DEBANHI ESCOBAR
She was an 18-year-old trainee lawyer, a young woman with a bright future. But that was all snatched away from her one terrible night this April. Debanhi Escobar was out with girlfriends in the state of Nuevo Leon, northeast Mexico.
She and her friends had been to two parties, then travelled on to a club near the city of Monterrey. She was caught on CCTV many times throughout the night, once rushing out of a club being pursued by a man, who she rowed with. Several people approached them and appeared to calm the situation. Her friends decided to call it a night, and called a taxi driver named Juan David Cuellar, who they had hired before. The car was not ordered through the app he worked for, but arranged privately. He took Debanhi and her friends got into a separate taxi, possibly because they had argued.
At around 4am, Debanhi, after changing destinations a couple of times, demanded to get out of the cab. The driver says she was belligerent, and some reports say he claimed she groped him. He let her out at a busy main road called, ominously, the Highway of Death. Cuellar took an eerie photo of her as she stood by the road that has gone viral in Mexico, and that became the haunting image of missing and murdered women and girls. Debanhi is wearing a long skirt, trainers and a face mask, and looks vulnerable against the dark night and open road.
HORROR FIND
Debanhi made her way down the road and then appears several times on a motel’s CCTV, wandering around the grounds where there was an empty swimming pool, a garden and an abandoned restaurant – though the motel was open for business and there were guests in the lobby area. Then she seemed to disappear. The motel and grounds were searched several times, and in fact local police used the premises as a makeshift HQ. It wasn’t until staff reported a foul odour coming from an underground water tank, that Debanhi’s decomposing body was found, submerged 12 feet under water. She was only identified by the cross she wore around her neck.
A first autopsy found she had not died from drowning, but from asphyxia. The second autopsy, ordered by her parents, concluded she had been sexually assaulted and met with foul play. Her father, Mario Escobar, has publicly pointed a finger at Juan David Cuellar and claims that CCTV shows him groping Debanhi’s chest before she fled his car. However, the footage is nearly impossible to decipher. The taxi driver says he didn’t see her again after he took her picture – which he says was to prove she was alive and well when he left her on the roadside. It’s been reported he has a criminal history, but he has not been accused by the authorities of being involved and denies any wrongdoing.
‘SHE WAS FOUND 12 FEET UNDER THE WATER’
GENDER VIOLENCE
Statistics estimate there are ten women killed in Mexico every day, and Nuevo Leon has a shockingly high number of missing and murdered girls and women between the ages of ten and 19.It is also home to many drug cartels and criminal gangs.
Mexican women have been protesting against gender violence for the last three years in cities around the country,
demanding more action from politicians and police, and claiming corruption gets in the way of women’s safety and justice. After Debanhi’s death, the streets were full of furious women with placards screaming “Mexico femicide”, and once again crying out for more urgent and effective response.
The marches have drawn comparisons with the demonstrations that took place after the murder of Sarah Everard in London last March, after women and allies demanded an urgent review of women’s safety especially when out on their own, using the tag “Reclaim the streets”. Sarah was murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, who is serving life in prison. Indeed, five bodies of young women and girls were also found during the hunt for Debanhi, all of whom had gone missing in the previous four months.