Abigail Hay's family hasn't been able to sleep for six months.
The 30-year-old girl was detained by the Salina Cruz police, in Oaxaca, last August and she appeared dead in police custody.
Six months after that and after a process riddled with irregularities, the family says they have lost all hope that justice will be done and they are devoting their efforts to recovering custody of one of the victim's children, in the hands of her ex-partner, who was denounced for family violence in 2021.
Both the municipal police and the State Prosecutor's Office maintain the version that Abigail committed suicide inside the police station with her own underwear without anyone seeing anything.
Her family, however, rejects this version and accuses the agents of excessive use of force that ended up causing the girl's death.
In a video from the security cameras of the command, shared by the family, you can see how the young woman arrives in custody and is beaten and pushed by up to four agents.
Despite the images and the fateful event, no Salina Cruz police officer who participated in the arrest has been linked to the process.
Judge Guillermo Martín Martínez Maldonado, who is investigating the case, linked the qualifying judge and the police chief as defendants for the crime of manslaughter.
The first for ordering the entry into Abigail's separate rooms and the second for being the head of the municipal force.
The judge, however, decided to modify the precautionary measures so that the detainees could continue their process in freedom.
“Abigail's family fears reprisals from these two public servants who have power and influence in the town,” says Yésica Sánchez Maya, a lawyer for Consorcio Oaxaca and legal advisor to the relatives.
Half a year after the death of the young woman,
On August 19, 2022, a group of municipal agents arrested Abigail Hay on the street for an alleged argument with the father of one of her children.
They took her out of her car, forcibly subdued her and put her in a police car.
Everything was recorded in a video that circulated on social networks.
Five hours after that, Hay lay dead on the floor of a cell.
"I am the mother of her son," she is heard saying in the recording.
"Have dignity," a police officer responds while holding her by her arms.
After a couple of minutes, the agents manage to subdue her and put her in the patrol along with her partner, Kleiver 'N'.
Only she is arrested, the man is released, despite having a complaint for physical and psychological abuse.
"The Prosecutor's Office dismissed the seriousness of this complaint," says Yésica González.
As if that were not enough, in addition to the criminal case, the Hay family is fighting in court to keep custody of their minor son and they denounce that the man took advantage of the moment in which she was detained to take the child.
"Since then she has not seen her grandparents, her aunt and her brother again," says the lawyer.
"There is a risk for this child because he lives with his mother's attacker," González remarks.
The law, however, allows that despite the existence of a complaint for family violence, the minor remains with his father.
After the latest events and with total hopelessness in the criminal case for homicide, the child's grandparents and aunt denounce that there is still no date for the custody trial.
"What I urgently need is to get my grandson back," says Mr. José Luis Hay.
"Somehow the family feels that getting the child back is the only way to do justice for Abigail," says the lawyer.
"They have lost hope that the direct culprits will be tried," she stresses.
The death of Abigail Hay reveals a long chain of errors and impunity and shows a process full of prejudice and complicity where there is no gender perspective.
For example, that in the death report of the young woman it appears that she died in the "public thoroughfare" and not in a police cell, as really happened.
As in so many other cases, the authorities have been overwhelmed by the violence suffered by women in Mexico and the victims' complaints are filed or dismissed.
Meanwhile, the families of those murdered face an obstacle course where justice does not arrive and discrimination from the institutions is palpable.
The death of Abigail Hay is reminiscent of the case of Dr. Beatriz Hernández, in Hidalgo, in 2021. The municipal police of Progreso de Obregón arrested the doctor, who was found dead two hours later in a cell with signs of violence.
The authorities also said that she had committed suicide.
Other recent cases are that of Luz Raquel Padilla, who the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office insinuated had set herself on fire, or that of Yolanda Martínez, who, according to the version of the Nuevo León authorities, took her own life by drinking poison.
In all cases, the authorities hid under the argument of an alleged suicide, when the figures for sexist violence and police abuse suggest otherwise.
The murder of Lesvy Berlín Rivera Osorio, one of the most remembered femicides in the country, was also initially presented as a suicide: he hanged himself with the cable of a telephone booth, the authorities said, a version that was rejected in court after verifying that she was murdered by her partner.
According to statistics, in Mexico 95% of all crimes are not solved and it is unknown exactly how many people have died in the country due to police brutality.
subscribe here
to the EL PAÍS México
newsletter
and receive all the key information on current affairs in this country