Chilling true story behind Netflix's The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo
In 2010, Marisela Escobedo was shot after holding a peaceful vigil for her murdered daughter.
Netflix have added a new crime documentary to their library.
Dropping on October 14th, The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo will examine a Mexican mother's tireless crusade to jail her daughter's murderer.
The 1hr 49min film looks at how Marisela's mission to find the person who killed her 16-year-old daughter Ruby led to her own murder.
Here's everything you need to know about the Netflix doc, including whether the killers were ever found.
What is The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo about?
In 2008, Marisela's 16-year-old daughter Rubi Frayre went missing. One year later, her remains were found burnt and dismembered in a trash bin in Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas.
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Marisela refused to let her daughter's death be another statistic and embarked on a mission to find the person responsible for Ruby's death.
Marisela Escobedo and her husband claimed that their daughter was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend Sergio Rafael Barraza Bocanegra.
They managed to locate Barraza and he was arrested and taken to Juarez where he confessed to the crime in court and told of the burial of the remains of Ruby.
He was however acquitted by judges for lack of evidence and was released.
In response, Marisela held a number of defiant protests against the Chihuahua state authorities for the acquittal and the verdict which brought international attention to the case.
A circuit court soon overturned the acquittal and Barraza was sentenced for murder while he remained a fugitive.
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On the evening of 16th December 2010, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz was holding a peaceful vigil for her daughter and other victims of femicide outside the Chihuahua State Governor's Office when a number of masked men arrived in a car.
According to reports, one of the men spoke to Marisela who then tried to escape before she was shot in the head. She later died in hospital due to her injuries.
Two days after, a brother-in-law of the family's body was found dumped on the street after his business was torched in another revenge killing.
Barraza, who was also suspected of ordering Marisela's murder, was killed during a clash with the Mexican military in 2012.
Who killed Marisela Escobedo?
In 2012, two years after Marisela's death, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte announced before TV cameras that police had finally caught the man who killed her on the Chihuahua State Capitol steps in December 2010.
Jose Enrique Jimenez Zavala was presented as the man who shot Marisela Escobedo. According to police, Jimenez is an alleged gunman for the Los Aztecas gang, which are enforcers for the Juarez cartel.
In a televised confession, Jimenez, who was 29 at the time, said he carried out Escobedo’s murder on orders from the Zetas and La Linea (gunmen for the Juarez cartel).
However Marisela's son Juan Fraire Escobedo doesn't believe he is the true killer.
In a report from the Texas Observer, he said: "I’m very sad and angry that they still haven’t resolved my mother’s case. We met with the Mexican authorities at the Mexican consulate in El Paso last year and ID’d the criminal. They promised there would be an investigation. But after that they never responded to me again. Jimenez is not the man who killed my mother.”
The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo is available to stream on Netflix. Check out our lists of the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix, or see what else is on with our TV Guide.
