A video shows the police beating Abigail There are hours before she died inside the police station

Abigail Hay entered the Salinas Cruz police station, Oaxaca, at 4:52 p.m. on August 19, 2022. A few hours later she was dead.

Authorities have maintained that the 30-year-old committed suicide inside her cell with her underwear.

A version that has been continually rejected by the family.

This week, her sister Margarita Hay has released a video of Abigail's arrival at the police station showing how she is beaten and pushed by up to four police officers.

"This is very painful for me, but we want justice for my sister," said Hay.

Abigail Hay's death aroused suspicion in her environment from the beginning.

The young woman was arrested when she was arguing inside a vehicle with her partner, Kleiver Nazario 'E'.

She was accused of having committed an administrative offense for disturbing the public highway and arrested.

The videos of that moment already showed how the young woman was reluctant to get into the police van, while she clings to the arm and leg of a man so as not to be transferred.

Finally, by force, the agents manage to mount her in the vehicle.

According to the police version, the woman was transferred to the civic judge, who offered her three ways to pay for the offense committed: a fine, community service or spend 24 hours in jail.

There she agreed to be locked up.

In the images of a camera, now leaked to the family, it is observed how two agents are holding Hay until the separations.

There on the ground, the young woman falls.

When she tries to stand up again, one of the policemen grabs her hair, then her neck, and the other grabs her, her arms.

Hay jumps and tries to get away.

While they immobilize her, two other uniformed women come out from inside the police station and also surround her.

After her, they forcibly place her against the wall, while they search her.

At that time, the young woman is seen screaming and gesticulating.

The video, from a security camera, does not have audio, so the family does not know what the young woman is shouting or what the police tell her.

The irregularities in the case of the young woman from Oaxaca have been accumulating over the weeks.

Before the dissemination of these images, the family denounced that in her death certificate the municipal authorities refused to indicate that it had happened inside the police station.

After three autopsies, which all establish the cause of death as suffocation by hanging.

The narrative is still riddled with inconsistencies.

Margarita Hay told EL PAÍS that in addition to a deep mark on her neck, her sister had injuries to her legs and arms.

“She had blows that she could not do to herself, there had to be some external participation,” she has pointed out.

In addition, she wonders how such a death could have happened in a safe and guarded environment such as a police station should be.

Four people have been arrested for this possible omission: two municipal agents —who were later released—, the civic judge and the municipal commander.

These last two have been linked to a judicial process.

“They were prosecuted because they are the ones in charge of making sure everything is in order, they are the ones who tell the police how to act.

We work under their instructions”, points out Margarita Hay, who assures that there is still much to investigate.

"Justice has not yet been done, although not even justice is going to return my sister to us," she said.

The case of Abigail Hay is reminiscent of that of Dr. Beatriz Hernández, in Hidalgo, in 2021. The doctor was arrested by the Progreso de Obregón police after causing a car accident without injuries.

An hour later, the body of the young woman was lying on the floor of the municipal jail.

The police version claimed that Hernández had found a white rag in her cell and she had hanged herself.

The experts identified 25 injuries on the young woman's body, on her neck, but also some on her face, breasts and her genital area.

The suicide argument is still used in some cases of violence against women.

In recent months, this pattern has been repeated in the case of Luz Raquel Padilla, of whom the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office insinuated that she had set herself on fire, or that of Yolanda Martínez, who, according to the version of the authorities of Nuevo León, he killed himself by drinking poison, although days later the same prosecutors admitted that they had not found any substance in his body.

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