News sites and social media pages released a video clip documenting the moment Miss Ecuador was killed by gunmen in broad daylight.
A video clip from surveillance cameras showed an unknown man sneaking into a restaurant and shooting Landi Paraja Joyboro, 23, while she was talking with another man, due to her relationship with a gang leader.
The masked assailant quickly shot Baraga and the man with him, before firing another volley of bullets at the woman as she lay on the ground.
The second attacker remained on guard at the door of the restaurant, then the two attackers fled. Police are currently investigating and working to uncover the motive and identify the attackers responsible.
A former Miss Ecuador contestant, Paraga represented Los Rios County in 2022.
The young woman, who has more than a million followers on her social media accounts, in addition to her own sportswear line, made headlines last December, when her name was mentioned during a conversation between murdered drug dealer Leandro Norero and his accountant Hilif. Angulo.
During Angulo's trial, prosecutors revealed that Norero begged her in a 2022 letter to help him keep his relationship with the beauty queen hidden, after the accountant said police asked him questions about this relationship.
“If my wife finds out anything about him, I will be done,” Norero wrote. My friend, her name cannot appear anywhere. Otherwise, my world will collapse.
The gangster was killed in prison just 6 months after his incarceration. While Paraga's finances were under investigation by the Attorney General's Office, she was never prosecuted for a crime and she made no public comments about the affair or her relationship with Norero and his organization.