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A TikTok star, her husband and their two young children have been found dead inside a pickup truck in Mexico.
The body of Esmeralda Ferrer Garibay, 32, was discovered alongside husband Roberto Carlos Gil Licea, 36, and their son Gael Santiago, 13, and daughter Regina, 7.
Mexican authorities found the dead family inside an abandoned gray Ford Ranger in Guadalajara on Friday last week.
The police only confirmed their identities on Thursday and are launching a hunt for the killers.
The influencer, generally known as Emseralda FG online, was a rising star on the platform with 18,000 followers and greater than half 1,000,000 likes.
Her videos featured lifestyle and travel content, in addition to lip-syncs she filmed to ‘narcocorrido’ drug ballads.
The family had only moved to Guadalajara, where their bodies were found, for work just months earlier.
Town’s metropolitan area is a stronghold for the infamous Jalisco Latest Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Esmeralda’s husband Roberta worked trading vehicles and farmed tomatoes back of their hometown of Michoacán.
Mexican police are reportedly linking the killings to business activities, not the influencer’s online activity.
Investigators traced the truck’s movements using CCTV, leading them to a close-by mechanic’s workshop.
Prosecutor Alfonso Gutiérrez Santillán said: ‘The scene was processed, and investigators found multiple pieces of evidence suggesting the family was killed there.
‘While the forensic results usually are not yet in, ballistic and blood evidence almost definitely confirm they were murdered at that location.’
Two employees within the workshop were taken for questioning after which freed as a consequence of lack of evidence.
Then one other twist unfolded because the pair left the prosecutors office.
They met up with two other people before armed men ambushed the group and abducted three of them.
The three missing men are still unaccounted for, and the fourth, who managed to flee, is being searched for a press release.
Prosecutor Blanca Trujillo said: ‘Investigations show the perpetrators had been watching the exit for over two hours.
‘It wasn’t a direct attack – they waited until the group had moved a couple of metres before carrying out the kidnapping.’
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