The mom and sister of Shanquella Robinson, the 25-year-old lady who died whereas vacationing in Mexico final month, advised ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in an unique interview that they knew she didn’t die of alcohol poisoning.
The FBI has opened a probe into Robinson’s demise, which can be being investigated by the Attorney General’s Office of Baja California Sur as a femicide, a kind of gender-based violence.
Robinson, of Charlotte, North Carolina, went to the resort metropolis of San Jose del Cabo on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula with six buddies on Oct. 28.
Robinson’s mom, Sallamondra, mentioned she spoke along with her daughter on a Friday night time earlier than she was preparing for dinner, not realizing it can be their final dialog.
“She said, well, mother, I’m getting ready to eat,” Sallamondra Robinson advised “GMA” in an interview airing Friday. “I said, well OK. Enjoy yourself. Have a good time. And I love you and I will talk to you tomorrow.”
The mom mentioned she bought a frantic phone name from her daughter’s buddies the following day, saying she had died from alcohol poisoning.
Shanquella Robinson in striped shirt, third from the suitable.
Courtesy Quilla Long
“Saturday evening, I got a call saying that Shanquella wasn’t feeling well,” Sallamondra Robinson mentioned.
However, the Mexican Secretariat of Health’s post-mortem report and demise certificates for Shanquella Robinson, obtained by ABC News, lists her trigger of demise as “severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation,” with no point out of alcohol. The doc additionally states that the approximate time between harm and demise was quarter-hour, whereas a field asking whether or not the demise was “accidental or violent” was ticked “yes.”
According to the doc, which was dated Nov. 4, Robinson was discovered unconscious in the lounge of a residence on Padre Kino Avenue in San Jose del Cabo on the afternoon of Oct. 29.
Robinson’s mom advised “GMA” that her daughter’s buddies got here to her home earlier than the post-mortem report got here out. She mentioned every buddy got here again and advised her one thing completely different, so she by no means believed their tales.
In latest days, a video — not verified by ABC News — has surfaced on-line purportedly exhibiting a lady attacking Shanquella Robinson. In the video, somebody may be heard asking if Shanquella Robinson “could at least fight back.” It’s unclear when and the place the video was taken.
“I did not believe them because actually before they even got back to Charlotte… I don’t know when they arrived, but someone had already called us and said that someone was fighting her over there,” Sallamondra Robinson mentioned. “By the time that we questioned each one of them, and each one of them gave us a different statement.”
“The people that she was with, I knew one of them very well, and I thought that he was her friend and he would look out for her,” she added. “But, unfortunately, that’s not what it was.”
Quilla Long, Shanquella Robinson’s older sister, mentioned she was in “disbelief” and “fell to her knees” when she heard the news of her sister.
Shanquella Robinson, proper, along with her mother at left.
Courtesy Quilla Long
“The video is sickening,” Long advised “GMA.”
Bernard Robinson, Shanquella’s father, mentioned he needs he may converse to his daughter and hug her one final time.
The U.S. State Department confirmed in an e mail to ABC News that the demise of an American citizen occurred in Mexico and that when a U.S. citizen dies overseas, the division offers all acceptable consular help to the household and refers to Mexican authorities on something concerning the investigation. Meanwhile, the State Attorney General’s Office of Baja California Sur mentioned its investigation into Robinson’s demise is ongoing.
Sallamondra Robinson mentioned she will not cease till they get solutions and that she remembers her daughter as an clever, bold lady with a loving coronary heart.
“Shanquella was a wonderful daughter. You know, loving daughter. And we really gonna miss her,” she mentioned. “Anything positive, that’s exactly who she was.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin, Jessica Mendoza, Anne Laurent, Eric Jones and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.