Death is swift for some people who pass peacefully. But to others, it can be painful, and a mystery.
Shanquella Brenada Robinson was a young woman born in 1997. She was a businesswoman, founder of a women's fashion clothing line, hairstylist and also a social media personality from the U.S..
On October 29th, 2022, she died while travelling with her "friends," who were actually her loose acquaintances, to the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas.
The circumstances that led to her mysterious death, as well as the medical treatment she received, the police report, and forensic inquiries, which ultimately ended when she died, have led to a high-profile, transnational criminal investigation within the United States and Mexico.
Because of this, even months after her death, and also after the culprits were already identified, the case still caught considerable public interest and curiosity surrounding the cause of her death.
It all began on October 28, 2022, a day before she died.
At that day, Robinson travelled to Mexico for a short vacation with five travel companions. Together, the group consisted of 3 women and 3 men.
The group of six people checked into a rental luxury apartment in the town of San José del Cabo, a resort city on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
As a social media influencer and personality, Robinson, a graduate of the historically black college Winston-Salem State University, documented many of her activities through her social media account, often through livestreams.
The moment was essentially a Mexican getaway that should be fun and full of laughter, until it isn't.
On October 29, at around 2 p.m., the group called the American Medical Centre, Cabo San Lucas, and called a doctor to come visit because one of them was feeling too unwell.
At around the same time, Shanquella's mother, Salamondra Robinson, received a phone call from one of her daughter's travel companions, saying that her daughter was ill, and that a doctor was already requested.
At this time, nothing was unusual.
The doctor who answered the call, was Dr. Karolina Beatriz Ornelas-Gutiérrez. She arrived within an hour, and found that Robinson was "in stable condition but dehydrated, disorientated, verbally unresponsive, unable to communicate, and appearing to be intoxicated."
The doctor said that Robinson "drank a lot of alcohol," and she recommended the group to admit her into a nearby hospital.
But instead of doing what the doctor told them, the group decided to take care of her in the residence.
Assuming that Robinson would soon recover after her body rids the excess alcohol, the doctor had no doubt on Robinson's well fare.
However, the doctor was puzzled when she attempted to administer an IV-drip.
Soon after, Robinson's condition worsened. She suffered a tonic–clonic seizure, where her body, arms and legs stiffened. At the same time, her sphincter relaxed, allowing spontaneous defecation.
Due to the worsened condition, an ambulance was called to come immediately.
Dr. Ornelas-Gutiérrez did whatever she could professionally, but to no avail.
Robinson's condition continued to plummet. She began hyperventilating, and her pulse dropped.
Shortly then, Robinson suffered a cardiac arrest.
After the ambulance arrived a while later, the paramedics tried resuscitating Robinson. They administered multiple CPT rounds of cardiac-vascular compressions and intrathoracic pressure to her chest, and injected multiple doses of adrenaline and electrical discharges from a defibrillator.
But nothing could be done. It was too late.
In the end, Robinson was declared clinically dead at 5:57 pm, according to the police report.
Two police officers were the first responders.
After they arrived at around 5:25 pm, they met Dr. Ornelas-Gutiérrez, who informed the officers that medical treatment was requested for a young lady who had ingested "too much alcohol." She told the officers that the woman was initially in a stable condition, but was not responsive to any medication.
After Robinson was declared dead, the two police officers notified the General Prosecutors Office in the state of Baja California Sur, reaching state attorney to inform that a foreigner had died.
At this time, the investigations of the Mexican authorities, and the U.S. State Department released a statement reporting that "Mexican authorities said there was no clear evidence Robinson was murdered."
Following her death, Robinson’s friends claimed to the authorities, and also to Robinson's mother, that she’d died of alcohol poisoning.
However, when her death certificate came out, an autopsy conducted by Mexican authorities showed that her death was caused by violence.
To be exact, it was stated that her death was caused by a spinal cord and neck injury, specifically, "atlas and medullary dislocation."
This is term to describe a dislocation or separation of the skull base from the atlas bone, the first bone of the neck.
This kind of injury can only happen from a blunt force trauma specifically directed towards the spinal cord towards the upper neck region, right below the skull, from the back.
It is said that her death happened 15 minutes after suffering the condition.
In one particular forensic observation in the official autopsy report, there is a point that said "Was it accidental or violent death?" To which the coroner wrote "Yes."
The autopsy report mentioned neither cardiac arrest nor alcohol poisoning.
Soon, the authorities were called again to investigate the case, since it could be considered a homicide, not an accident.
"The autopsy should overrule the report because the police report is written by cops and the cops are not forensic experts," explained Fabian Meneses, a criminal defense attorney in Tijuana, Mexico, who has worked on cases in Cabo San Lucas.
