MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Debanhi Escobar

Speaker 1 It's time for Black Friday, Dell Technology's biggest sale of the year. Enjoy huge savings on select PCs like the Dell 16 Plus, featuring Intel Core ultra-processors.

Speaker 1 And with built-in advanced features, it's the PC that helps you do more faster. Plus, earn Dell rewards and enjoy many other benefits like free shipping, price match guarantee, and expert support.

Speaker 1 They also have huge deals on accessories that pair perfectly with your Dell PC and make perfect gifts for everyone on your list. Shop now at dell.com slash deals.

Speaker 2 Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One Bank guy.

Speaker 2 It's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too.
Oh, really? Thanks, Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply.

Speaker 2 See capital1.com/slash bank, capital One NA member FDIC.

Speaker 2 Life is full of plot twists, but like any good mystery, having the right people to help makes a difference.

Speaker 2 Think of a State Farm agent like your sidekick, there to help you in your search for coverage. And with so many options, it's nice knowing you have help finding what fits for you.

Speaker 2 Go online at statefarm.com or use the award-winning app to get help from one of their local agents. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

Speaker 2 And I'm Brett. The story I have for you today is one that people have been begging us to cover for a while now.

Speaker 2 This story took the internet by storm back in 2022. Your social media feed was especially flooded if you lived in Mexico.

Speaker 2 And I think the reason that this case took off so much in particular was because it kind of started on social media with this very eerie picture. This is the story of Debany Escobar.

Speaker 2 When Mario Escobar wakes up on April 9th, 2022, his phone shows a bunch of missed calls, some coming in as early as like four o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2 And it's not even clear if he knows who these calls are from. But when Mario calls them back at around 8:30 that morning, what he hears, he knows is going to change his entire day.

Speaker 2 In reality, it's going to change his entire life. On the other end of the phone is one of his daughter's friends.

Speaker 2 And from what I can gather, she basically tells him that his 18-year-old daughter, Debani, is missing. And I'm sure he thinks, like, wait, what do you mean missing? Like, he has that moment.

Speaker 2 How do you know she's missing? But it's true. And the story she tells him from the night before sends chills down his spine.

Speaker 2 Apparently, Debani had gone out with this friend that's calling and another girl. This was the night before.

Speaker 2 But Debani had gotten really drunk, like to the point that they knew she shouldn't be out anymore. So they say that they called for a car to come get her and take her home.

Speaker 2 But not long after she got into the car, they started getting communications from the driver, stuff saying that she was pretty messed up, she wouldn't give her address.

Speaker 2 They kind of went back and forth with him and eventually gave him her address.

Speaker 2 But long story short, she says that Debane had gotten out of the car at some point, or at least this is what the driver's telling her. and she wouldn't get back in.

Speaker 2 And the driver had even taken a picture of her on the side of the road to prove it to them but ultimately he just left her there and they haven't been able to get a hold of her since now when this friend forwards mario the picture it is haunting i mean his baby girl is standing on the side of a dark road skirt blowing in the wind just there one minute and then gone the next So already four hours behind, he knows that he needs to move fast.

Speaker 2 And he and his wife get the photo posted on social media and then they get in touch with police because in their minds, they're like, we got to act quick.

Speaker 2 Because you see, according to Cody Copeland, who's writing for Courthouse News, this particular stretch of road in the Nuevo León municipality was so dangerous that it was nicknamed the highway of death.

Speaker 2 Oh my God. Another source even calls it the highway of terror, mostly having to do with the number of kidnappings and disappearances around this highway.

Speaker 2 Add in the fact that women were disappearing on the regular in this area around this time, like 18 women and girls in the first quarter alone. What?

Speaker 2 Yeah, Mario can't believe that his his daughter has now been added to that list.

Speaker 2 So authorities push out a search report to the public, which is basically just like a breakdown of what Debani looks like, what she's wearing, her last known location.

Speaker 2 And from what I can gather, the two girls who were with her that night before do give a statement early on to police and they kind of give more detail about what happened.

Speaker 2 And the two friends say that there was some kind of altercation at the party they were at. Now, what exactly that altercation is is a little unclear.

Speaker 2 Like some of the reporting just says that there's some kind of fight between the girls.

Speaker 2 But either way, they basically say that they left Debanie at the party that they were all at, but they knew that she was pretty messed up and couldn't get home on her own.

Speaker 2 So they called someone to pick her up, that driver.

Speaker 2 Now, what's a little odd is that they don't contact him in a rideshare app.

Speaker 2 They'd apparently used a rideshare app earlier in the night to get to the party that they went to or other parties that night.

Speaker 2 And before getting out of the car, they just got the driver's number so they could communicate with him directly.

Speaker 2 So when they say that they called for him to take Debanie home, it was like sell to sell. So he came to pick her up.

Speaker 2 They tell police the same thing that they told her dad about going back and forth with him and then her getting out of the car. Okay, hold up.

Speaker 1 We already have a life role. If you get there to the party together, you leave together, but

Speaker 1 can we add a new one? You gotta keep it in the app.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if they did this to like avoid, like there's no explanation.
Like did it avoid fees? Was it just like easier? Did they really like him and wanted to?

Speaker 2 But like there is, there's a lot of like safety and protection and tracking that comes in that. And to take it out of there, I think is very scary.
I love the new life rule. Keep it in the app.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I think it's also important to mention, I don't think these were Deboni's best friends. I mean, she'd only been hanging out with the one girl for like four months.

Speaker 2 But the rule is still the same, even if you aren't besties. You come together, you leave.
You leave together. Right.

Speaker 2 So it's clear that authorities need to talk to this driver who seems to be at the center of all of this, but it takes them days to do this, although I don't really understand why.

Speaker 2 But all the while, searches for Debani begin. And luckily, her family gets tons of support from the community.

Speaker 2 That last photo of her that they posted starts going viral and campaigns to help them search, they launch all across social media.

Speaker 2 According to an article in InfoBay, the family sets up their unofficial headquarters in front of this motel near where Debani would have gotten out of the car.

Speaker 2 To them, that's kind of the center of everything.

Speaker 2 And somehow they've gotten the last known location of her cell phone, which puts her in that same general area near this very motel and this transportation company.

