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The Other Girl in the Water Tank: Debanhi Escobar
Eerily similar to Elisa Lam, this young woman vanished, only to later be found in the cistern of a motel.
The story of California tourist Elisa Lam is widely known and studied in the true crime community. Her case, if not already universally popular, was made even more so when the 2021 Netflix documentary Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel was released. The very next year, another woman vanished in a similar matter and two weeks later she was found dead in the most unusual location.
Just like Elisa, she was discovered floating in the water tank of a motel.
This time the tragic case took place in Mexico. A law student named Debanhi Susana Escobar was found two weeks after she disappeared, floating dead and decomposing inside a cistern.
Employees at Motel Nueva Castilla had been receiving strange complaints about an odiferous smell coming from the area. The police were eventually notified when the putrid stench was found to be originating from the motel’s water supply.
On the 21st of April 2022, a body was removed from the water, but the victim, sadly, was unrecognizable. However, investigators noticed she was wearing the same clothing Debanhi Escobar had been wearing on the night she went missing. The crucifix around her neck helped to identify her.
Police first claimed that Debanhi had simply fallen into the reservoir and accidentally drowned. The cistern was 12 feet deep and poolside at the motel.
During the autopsy on Debanhi, the medical examiner determined that she had been murdered before she was dumped into the water. She had at least one blow to her head. Her cause of death was a contusion to the skull.
A lack of water in her lungs suggests that she was already dead by the time her body hit the water. The initial report of her death had been classified as an accident, however, after these alarming autopsy results, authorities are treating the case as a homicide.
There is evidence supporting the claim that Debanhi was also sexually assaulted, which was announced by Mexico’s Federal Human Rights Commission. Video footage captured her in a verbal and…
