Mexico City officials are hoping that surveillance footage of a murdered seven-year-old girl’s last moments walking down an alley with an unknown street vendor will lead authorities to her killer.
Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett was last seen February 11 after leaving Enrique Rebsamen Primary School with a woman, who according to locals sold snacks outside the school entrance in Santiago Tulyehualco, a neighborhood in the borough of Xochimilco.
In the security camera video released Monday by the Mexico City prosecutor’s office, the woman is seen holding Aldrighett’s hand as they walked down a street near the school approximately at 6.30pm local time.
Aldrighett’s body was discovered Saturday afternoon in a plastic garbage bag in Mexico City’s Tlahuac neighborhood, days after another murder of a young woman triggered angry protests.
Mexico City’s attorney general and mayor promised justice and offered a $107,000 reward for information. The attorney general’s office released Tuesday a sketch of the suspect, who they believe is between the ages of 42 and 45.
According to Univision Noticias, authorities have searched a home where they believe Aldrighett was kept before she was killed and her naked body was dumped on an empty lot.
María Magnadalena Antón told reporters on Monday that her daughter could have been killed by the same person who murdered her sister. She said her daughter’s nails were painted black, just like her sisters.
Surveillance footage shared by Mexico City Attorney General’s office shows the moment Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett (left) is walking down an alley with a woman (right), who locals said worked as a street vendor outside the school entrance
Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett’s body was found in a garbage bag Saturday in Mexico City’s Tlahuac neighborhood, four days after she was reported missing by her family. Aldrighett was last seen February 11 after leaving Enrique Rebsamen Primary School with a woman, who according to locals sold snacks outside the school
Mexico City’s Attorney General’s office is offering a $107,000 for information leading to the capture of the woman (pictured) who was spotted in a video walking with Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett last Tuesday before the seven-year-old’s lifeless body was found Saturday
Sonia López blasted the lack of an immediate response from authorities after her niece was reported missing and said Aldrighett could have been found alive if they had listened to the family.
‘Fatima is not with us because the protocols were not followed, because the institutions did not give the attention they should have,’ López said, her voice breaking with emotion as she spoke to reporters. ‘We will not forget her.’
López said precious hours were wasted after Aldrighett was reported missing. She also said social services had not heeded calls to help the girl’s mother, who has health problems, support her daughter.
Mexico City attorney general, Ernestina Godoy Ramos, said she would review the office’s handling of the case.
‘The full institution has been activated for the investigation,’ she told reporters.
A woman consoles María Magnadalena Antón moments after the casket carrying the remains of her daughter, Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett, arrived at her home
María Magnadalena Antón reacts after her seven-year-old daughter’s coffin arrives at the family home, where friends and family members gathered for a closed casket service
A coffin with Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett’s body is carried inside her home in Mexico City
A woman stands outside the entrance to Enrique Rebsamen Primary School, where Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett studied
Guillermo Antón, the girl’s grandfather, said Monday that his daughter arrived at the school 15 or 20 minutes after the woman led the girl away. He added that his granddaughter had left the school wearing her uniform, but the woman had put a green shirt and pants on her.
His daughter was initially told that authorities couldn’t begin searching for 72 hours after her disappearance, he said. However, the prosecutors office said an Amber Alert was issued about the girl’s disappearance the same day that relatives reported her missing.
Family and friends gathered for a wake at the family’s home to mourn the girl Monday evening.
Many relatives and commentators called for urgent changes to primary school safety protocols. At government schools in urban areas of Mexico, children simply walk out on the street after classes end. Although their parents are often waiting outside, it is not the school’s responsibility to make sure someone is waiting to meet them.
Friends and family members wait outside Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett’s home, were a public funeral service was held Monday night, two days after her body was found inside a bag
Activists gathered in Mexico City on Monday to demand justice for seven-year-old Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett, whose body was found inside a garbage bag Saturday, four days after she was reported missing
Residents demand answers from the Mexico City government at a rally held Monday following the murder of Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett
The abduction and killing of the child came just two days after Ingrid Escamilla, a young Mexico City resident, was allegedly murdered by a boyfriend.
The man, who has been arrested and purportedly confessed to killing Escamilla with a knife, mutilated her body and flushed part of her corpse into the sewer.
Indignation grew after some local media published horrific photos of the skinned corpse, apparently leaked by city police officers.
Protesters read a statement Friday saying, ‘It enrages us how Ingrid was killed, and how the media put her body on display.’
On Monday afternoon, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that media should not publish personal details or images of children in relation to a crime whether they are the authors, victims or witnesses.
A man looks on next to white balloons and flowers at the site where the body of seven-year old Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett
Friends and family members pay their respects near the coffin of Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett
A man hands over a lit candle near the coffin of Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett during a public service held inside her home in Mexico City
A man carries his daughter and stops to observe the site where Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett’s body was found inside a garbage bag Saturday
Friends and family members pay their respects at Monday night’s funeral service for Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett, the missing seven-year-old girl whose body was found inside a garbage bag
The Mexican capital has seen a series of angry demonstrations over killings of women over the past few months, including several in which protesters have vandalized major monuments and buildings.
During his daily press briefing Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said protests over the killings were an attempt to distract attention from his social programs.
In response, the president said he was sure authorities would catch the perpetrators of the crime, but said punishment alone was not the solution.
Ingrid Escamilla was brutally murdered in Mexico City on February 9
The bigger challenge, he said, was to purify Mexican society, which he said had ‘fallen into decline, a progressive degradation that has to do with the neoliberal model.’
‘Unemployment, economic growth, the number of homicides are measured, but the degree of social decomposition produced by neoliberal policies are not measured. There is a deep crisis of loss of values.’
Aldrighett’s grandfather slammed López Obrador for blaming his predecessors for Mexico’s problems.
‘Now he is in charge, he is president,’ Guillermo Antón said. ‘He should show us he is different.’
An average of 10 a day are killed in Mexico and the year 2019, the first of López Obrador’s government, set an overall homicide record, according to official data. Victims of femicide increased 10% in 2019 to over 1,000.