Speaker 2 So they really focus heavily around there. And this motel, something about it really gets under their skin.

Speaker 2 I've never heard it described as anything more than just like a hunch, but according to another InfoBay article, they just have this hunch that she's there at that motel.

Speaker 2 So they ask authorities to please search it. They do search it on the 12th, except nothing connected to Debany is found when they do.

Speaker 2 But they did get a break that same day that they do the search of the motel.

Speaker 2 You know those gifts that make everyone go, wait, where did you get this? Well, those gifts come from JCPenney. Yes, JCPenney.

Speaker 2 JCPenney has gifts for that person in your life who is impossible to shop for. You know the one, the friend who buys themselves everything or the family member who swears they don't need anything.

Speaker 2 Sorry, not this year. From diamond jewelry to the newest gadgets, JCPenney has gifts that look expensive at a fraction of the price.

Speaker 2 I did all of my holiday shopping for my daughter through JCPenney online. I got the exact things I was looking for at stellar prices.

Speaker 2 And she is going to lose her little mind when she realizes I found the perfect frozen sneaker to replace the ones that she grew grew out of.

Speaker 2 We have been looking everywhere for them and I had no idea they were just waiting for me at JCPenney.

Speaker 2 With prices up to 60% off during JCPenney's Black Friday sales, it is the perfect time to fill your cart and throw in a little something for yourself too.

Speaker 2 It's guilt-free, the way holiday shopping should be. Shop jcp.com.
Yes, JCPenney.

Speaker 2 This is an ad by BetterHelp. A call on the drive home seems so small, but I have gotten my friends on days when they were down and just needed a friend to talk to.

Speaker 2 And as the seasons change, there are shorter days and colder days, the days don't have to weigh you down.

Speaker 2 And this season, BetterHelp encourages you to reach out, check in on friends, reconnect with loved ones, and remind them that you're there.

Speaker 2 Just like it takes courage to send that text or grab coffee with someone you haven't seen in a while, reaching out for therapy can feel difficult too, but it can be worth it.

Speaker 2 It can leave people wondering, why didn't I do this sooner? With over 30,000 therapists worldwide, BetterHelp is one of the leading online therapy platforms.

Speaker 2 BetterHelp therapists are fully qualified, and BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. This month, don't wait to reach out.

Speaker 2 Whether you're checking in on a friend or reaching out to a therapist, BetterHelp makes it easy to take that first step.

Speaker 2 Our listeners can get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/slash crime junkie. That's betterhelph-e-l-p.com/slash crime junkie.

Speaker 2 Police finally track down the rideshare driver. And according to the independent, to hold him, they arrest him on a drug-related charge.

Speaker 2 It turns out this driver had a long criminal history and in the past had been, get this, investigated for harassment and attempted kidnapping of women.

Speaker 2 Yeah, now from what I can piece together, it doesn't seem like this guy was hiding from police this whole time.

Speaker 2 I mean, actually, not only is he talking to police, but he also gives an interview to reporters later because he says he wants his side of the story to be out there, which is as follows.

Speaker 2 This driver claims that he had driven the girls to the party via a rideshare app earlier, but then they were the ones who asked him for his number to call him directly to pick them up, which ended up happening at like four o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2 But when he gets there, Debany was the only one who gets in the car. He says that the other friends were there, but they got into another vehicle and drove off.

Speaker 1 But didn't the girls say that they left the party before Deboni?

Speaker 2 Exactly, but not according to him. He says, no, no, no, no, they were still there.
He says when she gets in the car, Deboni's crying. She's talking about how bad her friends were.

Speaker 2 And then at one point, she wanted to charge her phone. So he like passes her the cable in the back, but she ends up just like climbing into the front seat.

Speaker 2 And it sounds like this is where things started to go a little sideways.

Speaker 2 According to this guy, she was drunk and aggressive and she wouldn't give him an address for the house he's supposed to take her to. So he didn't even know where he's supposed to be going.

Speaker 2 And it sounds like at some point, the friends kind of text him. Again, they're going back and forth.
They give him the address. So they do get moving.
And that's how they end up on the highway.

Speaker 2 But he says, shortly into this ride, she tells him to just stop the car because she wants to get out.

Speaker 2 And at first, I mean, a driver with a drunk person in their car, they're thinking like, oh my God, like she's going to throw up. Right.
But I don't think she did.

Speaker 2 She just gets out of the car and this guy didn't know what to do. And so this whole time he's like going back and forth with her friends.

Speaker 2 He's even not just texting, but like sending voice memos to them. He told them like, listen, I'm not going to force this woman back into my car.
Like I'm going to get accused of kidnapping.

Speaker 1 Again. Well, yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, clearly he had a reason to be worried about that, right? Like he, that's not what he wants to go down. So he's like, can you give me her mom's phone number?

Speaker 2 But the girl said that they already tried calling the mom. She's not answering.
So, So, you know, he's like asking, has she taken anything?

Speaker 2 And they say, no, she just drank a lot of vodka, but that's it. So he waits a few minutes to see if she's going to calm down, if she's going to get back in.

Speaker 2 And when she didn't, that's when he took that photo and then left. And he says he went home, told his wife what had happened.
And then the next day, he reached out to Debani's friends.

Speaker 2 And that's when he found out that she was missing.

Speaker 1 If he reached out the next day, then why did it take them till the 12th to find him? Like, why isn't he coming forward?

Speaker 2 I don't know. Like, clearly, they had this guy's info, or at the very least, they had a phone number for him.
So, I'm not sure what the holdup was. Maybe this guy lawyered up.

Speaker 2 Maybe he was just dodging them for fear of exactly what happened, like being arrested. Who knows? But, anyways, authorities seize his phone once they have him and the phone in their possession.

Speaker 2 And sure enough, there's a lot of stuff that actually backs up his story. He's got all these text messages and voice memos that he sent to the friends.

Speaker 2 He even had a super short clip of Debony's voice. I don't really understand why.
It sounds like whatever she was saying didn't even really make sense anyways. I don't know why he recorded it.

Speaker 1 I mean, for a second, remembering he'd been accused of kidnapping in the past, I mean, you kind of have to think that maybe all of that communication, all of those recordings, like all of that could have been planned to cover his tracks.

