On February 12, 2018, Graciela Eugenia Ramírez Chávez went out to buy a pair of shoes for what should have been the happiest day of her life: her wedding day.1 After previously escaping an abusive relationship and “tak[ing] justice into her own hands” upon the advice of police when she reported the abuse, Graciela was ready to start her life over with someone new. However, on February 13, 2018, Graciela’s life came to a tragic end when her body was discovered in a garden in a suburb of San Salvador, El Salvador. Graciela suffered fifty-six stab wounds at the hands of her fiancée, José Héctor Otero Turcios. Turcios was arrested and charged with the crime of femicide for Graciela’s brutal murder. Concerned neighbors had previously called the police numerous times to report Graciela’s abuse in the months leading up to her death, as well as on the very day of Graciela’s murder, merely a half hour before she was killed. However, the police never came to her rescue throughout the relationship or on the day of her death.
Katherine Mobilia