The bodies of a popular influencer, her husband and two children were found wrapped in plastic and dumped in their pickup truck in Mexico. The family was executed in an apparent cartel hit, according to authorities, the New York Post reported.
TikToker and singer Esmeralda Ferrer Garibay, 32; husband Roberto Carlos Gil Licea, 36; son Gael Santiago, 13; and daughter Regina, 7, were brutally murdered inside the abandoned gray Ford Ranger in Guadalajara on August 22, prosecutor Alfonso Gutierrez Santillan said during a press conference. Licea is believed to have been the target of the murders, according to Mexican outlet El Financiero.
Who was Esmeralda Ferrer Garibay?
Garibay was a Mexican content creator. Her TikTok account dates back to April 2020, when she began posting comedic lip-syncing clips. As she gained more followers, she began posting more lifestyle and travel content.
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Garibay often flaunted her supposedly lavish lifestyle, posting videos of her Dior, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton products. She also shared videos of luxury cars, cosmetic surgery, and expensive vacations. She had over 44,000 followers on TikTok.
{{/usCountry}}Garibay often flaunted her supposedly lavish lifestyle, posting videos of her Dior, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton products. She also shared videos of luxury cars, cosmetic surgery, and expensive vacations. She had over 44,000 followers on TikTok.
{{/usCountry}}Garibay shared videos of herself lip-syncing to narco-corridos, a notorious Mexican ballad style known for glorifying the exploits of the drug cartels. Her videos implied that her husband may have been a member of such a gang. For instance, one video featured the text “Advantages of having a narco boyfriend,” along with a clip of her posing with a Gucci handbag.
However, no evidence so far suggests that either Garibay or her husband were members of a drug cartel. In fact, the husband’s involvement in selling vehicles and tomato farming in Michoacan State may have made him a target of organized crime groups, rumors suggest. The family had recently moved to Guadalajara from Michoacan for work opportunities – a region known for being very dangerous, according to the US State Department.
Investigators used surveillance video to trace the route of the truck back to a nearby auto repair shop. There, they found bloodstains, spent bullet casings and ballistic evidence indicating that the four may have been executed at the site before being driven to another location, Latin Times reported.
“While the forensic results are not yet in, ballistic and blood evidence almost certainly confirm they were murdered at that location,” prosecutor Santillan said.
While two men at the auto repair shop were initially detained, they were later released after the Public Prosecutor’s Office found insufficient evidence, as reported by Diario de Yucatan.
A shocking twist
In a shocking turn of events, the two men in question were kidnapped by armed men minutes after leaving the prosecutor’s office. The pair had met up with two acquaintances outside, when three of them were abducted. One managed to escape, and remains at large.
Prosecutor Blanca Trujillo said that the attackers were waiting for the group for more than two hours before they struck, which suggested that it was a coordinated attack. It remains unclear if the attack was an act of retaliation for the murder of Garibay and her family.