While anxious to find out what happened, Savanah’s aunt publicly pleaded after the initial video came out to not make the investigation any more complicated with unfounded accusations.
“That you know that some person was involved or whoever was involved, yes of course we ask that you come forward,” Valerie Mendoza told reporters, per WOAI, “but if you’re just assuming or ‘Yes, this dude looks like him’—no, we don’t need that.”
And by spreading gossip on social media, Valerie added, “You’re just slowing down the process, and that’s not going to help any. Of course, [police] have leads and they want to look into every single one.” But, “if you’re not 100 percent about it then we don’t want to hear it. Just let the detectives do what they want to do, and I believe in the bottom of my heart that they’re gonna get who did this.”
Meanwhile, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus also addressed speculation that they were looking at a murder-suicide, telling reporters it wasn’t entirely out of the question, but “we’ve kind of gotten past that point right now, unless we get evidence that would lead us to believe otherwise.”
