What we know about the Debanhi Escobar case, the 18-year-old girl who disappeared and was later found dead in Nuevo León

Authorities say that Debanhi died of “asphyxiation by suffocation” 1:30 (CNN Spanish) — The most recent investigations into the death of Debanhi Susana Escobar Bazaldúa in recent months show that the 18-year-old girl died as a victim of death by suffocation and that his body was not subjected to sexual violence, according to the attorney general’s office of Nuevo León. This, after in April 2022, the Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office said that Escobar’s cause of death was “a deep contusion of the skull,” according to scientific evidence cited by the entity. On April 22, the authorities confirmed in a video released on social networks that the “body found” corresponds to that of Debanhi Susana Escobar Bazaldúa, 18 years old. A day earlier, the state authorities had reported the location of “a lifeless body” on the land near the place of Debanhi’s disappearance. On April 24, the Nuevo León Specialized Femicide Prosecutor’s Office announced in a statement that Debanhi’s death will be investigated under the femicide protocol. The decision comes after her family and friends gave her the last goodbye over the weekend, between calls for justice. Prosecutor’s Office shows new videos of the Debanhi case, disappeared and found dead in a motel 1:12 Debanhi Escobar: one of the many disappeared in Mexico The young Mexican woman was last seen on April 8 at night on the Laredo highway, at the height of the Nuevo Castilla neighborhood, in the municipality of Escobedo, Nuevo León. The undersecretary of Public Security, Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, assured that the body was rescued from the cistern and was taken to the Forensic Medical Service to perform the autopsy and genetically determine if it is the Debanhi body. Debanhi Escobar joins the list of disappearances of women in Nuevo León, Mexico. The governor of the state, Samuel García, said in a press conference that from the beginning of the year to April 17, 2022, 327 reports of missing women were filed, of which 289 were found alive, 33 remain unaccounted for and five were found dead. García pointed out that between 7 pm on April 17 and the same time on April 18, the authorities had located seven other women, whose identities he projected on a screen but without clarifying whether they were found alive or dead. During the search for Debanhi, the Local Commission for the Search of Persons of Nuevo León located five women alive. In a recent report, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances described disappearances in Mexico as an alarming phenomenon and called on the government to take action. The Committee points out that the main responsible for these crimes are the federal, state and municipal authorities, as well as organized crime. Prosecutor of Nuevo León confirms that body found is Debanhi Escobar 4:44 Here is a chronology of what we know about the Debanhi Escobar case: April 8: the disappearance of Debanhi Debanhi Susana Escobar Bazaldúa disappeared on Friday night in Colonia Nueva Castile in Escobedo, Nuevo León. According to the version of the authorities, Debanhi came from a party and got out of an Uber on the Nuevo Laredo highway. According to information from the Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office, the driver of the private transport stated that the 18-year-old girl “got out of the vehicle at Carrera Vía Numancia and Carretera Vía Laredo at approximately 4:24 a.m. The 18-year-old girl was last seen through a video recording next to a transport company The State Prosecutor’s Office indicates that at approximately 4:30 am she went to the transport company to try to communicate with someone “without being attended by employees of the place, without any subsequent record of his whereabouts”. From that location, an image was taken that is the one that circulated on social networks, said Ricardo Mejía, Undersecretary of Public Security. According to an Instagram account allegedly Managed by Debanhi’s relatives, the young woman went to a party with her friends who called “a trusted contact” to pick her up from the place. However, this contact made e l work “off the shelf”. April 15: 100,000 Mexican pesos reward offered The Local Search Commission of Nuevo León publishes a reward of 100,000 Mexican pesos (just under US$5,000) for information that helps find Debanhi. April 21: a body is found near Debanhi’s last location The Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office reported on Thursday night that a lifeless body was found “inside an abandoned water tank” on land near the place where Debanhi would have disappeared. In a press release published after 10 p.m. on Thursday, the Prosecutor’s Office said that it was working on “the recovery of the body with the support of the State Civil Protection” and that the place “due to the conditions of abandonment of the site, the presence of water and the depth presents difficulties for the field experts”. The report also pointed out that at that time it was not “possible to establish characteristics of the lifeless person” and asked “to wait for the official news regarding these facts, which will be supported on the pertinent scientific evidence.” The State Prosecutor’s Office indicated that the victim’s relatives had been notified and were being cared for by an interdisciplinary team. April 22: authorities confirm that the body found is that of Debanhi Escobar During the president’s daily conference of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Undersecretary of Public Security, Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, offered