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What Happened to Antonio Saldivar?
Missing teen mysteriously found dead weeks after he was last seen on his way to present Valentine’s Day present to girlfriend.
Six years ago today, a seventeen-year-old native of Texas left home in his mother’s car to deliver a Valentine’s Day gift to his girlfriend. But what happened to him afterward still baffles everyone to this day.
Valentine’s Day Mystery
On February 14, 2014, 17-year-old Antonio Saldivar borrowed his mother’s Hyundai sedan and left his Houston home at approximately 6 p.m., intending on delivering a teddy bear to his girlfriend. That night, the high school junior of Houston Can Academy had a curfew to uphold. When he ultimately failed to meet it, however, his mother grew concerned. She made several attempts at getting ahold of him over the phone, only to get no replies after midnight.
Hours later, at 4 a.m. on February 15, he finally returned his mother’s call. In it, he acknowledged missing his curfew and accepted getting grounded as a result. He further told his mother that he was on his way back home now before the two hung up. Shortly after this call, his mother again attempted to get ahold of him, only for it to go straight to voicemail.
Then, a call came through about a car wreck at the intersection of Navigation and Harrisburg, just west of the Houston Ship Channel. At about 4:50 a.m., Antonio’s mother’s sedan was found totaled against a concrete pillar, and with no one in sight. Upon searching the car, Antonio’s shoes, oddly enough, were found on the floor of the car below the passenger’s seat. At this point, the teenager had been declared missing since the previous day. The crash itself was estimated to have occurred at 4:30 a.m. after he and his mom spoke on the phone.
In the ensuing weeks, no one had any clue as to Antonio’s fate or whereabouts. Then, on February 27, an employee from a Texas Port Recycling scrap metal plant made a horrible discovery. About a mile from the crash site, the employee had found Antonio’s body in the water between two barges and under a dock within an inaccessible area at the Houston Ship Channel. Although a subsequent autopsy listed his cause of death as an accidental drowning…