Mother Of 4 Found Dead In Staged Hanging At Dock: Police
The death of a woman found hanging at a Texas marina is being investigated as a possible homicide after authorities became suspicious of the body’s positioning, police said Tuesday.
The woman, who was seen hanging by a rope off a League City dock May 31, was identified as 30-year-old Giselle Salazar, a mother of four, according to local news station KPRC.
The League City Police Department told HuffPost that when Salazar’s body was discovered, one of her arms was “in an upright position with nothing holding it up.” Detectives believe that she died in another location and that her arm stiffened due to rigor mortis before she was then positioned at the dock.
Detectives are awaiting results from a medical examiner’s office to determine her cause of death. Authorities have identified two people of interest in the investigation, but no arrests have been made.
Salazar’s sister, Esperanza Alegria, told ABC station KTRK that her family is demanding justice.
“I just want everyone to know my sister didn’t do this to herself. She didn’t commit suicide,” Alegria told the outlet. “We want whoever is responsible, who did this to my sister, we want them to get charged for what they did to her.”
According to KTRK, Salazar had been living with her boyfriend on his boat, which had been docked at the Wharf Marina since March. He told the outlet that he was repeatedly interviewed by police following Salazar’s death, but he denied killing her.
“I would never hurt Giselle,” he told KTRK.
The boyfriend said that he last saw Salazar leaving the boat to use the bathroom in the hours before she was found dead. He said that when he couldn’t locate her in the bathrooms, he “assumed she had gone for a few days.”
He said that he didn’t learn about Salazar’s death until police recovered her body. He added that his surveillance cameras failed before Salazar was discovered — one camera had disappeared, and the other had been turned away by hand.
But as part of their investigation, police said that detectives “have been reviewing close to 2,000 security video clips ranging from a few seconds long to several minutes long.”
Nathan Paz, Salazar’s brother, told KPRC that she was “the most charismatic person you’d ever meet.”
“This is a heartbreaking time for my mother. She’s trying to keep everything together,” he said.
Paz said that Salazar had previously lived in Colorado but left the state due to an abusive relationship.
“She was trying to change her life,” Paz said.
The family is now raising money for her funeral and to support her children.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-866-331-9474 or text “loveis” to 22522 for the National Dating Abuse Helpline. Call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.