Mexican authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of 23-year-old beauty influencer Valeria Marquez, who was killed while livestreaming on TikTok earlier this week. The case is being treated as a potential femicide, President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed Thursday.
The attack, which took place on Tuesday at a beauty salon in Zapopan, Jalisco, has sparked widespread outrage in a country where violence against women remains alarmingly high. During her daily press briefing, President Sheinbaum expressed condolences to Marquez’s family and stressed that the government’s top security officials are actively involved in the investigation.
“An investigation is ongoing to identify those responsible and to understand the motive behind this tragedy,” Sheinbaum stated. “We stand in solidarity with her loved ones.”
According to the Jalisco state prosecutor, Marquez was shot by a man who entered the salon and opened fire. No suspects have been identified or arrested so far, the office said in a statement issued Wednesday night.
Marquez was well-known on the internet, having almost 200,000 Instagram and TikTok followers. In the moments before the shooting, she appeared visibly uneasy on her livestream, mentioning that someone had previously arrived at the salon with an “expensive gift” for her when she wasn’t there. She mentioned that she didn’t plan on waiting for the individual to come back.
Footage from the livestream captured her holding a stuffed toy before she abruptly muted the audio. A voice was heard calling her name, to which she replied, “Yes,” moments before the screen went dark. A figure briefly appeared, seemingly picking up her phone, before the stream ended.
According to local media site El Financiero, paramedics subsequently verified that Marquez had died from gunshot wounds to her head and chest.
Femicide, a term used in Mexico to classify gender-based killings of women, is defined by law to include crimes involving intimate partners, sexual violence, or public exposure of the victim’s body.
Mexico still has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in Latin America. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico, alongside Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia, had the fourth-highest femicide rate in the region in 2023, with 1.3 killings per 100,000 women.
Jalisco state, where the murder occurred, currently ranks sixth in the country for homicide cases, with over 900 killings reported since President Sheinbaum assumed office in October 2024, based on data from research consultancy TResearch.
President Sheinbaum confirmed that Mexico’s national security cabinet, composed of senior government officials, is working closely with prosecutors to bring justice in Marquez’s case.