Mother demands answers after autopsy shows woman who died on Cabo vacation had broken neck, not alcohol poisoning

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

The death certificate for a North Carolina woman who died last month while on vacation with friends in Cabo San Lucas is only leading to more questions as the family struggles to make sense of the 25-year-old’s last moments.

At the end of October, Salamondra Robinson, the mother of the deceased Shanquella Robinson, received a phone call from her daughter’s friends. The call was less than two days after the group had left the US and touched down in Mexico for what was supposed to be a fun getaway.

Over the course of that phone call, the friends – who the mother claims all gave varying accounts – explained that her 25-year-old daughter had died from alleged alcohol poisoning.

“They said she wasn’t feeling well. She had alcohol poisoning,” Ms Robinson said in an interview last week. “They couldn’t get a pulse. Each one of the people that was there with her was telling different stories.”

Ms Robinson’s initial suspicions have now been justified as a death certificate obtained by Queen City News has since revealed that the North Carolina woman’s daughter died from a “severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation”.

The family had also reached out to the FBI regarding their daughter’s death. The FBI also seemed to confirm that the friends’ narrative of events, that the 25-year-old died from alcohol poisoning, was false.

“When the autopsy came back, they said it didn’t have anything to do with the alcohol,” Ms Robinson said in an interview with Queen City News. “[They] said that she had a broken neck and her spine in the back was cracked. She had been beaten.”

Shanquella, who runs a hair braiding business in Charlotte, arrived in Cabo on 28 October where she and six other friends planned to celebrate a birthday at a luxury villa the group had rented for a long weekend, Queen City News reported.

The young woman’s mother said that she’d spoken with her daughter on the phone the day she arrived, and she told her mother that she and her friends planned to stay in on that Friday night as the group had hired a private chef to cook for them.

The next day, alarms were raised after she didn’t hear from her daughter though she’d promised to give her a ring.

Instead, Ms Robinson said she received a “frantic” call from her daughter’s friends, who began claiming that the 25-year-old had died from alcohol poisoning, per Queen City News.

On the young woman’s death certificate, it notes that she had been “found unconscious in her living room,” but there were no indications on the form that there was any alcohol involved in her death.

The US State Department reportedly told the mother that Mexican authorities don’t believe there is any clear evidence that foul play played a role in her death.

“We are aware of these reports regarding Robinson. Protecting the welfare of US citizens overseas is among our top priorities. Out of respect for the privacy of those involved, we have no further comment at this time,” they shared in a statement.

In a separate section on Robinson’s death certificate, however, there’s a line that asks authorities to note whether they believe the death was accidental or violent. That section just reads, “yes” and doesn’t specify whether the affirmative is for ruling her death an accident or a violent one.

Robinson’s remains were flown back to Charlotte, weeks after her friends returned to the US, last Thursday and a funeral for the young businesswoman is to be held over the weekend.

For the mother, all she asks is that she get answers to how her daughter spent her final moments.

“I know that’s not going to bring my child back, but I want something done about it,” she said, per Queen City News. “She had a heart of gold. She loved everybody, and pretty much everybody loved her.”