Missing girl found dead, fueling outrage over gender violence in Mexico

By Laura Gottesdiener

MONTERREY, Mexico, April 22 (Reuters) - The body of a Mexican teenager who went missing this month in the northern state of Nuevo Leon has been found submerged in a cistern inside the grounds of a motel near where she was last seen alive, according to her father.

Debanhi Escobar, a 18-year-old law student, vanished on April 9, amid a spate of disappearances of women in Nuevo Leon's capital Monterrey that has sparked protests and intensified international scrutiny of gender violence in Mexico.

Twenty-six women and girls have disappeared in Nuevo Leon since the beginning of the year and five more have been found dead after being reported missing.

Debanhi was last seen alive standing next to a highway in a photo snapped by a driver contracted to take her home after a party.

On Friday, her father, Mario Escobar, accused the driver of trying to grope his daughter's breasts, citing video camera footage, suggesting this is what led her to get out of the car. What happened after she exited the vehicle is unclear.