Valeira Marquez (23 year old) was on a TikTok livestream on May 13 in her beauty salon, Blossom Beauty Lounge in Jalisco, Mexico when she was murdered. Valeria Marquez was especially known on social media, as she posted content about beauty and her life. Valeria Marquez had around 113,000 followers on TikTok and around 70,000 followers on Instagram. Valeria first became known in 2021 after winning a national beauty pageant (per BBC).
Valeria Marquez was on live on Tuesday, May 13 when a man entered her beauty salon and said “Hi, are you Valeria?” to which she responded with “yes”(per Al Jazeera). Soon after, Valeria muted her microphone and seemed to continue talking for a few seconds when she was shot to her death. After being shot, Valeria is seen to be clutching her chest and stomach before she collapsed in her seat. Shortly after, a woman is seen to come over and grab the phone and end the livestream.
As of now, authorities are still trying to figure out who is the one behind the murder of Valeria. The authorities believe that the crime that occurred might be a femicide (the intentional murder of women or girls because of their gender) and speculation has also risen that perhaps a cartel is involved, but it is still unclear what cartel It might be.
“I’m not surprised because back when it was in rancho times, like in the 1900’s, there was a lot of guns and violence and my dad told me about a girl who got shot in Mexico, so I’m not very surprised about what happened to her, ” said eighth grader Miley Ramirez. She also stated that her mom has heard of violence in Mexico because her mom used to live there.
Cristina Chiroy, an eighth grade student at AJMS, said, “I found out about Valeria Marquez when she was live and she appeared on my TikTok. She seemed interesting.” She also said that she was viewing the livestream when the tragedy occurred.
