GALEANA, Mexico, April 23 – Mario Escobar stood on a windswept hillside in northern Mexico surrounded by dozens of mourners as he prepared to bury his teenage daughter Debanhi, one of the latest victims of the country’s violence crisis against women.
“We are devastated inside,” he said. “We had so much faith that we would find her alive, but that didn’t happen.”
The nearly two-week search for the 18-year-old law student who disappeared on April 9 near the northern industrial city of Monterrey has sparked renewed fear and outrage over gender-based violence.
In Mexico, an average of 10 women are killed every day and tens of thousands more are missing. L2N2WK2N3
More than a hundred family members, friends and neighbors attended the funeral in Galeana, Nuevo Leon, Debanhi’s mother’s hometown, where the family often spent weekends and holidays.
Under the hot sun, mourners sang hymns and carried white balloons and handwritten signs calling for justice for Debanhi.
The teen’s body was found Thursday night in a cistern on the grounds of a motel near where she was last seen alive.
The Attorney General’s Office said on Friday that the cause of death was a skull contusion and that all investigations were open. At the funeral, Mario Escobar said his daughter’s body was “beaten and strangled”.
Her death came amid a spate of enforced disappearances in Nuevo Leon state. At least 26 women and girls have disappeared since earlier this year and six others – including Debanhi – have been found dead after being reported missing.
Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener and Daniel Becerril; Edited by Kim Coghill