What Happened to TikTok Influencer Valeria Marquez? Inside the Shocking Details
Valeria Marquez boasted hundreds of thousands of followers across social media, specifically on TikTok.
Published May 15 2025, 11:03 a.m. ET
There have been many shocking incidents that have occurred involving social media influencers, and the tragic fate of Mexican TikTok beauty influencer Valeria Marquez is the latest.
Valeria boasted hundreds of thousands of followers across social media, specifically on TikTok, who tuned in to watch her regular beauty and lifestyle content shared on the platforms.
What happened to Valeria Marquez?
On Tuesday, May 13, while on a TikTok livestream from her Zapopan, Mexico beauty salon, Valeria was shot and killed in front of her followers, according to CNN.
As she went to answer the door, she returned with a small stuffed pig that she showed her followers while on live. “He’s a little piglet,” she said. Mere minutes later, Valeria was shot to death and slumped over in her chair, covered in blood, as the livestream continued and her followers watched in absolute horror, per the outlet.
What have local authorities said about Valeria’s death?
Per a media release, the State’s Attorney General’s Office is investigating Valeria’s death as femicide, which is the murder of a woman or girl due to their gender.
“According to the initial lines of investigation, she was at her establishment when a man entered the premises and apparently fired a firearm at her, killing her,” the release said. Per the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences, Valeria’s “body will be transported by personnel from the Forensic Medical Service to their facilities, where an autopsy will be performed, and official identification by family members is pending.”
Following Valeria’s death, Zapopan Mayor Juan Jose Frangie said the mayor’s office didn’t have a record of Valeria asking authorities for assistance due to any threats against her, according to CBS News. "It's incredible that you're making a video, and then you're murdered. A femicide is the worst thing," the mayor said, per the outlet.
Has a motive in Valeria’s death been identified?
As of now, no motive has been identified in the murder of Valeria, but Mexico reportedly has high levels of violence against women and homicide, according to CNN.
Earlier this month, an eerily similar tragedy happened to late mayoral candidate Yesenia Lara Gutiérrez, who was also shot and killed during a Facebook livestream of her campaign rally, the outlet reported.
In 2024, Mexico reported 847 cases of femicide, and there have been 167 so far in 2025, CNN said. Additionally, per Amnesty International, in 2020, a quarter of female murders in Mexico were investigated as femicides, with cases in all of Mexico’s 32 states.
Per CBS News, in addition to extreme violence against women, Mexico is also home to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is known as one of the area’s deadly drug trafficking groups.
The cartel has allegedly faked job advertisements to lure new members and if new recruits resist, they are tortured and killed. As the investigation is in its early stages, there has been no evidence at this time that the Jalisco Cartel is behind Valeria’s death.