details of the case of Debanhi Escobar. ejía Berdeja indicated that the previous day “the body of a lifeless female was located within the facilities of the Nueva Castilla Motel, in Escobedo, Nuevo León, a short distance from where the young Debanhi was located on the last occasion.” According to the undersecretary of Public Safety, the body was found inside a water tank, at a depth of four meters and indicated that the alert was given by motel employees “before fetid odors that were beginning to be released from that place.” Ricardo Mejía Berdeja showed satellite images of the Nueva Castilla motel where the body of a woman was located. Source: Mexican government morning conference. Mejía said on Friday morning that the body had already been rescued from the cistern and taken to the Forensic Medical Service to perform the autopsy and genetically determine if it is the body of the young Debanhi. On Friday night, the Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office confirmed in a video released on social networks that the “body found” corresponds to that of Debanhi Susana Escobar Bazaldúa, “the cause of death being a deep contusion of the skull.” according to scientific evidence cited by the entity. CNN contacted Mario Escobar, Debanhi’s father, who said that he will wait to give a direct statement when he is informed of the results of the autopsy. The Governor of Nuevo León published a video on social networks and asked the State Prosecutor’s Office to make known a “minute by minute” of the case. “I respectfully ask the Prosecutor’s Office to create an open Prosecutor’s Office, with glass doors and walls that let us know everything that comes out of the autopsy, in the evidence. One, for the certainty of the family; two , for peace of mind and clarification for society about what happened in this case and three, to understand the case and be able to act accordingly and try to avoid other cases like this one from Debanhi in the future,” he added. Outrage over the case of Debanhi Escobar 3:38 April 23: “Because it was a murder” “Because it was a murder… whoever falls, whoever hits, I’m not going to stop to clarify this…”, said Mario Escobar , Debanhi’s father, outside the wake that took place in the Capillas del Carmen in Monterrey. April 24: Debanhi’s death will be investigated as a femicide The Special Prosecutor for Femicides in Nuevo León announced that Debanhi’s death will be investigated under the femicide protocol. April 27: Authorities present videos about the day of the disappearance In a video from a security camera, Debanhi is seen in front of the transport company. Source: Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office. The attorney general of the Mexican state of Nuevo León, Gustavo Adolfo Guerrero Gutiérrez, reported at a press conference that “responsibility procedures” have been initiated against those who participated in the search for the young Debanhi Escobar. “We detected some deficiencies,” Guerrero said, saying that “due to the omissions and errors” in the search for Debanhi, he made the decision to remove the prosecutor specializing in missing persons, Rodolfo Salinas de la Peña, and the specialized prosecutor in anti-kidnapping, Javier Caballero García. The official also said that “this does not mean that we are going to wait for the procedure, that the administrative procedures of responsibility conclude, if someone else was omitted or made mistakes that affected the investigation, they will be sanctioned.” The Prosecutor’s Office also presented to the press videos of security cameras from the vicinity of the place where Debanhi’s body was found in which, according to the entity, the young woman is seen alive before her disappearance during the early hours of April 9 . “The last known image of Debanhi is the one in which she is seen walking towards the area where the cistern is located. [del motel Motel Nueva Castilla]”, said the deputy prosecutor of the Public Ministry, Luis Enrique Orozco Suárez. Griselda Núñez Espinoza, prosecutor specialized in femicides and crimes against women of the Attorney General of the State of Nuevo León, said that the investigation has two aspects. “The first of them, as I tell you, is to clarify the facts for which Debanhi lost his life.” The second line of investigation, according to the prosecutor, is focused on determining whether there was an omission on the part of the authorities. April 27: they reclassify the case of disappearance to femicide Mexico’s Undersecretary of Public Security, Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, said during the morning conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that the crime of Debanhi Escobar’s disappearance was reclassified as femicide.July 18: new findings conclude that Debanhi died by suffocation The Nuevo León Attorney General’s Office reported at a press conference on July 18 that, after carrying out a second autopsy on the body of Debanhi Escobar, it was determined that the young woman died of asphyxiation due to suffocation. “The cause of death of Debanhi Susana Escobar Bazaldúa was due to asphyxiation due to suffocation in her variety of obstruction of respiratory orifices,” said Felipe Edmundo Takajashi Medina, general director of the Institute of Expert Services and Forensic Sciences, at a press conference on Monday. of the Judiciary of Mexico City. In addition, they reported that “no evidence, any type of injury, or finding that could support sexual violence was found. And the last is that the possibility of suffocation by submersion is completely ruled out,” according to Takajashi. Three forensic doctors participated in this new study, who determined the new conclusions that were reported this Monday.