Speaker 1 Like

Speaker 2 premeditated?

Speaker 1 Yeah, like trying to distance himself from her before he did something, the picture of her in the road, and then maybe he got her back in the car.

Speaker 2 Yes, it totally could be, but you don't know the next part. And I know that's not what happened, or at least I'm pretty sure that's not what happened.

Speaker 2 And we know that because they actually search his house and his car at some point, they find nothing, but more importantly, they also find surveillance footage that shows exactly what happened that night.

Speaker 2 The footage they find isn't just from after Debany got out of the car on the highway. They actually find video from even further back in the night showing exactly how her night played out.

Speaker 2 First, they get footage from a store that shows Debony and her friends buying a bottle of vodka at around 11.30 p.m.

Speaker 2 Now, they know from talking to her friends that they party hopped a little bit and they eventually end up at this like house party in the Nueva Castilla neighborhood.

Speaker 2 And this is where everything really starts. So at about 1:30 in the morning, there is some pretty alarming footage of Debony like running down the street.

Speaker 2 And she, I mean, she kind of comes out of nowhere. She's just booking it.
And this guy is chasing after her. And he grabs her and Debony's like kicks him, she punches him.

Speaker 2 And then this larger group of kids come and it appears like everything settles down.

Speaker 2 Like nobody's like attacking this guy, like everyone seems like they know each other and okay with each other, or at least again, settles down. Now there's no sound.

Speaker 2 I have no idea what's going on or why, but it gets calm and then they leave at some point. Then fast forward to 3.54 in the morning.

Speaker 2 And this shows the exact moment that Debony gets into that car that was called to take her home. And it appears that her friends are standing near the driver's side window.

Speaker 1 So the driver's version that the friends were still there is correct then.

Speaker 2 Yes. So things are actually matching up to his story, like I said.
I mean, we see her being aggressive with her friends, like he said she was.

Speaker 2 And I don't know if it's because of this footage or what, but Debany's friends do change their initial statement that they made to authorities.

Speaker 2 So they actually admit to Debany being aggressive as one of the reasons that they decided to leave.

Speaker 2 And through them or other people, they eventually, and they being police, get a little more color around Debany's behavior that night.

Speaker 2 So apparently it wasn't just that one moment where she runs that's captured on camera that led to them sending her home. They said that she had locked herself in the bathroom at one point.

Speaker 2 And then at another, she almost jumped into the pool.

Speaker 2 And it sounds like several people were worried enough about her behavior that someone who was at the party actually posted a video to Instagram after the fact saying that she tried to help Debany.

Speaker 2 So did others. I mean, they were trying offering her like rides home or at least help getting home safely.

Speaker 2 But this girl says that Debany's friends declined on her behalf all offers for help because they said that they had someone coming to get her. The driver.
Correct. Which brings me back to the footage.

Speaker 2 So we see her getting in the car and then the next bit of footage shows her sitting in the car sort of talking to the driver. But now she's in the front seat, which again lines up with his story.

Speaker 2 Eventually they take off and the next place that they're able to pick her up at is that transportation company near where her phone last pinged.

Speaker 2 And in their footage, you can see Debanie like walking down the median of this highway. Like the camera's facing out towards the road.

Speaker 2 And I mean, it's, it's like so scary because at one point, there's this terrifying moment where she is actually in the road.

Speaker 2 Like she, she leaves the median and this car literally has to swerve around her. I mean, it's pitch black outside.
And it just misses her.

Speaker 2 And she then walks towards this transportation company and appears to try and peek in. And there is this booth and a gate, but I mean, it's like 4.30 in the morning at this point.

Speaker 2 There's nobody around. And I say no one around, not just at the transportation station, but no one is following her either.

Speaker 2 I mean, we don't see the driver like creeping in the background or circling for her.

Speaker 1 Does she go inside this booth or the transportation company at all?

Speaker 2 Several sources at the time claimed she did and then never came out, but I don't think so. I mean, it's hard to tell in the video what's happening.

Speaker 2 And I'll get to why I don't think she she went in and never came out later because we actually do see her later.

Speaker 2 And according to an InfoBay article, on April 18th, police have this transportation company under guard. And so then they start interviewing employees to see what, if anything, they know.

Speaker 1 I mean, but if no one was working, then what could they know?

Speaker 2 Yes. Again, it's a little unclear if anyone was there or not there.
Did this place have security guards? Was it like closed for the night?

Speaker 2 I think part of like what has gotten misreported is like they were like, like little bits were coming out, right? And not the whole thing. And I think people were making assumptions.

Speaker 2 But I think this new video of Debany renews some hope. Maybe she still is okay.
Maybe she's still alive. And her father, Mario, was convinced she was.

Speaker 2 So there's this big push to continue searching the area.

Speaker 1 Did they get any video from the motel from earlier?

Speaker 2 So not when they were canvassing for the video. The motel employees initially told authorities that their cameras don't record anything, like they're just for monitoring.

Speaker 2 But remember, they'd actually searched the motel like way back on the 12th. So I think it would have been a nice to have to know, you know, was she in or around the property?

Speaker 2 But they felt like they've covered their ground there by that point. But now,

Speaker 2 no one knew where to look. According to another article in Infobay, K9 teams and drones are brought in to help with this search now.

Speaker 2 And because this thing has blown up on social media, even influencers and other media personalities are lending a hand or at the very least, they're kind of sharing her story.

Speaker 2 But it doesn't matter how many times her story is shared or how many searches they do, there is still no sign of Debani until April 21st, 13 days after Debani went missing.

Speaker 1 Looking for a TV service that puts you in charge? Sling is the live TV option that gives you total flexibility.

Speaker 1 Only pay for channels you actually watch, so you don't have to wonder why you're stuck paying for stuff you don't want. With Sling, you can also come and go as you please.

Speaker 1 Pause your subscription at any time and you'll still have access to more than 600 free channels.

Speaker 1 And with their new passes, you decide when you want to watch, whether it's for a week, a weekend, or even just a single day.

Speaker 1 It's getting to be peak sports season and I'm definitely ready to get in and watch every game my schedule allows.

