HORRIFYING new details have emerged in the case of a teen who was last seen standing on a highway dubbed "Death Road" before she vanished into thin air.
Debanhi Escobar, 18, was found dead in a water tank at a motel in April after she disappeared following a night out with two pals in Nuevo León, Mexico.
The case became a national scandal after detectives took almost two weeks to find her body – which was discovered just metres away from where she was last seen.
Plagued by mishaps, her body was exhumed earlier this month for a third autopsy to determine the cause of her death after blundering officials came up with wildly different theories.
Her devastated family recently decided to hire a private investigator to get to the bottom of her mysterious death.
And in the latest development, Dr Felipe Takajashi, head of Mexico City’s forensic service, ruled the teen's death "was due to asphyxiation by suffocation".
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Debanhi had enjoyed an evening of partying in the city of Escobedo on April 8 before an argument broke out with one of her friends.
The pal contacted an off-duty taxi driver known to the trio – identified as 47-year-old Jesús – to take Debanhi home.
But a "heated discussion" is said to have erupted between the teen and the driver during the journey.
Cab driver Jesús, who mysteriously had his rideshare app turned off on the trip, then dumped Debanhi on the side of the road.
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He left her stranded on the side of the highway that leads to the Tamaulipas border town of Nuevo Laredo – known as "Death Road".
The desolate 219km strip got its ominous nickname due to the staggering number of people who have gone missing there.
Taxi driver Jesús took the final image of Debanhi last seen alive to send to her friends at around 5am on April 9.
Getting out of the car on 'Death Road'
Detectives haven't been able to get to the bottom of why Debanhi got out of the car and stood in the middle of the road.
In the final image snapped of her, the 18-year-old can be seen defiantly facing away and staring down the road while wearing a crop top and long skirt.
She was then spotted on security footage entering the site of Alcosa Transportes Internacionales, a trucking company, shortly after.
Her mysterious last movements sparked fears Debanhi might have been the next victim of the Laredo highway.
Bodies have then been found discarded along the eerie road that is feared by locals – where a whopping 77 people disappeared during last year alone.
Haunting stories from a handful of survivors each claim they were ambushed by armed men.
The photo of her standing in the dark on the road went viral in April.
She quickly became a symbol for the women's rights movement in a country where about 10 women are murdered every day.
Three different autopsies
Earlier this month, blundering detectives decided to exhume the teen's body after two initial studies came back with different results.
Nuevo Leon state’s head medical examiner initially said she died from a blow to the head.
But she was apparently alive when she entered the cistern and there was no water in her lungs, ABC News reports.
Another forensic analysis of the original autopsy – requested by Debanhi's family – then concluded she had been sexually assaulted and murdered.
And on Monday, Dr Felipe Takajashi, the head of Mexico City’s forensic service, said the latest autopsy on the teen's exhumed body showed she suffocated due to "obstruction of respiratory orifices".
He said Debanhi had been dead for three to five days when her body was found – and he ruled out sexual violence.
"No evidence was found, no type of finding that could support sexual violence," Takajashi said.
After hearing the new findings, the teenager's father Mario Escobar said his daughter had clearly been murdered.
"My daughter did not die accidentally, that is my hypothesis," he told reporters.
He also revealed that he is still awaiting the results of other analyses being carried out in the UK.
"Every process of femicide, because it is a femicide, is long, but I have peace that we are advancing," he added.
'Grope' caught on CCTV
In another twist, Debanhi's dad Mario said prosecutors told him that CCTV footage suggested the taxi driver inappropriately touched his daughter.
He alleged there were videos from inside the car showing the driver trying to touch Debanhi's breasts – which he said could have prompted her to flee the vehicle, El Pais reports.
Mario said it could explain why she was on the Laredo highway at 4.30am, where her phone was last registered.
Last CCTV footage at the motel
CCTV footage from the motel’s security cameras shows Debanhi going into the motel and wandered around.
She is seen running towards the motel driveway at 4.35am and looking through the door of a restaurant a minute later.
She eventually walked out of sight of the cameras in the direction of three cisterns near a swimming pool.
There are no surveillance cameras in the area where Debanhi was found in the motel grounds, the attorney general's office said.
Unsuccessful searches at the motel
Parts of the motel had been searched several times before Debanhi's body was finally found.
Police had searched the grounds at least four times during her disappearance – sparking disbelief and fury from her family.
The teen was only discovered after a motel employee reported a foul smell coming from the cistern.
Some reports suggested the woman may have fallen into one of the cisterns and died accidentally.
Prosecutors said her body was found in one tank, her handbag in another, and her phone and keys were found in a third tank.
At the time, Aldo Fasci, a senior Mexican politician, branded the failure to find Debanhi's body sooner a "massive human failure".
After a national outcry, the attorney general announced two prosecutors had been sacked from the missing persons and kidnapping unit for omitting details.
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In Mexico, seven women go missing every day.
Most cases are centred in regions of Mexico State, Morelos, Jalisco, and Nuevo León, according to data analysed by Mexico’s National Missing Persons Commission.
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