As previously reported by REVOLT, in late October, 25-year-old Shanquella Robinson traveled from Charlotte, North Carolina to Cabo, Mexico with several friends for a vacation. The young woman never made it home. After members of the group initially told her parents she died from alcohol poisoning, a video surfaced online of her being savagely beaten by a woman present on the trip as several of the friends watched.
Since Shanquella’s death, her mother, Salamondra Robinson, has credited Black Twitter with keeping her daughter’s case alive. Once the video of the attack was shared on social media, the story received international coverage. Although there has been an outpouring of support and calls for justice, those involved in Shanquella’s death are still free. Today (Dec. 2), the New York Post shared that Salamondra believes enough is not being done by the FBI to put her daughter’s killers behind bars. “I’m just trying to wait for somebody to be arrested. The FBI is not telling anything,” the grieving mother said.
On Nov. 23, an arrest warrant was issued by Mexican authorities for one of the individuals who attended the trip with Shanquella, but the person’s identity was withheld. Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, a local prosecutor for the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, gave the update. “This case is fully clarified. We even have a court order. There is an arrest warrant issued for the crime of femicide to the detriment of the victim and against an alleged perpetrator, a friend of hers who is the direct aggressor,” the prosecutor shared. The State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California Sur previously noted that femicide is a form of gender-based violence.
Yesterday (Dec. 1), a spokesperson for the FBI told the UK’s Independent that the investigation is ongoing. Salamondra has spoken with multiple outlets about her daughter’s death in her search for justice. On Nov. 30, she informed The Washington Post that Shanquella’s friends “looked [her] in the face and told [her] there was no fight in Cabo.” She believes her child’s attackers are currently on the run. In a separate statement, an FBI spokesperson assured The Washington Post that they’ve been doing their best from the start. “We can’t give a timeline for ongoing cases, but this case is complicated because there are officials from another country involved,” they added.