Speaker 1 With Sling, I'm able to pick a package that gets me all the channels I would need to watch my NFL and NBA games. And I love the convenience of the Sling passes.

Speaker 1 I can start my subscription for the season and pause it once the season wraps up. It's truly so convenient and easy to have the TV channels I want when I need them.

Speaker 1 Choose and customize your channel lineup or pause and watch for free. Sling lets you do that.
Visit Sling.com to learn more.

Speaker 2 A day can change in an instant. We need nourishment so we can stay sharp and out of danger.
Cachava's whole body mealshakes will keep your body and mind nourished all day and ready for anything.

Speaker 2 Cachava is a delicious, all-in-one plant-based meal that delivers 25 grams of protein and it comes in six indulgent flavors, including their newest strawberry. That's the one I got.

Speaker 2 And each serving provides over 85 plus superfoods, nutrients, and plant-based ingredients. It's smooth and creamy when mixed.

Speaker 2 It's a convenient fast food redefined, fueling strength, energy, digestion, cognition, and immunity in every shake. Cachava Shake has been my go-to now.

Speaker 2 It is quick, healthy, and actually tastes really good. You have never tasted strawberry like this.
Go to kachava.com and use code CrimeJunkie for 15% off your next order.

Speaker 2 That's kachava, k-a-c-h-av-a.com, codecrimejunkie for 15% off.

Speaker 2 On April 21st, employees at the motel, the same one her family has been parked out in front of, They alert authorities to a foul odor coming from the grounds.

Speaker 2 When they arrive, they're pointed to the back wall of this unused pool and courtyard area where there are these three cisterns.

Speaker 2 And, like, when I say cisterns, for some reason, the first time I read that, I was thinking like these big, tall things like standing up out of the ground. That's not what it is.

Speaker 2 So, think like they're water wells in the ground. So, all you actually see in this courtyard are these three smallish squares on the ground, but they lead to these deep wells, like 12 to 14 feet deep.

Speaker 2 Now, one of the cisterns is covered smart but two of the others are not they're just open and in one of the uncovered ones they find a body now it is in a pretty bad state of decay sitting in about three feet of water but the clothes and the crucifix around the neck make it pretty clear that they've found debany now you said clothes is she clothed So this is where it gets like a little complicated in the source material.

Speaker 2 For the most part, yes. There's this article from El Pais by Elena Reyna, and I'm just going to like read the quote for you one second because this is what I was working with.

Speaker 2 So it says, quote, Debani was found barefoot wearing socks and with her torso partially bare.

Speaker 2 She was wearing a white sleeveless blouse, which was pulled down to her neck on the outside of her right upper extremity, right arm.

Speaker 2 And on the left side, it was pulled down to her left armpit on the inside of her left upper extremity, left arm.

Speaker 2 So it seems like she's got socks on, shoes are off, her top is wonky, and there's nothing mentioned of her skirt at all, which like feels like, is it on? Is it underneath her? Is it somewhere else?

Speaker 2 Like, is it not there? Yeah. And what we don't know is if the way that everything is, like, I don't have enough information to know if it was like everything naturally ended up this way.

Speaker 2 Could decomp be playing a role? Could the water be playing a role? Could this semi-state of undress happened before she went in? Like,

Speaker 2 nothing says that.

Speaker 2 I mean, the rest of the stuff that she had taken that night does seem to be there too with her, but it's kind of scattered between two of the wells because, so two of them, the two ones that are open, those are connected.

Speaker 2 And I will put a picture up for those who want to see it, but basically it's like an H shape underground. Okay.

Speaker 2 So found in the well with her, I'll call it well one, was the black high top converse that she was wearing that night. And then her, like, and the top top she had on, like, that's about it.

Speaker 2 And then found in the one next to her, we'll call it well two,

Speaker 2 was a lighter, some keys, her cell phone, a wallet, hand sanitizer. But then this is the strange part caught in the middle, that connecting section.

Speaker 1 So think about the middle of the H.

Speaker 2 Yeah. They have a black and white face mask, like think COVID times.
She'd been wearing one throughout the night. She was wearing it in the picture that the driver took.

Speaker 2 They also find in that connector a handbag and then a white white bra was also found in there.

Speaker 1 And these are all hers?

Speaker 2 Well, so there's only this one source that even gives a full detail of what's in those cisterns. This source, okay, so I'm like, I'm going to try and lay it out.

Speaker 2 This source comes from the prosecution's office that was working this case. There's no mention that the stuff isn't hers.
So my assumption is that they are, but it is an assumption.

Speaker 2 I think it would be really strange if it was someone else's random bra that was in there.

Speaker 1 Right. And could these like flow from one to the other? Or are you saying that they would have had to been dropped into one well or the other well?

Speaker 2 Okay. So this is a question I spent so much time on.
I cannot find a specific police theory in the source material on this.

Speaker 2 Like if they all went in together, say in the one that she was found in, then the water would have had to have risen.

Speaker 2 I don't know. like what this is connected to, if anything else, or if the water rises and falls because of some underground mechanism.

Speaker 2 mechanism but I mean I looked up the weather for that area and there was rain on and off on the 18th which was just days before she was found so maybe the water did rise high enough to shift things from one well to the other I mean how but then like how high up is this connecting pipe so the photo that I mentioned earlier has some measurements and it looks to be a little over seven and a half feet so I don't know if like one day of rain could rise the water level that much unless there was a ton of water already in it and then it like evaporated over time.

Speaker 2 Because again, we know she's found in like three feet of water when she's discovered, but I don't know where that water came from. Is that rainwater? Again, is it from somewhere else? I don't know.

Speaker 2 And I mean, there's no way that she could have put that stuff in there on her own. Like I keep thinking about it.

Speaker 2 I don't know what her goal would have been in like tossing it over, maybe just to see where it goes.

Speaker 2 But I'm a little bit baffled how it ends up where it does, even if it's, even if it's like her throwing it. But also, why are you throwing your stuff, right? Like her cell phone is in the other one.

Speaker 2 Like, if anything, you would want to keep that with you. Right.
Now, what is possibly stranger to people than the stuff in the well is the fact that no one found it sooner.

