US prosecutors will not file charges in a prior federal probe into the murder of Shanquella Robinson, a woman from Charlotte, North Carolina, in Mexico in October.
The decision was made in a statement issued by the U.S. attorney’s office for two North Carolina counties on Wednesday, just before the woman’s family was supposed to speak at a televised news conference about the inquiry and Robinson’s death.
The Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office in North Carolina performed a “detailed and thorough investigation” and autopsy results, officials said, and they found that “the available evidence does not support any of the federal charges.”
“The investigation into the circumstances of Ms. Robinson’s death is a top priority for federal prosecutors and the FBI,” said the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina in a statement.
“As with any case under review by federal prosecutors, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a federal crime has been committed,” she added. “Federal prosecutors informed Ms. Robinson’s family today that the available evidence does not support a federal indictment, following the results of the autopsy and after careful deliberation and review of investigative materials by two U.S. Attorneys.”
The FBI’s federal prosecutors and FBI agencies began investigating Robinson’s death in November, roughly three weeks after his death, the FBI said in a statement to CBS News at the time. According to the statement, Robinson died on or around October 29 in Cabo San Lucas. Mexican authorities announced last week that she died near San Jose del Cabo, about 20 miles northeast of Cabo San Lucas in the same Mexican state of Baja California Sur.
Mexican prosecutors launched an investigation into Robinson’s death just a few days earlier. By then, news of her murder had gained enormous public and global attention after a viral cellphone video showed Robinson being severely attacked, presumably at the luxury property where she was vacationing. She came from the United States to Mexico with six pals, some of whom first informed Robinson’s parents that she died as a result of alcohol poisoning. However, the cause of death was eventually reported as spinal and neck injuries on the death certificate.
Mexican police claimed in November that Robinson’s death was being investigated as femicide, or the killing of a woman because of her gender. Prosecutors in Baja California Sur said at the time that they were attempting to extradite a woman suspected of murder from the United States to Mexico.