New details have emerged after influencer Valeria Márquez was shot and killed during a livestream.
The state prosecutor’s office confirmed to The New York Times that the 23-year-old influencer was murdered at a beauty salon on Tuesday, May 13, in Jalisco, Mexico. Denis Rodríguez, a spokesman for the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office, told the outlet that two men pulled up to the salon outside on a motorbike, with one entering the establishment wearing a mask.
“He asked her directly: ‘Are you Valeria?’” Rodríguez said, to which she replied, “Yes.”
The man shot her with a gun while she was sitting in a chair at the salon, which is located in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, holding a pink stuffed pig. Márquez was allegedly on a livestream during the time of the incident, where she was seen collapsing on camera. The man fled the scene on a motorbike.
When investigators later arrived “she was still sitting in the chair, where she was surprised, with that doll, the little pig, right there in her arms,” Rodríguez said.
The prosecutor’s office told the outlet it did not have any suspects, but was looking through surveillance footage and Márquez’s social media for clues on the murderer. Rodríguez explained that it was likely that the men — who had been to the salon earlier in the day, attempting to deliver a gift to Márquez — didn’t know the influencer as they had to ask for her name.
“They didn’t have a personal relationship,” he explained to the outlet. “He was simply her executioner.”
The prosecutor’s office shared to The New York Times that the crime was being investigated as a potential “femicide,” meaning when a woman is presumed to be killed due to her gender.
After news broke of her death, users flooded the social media account of Márquez — who amassed over 140,000 followers on Instagram. (Márquez’s TikTok appeared to have been taken down following the incident, but a video of the attack circulated online and was confirmed by the prosecutor’s office.)
“I had the opportunity to meet her in person, a person with a very beautiful energy,” one user wrote via Instagram, translated to English. “[I] am still in shock, [I] can’t believe I will never see her [livestream] again.”
NBC Los Angeles reported that Forensic Medical Services would transfer the victim’s body to their facilities. An autopsy will be performed and official identification by family members is pending.