Speaker 2 According to most sources, the motel was searched on four separate occasions, not just the one that we talked about. Yeah, on the 12th.

Speaker 2 So one of them included, at least one included canine dogs and drones. And they estimated that 200 personnel were searching the area that her body was literally at.

Speaker 2 Like, I mean, she was right under their noses.

Speaker 2 So there are three options. Was she placed there later?

Speaker 2 Was the search a little sloppy and they didn't look down in the well until it started to smell?

Speaker 2 Or was the search extremely sloppy? and they didn't even look in this courtyard area.

Speaker 2 And that actually might be the case because this part of the motel, this courtyard, it's connected to this like circular shaped restaurant. And the whole thing is an abandoned part of this hotel.

Speaker 1 Okay, but one would think still after like two or three searches, they'd be like, hey, you know what we haven't searched? That abandoned section over there.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I agree, especially because everything that they've got, like they're clearly homing in on this area. Things are pointing them there.

Speaker 2 I think maybe the only reason that they didn't do it, like, is that maybe they were thinking it would have been difficult for her to get where she was.

Speaker 2 So again, I'm going to try and like describe it as best I can. And when I say get to where she was, like not fall in, again, these things are just like open on the ground.
And God forbid it's dark.

Speaker 2 But again, this is why I point to like option three where I'm like, it was so sloppy. They were like, oh.
Theoretically, she shouldn't have been able to even be in this area. So we didn't search it.

Speaker 2 So basically, let's see how I can do an audio.

Speaker 2 I'll put up a picture if you guys want to look, but there's this circular restaurant, and then there's like two walls that point like out, and then like a third wall that blocks it in.

Speaker 2 So, you have this kind of like V-shaped courtyard that connects to the restaurant.

Speaker 2 And so, you would have to hop a fence or like hop a wall anyway to get in, or go through this restaurant, which is abandoned. Yeah, presumably locked.

Speaker 2 And it's been closed for years. It's not like it was just like closed that day or recently abandoned.

Speaker 2 So, if I had to guess, I think she got over one of the walls because there is nothing about the restaurant being unlocked or anything like that.

Speaker 2 I know the main wall that was facing the highway, that one was eight and a half feet tall with barbed wire. So, like, nobody's climbing that thing, let alone not that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, let alone potentially like hoisting a body over it. Like, if we're saying it's her or somebody else, whatever.

Speaker 2 But the other walls were slightly smaller, like a little over seven feet, feet, still kind of high, but they didn't have barbed wire. So it's possible.
It's possible that's how she got in.

Speaker 2 But I think because of that, like they maybe looked at that and they were like, oh, like some girl off the street.

Speaker 2 Otherwise, I don't know how they didn't find her.

Speaker 2 So as news of Debanese's discovery breaks, the internet and, you know, media, it's obviously all a buzz.

Speaker 2 But more than anything, there's a lot of outrage because yet again, here was another young Mexican woman gone missing, now being found dead, and a perception that authorities should have done more to find her in a timely manner.

Speaker 2 And no surprise, that outrage is shared by Debany's family. Her father, Mario, is furious.

Speaker 2 And within like a day, he was publicly suggesting, not option three, where I'm saying where it was like super sloppy, but he was saying that her body was planted there.

Speaker 2 What's that based on? I mean, I think he's just pointing to that 13-day window, like the impossibility that they didn't find her body.

Speaker 1 But she was there all along and they didn't find her.

Speaker 2 Right where everyone was looking. And he wasn't just calling out authorities.
He was spreading the blame around, like to that driver.

Speaker 2 He claims the reason Debani got out of the car in the first place was because the driver reached over and grabbed her breast.

Speaker 1 When did that happen?

Speaker 2 Well, so Mario claims that the prosecutor's office had some kind of footage of this. I know we have footage earlier of Debani and the driver sitting in the car talking.

Speaker 2 That could be the footage that he's referencing, like back when he picks her up from the party. But I mean, I've seen some of it.
It's hard to tell for sure. I don't know if he's seen something else.

Speaker 1 If the driver did assault her, that would make sense as to why she'd want to get out of the vehicle.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 But I'm like, I'm missing a piece here because, like, if he did,

Speaker 2 like, if he assaulted her when they're sitting there, before they've taken off, you would think that she would get out before they left.

Speaker 2 If he did it after when they're going, like, that's when she demands to get out. Like, I don't know where footage of that would be.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 all the reports say that she was pretty intoxicated.

Speaker 1 Maybe she didn't realize the situation was as dangerous as it was or wasn't able to like respond to that danger until after they were kind of on the road a bit.

Speaker 1 And I mean, he could have like taken off quickly because of things.

Speaker 2 I don't know. Yeah.
I don't know. I agree.
Like you're not making the same decisions when you're intoxicated. So it's very possible it happened.

Speaker 2 And then she, you know, as they went on, she's like, I got to get out of here.

Speaker 2 I can't say with 100% certainty what's what's going on or when.

Speaker 2 And this guy, it is important to say, has never been charged with anything related to this case. And what I will say is sometimes like two things can be true at once, right?

Speaker 2 He could have assaulted her, like her father claims.

Speaker 1 And have nothing to do with her disappearance and murder. Right.

Speaker 2 We just don't know. And unfortunately, the autopsy doesn't bring much more clarity.
So according to authorities, Debani's cause of death was a deep skull contusion.

Speaker 2 Other sources call it a blow to the head. And based on her decomp, at least one source places the time of death between five days and two weeks.

Speaker 2 But here's the thing, that is literally all we know about the first autopsy.

Speaker 2 Nothing about if there was water in her lungs or anything else that can give a better idea of what exactly happened to her or when.

Speaker 2 And at first, it appears like authorities aren't really ruling anything out. They claim that if there is a crime, they will pursue it.
If.

Speaker 2 If, because it appears at some point, the idea of this just being some kind of horrible accident starts to really take hold. That Debani fell into the cistern and, you know, it was dark.

Speaker 2 She didn't see it. But as you can imagine, her family doesn't call that closure.
There are still just like too many questions for them to just be like, okay, how sad and walk away.

Speaker 1 I mean, same. Like, how well do they explain how they think it happened?

