Shanquella Robinson died in Mexico a month ago. Her family still seeks answers

When Shanquella Robinson arrived in Mexico last month to vacation with six people she had known since college, she called her mother and said she was heading out to eat tacos. It was the last time the 25-year-old from Charlotte would ever speak to her parents.

A day later, Robinson was dead, and videos began circulating online that appeared to show her naked and being beaten by a member of the group she was travelling with, while others in the villa recorded the scene. The Washington Post is not linking to the videos, because of their graphic nature.

One month on from Robinson’s death – and after an official autopsy report revealed that she suffered a broken neck and a severe spinal-cord injury – Mexican authorities are seeking the arrest of an American woman who was among the vacationers. Now, Robinson’s devastated family wants two things: answers and accountability.

“Even though a month has passed, I don’t know anything about how my daughter died,” Robinson’s mother, Salamondra Robinson, told The Post in an interview.

“I just want justice for my daughter,” said her father, Bernard Robinson.

The family’s nightmare began on Oct. 29, a day after Salamondra last spoke to her daughter.

“Her friends called me,” she said. “They said Shanquella has alcohol poisoning and that a doctor was on the way to the villa.”

Shanquella and the travelling party were staying at Villa Linda 32 in Puerto Los Cabos. The listing is no longer available on CaboVillas.com.

Now, when Salamondra thinks about that moment, she wonders how the people with Shanquella, none of whom was a doctor, diagnosed her with “alcohol poisoning.”

At the time of the call, Salamondra said, she repeatedly told Shanquella’s travel mates, all of whom Shanquella had met at Winston-Salem State University, to take her to a doctor, but they told her the villa’s manager was coming over with a medic.

“I’m not sure if anyone ever arrived, because I was never allowed to talk to them,” Salamondra said. “I asked them to let me speak to the doctor when they arrived, but they told me that the doctor is busy with Shanquella.”

Then the group went silent. When they called Salamondra back, it was to tell her that her daughter had died.

Before her death, Shanquella ran two businesses: Exquisite Babies, where she braided children’s hair, and the Exquisite Boutique, which sold clothes.

“She had a kind heart. She loved life and loved people,” her mother said. Tributes from friends flooded Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

Social media has amplified Shanquella’s story, with thousands of people using the hashtags #SayHerName and #JusticeForQuella to raise awareness of the case.

Shanquella’s funeral was held in Charlotte on Nov. 19. Her casket was yellow and pink, her two favorite colours. Family members wore bright clothing. There were fuchsia suits and dresses, rose-coloured shirts and floral-themed blazers.

As mourners lined up to write messages on her coffin, doves were released, and 23-year-old Kdajah Vinson prepared to leave a final tribute to Shanquella, a friend so close she considered her a big sister.

“Muffin love u always,” Vinson wrote, using a nickname the pair, who first met in kindergarten, used for each other. Vinson did not know the people Shanquella went to college with and was not part of the vacation.

Bernard Robinson said all he could do was cry when he received the news of Shanquella’s death. “I’ve been a wreck ever since,” he said.

Bernard said he had suspicions from the beginning. “I wasn’t settled with the information they were providing us.”

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He said Shanquella was “very respectful” and not one to get into a fight. “My girl didn’t like drama,” he said.

The Monday after Shanquella died, Bernard called the management of Villa Linda in San José del Cabo, where police found her body, according to her autopsy report. It took days for him to find someone who spoke English and who could help him transport Shanquella’s body back home.

Bernard eventually connected with a woman from the villa’s management team. “She is an angel. She’s the one who first told us the truth,” he said. “She said: ‘Mr. Robinson, your daughter didn’t die of alcohol poisoning. She died of a broken neck.'”

Bernard was scouting a gravesite for Shanquella when he was first made aware of the viral video’s existence. “It hurt me to the heart,” Bernard said, describing the pain of watching his daughter’s alleged final moments.

Since their return to the United States, some of those who accompanied Shanquella to Mexico have visited the Robinson family home. “These people looked me in the face and told me there was no fight in Cabo,” Salamondra Robinson said. They maintained that Shanquella died of alcohol poisoning, she said.

When the autopsy report from Nov. 4 was released to the family, some of the people from the group again at Salamondra’s home. She said she turned to them and asked, “What did you all do to my child?”

A male visitor, one of three Shanquella vacationed with, broke into a sweat and left immediately, she said. Since then, the group has not returned. “They’re on the run,” Salamondra said.

Shanquella’s parents don’t have any details of the events that led to her death; the initial police report contains only what the police were told by the six people accompanying Shanquella, and those people have avoided speaking to reporters.

On Nov. 24, the attorney general’s office of Baja California Sur in Mexico said early investigations of Shanquella’s death indicate the incident was “a direct attack, not an accident.”

Deputy Attorney General Antonio López Rodríguez said police believe Robinson’s death was the result of one of her travel companions injuring her during the vacation.

Mexican officials confirmed there is an arrest warrant for an American woman allegedly involved in the case but did not name her in a Facebook post. Other members of the group have not been publicly named by officials.

López Rodríguez said that as soon as the judge granted the warrant, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Mexico and the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs will start the extradition process against the suspect.

In the United States, the FBI has been investigating the case since Oct. 29. “We can’t give a timeline for ongoing cases, but this case is complicated because there are officials from another country involved,” said FBI public affairs specialist Shelley Lynch.

The State Department says it is supporting and monitoring the investigation of Shanquella’s death and added that when a U.S. citizen dies in a foreign country, local authorities are responsible for determining the cause of death.

“There’s a whole lot of unanswered questions in my mind about her death,” Bernard Robinson, who has hired a lawyer in his quest for the truth, said through tears. “I just want justice for my daughter. She was my only child.”