Valeria Márquez, a 23-year-old beauty influencer with nearly 200,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, was shot and killed Tuesday during a live TikTok broadcast from her salon in Zapopan, Mexico, authorities said.
Moments before the shooting, Márquez, known for her makeup and beauty videos, unwrapped a stuffed animal delivered to her business, exclaiming, “He’s a little piglet!” to her viewers.
She was heard saying, “They’re coming,” before a voice in the background asked: “Hey, Vale?” according to The Guardian. The livestream abruptly ended, but not before viewers witnessed the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
The Jalisco state prosecutor’s office is investigating Márquez’s slaying as a suspected femicide, the gender-based killing of a woman.
The prosecutor’s office did not identify a suspect in Márquez’s death.
The slaying of Márquez has drawn attention to the high levels of violence against women in Mexico. Just days earlier, a mayoral candidate in Veracruz state was also fatally shot during a livestream.
While not all homicides involving women are classified as femicides, many are. Amnesty International reported that in 2020, a quarter of female killings in Mexico were investigated as femicides.