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, there's a lot to be desired in their theory.

Speaker 2 I mean, they don't give a full play-by-play, but it's possible they base this off something that I haven't told you about yet, something that they found while all of this was unfolding.

Speaker 2 So remember, the motel employees told authorities that their cameras didn't record. They're just like there for show to monitor, whatever.

Speaker 2 Well, apparently,

Speaker 2 they were lying.

Speaker 1 The thought of getting a degree can be straight up terrifying. We get it.
But Southern New Hampshire University makes it easier than you'd think.

Speaker 1 They have over 200 degrees you can earn online, no set class times, so your social life stays alive and well, and low online tuition that won't scare your bank account.

Speaker 1 College doesn't have to be a horror story. Visit snhu.edu/slash crime junkie to get started.
That's snhu.edu slash crimejunkie.

Speaker 1 As the air turns crisp and the holidays draw near, comfort becomes the best gift of all.

Speaker 1 Quince delivers layers that last, sweaters, outerwear, and everyday essentials that feel luxurious, look timeless, and make holiday dressing and gifting effortless.

Speaker 1 By working directly with ethical top-tier factories, Quince skips the middleman and offers prices 50% less than similar brands.

Speaker 1 I just got the coolest, sleekest, oversized blazer from Quince, and it has absolutely become my cold weather style staple.

Speaker 1 It goes with everything and truly is just the perfect piece to class up jeans in a t-shirt or add a cozy twist to a little black dress.

Speaker 1 And I swear, every piece I get from Quince is just as high quality and versatile. Step into the holiday season with layers made to feel good, look polished, and last from Quince.

Speaker 1 Perfect for gifting or keeping for yourself. Go to quince.com slash crimejunkie for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns.
Now available in Canada too.

Speaker 1 That's q-u-in-ce-e.com slash crime junkie to get free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash crimejunkie.

Speaker 2 Now, I don't know if the police were tipped off or what. I don't know how this got to them, but they ended up raiding the motel and some of the employees' homes.

Speaker 2 And on a laptop, they found recorded security footage of Debany on the property the night that she disappeared.

Speaker 1 Ashley, give me one good reason why they'd be hiding this.

Speaker 2 Makes no sense, right? Yeah. Unless they were nervous because of how big of a story this became.
Because this is what's so weird.

Speaker 2 Because, like, it's not like this footage points to some some motel employee committing a crime. I mean, if anything, it does the opposite.

Speaker 2 It shows Debany arriving on the property a little after 430 in the morning. She appears to be running, kind of like we saw her do earlier, but no one is following her this time.

Speaker 2 And then it shows her in that walled off courtyard area. She had to have climbed one of the walls because the footage we have is from inside the restaurant, like looking out.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we never see her inside of the restaurant. We just just see her like peering in the window to this abandoned restaurant.
And then she kind of like runs off camera.

Speaker 2 And then we get like 20 minutes of nothing before she suddenly reappears. And she, when we see her for the final time, she's moving along the wall towards those cisterns where she ends up being found.

Speaker 2 And we last see her just before five o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 1 And no one else is there?

Speaker 2 No one.

Speaker 1 Can you see her fall into the cistern or anything?

Speaker 2 You can't, but that that footage that they have, this is what I'm saying, this is what I think they're working off of, it puts her within feet of those cisterns and nobody else around.

Speaker 2 It also looks pretty dark, and I don't know if you looked at the picture I sent, like with these things on the ground, if you didn't know they were there, you could easily just step right into one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so this accident theory actually has some teeth to it.

Speaker 2 On paper, yes.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 with all the shady business around getting the footage with not finding her sooner, Debany's family is like far too suspicious.

Speaker 2 So they ask an independent forensic review to be done of her autopsy findings.

Speaker 1 So a second autopsy?

Speaker 2 No, no, this isn't a second autopsy. This is just a review of the results of the first one.
Some sources will call it a second autopsy, actually, but that's misreporting or misunderstanding.

Speaker 2 I don't know. They're technically just reviewing the results of the first.
Got it.

Speaker 2 And while they wait for this review to be done, that anger in the community and in the country of Mexico as a whole literally spills out onto the streets.

Speaker 2 Protests are organized to bring attention to all the disappearances and gender violence happening at the time.

Speaker 2 I mean, in Mexico, they use the term femicide to describe women who are targeted and murdered.

Speaker 2 According to an article written by Beatrice Guillen for El País, up to 10 women are murdered every single day in Mexico. Up to seven women a day disappear.

Speaker 2 And most of these cases just go, or the people who commit them just go totally unpunished. We're talking 95% of them, according to that article.

Speaker 1 Hold on. 17 a day, there's 365 days in a year.

Speaker 2 I can't do head math.

Speaker 1 That's like over 6,000 women. And if only 5%

Speaker 1 get resolved, that's like 300. That's almost 6,000, right? Like that go completely unsolved.
That's a fing epidemic.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Listen, there are a lot of different stats out there, so I'd be careful putting an exact number to it, but it's a lot.

Speaker 2 Epidemic is right. One that even Debani herself was well aware of.

Speaker 2 And in like sort of this sad twist of fate, according to an article in the Independent by Jose Luis Montenegro, shortly before Debane disappeared, she actually participated in a protest on Women's Day to raise awareness about gender violence.

Speaker 2 So, I mean, literally, you have her one week, she's fighting for victims, and then the next, she becomes a missing woman herself.

Speaker 2 And what's more upsetting about all of this, and you even see it in the case of Debani, is that according to reporting in the New York Times by Oscar Lopez, the families are often the ones who are forced to go out and do a lot of the legwork themselves.

Speaker 2 They have to do the searches. They have to do the investigation.

Speaker 2 An article in Expansion Politica even says that throughout the almost two-week search for Debani, one woman and four girls were found dead.

Speaker 2 Like they're looking for one woman and they find five others. Oh my God.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Now, it it does sound like a few people are held accountable for what many perceive as a debacle in the search for Debany.

Speaker 2 According to a Telemundo, Arizona article on April 27th, two of the authoritative leads in Debany's case are dismissed for serious omissions and errors. I think the errors are pretty obvious.

