By Ana Ruiz Brictson | News Editor, Kaity Kempf | LTVN Reporter
A 25-year-old man was indicted for capital murder Thursday, just over a year after he was questioned and investigated by Baylor Police for trespassing on campus and suspiciously following a female student.
On March 16, 2022, Sophy, a Baylor student who asked we not use her last name, was in the middle of a work shift in Harrington House taking out the trash when the professor she was working for told her she noticed that a man stood behind her for a moment and then walked away.
Sophy told Lariat TV News reporter Kaity Kempf that when she left the building again, she noticed the same man had waited for her outside and began to approach her quickly. She turned the other way and went back inside the building, locking the door behind her so the man couldn’t get in.
“He started following me around campus, and no matter where I went, it was me and him,” Sophy said. “It was like a string the whole time. … No matter where I walked, that was how he followed me.”
Moments later, Sophy said she began to panic and decided to call the police. She said in order to not let the man know who she was calling, she pretended she was talking to a friend.
“I was honestly pissed at that point,” Sophy said. “I’m just like, ‘I want this to end. I want you to go away.’ If calling the cops is what does that, I’ll do it.”
According to the Baylor University incident report, at 2:34 p.m. on March 16, 2022, Baylor Police officers arrived to an area near Harrington House where Sophy had reported the incident. They had watched him on campus security cameras, then stopped him near Baylor Avenue and S Seventh Street for questioning.
Baylor Police later identified the man to be Matias Maltos-Saucedo, who confirmed he was not a Baylor student and admitted to being on campus “looking for single women.”
When an officer on the scene asked for Saucedo’s state-issued identification card, he said he saw Saucedo had a knife in a sheath. He then informed the accused suspect he was going to take his knife and placed it on the roof of his patrol car under his light bar.
After being told by dispatch Saucedo had an outstanding warrant, officers placed him in handcuffs and searched his person and his bag.
Officers said they found cigarettes, a lighter, a wallet and a bone on Saucedo. He was then placed in the rear of the patrol unit. Officers then searched his bag and found two shirts, a sling shot, a can of bug spray, a large roll of duct tape, rope, two vibrators, sandwich baggies, camouflage face paint and shaving razors — some missing the razor.
After being taken to the McLennan County Jail, Saucedo told another officer the items in his bag were “his survival gear,” explaining he would use the slingshot for protection and killing food or that he would use the tape to stop bleeding in case of an injury. He said the vibrators were for if he met a single woman.
A nurse at the jail informed officers that Saucedo is also a current Mental Health and Mental Retardation client and had been assessed in the past for psychological history.
Sophy said the incident changed the way she now walks around campus.
“I would walk a lot, and that’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing, like going to and from classes,” Sophy said. “But I always had the thought, ‘If he approached me right now, I would most likely die.’”
Six days after Sophy’s case, another female student told Baylor Police she experienced an incident where as she walked to class, she noticed a man, who matched Saucedo’s description, watching her. The student described the man as Hispanic and carrying a black backpack.
Police did not confirm the man was Saucedo.
Kelly, Sophy’s mom, said Baylor Police tracked her daughter’s steps on campus through the security cameras and said she had taken the right measures as Saucedo followed her.
Kelly said it was very frightening to hear someone was following her daughter after she had experienced a similar situation when she was in college.
“What are the odds that I’ve experienced it and my daughter’s experienced it?” Kelly said. “How many people are oblivious to it?”
Kelly said when she heard of Sophy’s case, she wanted to go to Waco and look for Saucedo.
“I think what’s scarier in hindsight is knowing what he turned out to be capable of,” Kelly said. “You don’t know when is a guy just following you because he’s creepy or when is a guy following you because he’s got plans for you.”
Just a year later, on March 26, Waco PD officers responded to an assault in progress call on the 2100 block of Clay Avenue around 7:15 p.m. When they arrived on scene, a 59-year-old female was found unconscious, covered in blood. She was later pronounced dead at Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest hospital. A 70-year-old male victim was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Matias Maltos-Saucedo was arrested at the scene, covered in blood.
“Saucedo has been charged with Capital Murder after killing his mother, 59-year-old Felipa Martinez, and stepfather, 70-year-old Antonio Martinez,” a public information release from Waco PD spokesperson Cierra Shipley read the next day.
On Thursday, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald, Saucedo was indicted by a McLennan County grand jury and is currently being held in the McLennan County Jail at a $1 million bond.
