A social media influencer was shot to death while she was doing a livestream on TikTok at her beauty salon in central Mexico, state authorities said on Wednesday.

Valeria Marquez, 23,  was seen looking up at someone off camera, still live on TikTok, responding to a voice in the background asking, "Hey, Vale?"

"Yes," she said, before muting the sound on the live broadcast.

Within seconds she appeared to be shot in the abdomen and the head before collapsing.

The violent murder of the popular influencer in the city of Zapopan has shocked Mexico and the online community. Marquez had over 200,000 followers on TikTok.

What did authorities say?

"The victim is someone with an active presence and influence on social media," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. "A man entered the premises and apparently fired a gun at her," it added.

Local media reported that the shooter pretended to bring her a gift.

The motive of the crime was not immediately known.

The beauty salon in Zapopan is next to the major city of Guadalajara in the central state of Jalisco — a hotbed of criminal activity and home to one of Mexico's most violent drug trafficking groups, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

However, state security coordinator Roberto Alarcon told reporters that investigators had not found any evidence that a criminal group was behind the shooting.

Marquez's death is currently being investigated as a femicide, which is the killing of a woman for gender-related reasons.

Zapopan Mayor Juan Jose Frangie said his office had no record of the model requesting help from authorities due to threats from criminal gangs. "It's incredible that you're making a video and then you're murdered. A femicide is the worst thing," Frangie said. 

Mexico's femicide problem

Mexico is tied with Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia as nations with the fourth highest rates of femicide in the Latin American region, as per the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

It shows 1.3 such deaths occurred for every 100,000 women in 2023.

In another incident, a former congressman, Luis Armando Cordova Diaz, was also shot dead in a cafe in the area, hours after Marquez's death.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery