Deceased Mexican teenager Debanhi Escobar. Photo: Instagram

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

The body of Debanhi Escobar, a teenage girl from the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León who went missing on April 8 after having been left on the side of the road by a taxi driver late at night, was found on Thursday, April 21, inside a cistern tank at a cheap hotel in the industrial city of Monterrey, just meters from where she had last been seen.

The disappearance of the 18-year-old made headlines around the globe after an eerie  photograph taken by the taxi driver showed her standing alone in the dark by the side of the highway after she had fought with him. The taxi driver later admitted to police that he had made unsolicited sexual advances toward her, leading to the altercation.

Her body was discovered by authorities after an employee of the Nueva Motel Castilla reported a foul odor coming from the cistern Thursday, and on Friday, April 22, her father, Mario Escobar, confirmed that the remains were hers.

Because the girl’s disappearance had gained major media attention, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said Friday that, if the Nuevo León Prosecutor’s Office agrees, the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) would handle the investigation of Escobar’s murder.

The incidence of femicides in Mexico continues to spiral, with an average of two women killed each day because of their gender, according to government statistics.