A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Robinson, 25, and her six friends jetted off to San José del Cabo, Mexico on October 28. It was only a day later that she passed away.
And now it seems FBI officials will have to filter through conflicting accounts as they investigate the death of Shanquella Robinson in Mexico. Contrarily, a Mexican criminal defense lawyer argues that autopsy reports should be taken more seriously than police report.
According to the police report, when first responders arrived at the Cabo, Mexico, vacation home where Shanquella Robinson had been staying with a group of individuals last month, she was conscious.
Previous reports cited information from Robinson’s death certificate that stated she passed away within 15 minutes of being hurt; this new report contradicts that information. Instead, one excerpt from the police report indicates that a doctor from a nearby hospital stayed at the residence with Robinson and the others for about three hours before she was pronounced dead.
Robinson’s death in a foreign country added layers of complication to the mystery and outrage, which have persisted for weeks, read on for more details.
Police Report And Autopsy Findings Contradict One Another In Shanquella Robinson’s Death Case
Several critical details on the death certificate for Shanquella Robinson and the internal police records from Cabo authorities disagree or dispute with one another.
Shanquella Robinson’s mother, Sallamondra, informed the media that her daughter’s friends from the vacation initially told her that she had alcohol poisoning.
The Secretariat of Health issued Robinson’s death certificate on November 4, which was relied upon heavily for several weeks of news coverage. The autopsy that preceded the issuing of Robinson’s death certificate reportedly revealed that she died from severe injuries to her spine and neck.
Family members said Robinson’s body bore the telltale marks of having been beaten, and that her injuries were consistent with those seen in a video that appeared soon after her death and in which a man can be seen assaulting a naked woman who is later identified by her family as Robinson.
A police narrative, which relies primarily on a doctor from the American Medical Center in Cabo, fails to identify any physical injuries, but the newly disclosed details make it unclear how Robinson could have died so quickly after being injured.
According to the report, Robinson was still breathing when paramedics arrived, and a doctor from a nearby hospital stayed with her and the other occupants of the home for over three hours before declaring her dead.
Early this week, the Charlotte Observer got details from a police report that had not yet been made public. Gerardo Zuiga, a MetropoliMx investigative reporter based in Los Cabos, shared the details with the Observer, and they were first reported by MetropoliMx on Monday.
Shanquella Robinson’s Cause Of Death
The official cause of death is written on the death certificate as “severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation.” In the box that asks if the death was an accident or was caused by violence, the form just says “yes.” (per Charlotte Observer)
The police report doesn’t say what killed the person, but it does say that 911 was called because the person “died (cardiopulmonary arrest).”
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There is no clear evidence in either record that Robinson was drunk or had alcohol poisoning. There is no place on the death certificate to write down information about alcohol or any other drugs. In the police report, the doctor says that Robinson’s “vital signs were stable, but he was dehydrated, unable to speak, and seemed to be drunk.”