Houston Custody Murder-Suicide
Police say Vivian Savella’s mother shot her inside a west Houston townhome hours after a judge placed the girl in her father’s primary care.
A Houston custody hearing ended with 4-year-old Vivian Savella scheduled to go home with her father. Hours later, Houston police say her mother shot Vivian dead inside a west Houston townhome, then shot herself.
Officers answered a shooting call at about 5:45 p.m. Sept. 29 in the 300 block of Terra Reserve. ABC13 reported that police found Vivian dead from an apparent gunshot wound and detained her mother with an apparent self-inflicted wound.
Police said the shooting followed a custody hearing in which the mother lost custody. The mother died in a hospital the next day. HPD is investigating the deaths as an apparent murder-suicide.
Vivian’s father, Aaron Savella, had just received primary custody, according to his attorney, Charlotte Rainwater. The attorney told KHOU that no one in the courtroom anticipated what happened hours later.
The family said Aaron followed every court order while pursuing custody. “On Tuesday, a judge placed Vivian in his primary care, and she was supposed to come home to him that evening,” its statement said. “She never did.”
The court had given him primary care, but it had not set an exact method for the exchange, ABC13 reported. Vivian never reached her father’s home. The Houston Police Department’s homicide investigation remains open.