The last time Dayana Cervantez’s family heard from her was on the afternoon of June 5, when she left her home in Juanacatlán, Jalisco, to go to work at a bar located in the neighboring municipality of Zapotlanejo.
Two days later, her mother received the news that she had been found dead in Tonalá.
“I was 18 years old, I was going to turn 19 on the fourth of October. She really enjoyed dancing, was a waiter and continuously worked all week. That Saturday he went to work, as he always did, and he had to have returned no later than 8 a.m. on Sunday, but he did not return,” recalls his mother, Carmen Chávez.
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According to the association Unión Diversa de Jalisco, in one month five trans women have been murdered in the country, two of them in that state, between June 7 and July 7.
They are Valeria Carrasco (Colima), Kendra (Tijuana, Baja California), Ivonne Álvarez (Mexico City), Michell (El Salto, Jalisco) and Dayana (Tonalá, Jalisco), who according to the organization presented beatings and traces of violence.
A month without knowing what happened
Every Sunday morning, Dayana went to breakfast at the place where her mother worked, but that June 6th she did not arrive. Carmen waited for her unsuccessfully, and upon returning home in the afternoon her husband told her she wasn’t there either, so they started calling her on her cell phone, getting no response.
Both went to the bar ‘El Cuchitril’, near the Villas de Andalucía subdivision, where Dayana worked, but the manager told them that he had no information about the young woman. The only thing she could offer them was to ask about her among her companions, through a WhatsApp group, and the answer was the same: nothing. They had been calling her, but her phone was sending her to the mailbox.
“There were no patrols that day because they were voting. We had to go to a polling station to look for a policeman and I told them that she had not returned from work, that we had gone out to look for her. We were in it when my son spoke to me on the phone and told me that he had already asked how to get the report of disappearance, but they asked us to wait 24 hours,” he recalls.
That night Carmen could not sleep, except after she heard neighbors in the area comment that they had found a person with the characteristics of Dayana lifeless, but had no further information. It wasn’t until the next morning, when he turned on the television, that he saw a note mentioning the find.
“My husband stopped a patrol and they sent us to the Salto offices. They asked us for photos for the search newsletter, but said the broadcast was going to take 72 hours. I told them I couldn’t wait that long and asked them if they had received the report of the finding I saw on the news. The authorities began to communicate with the Green Cross and the Forensic Institute, where they sent them some photographs that showed my husband and sister… and yes, they were her tattoos,” carmen narrates.
That same afternoon they moved to the Institute of Forensic Sciences and Ricardo, Dayana’s brother, recognized the body, although he could only see it virtually. He looked at his face, his clothes full of blood and had no further information, until days later. Authorities only told the family that the cause of death was gunshots.
Ricardo asked officials about local media reports that the young woman had been mutilated and that was why there was blood on her tights, but got no response. They were told that they would know what happened in due course, but a month after Dayana’s murder the family has only obtained silence.
Dayana’s killer is still free
The only thing Carmen knows about what happened to her daughter is that she was seen inside a vehicle with a man from whom, according to videos collected by the Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office, only a white T-shirt is distinguished.
Authorities have told him they already have the van, but Dayana’s killer is still free. Although his mother has asked who he is, to be alert to any reprisals, he has not been given information.
“I asked them about the identified, but they say they can’t give me that report, that because the families retaliate, but I just want justice. They haven’t told me anything, only that their body was found upside down. They said “I brought eyelashes?” and I said yes. They (the Prosecutor’s Office) say they already have the full investigation, but they need the judge’s order to arrest the person,” he laments.
Fearing that the person who killed Dayana would hurt them for seeking justice, Carmen had to quit her job at a restaurant. Anyway she says she doesn’t feel safe andn your home. The Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office told him he would have police surveillance, but after the day he was notified, authorities never returned.
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In the Prosecutor’s Office, they have asked for patience and offered psychological support. “But in order to have peace I want justice. I’m not going to have my daughter anymore,” says Carmen.
In addition to the fear of reprisals from the killer, she and her family continue to be revictimized, as local media and neighbors circulate a video in which Dayana allegedly appears, when her body was found. Even though they reported these facts, the authorities told them that this is not a crime, so they cannot do anything.
“I feel like it’s disrespectful, because I want her to be remembered as she was, but the licensee who is handling the case said there is no such crime. I hope that these images will stop spreading,” the woman asks.
Unión Diversa Jalisco reported that, according to the report of the National Observatory of Hate Crimes against LGBT+ Persons, from January to July 2021, 36 murders of this population have been reported, of which 14 correspond to trans women.
Political Animal he consulted the Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office about the case and the complaints of Dayana’s family about denying them information, without having responded to the request until the time of publication.
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