CNN
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Prosecutors in Mexico obtained an arrest warrant for the friend of a North Carolina woman who was found dead last month while vacationing in Cabo San Lucas and on Thursday called the death the result of a “direct attack.”
Shankla Robinson, 25, was traveling with college friends from Winston-Salem State University when she was found dead at the rental property, said her father, Bernard Robinson.
Robinson, with six friends, arrived in Mexico on Oct. 28, according to a statement Thursday from Mexican prosecutors working on extradition proceedings with their country’s attorney general and foreign ministry.
Evidence shows the death was a “direct assault, not an accident,” and one of the victim’s girlfriends was involved, prosecutors said.
Mexican officials did not name the suspect, but confirmed that she is an American citizen who is suspected to be in the United States. No one has been charged in the case, and authorities have not released the names of Robinson’s friends.
CNN has reached out to the US State Department, the FBI and the US Department of Justice for comment.
The extradition process was in the middle of the suspect, said today (Wednesday) the Attorney General of Baja California Sur in Mexico, Daniel de la Rosa, to the local media.
“An arrest warrant has already been issued for the crime of femicide against the victim and against an alleged friend, responsible for these acts, her friend,” de la Rosa said on Wednesday.
The death did not result from an “altercation” but from “direct aggression that this person did,” De La Rosa said.
“We are already carrying out all the relevant procedures, both the Interpol case and the extradition request,” he said.
Robinson last spoke to her mother, Salamondra, on the phone on the morning of Oct. 28, her father told CNN last week. The next day, Shankla Robinson was found dead in her vacation home, authorities in the US and Mexico said.
The cause of death was “severe spinal cord injury and atlas dislocation,” which is instability or excessive movement in the uppermost cervical vertebrae, according to a copy of her death certificate obtained by CNN affiliate WBTV. She was found unconscious in the living room of the rental residence on Oct. 29, the document said.
The death certificate classified Robinson’s death as “accidental or violent,” and stated that the estimated time between injury and death was 15 minutes.
A video posted online appears to show a physical altercation inside a room between Robinson and another man. It is not clear when the video was taken or if it depicts the moment she suffered the fatal injury.
It is Robinson seen in the video being thrown to the floor and hit in the head, Bernard Robinson confirmed to CNN.
It is unclear what led to the altercation or how many people were in the room at the time. It is also unclear if anyone tried to intervene.
The FBI’s Charlotte field office has opened an investigation into the death of Shankla Robinson, it confirmed Friday.
Her family was waiting for more information from her friends and Mexican authorities, her father said a week ago.
“You took my only piece of jewelry from me,” he told CNN by phone. “You put a big hole in my heart. The only thing I can do is fight for her; I can’t let her die in vain.”
