Paola Andrea Bañuelos Flores, 23, had been lacking for 4 days till her physique was discovered on Thursday morning in a discipline outdoors Mexicali, Baja California, greater than 20 kilometers away from the place the place she acquired right into a DiDi automobile, early on Monday morning, July 8. Regardless of the efforts of her household and mates, who shortly mobilized to seek for her, the State Prosecutor’s Workplace confirmed this Friday that Bañuelos Flores was strangled and brought to the purpose the place the invention was confirmed on Thursday. The alleged attacker, the driving force of the automobile she was final seen entering into, is a 24-year-old man, initially from the State of Sonora, who remained a fugitive and who has turned himself in to the authorities of that entity, on Thursday afternoon in Ciudad Obregón. Moments earlier than getting into the Prosecutor’s Workplace, the younger man assured in entrance of an area reporter’s digicam that he had left Mexicali out of concern.
The place the place Paola Andrea Bañuelos Flores, a psychology scholar on the Autonomous College of Baja California (UABC), was discovered is a series of semi-arid and intensive lands on the outskirts of town of Mexicali. Lengthy stretches of land the place few folks cross by, simply over 25 kilometers from the bar La Consentida, the place the younger girl had spent a part of final Sunday evening and early Monday morning, within the firm of mates and one in all her cousins.
In the course of the early hours of Thursday, and moments earlier than the identical search crew that had been shaped nearly instantly after her disappearance discovered the physique, Bañuelos’ mom requested for assist and mentioned she was assured that her daughter can be discovered: “We’re going round these locations hoping that she is just not right here. That my daughter is wandering the streets, misplaced. This taxi driver, if he has nothing to do with it, let him seem, let him inform us what occurred,” she instructed native reporters who accompanied the household on the excursions. Just some minutes later, the Baja California Prosecutor, María Elena Andrade, gave a press convention through which she confirmed the invention of Paola’s lifeless physique.
The prosecutor then made two requests: the primary, to society and the media, which, benefiting from the truth that the identification of the alleged perpetrator had been displayed alongside along with his private info and that of his household on social networks, would assist to seek out his whereabouts; and the second, which was addressed to the households: “Positively, I believe that this alerts us dad and mom and as a group that younger women mustn’t journey alone, for any purpose and even when they’re flatbed automobiles,” she mentioned.
Search brigade for Paola Andrea Bañuelos east of Mexicali, July 11.CUARTOSCURO
The governor of the State, Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda, went into element about how she would reinforce work with taxi firms on the platforms to offer larger safety to those that use them: “I’ve instructed the Secretariat of Citizen Safety and the Institute of Sustainable Mobility of Baja California to instantly implement a scheme for the exhaustive analysis and supervision of the profiles of drivers of digital transportation platforms. Though these platforms are answerable for the number of their workers, as a authorities we is not going to be detached to this tragedy and we are going to demand strict controls to make sure the peace of thoughts of all of the individuals who use these providers,” she posted on her X account.
The hours earlier than the disappearance
On Sunday evening, Paola Andrea had left her home alone to fulfill some mates and her cousins for lunch after which dinner on the La Consentida bar — positioned about 5 kilometers from the middle of Mexicali. In line with the testimonies of her relations, she left the institution shortly after 2:00 a.m. on Monday. A relative of Paola picked her and one in all her cousins up, however they didn’t take her house, however as an alternative left her at some extent the place she requested a automobile by way of the DiDi software, which some witnesses noticed her get into and confirmed that it was a black automobile. From then on, round 2:20 a.m., her cousin stopped having contact together with her they usually contacted her dad and mom to start the search.
It was one in all Paola’s brothers who regarded for the situation of his sister’s cellular phone and with that they have been capable of finding the cellular, which they discovered within the palms of a homeless particular person, and who assured that he had discovered the gadget just a few blocks away from the purpose the place the younger girl acquired into the automobile. The native authorities printed the picture of the driving force, 24 years outdated, initially from Sonora, and within the following hours the household and mates of the lady organized search teams and pressured the authorities to hold out the mandatory investigations.
The black automobile registered on the DiDi automobile app that Paola drove that morning was discovered due to the automobile’s GPS, in a spot the place the authorities didn’t give particulars. On Thursday afternoon, and within the face of a large publicity of his picture, his private knowledge and that of his household, the driving force of the automobile turned himself in to the Lawyer Common’s Workplace of his house state, Sonora, in Ciudad Obregón. Upon arriving, accompanied by one in all his aunts, he instructed an area reporter: “I got here out of concern, information was unfold they usually have not even let me testify,” he mentioned.
The person, who already had an arrest warrant for home violence, mentioned on digicam that he didn’t know what he was being accused of and that he was afraid of all of the threats he and his household started to obtain. In line with his aunt, Lizete Gutiérrez, the younger man spoke first along with his father, and instructed them each that he had certainly picked up Paola and that he had completed the journey.
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