Influencer Valeria Márquez, who was shot dead in Mexico during a TikTok livestream, may have reportedly been murdered by a hitman, per prosecutors.
Denis Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office, told AP News that the 23-year-old influencer’s death was still under investigation.
Before Márquez was murdered, Rodríguez claimed that a man posing as a delivery driver and another man on a motorcycle arrived at the salon located in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara. The men were looking to deliver a gift to Márquez in person — which prompted her to worry in the livestream.
“Maybe they were going to kill me,” Márquez said in the video, per the outlet. “Were they going to come and take me away, or what? I’m worried.”
When the men returned, they searched for Márquez again. Rodríguez told the outlet that the men asking for Márquez led prosecutors to believe that they were hired assassins.
“The aggressor arrived asking if the victim 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.”
AP reported that Márquez was handed a stuffed animal and a bag of Starbucks coffee while she was on the livestream and collapsed on camera after being shot. (Márquez’s TikTok appeared to be taken down following her death, but a video of the incident circulated online and was confirmed by the prosecutor’s office.)
Per the outlet, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her administration is working with local investigators to locate the killer, and extended her condolences to Márquez’s family.
News broke of Márquez’s death earlier this month, with users taking to her Instagram — which has amassed more than 475,000 followers — to share their condolences.
“I had the opportunity to meet her in person, a person with a very beautiful energy,” one user wrote via Instagram, translated to English. “[I] am still in shock, [I] can’t believe I will never see her [livestream] again.”
Rodríguez previously told The New York Times that it was likely the men did not know Márquez.
“They didn’t have a personal relationship,” he explained to the outlet. “He was simply her executioner.”
The prosecutor’s office told The New York Times that the crime was being investigated as a potential “femicide,” meaning when a woman is presumed to be killed due to her gender.
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