Carolina Flores Gomez, a one-time beauty queen, was fatally shot in the head in her Mexico City apartment last week, as authorities have reportedly focused their investigation on her mother-in-law.
Gomez, 27, was found dead in her luxury home in the Polanco neighborhood last Thursday, according to the Mexican outlet Reporte Indigo.
The Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office is handling the case as an intentional homicide, the outlet reported.
Gomez, who in 2017 was crowned Miss Teen Universe in Baja California, is believed to have been fatally shot on April 15, police told the outlet.
At the time of the shooting, police told the outlet that they believe Gomez had been at home with her spouse Alejandro Gomez and his mother, Erika Maria.
No arrests have been made in connection with Gomez’s death as of Wednesday afternoon.
Carolina Flores Gomez, a one-time beauty queen, was fatally shot in the head in her Mexico City apartment last week, as authorities are reportedly investigating her mother-in-law
Gomez in 2017 was crowned Miss Teen Universe in Baja California
Police told the outlet that the fatal shooting was not reported until April 16, prompting speculation on why it took so long to notify authorities, according to Reporte Indigo.
Officials said that there were no reports of gunshots or foul play within the vicinity of the apartment complex, according to the outlet.
Investigators are collecting items from the scene to forensically test, amid the ongoing probe into the untimely death.
Gomez had recently celebrated her birthday, as she was born April 4, 1999 in Ensenada, Puntual reported.
Baja California governor Marina del Pilar Avila told reporters that the investigation into Gomez’s death was a foremost priority.
‘No crime against a woman should go unpunished,’ Avila told a pool of reporters, according to the outlet. ‘Our thoughts are with her family during this devastating time.’
State prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez said that there has been close communication between officials to prioritize the probe, according to Puntual.
The tragic death of the beauty queen comes at a time of social unrest in Mexico over what advocates call an epidemic of violence against women, and lack of justice toward their assailants.
Gomez was found dead in her luxury home in the Polanco neighborhood this past Thursday
Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office is handling the case as an intentional homicide
Civil organizations are pushing prosecutors to reclassify the case as a femicide, which the United Nations agency UN Women defines as ‘an intentional killing with a gender-related motivation,’ Puntual reported.
The UN agency said last November that femicide ‘is different from homicide, where the motivation may not be gender-related.’
It continued, ‘Femicide is driven by discrimination against women and girls, unequal power relations, gender stereotypes or harmful social norms.
‘It is the most extreme and brutal manifestation of violence against women and girls which occurs on a continuum of multiple and related forms of violence, at home, in workplaces, schools or public and online spaces.’
Among the forms it takes, according to the agency, include ‘intimate partner violence, sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence, harmful practices and trafficking.’
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