A woman has died three days after she was attacked and set on fire in a park near her home in central Mexico.
Luz Raquel Padilla, 35, was a part of "Yo Cuido México" (I care for Mexico), an organization of families with experience in caring for people with disabilities.
Padilla, who was the mother of an autistic child, was doused in alcohol and set alight by three men and a woman in a park in Zapopan.
Her murder has caused outrage in the country both for its barbarity and the fact that she had reported threats to the authorities months before the attack.
According to the BBC, Padilla's organization said she had received multiple threats from a neighbor who had opposed the noise her autistic son made.
On May 17, she posted photos on Twitter that displayed graffiti sprayed onto the walls of her building's staircase which read: "I'm going to burn you alive".
In the caption she wrote: "How much longer will I have to live in fear, dreading that something will happen to me and my family, while my aggressor continues to roam the city with the possibility of doing more harm."
As reported by Mexico News Daily, it said that Padilla asked to join a protection program "due to the constant threats and violence she received because of the behavior of her son with autism".
However, authorities reportedly denied her request as they said that her threats didn’t warrant protection, per Yo Cuido México. The organization described Padilla’s death as "a femicide that the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office could have avoided".
Mexico has seen a surge in the number of femicides in recent years, registering a record of 1,004 cases last year.
Prosecutor Luis Joaquín Méndez revealed that the neighbor had come to the police station but that there was currently no evidence to place him at the scene of the crime.
Méndez also revealed that witnesses in the area said they had not identified the neighbor as being among the four people that attacked her.
In addition to this, local media channels reported that Padilla had been the victim of domestic violence from a former partner. Her case is being investigated as possible femicide, and the prosecutor insisted that investigators would follow all potential leads.
Police officers said Padilla's son had been left in the custody of his grandmother and an aunt. The Jalisco government also said they will support her family during this tragic time.
