Shanquella Robinson

Case background and investigation

Shanquella Robinson, a 25-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, travelled to the Los Cabos area of Mexico in late October 2022 with six acquaintances. She died on October 29, 2022, at a rental villa in San José del Cabo, according to Wikipedia and WBTV.

Her family was initially told that she had died of alcohol poisoning. A Mexican death certificate, however, listed a severe spinal cord injury and atlas luxation as the cause of death, TravelNoire reported. A video that circulated online in November 2022 showed Robinson being struck repeatedly by a female member of the group in the villa.

An autopsy performed in Charlotte on November 17, 2022, listed the cause of death as undetermined but found a forehead hematoma consistent with blunt force trauma, along with brain injury, according to WBTV. In late November 2022, Baja California Sur prosecutors said the death was not accidental and that an arrest warrant had been issued for one of her travel companions, described as the direct aggressor, according to Wikipedia. The FBI's Charlotte field office opened its own investigation.

On April 13, 2023, federal prosecutors told the family that the available evidence did not support a federal prosecution, TravelNoire reported. The United States has not extradited anyone to Mexico, and as of 2026 no one has been criminally charged in either country in connection with her death, WBTV reported.

In October 2024 her mother, Salamondra Robinson, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against members of the travel group, and later also against federal agencies. According to WBTV, the claims against the FBI and State Department were dismissed in February 2026 and the case continued in Mecklenburg County Superior Court. On June 1, 2026, a judge denied one defendant's motion to dismiss, and that defendant appealed to the North Carolina Court of Appeals on June 30, 2026. The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court.