Shanquella Robinson’s family is planning to file a lawsuit against six of her former friends who hindered the investigation of her passing.
via: BET
“The lawsuit will be against the six travel mates, including the three who lied by omission by failing to disclose that someone had been beating Shanquella prior to her death,” family lawyer Sue-Ann Robinson told Newsweek but did not say when she would file the civil action.
Robinson, 25, traveled to Mexico with six friends from college – four women and two men – on October 28, 2022.
She was discovered unconscious the next day in a rented tourist property in San Jose del Cabo, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur.
Her family said her friends told them she had died of alcohol poisoning.
However, a video went viral on social media of someone in the traveling party attacking Robinson in a bedroom while she was naked. Conflicting reports from the six friends also raised suspicions about how she died.
In November 2022, Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, attorney general for Baja California Sur, said an arrest warrant was issued in Mexico for an American friend of Robinson charged with femicide. Mexican investigators determined that there “wasn’t a quarrel, but instead a direct aggression” that resulted in Robinson’s death.
An autopsy by Mexican officials said Robinson died from severe injuries to her spinal cord and neck.
However, an autopsy conducted in November by a medical examiner in the United States found a significant discrepancy with the findings of the autopsy performed in Mexico, according to The Charlotte Observer.
The U.S. autopsy found no spinal cord injuries and declared the cause of death undetermined. U.S. prosecutors have declined to pursue criminal charges.
In May, Robinson’s family and supporters rallied in Washington, D.C., to urge the Biden administration to extradite her alleged killer to Mexico to face justice.
Sue-Ann Robinson told Newsweek that Shanquella’s family “are tired, weary, heartbroken and missing Shanquella but motivated by her legacy to keep moving forward on the path to her justice.”
