The death of Shanquella Robinson, a Charlotte hair braider who died on a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, is now being treated as a potential homicide by Mexican authorities, according to a report from the Daily Beast.
A spokesperson from Cabovillas.com confirmed to Rolling Stone that Robinson’s death was under investigation as an “isolated criminal matter.”
According to the Daily Beast, the State Attorney General’s Office for the Baja Sur said the investigation file on Robinson’s death was originally opened as a femicide, but if continued investigation determines Robinson’s death wasn’t motivated by her gender, it will be changed to standard homicide.
“State Criminal Investigation Agents went to the scene where the initial investigation was carried out under the corresponding protocols,” the office said in a Thursday statement to the Daily Beast.
“Experts from the Director of Specialized services carried out the processing of the premises in search of any indications that should be included within the investigation file. The PGJE will maintain the leadership of the investigation in order to collect more evidence and achieve an accurate clarification with the facts, without ruling out any hypothesis.”
Shanquella Robinson, 25, and her group of friends were staying at Villa Linda 32, a Cabovillas.com property, when Robinson was allegedly found unresponsive by her friends and eventually declared dead.
When asked for comment by Rolling Stone, Cabovillas.com confirmed that Robinson had died on the property and confirmed the incident has been under investigation as a criminal matter — a new update since both Robinson’s mother Salamondra Robinson and social media users began to call for a larger police investigation into Robinsons’s death.
Robinson’s mother, Salamondra Robinson, has maintained that reports from Robinson’s friends on the Cabo trip were inconsistent with the autopsy.
According to Queen City News, authorities listed Robinson’s cause of death as a severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation — indicating a broken neck and cracked spine. Queen City News reports that the death certificate section also included the question “was it accidental or violent?” Authorities wrote “yes,” so it’s uncertain which option they were indicating.