A MAN has been arrested for the rape and murder of a 20-year-old university student after he went to her funeral with her scratch marks on his neck.
Family and friends of Marbella Valdez Villarreal raised the alarm after the unknown man behaved strangely as he approached and touched her coffin.
Subsequent tests revealed his DNA under the victim’s fingernails from when she was trying to defend herself.
The man, identified only as “Juan”, is now the prime suspect in the killing and is believed by her family to have been harassing and stalking her before her death.
Juan had met Marbella in a petrol station where she worked.
Prosecutors say he stole her house keys two days before kidnapping her. He then took her to his house to rape her, then strangled her to death.
Marbella’s body was found three days after she was reported missing on February 5 in an abandoned area in El Tecolote, Tijuana, north-western Mexico.
On February 14, the family held a funeral which the suspect attended wearing a T-shirt which had a picture on it and the words “Ni una mujer mas” (no more women).
Josely Ruiz, the victim’s cousin, said: “He was with us in the funeral, he approached the coffin and touched it”.
Marbella’s murder has sparked protests at her university, The University of Baja California, who are demanding justice for her killing and the many femicides like hers.
He is currently in custody facing charges of femicide. The investigation is ongoing.
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