A trans woman drowned while people filmed and refused to save her because of her gender identity.
Sara Millerey González was r@ped, had her arms and legs broken before being thrown into Colombian river, according to Amnesty International.
On April 4, her body was found in the La García ravine that winds through the Playa Rica neighbourhood of Bella.
Officials believe she was beaten by locals, possibly with ties to criminal gangs.
At about 3pm, Sara’s mother, Sandra Borja, received a phone call from her sister telling her that her daughter was drowning in a creek.
She found Sara clinging to a branch, the muddy waters of the river crashing against her back.
Rather than help, a group of locals were filming her plead for help on their phones.
Those filming told passersby not to help Sara, a relative told El Colombiano.
“There were some guys standing there, also with their cell phones recording what was happening to her, and they said not to help her,” they recalled.
“So there was fear of intervening for fear of being shot. It was necessary for the police to intervene.”
The video of Sara drowning went viral on social media. The clip appeared to show someone in knee-high muddy water, her face visibly wounded, flailing around and unable to move their arms.
“My first reaction was to throw myself into the river,” the victim’s mother, Sandra, told EL PAÍS.
“I shouted to her: ‘Sweetheart, sweetheart, hold tight, hold on to that branch!'”
“Mum, I’m going to die,” Sara told Sandra.
Sara was rescued by firefighters who took her to La María Hospital in central Bello, but she d!ed the following day, having developed hyperthermia. Her lungs were punctured and she suffered two cardiac arrests.
She was 32. Dozens attended her funeral on April 8.
The government has offered 50 million pesos (about £8,800) for information about Sara’s de@th.
President Gustavo Petro described Sara’s de@th as “fascism”.
“I’m criticised for speaking about Nazism. I know perfectly well that fascism is the violent elimination of human differences: political, religious, ethnic, sexual freedom,” he posted on X.
“What happened in Bello is called fascism, because there are Nazis in Colombia.”
“She was the victim of an atrocious and hateful act,” added Bello Mayor Lorena González Ospina on X.
Ospina said that the video of Sara fighting for her life going viral underscores the “indifference” some people have towards trans lives.
“We cannot allow transphobia to keep taking lives in silence,” she said.
Watch the video below.
#ULTIMAHORA Se recomienda discreción.
CASO DE TRANSFOBIA
ASESINADA POR SU ORIENTACIÓN SEXUALConozcan a Sara Millerey González, una mujer trans con muchos sueños destruidos fue brutalmente agredida.
¿No es hora de ver el mundo como realmente es?
¿Por qué Sara? ¿Qué… pic.twitter.com/6T7BWp5M6l
— Santiago Valdez (@valdezsgo1) April 9, 2025
