Crime & Justice

Mexican prosecutors fired over case of missing girl found dead

Monterrey, Mexico, Apr 27 (EFE).- The attorney general of the northern state of Nuevo Leon said Wednesday that two high-ranking prosecutors were fired for “omissions and errors” in the investigation of the disappearance of 18-year-old law student Debanhi Escobar, a case that has rocked Mexico.

Gustavo Adolfo Guerrero announced the dismissal of Rodolfo Salinas and Javier Caballero during a press conference where he was joined by Debanhi’s father, Mario Escobar, who reported his daughter missing on April 9.

Her body was discovered 13 days later in a cistern at a hotel here in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon’s capital and Mexico’s industrial hub.

The investigators overseen by prosecutors Salinas and Caballero did not find Debanhi until they searched the hotel for a fourth time.

Authorities have obtained videos showing Debanhi’s movements after she got out of a taxi near Escobedo on the Monterrey-Nuevo Laredo highway at 4:26 am on April 9.

Until the emergence of the videos, the last image of Debanhi was from a photo the taxi driver took.

The videos show Debanhi walking in the interior courtyard of the Castilla hotel “toward the area of the cistern.”

“The videos are presented to the public to confirm that there is no other person following Debanhi,” Guerrero said, supporting the the theory that the blow to the head that killed her occurred when she accidentally fell into the cistern.

Even so, the state attorney general stressed that “no line of investigation is ruled out, including a murder by organized crime.”

Mexico sees an average of 10 killings of women and girls every day and more than 1,000 deaths of females in 2021 were attributed to gender violence.

Some 30 women have gone missing in Nuevo Leon so far this year. EFE

jac/dr

Related Articles

Back to top button