By Laura Gottesdiener

GALEANA (Mexico) – Mario Escobar, a father of Debanhi Escobar, stood on top of a hill in northern Mexico. He was surrounded by dozens mourners as he prepared to bury Debanhi Escobar, his daughter.

He stated, “We’re all destroyed in the inside.” “We believed she was still alive. However, that didn’t happen.”

New outrage has been sparked by the nearly two week-long search for the law student aged 18, who went missing on April 9 in the vicinity of Monterrey, a northern industrial community.

Mexico has an average of 10 female victims per day. Tens of thousands of others are still missing. [L2N2WK2N3]

Nearly 100 relatives, friends and neighbors attended the Galeana funeral, Nuevo Leon. Galeana is where Debanhi lived with her mother, who was a frequent visitor to the area on weekends and holidays.

The mourners sang songs as they moved under the heat sun. They carried white balloons with hand-written messages demanding justice for Debanhi.

On Thursday, the body of the teenager was discovered submerged in a water cistern within a motel grounds near her last known location.

Friday’s statement by the state attorney General stated that there was no cause for death other than a skull contusion, and all avenues of inquiry were still open. Mario Escobar, the state attorney general said that his daughter’s body had been “beaten up and strangled” at her funeral.

The death of Debanhi occurred amid an avalanche of female disappearances in Nuevo Leon. At least 26 girls and women have vanished since the start of this year. Six more, including Debanhi, have been reported missing and have been discovered dead.