The family of Abigail Hay Urrutia denounced the circumstances in which the 30-year-old woman died during her detention in a cell at the police headquarters in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, on Friday.
The State Prosecutor's Office announced an investigation with a gender perspective on Sunday to determine if there was responsibility of the local authorities, after the municipal police affirmed that the young woman had committed suicide with her underwear in a cell.
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“I just want justice, the Salinas Cruz police officers beat my daughter to death, and then they hanged her but she was already dead.
They wanted me to believe that she hanged herself with her panties, but I did not believe it, for a moment I was shocked but when I reacted I realized that they lied to me, ”her father wrote on the social network Facebook, Jose Luis Hay.
According to reports in local media, the police arrested Urrutia for an alleged administrative infraction while he was behind the wheel, allegedly arguing with his partner.
Videos shared on social networks seem to show the moment of his arrest and a struggle with his partner and the officers.
"I am the mother of your child," she can be heard saying to a man she is holding on to with her legs as the police try to separate her from her.
"Abigail was arguing with her partner in a car, they were arrested, they let her partner go free, but they took my daughter away," said her father. "Why did they take her away?
What were the charges?
My daughter's partner was accompanying her, "he added," she asked for a cake, when she returned she heard a noise and from there she no longer heard from her.
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After her arrest, Urrutia was brought before a civic judge who offered her three options to compensate for the alleged administrative offense: remain in prison for 24 hours, perform community service, or pay a fine.
She decided to remain detained, as reported by the Infobae news portal.
About three hours later, the police allegedly found her dead in her cell.
Screenshot of the video of the arrest of Abigail Hay Urrutia in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca. Millennium
Urrutia's father affirms that they did not let him see his daughter's body at the police station, and he had to wait until it was taken to the morgue.
There, the relatives realized that he had "a deep neck wound", and they affirm: "We assume that he did not do it with his underwear, as was the version they gave us".
The death of the young woman provoked protests outside the municipal presidency of Salina Cruz over the weekend, where dozens of relatives and friends demanded justice for Urrutia.
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"People are no longer sleeping. We are going to fight for the life of that woman, of that person who was taken from her here inside the jail," a woman protesting in front of the mayor's office told the Milenio newspaper.
The mayor of Salina Cruz, Daniel Méndez Santiago, asked the protesters to wait for the report from the local Prosecutor's Office.
"She was killed here. Let's hope for justice for my sister," however, one of her relatives denounced before the aforementioned media.