A former beauty queen and actress who was reported missing last year has been confirmed dead.
Colombian mum of one Ania Acosta, 43, was believed to have been kidnapped in Mexico almost 10 months ago. The Colombian embassy in Mexico revealed that she had been laid to rest on Wednesday.
In a post on X, the embassy shared: "It is with pain that we inform you that Ania Margoth Acosta was buried today. A Colombian victim of trafficking and a femicide, but also of abandonment by the State. Today we failed a family, to whom we apologise, and we ask the judicial authorities for a prompt investigation."
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Ania Acosta disappeared in June 2023Ania had moved to Mexico in 2022, hoping to kickstart her career as a singer. It is believed she was kidnapped on June 21, 2023, in the western Mexican state of Michoacán. A family member spoke with Colombian outlet Noticias Caracol, saying authorities had shared a video showing the moment Ania was forced into a vehicle.
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Her last contact with her family was at around 1am, just moments before she disappeared. She told her mother she was in the municipality of Morelia and was planning to travel to the state capital, Guadalajara. The family member shared: "She communicated with the mother as if saying goodbye, that she was leaving, but that she loved us all, as if to let her understand that she was in danger."
They added: "They (the embassy) apologise because they did not do enough to rescue her, it is something that cannot be described, losing a loved one."
According to Spanish language outlet El Tiempo, strategic human rights litigation NGO Idheas believe that she was a victim of kidnapping and was potentially trafficked. They said she had been harassed by a man, who she described to her family as a member of a criminal enterprise.
Ania had moved to Mexico in 2022 in an attempt to jumpstart her singing career
A woman inscribes Ania's name in concrete after she was laid to rest (Embajada de Colombia en Mexico)The man reportedly pressured her to fight other people and allegedly forced her into engaging in a sexual relationship with him. Writing about Ania's case, the NGO said: "Being far from [her] family and place of origin, there is little information about what may have happened to [her].
"There is still no clear hypothesis of facts. However, it is believed that the people who deprived her of her freedom did so to use her for illicit purposes. In the days before her disappearance, Ania had been harassed by someone she defined as a gangster, who pressured her to fight with other people and have sexual relations with him."
Her body was located by the Michoacán State attorney General's Office in a state of decomposition. Her identity was confirmed through a Star of David tattoo on her chest.
She had previously won a beauty pageant in the Chocó province in 2001 before making a move into acting, appearing in the Colombian network series La Viuda Negra (The Black Widow), Las Detectivas y El Víctor (The Detectives and Víctor) and El Comandante (The Commander). She, like many Colombians, had moved to Mexico in hopes of finding a job that could bring in decent money so she could look into relaunching her artistic career.
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