BY: LBS STAFF
Published 5 hours ago
While Valeria Marquez was speaking to her TikTok followers during a livestream from her beauty salon in Zapopan, Mexico, a male intruder entered and fatally shot her.
Valeria Marquez was live on TikTok when she was murdered in front of thousands of her fans.
The 23-year-old beauty influencer was streaming from her beauty salon in Zapopan, Mexico, Tuesday, chatting with followers, when a delivery arrived at her door. Returning to the camera with the small package in hand, Marquez was all smiles when she unwrapped what appeared to be a stuffed animal.
“He’s a little piglet!” she exclaimed, per a report from CNN.
Moments later, she was slumped over in her chair, shot dead with blood pooling on the desk in front of her.
The livestream didn’t end immediately — not until someone picked up her phone, their face briefly visible to shocked viewers.
According to the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office, Marquez was shot and killed by a male intruder in what they are investigating as a suspected femicide — the killing of a woman for gender-based reasons.
The influencer, who had built a strong following of nearly 150,000 on Instagram and had 114,000 followers on TikTok, has now become the face of a tragedy that’s highlighting a deeply troubling issue in the country — an ongoing femicide crisis.
Just days before Marquez’s murder, another woman was murdered during a live stream — a female mayoral candidate in Veracruz, who was gunned down during a livestreamed campaign rally, along with three others.
According to Amnesty International, 25% of all female homicides in Mexico in 2020 were investigated as femicides, with cases documented in all 32 Mexican states.
The problem remains widespread. In 2023 alone, 847 femicides were reported, with 162 more recorded in the first three months of 2024, based on official government figures.
“In 2022, around 4,000 women were killed in Mexico, which amounts to 12% of all homicides that year,” Juanita Goebertus, Americas Director at Human Rights Watch, told CNN. “And the rate of cases that lead to a verdict is around 67%.”
Goebertus emphasized that a lack of investigative resources in the country are a big reason for that.
“The main challenge is increasing authorities’ capacity to investigate and protect witnesses and victims,” Goebertus told the outlet.
Fans and activists are calling for justice as investigators work to find Marquez’s killer, with many mourners taking to the comments of her recent posts to remember the salon owner.
“She was very beautiful,” an English translation reads of one user’s response. “I hope justice is served, she didn’t deserve that ending,” with another follower commenting, “I had the opportunity to meet her in person, a person with a very beautiful energy, [I] am still in shock.”
via: TooFab
