An influencer who was shot dead on a live stream shared a chilling message shortly before she was murdered.
Valeria Marquez, a rising beauty content creator with over 120,000 TikTok followers and more than 90,000 fans on Instagram, was killed inside her Blossom Beauty Lounge in Zapopan, Jalisco, on Tuesday, May 13, at approximately 6:30PM local time.
According to PEOPLE, Marquez was live on TikTok during the attack. Seated at a table and holding a stuffed toy, she can be heard saying: “They’re coming,” moments before a voice calls out: “Hey, Vale?”
She responds with “Yes,” then mutes the stream. Seconds later, the fatal shots ring out.
She was hit twice in the head and once in the chest, with the stream showing her clutching her ribcage before collapsing. A figure appeared briefly on camera, picking up her phone and ending the livestream.
The Jalisco state prosecutor’s office confirmed Marquez’s death and launched a femicide investigation, a protocol in Mexico reserved for gender-based killings.
Authorities described the shooter as a man disguised as a delivery driver, who allegedly entered the salon under the pretense of delivering an “expensive gift.”
Local publication El Heraldo identified the prime suspect as notorious cartel figure ‘Doble R’, of the Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel (CJNG), though prosecutors have stated: “To date, there are no specific allegations in the investigation file.”
“In response to media reports that directly point to the alleged perpetrators of the murder of a woman, which occurred yesterday in Zapopan, the State Attorney General's Office clarifies that, to date, there are no specific allegations in the investigation file,” authorities said on May 14.
Hours before the attack, Marquez went live and cryptically asked her followers: “They came in the morning to get me to give me a gift. Did they want to kill me?”
She explained that an employee named Erika had told her someone sent a valuable package requiring her presence to receive.
She had also previously claimed her ex-partner had threatened her life and warned that he should be held accountable if anything happened to her.
The suspected shooter, Doble R - allegedly romantically linked to Marquez for several months - reportedly became enraged over her receiving gifts from fans online, according to El Heraldo.
The Daily Mail reports that Doble R’s criminal history may date back to 2012 and includes alleged links to the murder of model Daisy Ferrer Arenas and influencer Juan Luis Lagunas, who was reportedly killed after mocking cartel leader ‘El Mencho’ in a viral video.
The killing of Valeria Marquez has reignited conversation about Mexico’s staggering femicide rates.
Per the Guardian, 10 women and girls are murdered every day in the country, often by partners or family members.
The UN ranks Mexico alongside Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia with the fourth-highest femicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, at 1.3 per 100,000 women.
Jalisco, where the crime occurred, ranks sixth among Mexico’s 32 states in homicides, with 906 recorded since President Claudia Sheinbaum assumed office in October 2024, according to TResearch.