San Ysidro siblings spend Christmas searching for parents missing for nearly a week

Christmas in the Soto household is normally loving and lively.

“Christmas Eve, we all stay up late. We have dinner. We open the presents,” 23-year-old Alexia Soto, the eldest sibling, said.

This holiday was different. The three San Ysidro siblings say their parents — Melissa and Johnny Soto — have been missing since Wednesday, Dec. 20.

“We all had high hopes that they would at least come back for Christmas,” Alexia said.

The youngest sibling, Vincent, said he was the last person to see their parents Wednesday night.

“It felt like a normal night,” Vincent recalled. “He was just sitting here watching TV like he always does. And my parents, they always talk. He asked me, ‘Hey, Vinny, can you leave for a minute? We're going to talk.’ So I left the house, not assuming anything.”

Melissa and Johnny’s family said their marriage was rocky. After more than 20 years together, they separated in July.

Vincent waited for about an hour and a half before his dad texted him saying they’d left and he could come back home.

As the hours passed and their parents didn’t come back, the siblings started to worry. They called the police in the morning and reached out to their aunt Christina Sandoval.

“They left with no clothes,” Sandoval said. “They left with nothing. All his clothes that he wears normally, like the sweats there in the bedroom. Her phone was left here. Her wallet was left here. Her keys were left here and then his phone was turned off about 15 to 20 minutes after he left here.”

Sandoval started an online campaign to help the siblings care for their puppy, pay for groceries and any bills that their parents normally take care of.

For the past five days, the whole family’s lives have been on pause.

Melissa’s mother's intuition tells her that her daughter is alive but in trouble.

“I feel like she's asking for help,” Concepcion Romero Domingo said. “You know when you wake up and your heart is so sad because she's asking for help. And I'm telling her 'Just hold on. They’re going to find you because they want to find you.'"

Melissa put up a Christmas tree at her parent’s house before she disappeared. The gifts still sit below it untouched.

The gifts are too painful to open, the siblings said.

“We’re worried, scared,” middle sibling Elise Soto said. “It's not like them to do this. We just want them home.”

Due to the Christmas holiday, NBC 7 is still waiting for updates from police in their investigation.