[Vedderman]

This 33 year old woman was a taxi cab driver in Mexico. She was fairly well known in her area, as cab driving in that part of Mexico is often dangerous and relatively few women choose it as a profession. But she was quite popular, both with locals and with other cabbies, for being especially friendly and good-natured.

Just around 9pm on a Friday night, her brother received a call from her on his cell phone. She was upset and crying and told him that she had been in an accident and rear-ended a pickup truck. She implied in the call that the truck belonged to some bad hombres and that they were demanding $2000 cash for the damages. She also advised her brother that they were not going to let her go until the money was paid.

He went about trying to scrounge up the money as quickly as possible, even asking other cab drivers to pitch in and help out. During that time, she called him again, more upset than before, and told him that he had to hurry. And that he was not to involve police or other parties. She gave him a remote location where he was supposed to drop off the cash and hung up. No one answered her cell phone subsequent to that.

For good or for ill, the brother went straight to the cops for help, presumably because he couldn't raise the cash quickly enough. He and a police vehicle raced out to the remote location, but found only her cab sitting empty, with the doors open and lights on, in a field. They called out for her and frantically searched the area.

Unfortunately, they found her lying about 50 yards from the car. She had been beaten in the face a few times and a few shallow cuts were made along her right arm, obviously for the purpose of torture rather than death. She also had a strap wrapped tightly around her neck. She was apparently still barely alive when they found her, but had suffered enough damage from the strangulation that she died moments later, before paramedics could arrive. She had apparently only been strangled a few minutes before they arrived. Cause of death was listed as asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation.

Her killers were never caught, but the following week all of the cab drivers in the city held a memorial for her, suspending cab services for several hours while they lined up their cabs for several blocks as part of her funeral procession.

Update 2/2016:
Mexican murder cases posted here are rarely solved. I happened to be doing some homicide searches online this week and a geographic overlap with this murder led me to some articles that indicated that this case is officially solved!

Two men were apprehended and convicted with the abduction and murder (usually by strangulation) of eight different women in the vicinity. They were officially being referred to as serial killers.

While they were providing detailed confessions, they described this woman's murder in detail:

They called her for a cab ride (she was specifically targeted for being a female cabbie) and had her drive them out to a water treatment plant at night, ostensibly to work the late shift as laborers. When they arrived, however, they tied her wrists and held her at knifepoint and forced her to call her brother for ransom money, making up a story about rear-ending some cartel sicarios. They initially intended to let her live if the ransom was paid (or so they said), though one of them got bored and cut her arm and cheek with the knife while waiting for the money.

When they heard on her cab scanner that police were in the area looking for her, they panicked and decided not to wait for the ransom. So one held the knife on her while the other wrapped the strap of her own purse around her neck and started pulling. The knife guy eventually had to put the knife down and hold her still because she was fighting so hard while being strangled. He also commented that she had a thick neck. Once he properly restrained her, however, his partner finished the job and strangled her to death with her purse, then left her to be found by the cops a few minutes later. It allegedly took her a frighteningly and painfully long time to die.

[Oswald2001]

An innocent hard working woman.

What a shame.

RIP.

[murofhsirgo]

Originally Posted by Oswald2001 ↗

An innocent hard working woman.

What a shame.

RIP.

Yes, my thoughts exactly:(

[JasmineH1N1]

Sad story of a brave woman.

[sancatz22]

[Vedderman]

Originally Posted by JasmineH1N1 ↗

Sad story of a brave woman.

Sad, yes. But I'm not sure I'd call her especially 'brave'. I mean, it isn't like she was using her cab to deliver medical supplies to besieged schools in a war zone. She was just a normal person trying to make her way in the world. Sucks that she had to die horribly, especially since she'd apparently made efforts to work a legitimate life and stay clear of the drug trade, unlike many. But it doesn't make her a hero.

I'm not trying to demean her death or anything. But the papers aren't always even that accurate. For all we (or even her family) know, she was playing 'halcone' for one of the Cartels, like most cab drivers do. Her death could have been on account of that rather than just a random bad-luck encounter with the wrong guys.

Or maybe she was completely innocent and legit. Who knows. Brave just happens to be a word that I don't like throwing around lightly. Our culture today has an obsession with making 'brave heroes' out of victims, even if they were just normal folks getting by.

[JasmineH1N1]

I see. I just thought being in a high risk area, driving a cab would merit that comment.

[Vedderman]

Originally Posted by JasmineH1N1 ↗

I see. I just thought being in a high risk area, driving a cab would merit that comment.

That's fair. And I'm sure plenty of folks would agree with you. Just pointing out that some other folks might have a higher standard for the application of that word.

[K53]

Hard work brings death

Sad

[Ramsay Bolton]

Women drivers...