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AS the one-year anniversary of Shanquella Robinson’s death approaches, her family is looking to the recent developments in Natalee Holloway’s case in hopes of getting justice.
Shanquella died on October 29, 2022, while on vacation in Mexico and her family has not stopped fighting for justice in her case.
An autopsy conducted in Mexico revealed that Shanquella suffered a head injury and died of a broken neck.
Video footage from the incident that allegedly led to her death went viral and showed one of the other travel mates violently beating Shanquella.
As Mexican authorities investigated, an alleged aggressor in her death was identified, and a warrant for that person’s arrest was issued.
Shanquella’s family and legal team hoped that the US would pursue the case and extradite the suspect to Mexico, but in April 2023, the FBI office in North Carolina, where Shanquella was from, declined to press charges against that person.
Sue-Ann Robinson, the attorney representing Shanquella’s family, has repeatedly petitioned the White House demanding diplomatic intervention in the case.
She previously told The U.S. Sun that Shanquella’s case should be a priority to the US government but noted that it’s not receiving the same amount of attention nor being treated with the same urgency as other cases.
EERIE SIMILARITIES
Sue-Ann – who is not related to Shanquella or the Robinson family – spoke again with The U.S. Sun and drew some similarities to the Natalee Holloway case.
Holloway’s family only recently received answers about the 18-year-old’s 2005 disappearance while vacationing in Aruba after Joran van der Sloot confessed to her gruesome murder.
Both Shanquella and Holloway were women traveling abroad with others when they vanished with few initial answers.
In addition, both of their cases involve someone who knew what happened but refused to say initially, leaving their families agonizing over the truth.
Holloway’s family “obviously never gave up, [and] continued throughout the process. And, you know, they received justice,” Sue-Ann said.
“So I think that the idea is to keep the pressure on the State Department for them to recognize Shanquella’s rights and her death, just as any other citizen.
“The broader message is always that if something happens to a US citizen while they’re traveling abroad, the State Department is who you go to for assistance and help,” Sue-Ann continued.
“And that’s their whole job. So they should be stepping in.”
‘THEY’RE NOT GIVING UP’
Holloway, an Alabama native, disappeared while on a trip to Aruba with her high school classmates. She was last seen on May 30, 2005.
Her body has never been recovered, and she was declared legally dead in 2012.
Van der Sloot had long been the main suspect in Holloway’s disappearance and was taken into custody 10 days after she was last seen.
While he was held in custody for months and denied any wrongdoing, he was ultimately released in September 2005.
Van der Sloot, who is serving jail time in Peru for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, was temporarily extradited to the United States to face charges in an extortion case relating to Holloway.
In 2010, he allegedly promised information about Holloway’s death and the whereabouts of her remains to her family in exchange for $250,000, according to the Department of Justice.
Earlier in October, he accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he will serve concurrently with his Peruvian prison time.
As part of his plea deal in the extortion case, van der Sloot revealed gruesome details about how Holloway was killed and reportedly said that afterward, he went into the water and released her body, and then watched porn at home.
“You didn’t get what you wanted from Natalee, your sexual satisfaction, so you brutally killed her,” Beth Holloway said at van der Sloot’s sentencing hearing, per Daily Beast.
Van der Sloot’s extradition and recent admission to the brutal killing of Holloway have brought her family the closure that Shanquella’s loved ones still seek.
“The arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” Sue-Ann said of Shanquella’s family’s journey.
“So it’ll happen, and they’re not giving up.”
