With Friends Like These…
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor

…Who the hell would need enemies?

This story was sent to me by my man Charles H via email, and what I got was the version that showed the actual beating, which was horrific! You mean to tell me that within 24 hours of arriving at this vacation, this girl ends up beaten to death by her so-called friends? Man, y’all better be careful whom you hang with!

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — It has become a mystery in Mexico as a Charlotte family tries to find answers to how a 25-year-old wound up dead.

Conflicting reports have them wondering what really happened at a villa in Cabo but as you can see, this girl was beaten to death and they did it while she was butt naked. How can this be OK? This girl was naked and obviously in distress when she was beaten to death by her so called friends.

It was supposed to be a fun long weekend for Shanquella Robinson and her group of friends who went to Cabo to celebrate a birthday.

“She told me they had a chef. They were getting ready to eat. They were eating tacos or a salad or something, and I said, ‘OK. I love you. Have a good night, and I will talk to you tomorrow.’ I never talked to my child again. She never made it back home,” Shanquella’s mom, Salamondra Robinson, said in a statement.

Salamondra said her daughter was dead within 24 hours of arriving in Cabo.

Figuring out how or why has only added to the family’s nightmare. It began with a frantic call from Robinson’s friends.

“They said she wasn’t feeling well. She had alcohol poisoning,” she said. “They couldn’t get a pulse,” she continued. “Each one of the people that were there with her was telling different stories.”

When the family made calls to the FBI and Mexican authorities, they learned of another potential cause of death.

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

Salamondra said the entire group returned from Mexico, leaving her daughter’s body there. Nearly two weeks and $6,000 later, her body is back home, but answers have been hard to come by.

“I know that’s not going to bring my child back, but I want something done about it,” she said.

Queen City News spoke with officials at the U.S. State Department in Mexico. They refute the claim that Robinson was murdered, saying the police’s initial indication is that there was no clear evidence of foul play.

Here in Charlotte, her family refuses to believe their daughter’s death was an accident, and they vow to find the truth about what happened that night in Cabo.

“She had a heart of gold. She loved everybody, and pretty much everybody loved her,” Salamondra said.

An official with the State Department said they are helping the family obtain reports from authorities in Mexico.

They recommend the family hire a private investigator and attorney if they question the circumstances surrounding Shanquella’s death.