Authorities fired two prosecution officials on Wednesday for “omissions and errors” in the hunt for a missing woman discovered dead the previous week in northern Mexico.
The state attorney, Gustavo Guerrero, did not specify what faults the two officials may have made.
However, the hotel where the young woman’s corpse was discovered in an underground water tank had been checked multiple times before her body was discovered, only after a motel employee detected a terrible stench emanating from the cistern.
Debanhi Escobar’s story stunned Mexico when a cab driver snapped a picture of her standing alone on a highway the night she had disappeared.
The two sacked officials, the missing-persons prosecutor and the state anti-kidnapping prosecutor, were reportedly engaged in the search, which included bringing sniffer dogs inside the hotel.
But, over a week after her death was discovered, the case has gotten even more convoluted.
Prosecutors presented footage from the hotel’s security cameras, which showed Escobar entering the resort and wandering about, finally heading off camera in the area of three cisterns close to a swimming pool.
According to some stories, the lady may have accidentally fallen into one of the three cisterns and died. However, prosecutors said that her corpse was discovered in one tank, her purse in another, and her keys and cell phone in the third.
The lady died as a result of a strike to the head, according to the state’s chief medical examiner, Eduardo Villagomez. However, he said that she seemed to be alive when she entered one of the cistern and that no water was found in her lungs.
“She stood up. The water was 90 centimeters (three feet) deep,” he said when asked how it was possible.
The case gained attention because of a horrifying picture shot by a driver who was meant to transport her home that night. It’s unclear why she had gotten out of the vehicle, but her father, Mario Escobar, claims authorities informed him security camera evidence revealed the driver improperly touched his daughter.
“I suppose that my daughter did not put up with the harassment,” the father said.
The driver was questioned and said that she got out of the automobile on her own will. According to Mario Escobar, the driver may not have murdered his daughter, but he is accountable for her death.
The cab driver, who works for a taxi app, shot the picture to prove Debanhi escaped his vehicle alive on the outskirts of Monterrey on April 9.
Nobody had seen her until last Thursday when detectives were able to extract her corpse from the cistern.