He said that autopsies are generally more trustworthy documents than police reports.
"They’re just taking notes. They are just going to write out what they are told by witnesses."
Calls for authorities to investigate Robinson’s death further grew after a video showing one of her friends physically assaulting her went viral.
In the video, which was initially uploaded to Twitter, a footage taken from a smartphone showed how a young African-American woman was naked and beaten by another woman in a bedroom.
The attacker furiously attacked the victim with punches and jabs, all of which target the head. The woman also yanked her by the neck, threw her to the floor, before delivering even more hits to the head.
The identity of the victim was confirmed to be Shanquella Robinson.
Her mother, Salamondra Robinson, also confirmed that the woman in the video is her daughter.
This was also made evident, when two other people were found present during the assault, and that a man could be heard calling Shanquella by her name, "Quella? Can you at least fight back?."
According to the attorneys for the Robinson family, an employee of the resort said that "Robinson seemed to not fit in with others," referring to how Robinson was when she was around her companions.
"When I introduced myself, she did not greet me or smile. She was indifferent, nothing to do with the atmosphere of celebration. She was out of place at that party."
In an interview, Salamondra Robinson, Shanquella's mother, said that she became aware that something was odd after the family was told that each of the travel companion had different stories.
She grew even more suspicious after realizing that each of the story is not consistent with the other.
For example, some of her travel companions claimed a "maid" found her unconscious. Then, whereas others reported they called a doctor, other said that it was the apartment concierge who called the doctor.
Then, they claimed that Shanquella had died of alcohol poisoning, but days later, they said that "there had been a fight, that she was fighting and she had been jumped."
Also, there were inconsistencies regarding the location she was found unconscious.
Some said that she was found on the floor, while others said that she was found on her bed. Another person claimed that she was found sitting on a chair.
During another interview, Salamondra said that her daughter showed signs of blunt trauma from her bruised face, swollen eye, busted lips, and a knot on her head.
Following this, the Robinsons attempted to convince the authorities in the U.S. and Mexico to investigate.
Members of the family have also set up a GoFundMe campaign to crowdsource money to fund the continuous investigation.
Because the murder happened in Mexico, and that Shanquella Robinson is an America citizen, Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, Attorney General of Baja California General Prosecutors Office, announced an arrest court order relating to the murder, and the the Prosecutors' Office had approached Mexican federal prosecutors and U.S. officials to "carry out all relevant procedures [...] issuing an Interpol Red Alert to locate the suspect in the United States" and "working on formal extradition proceedings to extradite the suspect back to Mexico," no one has been officially charged.
But even when local news in Mexico confirmed that an arrest warrant hand been issued for one of Robinson's travel companions, the culprits still roam free.
Because of this, the attorneys for the Robinson's family demand U.S. President Joe Biden to put pressure on authorities to make an arrest.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Sue-Ann Robinson, who represent the Robinson's family, has sent a letter to Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for "swift diplomatic intervention" on the victim's behalf, according to a press release.
"In our letter to President Biden and Secretary Blinken, we clearly stated that one of two things needs to happen: either the U.S. extradites Shanquella's killer to Mexico or the U.S. takes jurisdiction of the case and her killer is prosecuted here," Crump said, per the release. "Inaction is not acceptable in this case. Shanquella's family deserves swift justice for her death."
The letter also states that attorney Sue-Ann Robinson went on a "fact-finding mission" to Mexico where she met with local authorities to discuss the case.
The letter to Biden was also accompanied by witness statements, Shanquella's autopsy and field reports conducted by local authorities.
Included among these witness statements is an account submitted to authorities in Mexico from an employee at the resort where Robinson stayed.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered her condolences to the family, but she said that there is "very little about what we can say" because of the pending FBI investigation.
"We know it can be done swiftly, because we just saw the Mexican kidnapping case, which is different, substantively, from Shanquella’s case,” Sue-Ann Robinson said. “But it shows that U.S. law enforcement can quickly get on the same page with Mexican law enforcement in order to resolve a criminal matter.”
"This absolutely is a case where justice delayed could lead to justice denied," she added.
But what should be noted here, the public praised how the substantial collaborative efforts of citizen journalism.
They praised how amateur bloggers played a important role in bringing attention to Robinson's death, to the point that the Mexican authorities have to face enhanced scrutiny, particularly because the municipal Police Department initially treated the death as a case of conventional tourist alcohol intoxication.
Shortly after her death was made public, social media played a key role in highlighting the story. Within a day of the graphic video of Robinson being assaulted was leaked to the internet, the names, addresses, phone numbers and photos of her so-called "friends" were also shared.