Salazar revealed in the news conference.

For the first time, Salazar provided a detailed accounting of the hours leading up to the March 18 deaths, describing how authorities believe Savannah Kriger broke into her ex-husband’s home, damaged his personal property and then “displayed” her wedding dress and photos on her bed and fired bullets into the pictures.

She then checked Kaiden out of daycare and drove to a drainage ditch where she shot the child and herself to death, Salazar said. Before their bodies were discovered on March 18, police had briefly issued an Amber alert. The deaths were ruled a murder-suicide.

The deaths occurred in the midst of a custody case. A hearing had been scheduled for the day they were found, Salazar said. “She could have lost custody of the child,” he said. Court records show her ex-husband’s name is Brian Kriger.

“He had so many friends and family that loved and adored him, and I miss him so much,” Brian Kriger told Fox News. “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.”

He added, “The justice system failed my son. I do feel like the judge who ordered me to surrender Kaiden did not have his safety in mind.”

Here’s what you need to know:

Savannah Kriger First Damaged Various Personal Items Inside Her Ex-Husband’s Home, the Sheriff Says

The sheriff provided a timeline of events. He said that cell phone technology allows authorities to tell geographically “where was that phone located” when text messages or photos were sent. This helped authorities figure out what happened in the hours leading up to the deaths.

About 12:49 p.m., Savannah’s 2023 Lincoln Aviator left her work parking garage downtown, Salazar said, and, at 1:15 p.m., that vehicle traveled 7.9 miles “arriving at her ex-husband’s residence.”

During this time, he said, “It is believed that Savannah entered the residence of her ex-husband and damaged various items of personal clothing” such as furniture and towels.

She was “damaging his personal items,” he repeated.

While the damage occurred, the sheriff said, “We can verify that by his GPS on his phone” the husband was at his place of employment, an auto dealership, said the sheriff. At 1:24 p.m., she left the residence.

Brian Kriger told Fox News that “every article of clothing” was cut.

News4 San Antonio reported that Savannah Kriger filed for divorce from Brian Kriger on March 7 and sought a protective order against him. The deaths occurred before the hearing on that request, which was scheduled for the day of the murder-suicide.

Brian Kriger told Fox News that authorities should have done more. “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.”

Both Savannah and Kaiden were found deceased from gunshot wounds, the sheriff confirmed during the news conference.

The medical examiner office has released a cause and manner of death for Savannah, ruling her death a suicide, he said, adding that Kaiden’s death was ruled a homicide.

“We do have a ruling of suicide on her,” Salazar said.

Savannah Kriger Shot Her Wedding Dress & Then Told Her Ex-Husband, ‘You Don’t Have Anything to Go Home to Now,’ the Sheriff Says

Bexar Co SheriffKaiden Kriger.

After damaging her husband’s property, Savannah Kriger then drove 27.2 miles and arrived at Savannah’s own residence, the sheriff said. During this time, it’s believed “there were some things at her residence that gave us pause. There were indicators there were some shots fired at her residence,” Salazar said.

Wedding dresses “seemed to be laid out on the bed. We believe that she fired two shots into her wedding portraits that were positioned on the bed.”

There were “bullet holes in them that indicated she had fired into those pictures,” Salazar said. They were “displayed” on the bed.

The shell casings in the home matched the casings at the crime scene where the bodies were found.

At 2:18 p.m., her vehicle left her residence. At 2:32 p.m., the vehicle arrived at her son’s daycare facility. She exited the driver’s seat and “officially checked Kaiden out of the facility,” Salazar said

She loaded him into the rear passenger seat of the vehicle. At 2:46 p.m., her call history shows a FaceTime call made to her ex-husband, who used another phone to record his phone while he was engaging in that call with her, Salazar said. He was still at work.

The FaceTime call lasted 2 minutes and 13 seconds long, according to the Sheriff, who quoted Savannah Kriger as saying, “You don’t have anything to go home to now; you really don’t. You don’t have anything at the Dover’s Den house either, and you won’t have anything at all at the end of the day.”

Fox News, which spoke to Brian Kriger, reported that Savannah also told him, “You left us for a piece of [expletive] … Daddy left us for some woman he met on the internet … Explain to your son why you’re not here.”

She also claimed she vandalized his possessions because she accused him of having “cared more about [his] material possessions than his son,” Fox News reported.

“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,” he told Fox.

Sheriff’s Officials Believe That Savannah Kriger Instructed ‘Kaiden to Say Goodbye to Daddy’

Bexar Co SheriffSavannah Kriger.

GPS shows her car finally arrived at the park, according to the sheriff, who said that a friend of Savannah Kriger’s bought the gun at a sporting goods store and then sold it to Savannah as a legal transaction. The gun was found at the scene.

First, 911 audio shows her ex-husband called police for a criminal mischief report for his home. He explained he was about to arrive in his subdivision, Salazar said.

Photos were taken on his phone of the damaged items, “which we believe at this point were caused by Savannah,” said the sheriff.

At 3:19 p.m., she tried to FaceTime her ex-husband. When that didn’t work, she sent a last text message that read, “Say goodbye to your son.”

Of this message, Brian Kriger told Fox News, “She sent the message on the tail end of a wire transferring all the money out of [our] joint account. 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.”

A screenshot Brian Kriger shared with Fox News said in full, “Son is asking for you. Answer it. I don’t care anymore. In case you don’t get the message. And you don’t get to have my son at all. Say goodbye to your son.”

There was another unsuccessful attempt to FaceTime him, so she then recorded a 21-second video in which she appeared to already be sitting with the boy in the drainage ditch where their bodies were found, according to Salazar.

“She instructs Kaiden to say goodbye to daddy, which Kaiden does. Savannah also apologizes to Kaiden for his daddy not being there and kisses Kaiden,” Salazar said.

Nothing graphic appears in that video, but it seems to be pretty clear what “her intentions are at that point,” the sheriff says.

Around 3:29 p.m., she looked up YouTube videos of children’s content, cartoons, “while she and her son are in the ditch area,” the sheriff said. At 3:37 p.m., police met with the ex-husband to take the criminal mischief report.

Later after concern grew, authorities started searching for Savannah and Kaiden to no avail, and park police on routine patrol found their bodies in the morning in the drainage ditch area, he said. Both were suffering from gunshot wounds, the sheriff said.

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