Man arrested at Hard Rock Hotel for killing colleague

A MAN has been arrested for allegedly killing a woman, 21, was found dead outside her workplace at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya Hotel in Mexico.

Ana Gomez worked as a steward at the hotel and had been reported missing on December 18, when she was seen for the last time in Playa del Carmen, where she had been living for six months, after her shift at the hotel ended around 2pm.

Her body was found on a path which hotel staff use to get to the building, in a green area 800 metres from the Puerto Aventuras-Puerto Juarez road in the town of Solidaridad.

Her alleged killer has been detained at the hotel, where he was still working as a security guard, in the past few hours.

CCTV cameras show that at around 5pm, he was hiding amongst rubbish containers waiting for his victim. When Ana came past alone, he grabbed her, pulled her towards the mountain and hit her against a tree. She attempted to escape and fell on some logs, which is when he beat her again and attempted to remove her trousers. Unable to do so, he removed her shirt and when she tried to scream, he strangled her and left her for dead.

He was from the same town as Ana and continued to work at the hotel so as not to arouse suspicion. Police went to his place of work and arrested him. In his confession, he said that he saw alone and “the devil” overcame him.

Her father travelled from her hometown of Chiapas to search for the girl, and her family has complained that the hotel management has offered little support to help solve the disappearance and suspected murder of the young woman.

Her father was almost unable to identify the body as it was in an advanced state of decomposition, the Mexican press reports.

A protest march was held to demand an investigation into the case, and feminist groups demanded that the hotel provide images from the security cameras.

Ana’s father took her body back to her hometown where she will be buried.

According to Infobae, she is not the first member of staff to go missing at the same hotel.

Elizabeth Ricalde, who also worked there, went missing in 2017. Her last Instagram post showed that she was at the hotel on April 25, 2017. She has not been heard from since. The hotel told her parents that she had quit her job, but they claim they were never shown the paperwork.

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