Mexico investigates American woman’s death as femicide, FBI opens probe

The FBI has opened a probe into the current death of an American girl vacationing in Mexico, which can be being investigated by Mexican authorities as a femicide.

Shanquella Robinson, 25, of Charlotte, North Carolina, went to San Jose del Cabo, a resort metropolis on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, with six associates on Oct. 28. They stayed at a rental villa in Fundadores, an unique gated neighborhood with trip houses and a non-public seaside membership, Robinson’s dad and mom told Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC-TV in a current interview.

The following day, Robinson’s dad and mom received a frantic phone name from their daughter’s associates saying she had died.

“They mentioned she wasn’t feeling effectively, that it was alcohol poisoning,” Robinson’s mom, Sallamondra Robinson, instructed WSOC-TV.

The Mexican Secretariat of Well being’s post-mortem report and dying certificates for Robinson, obtained by ABC Information, lists her reason behind dying as “extreme spinal twine harm and atlas luxation” with no point out of alcohol. The doc additionally states that the approximate time between harm and dying was quarter-hour, whereas a field asking whether or not the dying was “unintended or violent” was ticked “sure.”

In response to the doc, which was dated Nov. 4, Robinson was discovered unconscious in the lounge of a residence on Padre Kino Avenue in San Jose del Cabo on the afternoon of Oct. 29.

In current days, a video — not verified by ABC Information — has surfaced on-line purportedly displaying a lady attacking Robinson. Chatting with WSOC-TV, Robinson’s mom recognized the individuals within the footage as the chums who accompanied her daughter to Mexico and mentioned she believes it was taken throughout the journey. Within the video, somebody might be heard asking if Robinson “may not less than combat again.” It is unclear when and the place the video was taken.

“It was by no means a combat. She did not combat. They attacked her,” Sallamondra Robinson instructed WSOC-TV. “She didn’t need to be handled like that.”

The State Lawyer Common’s Workplace of Baja California Sur publicly confirmed the outcomes of the post-mortem in a press release on Thursday and introduced that “an investigation was initiated for femicide,” which is a type of gender-based violence.

The workplace mentioned it acquired a name on Oct. 29 at roughly 6:15 p.m. native time from a “public safety member” who reported the dying of a overseas girl in a room of a home within the Fundadores Seashore Membership space in San Jose del Cabo. Investigators had been despatched to the scene and are nonetheless gathering “extra proof to attain the correct clarification of the occasions, with out ruling out any speculation,” in keeping with the workplace.

When requested for remark, Fundadores Seashore Membership basic supervisor Karla Ponce instructed ABC Information in an e mail on Thursday that “the group of vacationers associated to the case by no means visited this seaside membership services throughout their keep” and that the membership “has nothing to do with the Villas Administration/Operation nor the Growth Operation.”

“We deeply remorse this unlucky state of affairs and belief it is going to come to the proper closure,” Ponce added.

Shelley Lynch, a spokesperson for the FBI’s discipline workplace in Charlotte, North Carolina, instructed ABC Information in an e mail on Friday that the company has opened an investigation into Robinson’s dying however wouldn’t remark additional, citing the continuing probe.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico Metropolis instructed ABC Information in an e mail on Wednesday that its workers “are conscious of Shanquella Robinson’s dying and are offering consular companies to her household.”

Because the thriller deepens and questions stay, Robinson’s dad and mom described their late daughter as a hardworking enterprise proprietor who had a “nice coronary heart.”

“It is like a nightmare. I am unable to even sleep,” Robinson’s father, Bernard Robinson, instructed WSOC-TV. “I simply need some reality as a result of this does not add up proper.”

ABC Information’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.