American girl meets nightmarish fate after being abducted for ransom in Mexico
The body of Dayana Llaguno, 17, from Hobbs, New Mexico, was discovered last week buried under about two feet of dirt in a yard at a home in Juárez near the Texas border, according to the Chihuahua State Attorney General's Office.
Llaguno, who posted frequently on social media from the crime-plagued city, had left her home in New Mexico on July 16. She crossed the border in El Paso, Texas, with a family friend.
Three days later, her family received WhatsApp messages demanding money to free her that included photos and videos, prosecutors said.
Investigators later searched a home on Sierra Moncayo Street in the UrbiVilla del Cedro neighborhood in southeast Juárez and made the grim discovery.
Llaguno's cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation, prosecutors said.
Authorities have not named any suspects.
A spokesman for the Chihuahua Public Safety Department, Antonio Garfio, said that Llaguno originally traveled to Juárez to go shopping with her family friend before asking if she could visit someone she knew.
She was reported kidnapped after she failed to return.
The FBI declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Mail.
The US State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Attempts to reach Llaguno's family were unsuccessful.
The teen's Facebook profile is filled with photos and videos apparently taken in Juárez.
She share her last images around the time her family received the text messages.
One shows an empty street in Juárez with a time stamp of 4:20am. Another shows a photo of the teen posing as a song plays and lyrics flash on screen.
'I know I'm going to die, that's why I'm living like crazy,' a portion of the lyrics read.
Juárez - once considered the most dangerous city in the world - recorded at least 95 kidnappings in the first six months of 2025, according to data released by the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office.
Two of the victims were murdered and six were able to escape on their own.
Of the 95 kidnapping victims, 20 held dual Mexico-US citizenship.
Llaguno's death stunned her friends, some of whom questioned why she had traveled to Mexico.
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