It was two weeks of uncertainty. Debanhi Escobar, an 18-year-old Mexican girl, disappeared on April 9 at dawn and since then both the authorities and her relatives have been searching for her.
(You can read: Debanhi Escobar: family suspects inconsistencies in his death)
A photo of the woman alone in the middle of the road was one of the clues that led to the investigation, which had a sad outcome, because last Thursday It was confirmed that the discovery of a body in a cistern at the Nueva Castilla Motel, in the state of Nuevo León (Mexico), corresponded to that of Escobar.
(Also: The step by step of the disappearance that shocked Mexico)
In the midst of the commotion that his case has generated in the country, last Saturday, his family carried out the funeral between demands for justice for an alleged femicide, a case that the Prosecutor’s Office first investigated as an accident. And there are still several questions to be answered.
“The family is not satisfied with the results, we want more studies, we have enough material to continue with the studies, for a second expert opinion,” Omar Tamez, a member of the non-governmental organization International Commission on Human Rights, told the media.
Leticia Hidalgo, founder of the organization United Forces for Our Disappeared in Nuevo León (Fundenl), for her part, told BBC Mundo that this case “shows irregularities, doubts and questions that the Prosecutor’s Office is not answering.”
(In photos: Debanhi Escobar is buried between demands for justice)
According to this medium, these are some of the questions that the investigation is expected to clarify:
1. Why was the body not found earlier if it was meters from where Debanhi disappeared?
BBC ensures that the body was a few meters from the site where the woman disappeared on the so-called “highway of terror”. This place is thus known for the kidnappings and disappearances that are recorded.
“Specifically, the body was in a water tank in a motel, just 110 meters from a transport company in front of which Debanhi was seen thanks to security cameras,” they say.
Although the facilities of the Nueva Castilla motel were checked four times, they did not find her until 12 days later. This, after the lodging site staff warned of a strong odor.
According to Debanhi’s relatives, and the authorities, the young woman would have entered the motel “alone”, but in addition, she would have walked through the building, passing through different locations of the motel, according to Luis Enrique Orozco, deputy prosecutor of the case.
“You can see the entrance alone, of a female person, walking alone inside. The second camera in a close moment shows that Debanhi walks inside, again alone, she even looks into the restaurant area, trying to visualize the interior that it is abandoned and is not part of the use of the property,” said Orozo.
(Also: Motel cameras did record the young woman inside)
2. Why did Debanhi’s father suggest that the body could have been placed later and rule out that it was an accident?
Debanhi Escoba’s family said last Saturday that they will demand a new autopsy before his suspicions of sexual abuse and in rejection of the versions of the State Prosecutor’s Office, which first handled the case as an accident.
After the wake in the city of Monterrey, the family and legal advisers assured that “there was sexual abuse”, for which they accused the Prosecutor’s Office of “inconsistencies”.
“This is not a circus. My daughter is dead. Right now I am going with Samuel. They have searched it four times (the area where Debanhi’s body was found) and why does it appear on the fifth time? Question, did they plant it? No she could have climbed the fence,” and refuted the version that Debanhi fell into the cistern.
(In context: Debanhi Escobar: the young woman’s father says that the taxi driver who was taking her harassed her)
“The number of people in the search was quite large. For almost two weeks they searched there, in the same place, with rescue dogs, and it turns out that Debanhi was not there. And from one day to the next, he is. It is something absurd that leaves us with many doubts,” the BBC quotes Hidalgo.
3. Why did the taxi driver leave Debanhi at dawn and take a picture of her?
One of the parts that has generated the most suspicion since the disappearance was known has to do with a photo where Debanhi is seen at night in the middle of a road alone.
The chronology of the events shows that Escobar went out that Saturday, April 8, with two friends to a party in Quinta Venecia, a place in the municipality of Escobedo, Nueva León.
Apparently, the young woman had differences with her companions, who returned home in a taxi, and asked for the service of a “trusted contact” for her, who works with the Uber/Didi platforms, but who on this occasion worked outside from the same.
After accepting the service, she also allegedly had an argument with the driver that her friends sent her, so in the early hours of the morning the subject lowered her in a deserted place on the edge of the highway to Nuevo Laredo, and took her with his cell phone a photograph that he sent to his two acquaintances.
The father of the young woman has assured that the Prosecutor’s Office has in his possession videos that would show that the driver tried to harass her. “Debanhi complained that she was being sexually harassed and that’s why she got off,” the father said.
According to the BBC, the taxi driver has already been questioned and, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, showed his willingness to collaborate.
(You can continue reading: The three key places in the disappearance of Debanhi Escobar)
This case, which still has questions to be resolved, has been seen as an example of the double crisis of sexist violence and disappearances that Mexico is facing, where more than 10 women are murdered a day and there are more than 99,000 people who have not been located since 1964, according to government figures.
So far this year, the state of Nuevo León alone has registered a wave of disappearances with at least thirty women still unaccounted for.
ELTIEMPO.COM with agency information*
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