María José Estupiñán Sánchez, a 22-year-old university student, was murdered Thursday morning in front of her home in the El Bosque neighborhood of Cúcuta. As the hours passed, new details have come to light, revealing the brutality of the crime and the alleged perpetrator. Estupiñán, a Social Communication student at Francisco de Paula Santander University (UFPS), was shot at point-blank range several times; one of the bullets hit her face. The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. when, according to witnesses, a suspected delivery man arrived at the young woman's home, located on Avenida 3A and Calle 11, pretending to deliver a gift. The attack occurred in front of neighbors and passersby, who were paralyzed by her mother's screams of pain. The crime occurred just one day after María José attended a hearing at the Prosecutor's Office as a victim of domestic violenceAccording to the newspaper La Opinión, on Wednesday, May 14, the young woman obtained a favorable ruling requiring her former partner, with whom she allegedly had a relationship marked by episodes of abuse, to pay her 30 million pesos in compensation. Although authorities have not yet officially confirmed the perpetrator or mastermind of the murder, this court ruling has raised suspicions about a possible premeditated femicide by the former partner. "We are investigating whether this incident may be related to the previous complaints of domestic violence. We have not ruled out the possibility of a case of femicide," said Colonel Leonardo Capacho, commander of the first district of the Cúcuta Metropolitan Police. María José was a seventh-semester student studying Social Communication at the Francisco de Paula Santander University (UFPS). In addition to her academic training, she worked as a model for a local modeling agency and was an entrepreneur: she ran an online business selling sportswear, lingerie, and footwear, which she actively promoted on social media.
