Unsolved case · 2015
File:GravestoneOfBedelynOrozco.jpgCredit: TrojanHorsepersonCC BY-SA 4.0SourceThe short answer
In May 2015, 14-year-old Bedelyn Esther Orozco Gómez was beaten and burned to death by a vigilante mob in Río Bravo, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala, after being accused of involvement in the killing of a moto taxi driver.
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Suggest coverage for 2015 Rio Bravo lynchingOn 10 May 2015, in the village of Río Bravo, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala, a 14-year-old girl named Bedelyn Esther Orozco Gómez was killed by a vigilante mob. According to local media reporting, Orozco Gómez had been accused of involvement in the killing of Carlos Enrique González Noriega, a 68-year-old moto taxi driver. Residents claimed that Orozco Gómez, along with two other men, shot González Noriega after he refused to pay protection money. The two male accomplices reportedly escaped, but Orozco Gómez was captured by a mob and dragged to the town center.
A crowd of at least one hundred people, including women and children, is reported to have watched as Orozco Gómez was repeatedly punched and kicked. Police attempted to intervene but were blocked from the area by the mob and left the scene. After the beating, a member of the crowd doused her in gasoline and set her on fire, killing her.
Seven days after the killing, a video of the attack surfaced online. It was uploaded to YouTube, where it reportedly received thousands of views before being taken down, and it was also widely shared on Guatemalan social media, prompting public debate over vigilante justice in the country.
The video later became the subject of repeated false-context claims on social media. In 2018, it was falsely described as showing a Hindu girl from Madhya Pradesh, India, who was said to have been burned alive for attending a Christian church service. Following the 2021 Fall of Kabul, the footage was recirculated with false claims that it depicted an Afghan girl. In October 2023, it resurfaced again with false claims that it showed the killing of an Israeli girl by a "Palestinian lynch mob."
Bedelyn Esther Orozco Gómez, 14, is beaten and burned to death by a vigilante mob in Río Bravo, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala, after being accused of involvement in the killing of a moto taxi driver.
A video of the lynching surfaces online, uploaded to YouTube and widely shared on Guatemalan social media before removal.
The video resurfaces with false claims that it depicts a Hindu girl in Madhya Pradesh, India, burned alive for attending a Christian church service.
Following the Fall of Kabul, the video is recirculated online with false claims that it shows an Afghan girl.
The video resurfaces again with false claims that it depicts the killing of an Israeli girl by a "Palestinian lynch mob."
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
14-year-old girl beaten and burned to death by a vigilante mob after being accused of involvement in the killing of a moto taxi driver; no charges are documented in the available sources.[3]
68-year-old moto taxi driver killed prior to the lynching; residents accused Orozco Gómez and two other men of shooting him after he refused to pay protection money.[3]
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