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Four months after Shanquella Robinson mysteriously died in Cabo San Lucas on Oct. 29, a Mexican arrest warrant remains unserved, leaving her family and the surrounding Charlotte community unsatisfied.
On Feb. 20, a large group of people marched from Little Rock AME Zion Church to a local post office to mail 1,000 pink letters to Mexico desperately urging the government to take more action.
Local Charlotte activist John C. Barnett was the brains behind the letters, saying, “I think that’s what it takes,” he said. “If we collectively as a community, especially here in Charlotte don’t stand up and put any pressure on Mexico to do anything, then it’s just going to sit around as a cold case, and we don’t want this to be a cold case.”
According to Yahoo! News, officials said that extradition from the U.S. to Mexico regularly involves legal hurdles, and it could take time to piece together what exactly happened to Shanquella Robinson.
Fed up with the overwhelming amount of unanswered questions still remaining, the family and community organizers in Charlotte, North Carolina, are now utilizing their own resources to get answers and closure for the explosive case.
Pink envelopes mailed as Charlotte hopes Mexico gets the message
“I came up with the concept of using pink to send these letters over to Mexico,” Barnett said. “I thought it would be creative, but yet it’s catching because when it drops into the police department in their mailbox, other than the normal envelope being white, this one is pink.”
Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, local prosecutor for the state of Baja California Sur, told reporters in Nov. 2022 that his office is treating the case like a femicide — the murder of a woman because of her gender.
Mexico has seen a significant rise in femicides in recent years, increasing from 427 victims in 2015 to 1,004 in 2021, according to Vision of Humanity.
Family of Shanquella Robinson continues to pursue justice
“So every time they see a pink envelope, they’re going to know that we’re trying to put pressure on them to execute the warrants to lock up these individuals,” Barnett said. “It’s been almost four months, the mother and the family need closure and it’s imperative that they lock them up.”
Robinson’s father, Bernard Robinson, told QCity Metro that though he is still in mourning, he’s thankful for the continued support from people in Charlotte and around the world. “Justice is coming; I just don’t know when,” said Bernard Robinson.
I sent an email to be printed out, I hope this case resolves itself soon.