The Department of Justice reported this Wednesday that it has not found enough evidence to investigate the death of Shanquella Robinson as a federal crime despite her family's complaints that it was a homicide, according to the local NBC News station in Charlotte ( North Carolina).
Robinson died in October 2022 while on vacation in Mexico with a group of friends.
The Department of Labor met this Wednesday with relatives of the young woman to give them the news and indicated that, after reviewing the available information and the results of the autopsy performed on Robinson in Mecklenburg County (North Carolina), the evidence does not support a court case in which "the Government must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a federal crime was committed."
After the death of the 25-year-old girl, a video circulated on the internet in which she appears to be savagely assaulted in a hotel room.
Her family has maintained that she was murdered by the people with whom she traveled to Mexico, and last November the Prosecutor's Office for the Mexican state of Baja California Sur assured that it was investigating the case as a possible homicide and issued an arrest warrant for a woman suspected of origin. American who was not identified.
Mexican authorities requested the extradition of the suspect, who returned to the United States after Robinson's death.
Shanquella Robinson. Facebook
"Robinson's death has been incredibly difficult for his family and the community," said the Department of Justice, which explained that they do not usually make public statements about this type of decision but that, "given the circumstances of the death and public concern ", it is "important" that it be known that "experienced federal agents and prosecutors have extensively reviewed the available evidence and concluded that they cannot pursue federal charges" but that they may examine any new evidence.
Why does the family think it was a crime?
Robinson traveled with six other people to Cabo San Lucas, where they arrived on October 28.
According to Bernard Robinson, the girl's father, less than 24 hours later her daughter was dead.
The man said that his daughter's friends told him that she died of alcohol poisoning, but when he saw her body he noticed that she had bruises on her face and other injuries.
"I cried like a baby. When I opened the box and saw her there...she had a lump in the corner of her head, a cut lip and a swollen eye," he said, "in my heart of hearts I knew it was not a alcohol poisoning."
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Robinson went into seizures around 4 p.m., and although emergency services were called and attempted to revive her, she was pronounced dead at 5:57 p.m., according to the police report cited by the local station.
Her family claims that her death certificate indicated that she died 15 minutes after suffering a severe neck and spinal injury.
“That meant that someone had attacked her,” the family argued.
The FBI was involved in the investigation to clarify the circumstances surrounding his death.
The case "has been a priority for federal prosecutors and the FBI," the Justice Department said.
In a letter addressed to the president, Joe Biden, the family's lawyers assured that there were two scenarios: "Either the United States extradites Shanquella's murderer to Mexico, or it assumes jurisdiction of the case and his murderer is prosecuted."
