When a package arrived at the beauty salon where Valeria Marquez worked, she was delighted. However, seconds after opening the parcel while live-streaming the delivery, the 23-year-old Mexican influencer was murdered.

Just two days later, thousands of kilometres away, Maria Jose Estupinan, a 22-year-old model and influencer from Colombia, was shot several times outside her home by a man who posed as a delivery person.

Two days later, in a country thousands of kilometres away, another woman was murdered in almost the exact same manner.

The dual murders have cast a spotlight on the gender-based violence epidemic plaguing Latin America. Here's what we know about Valeria and Maria's cases.

Valeria Marquez.

Valeria Marquez was shot dead while live-streaming on TikTok on May 13. In the video, the 23-year-old was excited when a plush toy was delivered to her beauty salon in Zapopan, Mexico.

"He's a little piglet!" she exclaimed, showing the toy to her TikTok followers in a live stream.

Moments later, a man arrived at her studio and asked, "Hi, are you Valeria?"

"Yes," she said, before muting her microphone.

Viewers of the live stream watched in horror as Valeria collapsed in her chair. She appeared to have been shot twice, with at least one bullet entering her torso. The face of another woman briefly appeared in the frame before the live-stream abruptly ended.

The popular influencer had an online following of around 200,000 people.

Valeria Marquez. Image: Instagram/@v__marquez

According to reports, the man who shot her fled the scene on a motorbike. When authorities arrived at the scene, Valeria was reportedly still in her chair and holding onto the plush toy.

After being crowned Miss Rostro (Miss Face) in a local beauty contest, Valeria rose to fame on social media as a beauty and lifestyle influencer and an entrepreneur.

She had over 113,000 followers on TikTok and at least 70,000 on Instagram. In 2024, she opened a salon in Zapopan where she shared beauty tips with her audience, as well as details about her personal life.

According to Denis Rodríguez, a spokesperson for the state of Jalisco's Attorney General's office, her murder is being investigated as a suspected femicide; the killing of a woman or girl for gender-based reasons.

This would be the eighth femicide this month in Jalisco, Mexico.

"The aggressor arrived asking if the victim (Márquez) was there. So it appears he didn't know her," Rodríguez said.

"With that, you can deduce, without jumping to conclusions, that this was a person who was paid. It was obviously someone who came with a purpose."

Earlier in the live stream, Valeria shared details about the yet-to-arrive package, which set off speculation about her death.

"Hey, what do you think happened to me?" she said to viewers.

"I was doing some things today, and Erika called me and said, 'Hey, babe, they're bringing you something, and I don't know what, but they want to give it to you.'"

"I said, 'Oh, I'll be there in about an hour,' and the delivery guy said, 'I'd better wait for her because it's really expensive.'

"Who's going to give me something?" she asked on the video, before adding, "Dude, they might've been about to kill me."

It is not clear who Erika is.

Valeria's death comes days after another woman, a mayoral candidate in the state of Veracruz, was also shot dead during a live stream along with three other people.

Valeria's murder came two days before Maria's.

Maria Jose Estupinan.

Maria was a university student in Colombia's northeastern city of Cucuta, which is situated near the Venezuela border.

She was shot and killed outside of her home by a man posing as a delivery driver, with security footage capturing the moment she was shot and the suspect's escape.

She was killed on May 15, Magda Victoria Acosta, president of the National Gender Commission of the Colombian Judiciary, said.

Maria Jose Estupinan. Image: Facebook.

"She was a young, enterprising woman with a whole life ahead of her, but those dreams are cut short like the dreams of many women in this country," Acosta told reporters at a news conference.

Acosta added that Maria was the victim of domestic violence and was about to receive compensation for it. Her case is still under investigation.

The two murders are casting a light on the issues of femicide and domestic violence in the two countries.

Acosta said around 41 women were reported missing in Colombia between January and August last year. Of those, 34 cases were in Cucuta, where Maria lived.

While in Mexico, femicides made up 19.8 per cent of female homicides in 2015. This increased to 24.2 per cent by 2024.

Last year, the country had 847 reported cases of femicide. 162 of these were within the first three months of the year, as per the Mexican Government.

What's more, about 85 per cent of women aged 15 and over who have experienced sexual or physical violence did not even file a complaint, according to Mexico's National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships.

Human Rights Watch Americas Director Juanita Goebertus addressed the rise in femicides to CNN, telling the publication, "In 2022, around 4,000 women were killed in Mexico, which amounts to 12 per cent of all homicides that year.

"And the rate of cases that lead to a verdict is around 67 per cent."

Goebertus said that the main challenge is increasing the capacity of authorities to investigate and protect witnesses and victims.

This article was originally published on May 17, and has since been updated with new information.

Feature Image: Instagram/@v__marquez