Speaker 2 What omissions are being referenced here? It's a little murky. Like, were details about this case being left out internally, publicly?

Speaker 2 Were they not focusing on possible suspects sooner or not even at all i don't know but clearly their errors and omissions led to sloppy investigating or maybe this would have been found sooner according to vallarta daily on may 5th at 7 30 in the morning some identification belonging to debany is found in the planters of this condominium building and It doesn't sound like it's a driver's license or anything like that.

Speaker 2 It's some kind of secondary ID that might have something to do with her dad's job as a teacher from what I can piece together.

Speaker 1 And how far away is this location from the motel where she was found?

Speaker 2 Bingo, that's the thing. So it's almost 15 miles away and why it's there and how it got there, like nobody knows.
It's supposedly this big mystery.

Speaker 1 I'd be looking at the people in the condominium pretty hard.

Speaker 2 My gal, especially if any of them had a connection to the motel, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, can you imagine?

Speaker 2 No, no, I would like be freaking out. But so, okay, here's my thing.
So So at first, I see this thing about the ID and I'm like, okay, listen, let's try and not be missed conspiracy theory.

Speaker 2 Like, maybe this had nothing to do with this. I don't know what this ID is made of.
Maybe it's paper. Could the wind have picked it up and taken it over here?

Speaker 2 Oh, picked it up from a well like full of water underground. Maybe she dropped it.
I don't know. But here's the reason I immediately wrote off anything as coincidences.

Speaker 1 There are no coincidences.

Speaker 2 Obviously. And now I'm like, forget it.
I'm not even going to try.

Speaker 2 Apparently, an apartment at this very building where they find this ID later, that apartment had been searched prior for items belonging to Debony.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 2 I know. So apparently a tip had been called in, but nothing was found in the search.
Now, whose apartment was this? Also a mystery.

Speaker 2 And it's important to point out that Vallarta Daily appears to be the only source that seems to have any of this information.

Speaker 2 Usually I like to have like two or three sources that say the same thing before I put in episodes.

Speaker 2 So I know what we're putting out is pretty accurate, but this was just like too freaking weird not to mention. Yeah.
But you know, there's my caveat, one source on this.

Speaker 2 However, I can tell you pretty confidently that they also end up searching room 174 at the motel. Apparently, this search came at the urging of Debony's parents.
I don't know if they got a tip.

Speaker 2 I don't know if this is another hunch or what. Like there's no information on how, why this specific room is searched and nothing about what, if anything, is found.

Speaker 2 now at least one source states that they were looking for traces of debany's dna

Speaker 2 i assume nothing was found or we would hear about it right

Speaker 2 i mean i think that searches at least show they're not paying lip service like they're actually looking at all these possibilities even if accident is what they're kind of leaning toward maybe for the moment but that's about to change on may 12th the forensic report comes out sounds like it was maybe leaked to a newspaper um i don't think they were like, hey, this is our findings on the thing we first did.

Speaker 2 There you go. And listen, one more time for the people in the bag.
This is just a review of the original. So it's like a review of their own work, basically,

Speaker 2 from an outside consultant, from what I can put together. But what this like review concludes couldn't be more different than the original results.

Speaker 2 First, it rules out any thought that this was some kind of accident.

Speaker 2 It calls Debany's death a violent homicide and states that Debany was struck in the head by some sort sort of blunt object repeatedly. Now, the cause of death was similar to the original autopsy.

Speaker 2 Basically, a deep blow to the head is what killed her. But this report claims that it wasn't just one blow, but multiple blows at different angles.

Speaker 2 And there was also bruising on both sides of her head, both eyes, the left side of her nose, and both lips.

Speaker 1 I mean, that sounds like she was beaten to death.

Speaker 2 And there's even more that comes out. According to this report, there is also signs of a quote violent sexual relationship.
AKA, Debani was sexually assaulted.

Speaker 2 Now, even though this cistern had some water, this report rules out drowning. There was no water found in her lungs.
They say she was dead before she went in there.

Speaker 2 And according to the LPI's article, it also rules out any sign of asphyxiation or strangulation because they say there are no injuries to the neck or to her carotid arteries or her hyoid bone.

Speaker 1 No, was there anything about drowning or asphyxiation, strangulation, anything like that in the first one? Why are they even bringing that up?

Speaker 2 So, at least publicly, the first autopsy didn't mention any of that stuff. It's totally possible it was there.
Maybe it wasn't there.

Speaker 2 Maybe like they're just releasing more since this one got leaked this time. I don't know.
But there's something else in the report that's interesting. Debani had no fractures or anything like that.

Speaker 2 The only thing she broke was a nail.

Speaker 1 After this forensic report, I have to assume everyone is on the family's side right now.

Speaker 2 I mean, the public already was, but like, let's put it this way.

Speaker 2 The president of Mexico meets with her parents just after this report is released. And it sounds like this meeting happens like in the town that they live in.

Speaker 2 So I don't know if he comes specifically to see them or if he's just there on other business, but I think the fact that this meeting even happened speaks volumes. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And he basically makes a commitment to them that he is going to ensure clarity in this case. And he also vows justice for the family.

Speaker 2 But it doesn't appear that any of that happens in the days or weeks after. If anything, it seems like the family is just kind of continuing to be left with more questions than answers.

Speaker 2 We know the motel employees were interviewed at some point, but like, what about the guests?

Speaker 2 There is some reporting that police were able to track down cars that were in the parking lot that morning, but like, were any of those people being looked at as potential suspects?

Speaker 1 Were the cars still there?

Speaker 2 Like, well, so according to an LPIC article, there is even a guy seen getting into a car at the motel like 45 minutes after Debani was last seen on camera. And this is like the butt crack of dawn.

Speaker 2 Like, what are you doing? Where are you going so early? Could you be a suspect?

Speaker 2 Considering her body was found on the property, these are important pieces of information, important questions to ask, but there is zero details on if those were asked or what the answers were, just like brief mentions in reporting on this case.

Speaker 2 There's also no follow-up on what any of those transportation employees next door said in their interviews with police.

Speaker 2 And according to another El Pais article, the prosecution's office states that they interview at least 70 people over the course of this investigation, but then nothing happens.

