A young female tourist passed away in a coma after attending a music festival and being allegedly kidnapped — and now her final texts to her family have been revealed.
Ivonne Daniela Latorre was celebrating her birthday in Cairo, Egypt with her friend Estefanía Bedoy, a Colombian beauty queen, when tragedy struck.
She had traveled to the African country on April 24 to attend Zamna festival, which is described as “one of the most exciting electronic music experiences worldwide.”
Highlights
- Ivonne Daniela Latorre was kidnapped and beaten into a coma after attending Egypt's Zamna music festival, later passing away in hospital.
- Her final texts revealed fear of an individual she referred to as “The Serbian” and gave warnings her kidnappers wanted to harm her.
- Authorities are investigating a local named Jessi Ecobar and two men who promised false fame to Latorre and her friend.
A tourist was beaten into a coma after attending a music festival, and later passed away in the hospital
Image credits: ivonnelatorre_
Public videos showed the two girls having what looked to be the time of their lives before they were reportedly invited to an after-party during the event, which took place on April 27. The invitation had been extended by someone called Jessi Morena, according to Daily Mail, and they had met each other at the festival.
Latorre and Bedoy then met up with two men who claimed they were producers, promising that fame was headed their way.
Image credits: ivonnelatorre_
Image credits: ivonnelatorre_
That was the last known information about Latorre’s whereabouts and activities before she was found severely injured and in a coma. She was rushed to the hospital but unfortunately passed away on May 4.
Bedoy had returned safely to the hotel, without her friend, and remained unharmed.
Latorre’s final messages to her parents, who lived in Colombia, have recently been made public, and it was heartbreakingly obvious the tourist knew she had stumbled into danger.
Latorre had been in Egypt to celebrate her birthday with a friend
Image credits: zamna
One text referred to “The Serbian” and read “He’s scaring me,” while another stated, “They want to do something to me. They want to kidnap me.”
She had also sent an urgent plea to her parents, begging them to come with police while revealing that the men she had been talking to had lured her in with false promises.
“They don’t want to make us a band,” Latorre said.
Image credits: BullRun/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
Image credits: Miss Europe Continental
Strangely enough, however, her family told local media, “Neither her family nor her friends knew she was missing until Tuesday, April 30, when Estefanía, her traveling companion, contacted us.”
After her loved ones were informed of her disappearance, they called multiple hospitals in Cairo to locate her whereabouts.
One of Latorre’s relatives, Alexandra Marin, said to local media, “We had a hard time finding the hospital due to language barriers and the lack of cooperation from the people involved.”
Days passed before Latorre's family realized she was missing
Image credits: missescobar2020
When she was found, Latorre was in a coma and sadly never regained consciousness.
Authorities are now looking for an individual named Jessi Ecobar, someone the friends had met locally, as well as the two men who they were introduced to.
Image credits: missescobar2020
Image credits: ivonnelatorre_
Cairo police have been questioning her friend Bedoy, who has allegedly declined telling Latorre’s family any further details on what had happened to her.
Instead, she informed them while they were searching hospitals, “She hasn’t woken up. They found her several days ago.
The girls were said to have two men after the festival, claiming false information
Image credits: ivonnelatorre_
“She fell from a great height and I wasn’t there; she was with other people at the time.”
Latorre’s family have since created a GoFundMe in hopes of returning the young woman’s body back to her home country and to cover any legal fees to uncover what truly happened.
Image credits: ivonnelatorre_
Global kidnapping statistics for women alone are difficult to find due to varying reports and overlap with other forms of violence such as human trafficking, but a few websites have extracted some key findings.
In 2020, UNODC reported that 42% of detected trafficking victims were women, with 18% of them being girls, while Wikipedia mentions that bride kidnappings — especially those that involve forced marriage — are prevalent in certain parts of Africa.
Image credits: GoFundMe
UN Women — Europe and Central Asia has also noted that women who have experienced violence, such as kidnapping, do not report it to formal institutions like the police.
Netizens discussed the dangers that could hide in every corner — especially for women
