On May 13, 2025, Valeria Marquez, a 23-year-old Mexican model, esthetician and social media influencer, was fatally shot while livestreaming from her beauty salon in Zapopan, Mexico. The murder was most likely an assassination, contrary to the original claim of the prosecutor, disseminated by the media, that it was not planned or ordered.

Date of incident: Tuesday, May 13, 2025, at 6:30 PM.

Location: Blossom the Beauty Lounge, at 1262 Servidor Publico Ave., Plaza Santa Maria in the Real del Carmen neighborhood in Zapopan city, Jalisco state, Mexico¹.

Applicable law: Mexican civil law.

Valeria Marquez (b. February 14, 2022²) was a 23-year-old Mexican model, esthetician and social media influencer with around 200,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram³. She owned Blossom the Beauty Lounge, which she opened in August 2024⁴ and where she was fatally shot on May 13, 2025. On May 15, she was laid to rest after the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences identified and autopsied the body⁵.

Vivian De la Torre was Valeria’s “best friend” at the material time⁶.

Erika was an employee at Valeria’s salon at the material time⁷.

Denis Rodriguez is the spokesperson for the Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office, which delcared that it was investigating the incident under the femicide protocol⁸.

Valeria livestreamed the incident⁹. For more extensive footage of Valeria waiting for the gift to arrive while livestreaming with her followers, see Ximena Ochoa, “Valeria Márquez había recibido amenazas antes de ser asesinada” (14 May 2025) adn40. See also, “¿Valeria Márquez presentía su muerte? El video que publicó minutos antes” (14 May 2025) Marca America.[/efn_note], which hundreds of her followers witnessed and recorded. Valeria was accustomed to receiving gifts from fans, which she livestreamed.

At around 2:30 PM, Erika told Valeria that masked men came looking for her to deliver to her an expensive gift. Valeria told Erika to receive the delivery. However, the latter refused on the pretext Valeria should receive it herself, because it is expensive. When Valeria, tired of waiting for the delivery, declared on the livestream that she would leave the salon, Erika texted her, telling her to wait just 10 more minutes, because she wants to see her face when she receives it. While waiting for the delivery during the livestream, Valeria expressed fear, saying: “Maybe they were going to kill me. Were they going to come and take me away, or what? I’m worried.”¹⁰.

Shortly before the incident, Valeria received a Starbucks bag with a pink drink and plush toy pig from her “best friend” Vivian De la Torre¹¹. Valerie expressed great affection for Vivian, whom she did not suspect, when she received her gifts, joking that she might want to marry her. A masked man posing as a delivery driver arrived at the beauty salon shortly afterwards with another man on a motorcycle¹². The man in front of Valeria, whom she did not recognize, asked: “Are you Valeria?” “Yes”, she replied, before the man behind her fatally shot her multiple times in the chest and head. Although the chic plaza where the salon is located is surrounded by CCTV cameras, footage of the two men is partial¹³.

Valeria said that if anything happened to her, then her ex-boyfriend, Ricardo Ruiz Velasco (aka El Doble R), with whom she had been in a romantic relationship for several months, is to blame. Velasco belongs to the Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel (JNGC) Elite Group, which exercises significant control in Jalisco, clashed with the military and carried out high profile assassinations¹⁴. Velasco threatened Valeria with death days before, which she shared with more than 100,000 of her followers¹⁵.

Vivian blocked her Instagram channel after the incident and said she is not the woman who appears at the end of the livestream, whom she identified as Erika¹⁶.

Denis Rodriguez stated that murders by hired guns on motorcycles, known as “sicarios,” are a common occurrence in Jalisco¹⁷ and that the murder was neither ordered nor planned¹⁸.

Valeria quickly rose to fame and fortune because she frequented rich and powerful people in Mexico, which carries a certain danger.

That the murder was neither ordered nor planned, as the attorney general’s office initially claimed, is most unlikely. The question the hitman asked Valeria (“Are you Valeria?”) was most likely meant to indicate he is a stranger or confirm her identity. The items that were delivered to her (namely, the pink drink and plush toy pig) could have also been meant to insult her, as she observes that her favorite color is red. Erika’s prior statement that she wanted to “see her (Valeria’s) face” when she receives the “expensive gift” could be double entendre for the cost of her assassination and the look on her (dead) face.

Erika, who picked up Valeria’s cellphone after she fell, was almost certainly involved in the assassination, not only because of previous circumstances but also because she looks completely unphased in the video. Had she been surprised by the murder, it would have been apparent. Conversely, if she maintained her composure, as she does in the video, she could have recorded the hitmen or asked for help rather than turned off the camera. If Erika was on Valeria’s side, then the hitmen would have probably killed her too, since she is a female and a witness.

The governing criminals laws in Mexico are the Federal Criminal Code (Código Penal Federal) and the National Code of Criminal Procedure (Código Nacional de Procedimientos Penales). However, each state has its own penal code and code of procedure, which differ significantly between states¹⁹.

The Federal Penal Code defines femicide as depriving “a woman of life because of her gender” (art. 325), which carries a sentence of 40 to 60 years in prison and a fine of 500 to 1,000 days of daily income. The perp loses all rights to the victim, including inheritance. If femicide is not proven, then the rules for homicide (art. 315) apply.

The Federal Penal Code stipulates that the perp is criminally responsible if they foresee and accept the outcome of their action (art. 9). A third party who orders a crime or aids or abets it is also counted as a perp (art. 13.VI & VII)

The perps and their principals (art. 32) must pay restitution to the victim or their immediate relatives or partner (art. 30) as a form of civil liability (art. 34, par. 3). The amount is to be determined by the judge (art. 31) at the request of the prosecutor (art. 31 bis.) depending on the perps’ financial situation, as a joint debt between them (art. 36).

Around 25% of homicides in Mexico are ruled as femicides²⁰.

Around 90% of crimes in Mexico are not reported or investigated²¹ and less than 3% of homicides end in conviction²². 

Civil authorities in Mexico, especially in Jalisco state, are widely reputed to have connections to cartels²³. 

The murder of Valeria Marquez was most likely an assassination. It is also a femicide by the legal definition, a qualifier being that “there exists a sentimental, emotional or trusting relationship between the perpetrator and the victim” (art. 325.IV), which would be the case if the hit was ordered by Velasco, as she suspected. Conversely, if she was killed just because she is a (rich and famous) woman, that would also qualify as a femicide by the legal definition.