Speaker 2 So because of this lack of progress, specifically around the clarity of how Debani died, Her body gets exhumed some 68 days after it was initially buried.

Speaker 2 Now, some sources claim this was at the request of the family. Others say it was authorities.
But either way, they will now do a whole new autopsy. Not a review, brand new autopsy.

Speaker 2 And this one is going to be like the definitive tiebreaker, so to speak. So on July 19th, this report gets released of this brand new autopsy.

Speaker 2 And if your head wasn't already spinning, buckle the f up. Because this report refutes the one thing that the first two actually agreed on, which was the cause of death.

Speaker 2 They say, or this report says she didn't die from blunt force trauma to the head. This report says that the cause of death was asphyxia by suffocation.

Speaker 1 You know, the thing that the second report explicitly said she didn't die from?

Speaker 2 Exactly. I told you to buckle up.
So the report also said that she did not suffer any sort of sexual abuse. So that also refutes the second report.

Speaker 2 It says her time of death was most likely between three and five days before she was found in the cistern. So that means she would have been alive long after she disappeared.

Speaker 2 She wouldn't have been there the first time they went and searched.

Speaker 1 What are they pointing to to tell them that? Because like, it's a pretty big freaking deal to change all this. And

Speaker 1 if she wasn't in the wells the whole time, where was she?

Speaker 1 She never showed back on the cameras after she was seen by the cisterns.

Speaker 2 I know. The last time she is seen on camera alive is in that motel courtyard, or at least from the footage we have.
Like, so if she left that courtyard, that wasn't caught on camera.

Speaker 2 Now, to be fair, I can't find anywhere like where we see her come in there. So, it's possible she left the way she, you know, I don't know what I'm missing, right?

Speaker 2 Like, what is they might have it, but I just haven't seen it. Right.

Speaker 2 The thing that I get really like hung up on is like, what are they pointing to to determine this time of death? Like, is it decomp? Is it something else? We don't know.

Speaker 1 I mean, could she have been alive in the cistern?

Speaker 2 Maybe, especially if you believe that this was an accident and she fell in, but how long could she survive with a serious head injury?

Speaker 1 I mean, apparently that's not what killed her, though.

Speaker 2 If autopsy two is right, then yes. But like, I'm spinning.
I'm spinning a little bit. Now, as time passes, this case only gets messier.

Speaker 2 So some six months after Debane first disappeared, This is now October of 2022, her father, Mario, announces that her case is being taken over by the Attorney General's Office, also known as the FGR.

Speaker 2 Then, just a few months later, the Justice Department brings the first charges against two motel employees regarding the suppression of that security footage.

Speaker 2 They're charged with making false statements and concealing information, which is like pretty big. But here's the thing: this is literally all that has happened in this case since.

Speaker 2 Even as late as April of 2024, the FGR continued to investigate with no additional arrests or charges brought.

Speaker 2 And those two motel employees have yet to even stand trial due to a series of injunctions like that they filed. You know how it goes.
So what sort of conclusion comes of this case remains to be seen.

Speaker 2 And who knows how long that might actually take?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was going to ask, is there any timeline for when the FGR plans to release its findings or give an update about how the investigation is going? Anything?

Speaker 2 None that I've seen, but at some point they are going to have to show show their cards. I mean, they can't hide from this.

Speaker 2 There are too many eyes on this thing, not to mention hundreds of news reports, YouTube videos, TikTok videos, and podcasts that have covered this case, including now ours.

Speaker 1 I mean, do you think there's any chance that they're kind of going back to the accident theory? And that's why we haven't heard of anything happening.

Speaker 2 I think the fact that two of the three reports point to homicide would make that pretty hard to do, but we've seen stranger things. Right.

Speaker 1 I feel feel like most of those times, and I mean, it's kind of the case here too, where mistakes are made in the investigation or it takes way longer than it should to discover the body.

Speaker 1 That opens the door to so much, you know, contradictory opinions, speculation, theories, conspiracies.

Speaker 2 I know. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I mean, this case is no exception. Like, if you just even check out some of the stuff online, it...
It gets wild. Like, I mean, you can go as big, I'm known for right.

Speaker 2 Like, it goes all the way to the top. Like, there's all of that online.
But all we really know is this. The last few hours of Debani's life should have gone differently.

Speaker 2 And there's a lot of blame to go around for how she ended up in the position she was in and then how it was investigated after the fact.

Speaker 2 But no matter how you look at this case, murder or accident or something else, at the end of the day, women should be able to go out for a night out without fear or concern that something could happen to them.

Speaker 2 And this isn't just a problem in Mexico. It's a problem all over the world.

Speaker 2 So those in power can either learn from cases like this or expect more of us to speak up until we can't be ignored for Debane and for all of the others like her.

Speaker 2 So, if you know anything about the death of Debane Escobar in April of 2022 in Nuevo León, Mexico, please contact the Federal Prosecutor's Office in the state of Nuevo Leon at 81-81-547402.

Speaker 2 We'll also have an email in the show notes that you can use.

Speaker 2 You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com.

Speaker 1 And you can follow us on Instagram at CrimeJunkie Podcast.

Speaker 2 We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.

Speaker 2 Crime Junkie is an audio Chuck production. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

Speaker 2 Want to show your cat just how much you love them? Start with wellness pet food for meals that turn love into well-being that your cat can taste and you can see.

Speaker 2 If your kitty loves real shreds of chicken and fish, or maybe they prefer culinary crafted recipes packed with protein, with vet-recommended scientifically proven nutrition and high-quality ingredients and wellness recipes, every picky kitty can find a meal with taste, texture, and variety they adore.

Speaker 2 Wellness pet food. Feed well, be well.

Speaker 3 What if you could cover your gray hairs without damage? With K18 Molecular Repair Hair Mask, you can have strong, soft, bouncy hair and keep your root touch-ups.

Speaker 3 Because it doesn't just cover up damage, it's the deep damage fix. Patented K18 peptide repairs on the molecular level.
So no matter what you do to your hair, K18 will be there to fix the damage.

Speaker 3 Shop at Sephora or get 10% off your first purchase with Code Podcast at K18Hair.com. That's code podcast at k18hair.com.