Terrifying moment beauty influencer is fatally shot during TikTok livestream in salon
Beauty influencer Valeria Márquez was fatally shot during a TikTok livestream at a salon in Mexico, with police investigating her death as femicide and fans reacting in shock online
A social media influencer was murdered during a TikTok live broadcast, with police investigating the incident as a femicide.
Valeria Márquez, 23, was fatally shot at a beauty salon in Zapopan, Mexico, on Tuesday. Despite there being no arrests so far, officers suspect her death is a femicide - she was shot in the chest and head and died instantly.
During the livestream, it appeared Márquez was talking to a delivery man off-screen. “He’s a little piglet!” the beauty influencer exclaimed as she returned to her viewers and unwrapped the stuffed animal, smiling as she tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder.
Moments later she was dead, slumped over in her chair with blood pooling on the desk in front of her, even as the livestream continued. The footage ended only when another person picked up her phone, their face momentarily showing to viewers.
Earlier in the broadcast, Márquez, who had a following of almost 200,000 on Instagram and TikTok, mentioned receiving an "expensive gift" at the salon while she was out, which left her uneasy and she decided not to wait for the sender to return.
Luis Armando Córdova Díaz, a former congressman with the Mexican PRI party, was also shot dead in a café nearby merely hours after Márquez’s murder. It remains unclear whether the authorities in Jalisco - a region encompassing a larger area - are specifically considering her death as a femicide, although such crimes are distressingly frequent in Mexico.
Mexico sits alongside Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia among Latin American and Caribbean nations with the fourth-highest rates of femicide, based on latest figures. Within Mexico itself, the central state of Jalisco ranks sixth for homicides among all 32 states including Mexico City.
“In 2022, around 4,000 women were killed in Mexico, which amounts to 12% of all homicides that year,” Human Rights Watch Americas Director Juanita Goebertus told CNN. “And the rate of cases that lead to a verdict is around 67%.”
The main challenge, Goebertus said, is increasing authorities’ capacity to investigate and protect witnesses and victims.
Followers are swamping her Instagram with comments paying homage and expressing their disbelief over the loss.
One devastated follower wrote: "This case really touched my heart... The wickedness that exists in the hearts of people, envy, lack of self identity among other things, is unbelievable."
In a similar sentiment, another shared: "This is awful. Her videos on social media were very inspiring."
Despite legislative efforts to tackle gender-based violence in Mexico, the nation remains plagued by one of the highest femicide rates globally.
Sociologist Paulina García-Del Moral from Canada's University of Guelph links the brutal violence to deep-seated 'machismo' culture, persistent sexism, and failure of institutions to own up to their role in perpetuating gender-based violence.
Dr García-Del Moral highlighted the issue stating: "There's still a sense of entitlement among a lot of men in Mexico - and elsewhere in Latin America and the world - they feel entitled to women's bodies. It's proven to be very resilient and resistant to change."