A Mexican social media influencer was shot dead while livestreaming at a beauty salon in a region renowned for cartel violence, with prosecutors saying she was the victim of a targeted attack by a hitman.
Valeria Márquez, 23, a model and beauty influencer with more than 113,000 followers on TikTok, collapsed on camera after being shot in the head and chest by a masked gunman who fled the scene on a motorbike with an accomplice, prosecutors said.
The brazen murder is being investigated as femicide, a gender-based crime under Mexican law, with Mexican President Claudia extending her condolences to Márquez’s family and saying that Mexico’s security cabinet is working to solve the murder with the prosecutor’s office.
Hours before the grisly killing, Márquez had expressed concern that two men had arrived at the salon in the state of Jalisco near Guadalajara in western Mexico, claiming to have a “very expensive” gift that needed to be delivered to her in person but she wasn’t there at the time, according to a witness.
“Maybe they were going to kill me,” Márquez said in her video minutes before she was killed while livestreaming from the salon. “Were they going to come and take me away, or what? I’m worried.”
When the men returned, they asked if it was Márquez who was now in the salon.
She was heard saying, “They’re coming,” before a voice in the background asked, “Hey, Vale?”
“Yes,” Marquez replied, just before muting the sound on the livestream.
Moments later, she was shot to death. A person appeared to pick up her phone, with their face briefly showing on the livestream before the video ended.
Denis Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office said investigators believe that the men were hired assassins.
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“The aggressor arrived asking if the victim (Márquez) was there. So it appears he didn’t know her,” Rodríguez said. “With that, you can deduce — without jumping to conclusions — that this was a person who was paid. It was obviously someone who came with a purpose.”
Márquez was handed a stuffed animal and a bag of Starbucks coffee while she was on the livestream before the fatal shots rang out.
The region is firmly controlled by one of the most powerful cartels in Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and murders by hired guns on motorcycles, often known as “sicarios,” have become a common occurrence.
Rodríguez said that authorities were also investigating if the death was connected to the murder of a former congressman just hours earlier in the same area of Guadalajara, also carried out by two men on a motorcycle.
The killing has sent shockwaves through a country that faces high levels of violence against women.
Sheinbaum said on Thursday that an investigation is under way to first find those responsible and the motive behind this situation.
“We are working to find those responsible and determine the motive behind this situation. Obviously, we express our solidarity with the family during this unfortunate situation. Our solidarity goes out to her family,” she said.
Friends and relatives held a funeral for the slain influencer on Thursday.
Jalisco is ranked sixth out of Mexico’s 32 states, including Mexico City, for homicides, with 909 recorded there since the beginning of Sheinbaum’s term in October 2024, according to data consultancy TResearch.
Fox News’ Alexis McAdams, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
