With friends like these

Many of us have an inner circle of family members, coworkers, and friends from school. My inner circle has shrunk as I have gotten older. I prefer to live my life by an old analogy. Instead of five nickels, I would prefer a quarter. In other words, I am more content with having one really good friend than five casual ones.

People often talk about their closest friends. We may even claim to have several "best friends." But how well do we truly know them? Sure, we might have dinner with them, go on a trip together, or even text each other throughout the day. But how well do you know them? Are they really your friends? Or do they harbor feelings of jealousy or hatred toward you? What is the point of pretending to be a friend if they hate you? As Jim Morrison once said, "People are strange."

So why the discussion about friends? A young woman named Shanquella Robinson, 25, prompted me to bring this issue up. The North Carolina resident believed that she had a circle of friends who would never harm her. Among them was someone who claimed to be Shanquella's closest friend. He had known her for many years and was even considered a family friend.

Last October, Shanquella and a group of her friends vacationed at the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. The group of friends stayed in a beautiful villa and were there to have fun and soak up the sun.

On October 29th, Shanquella was found deceased. Her friends claimed she died from food poisoning. However, a video would prove this to be a lie. In the video, one of Shanquella’s female friends attacked and beat her to death. Although there were other people in the room, no one tried to stop the assault. According to the autopsy, Robinson died from a spinal cord injury and a dislocated neck.

There is also a report that Robinson received medical treatment from someone who told the group they needed to take Shanquella to the hospital. The group refused and let their friend die. Based on everything I have read about this case and the video footage; I think we can rule out food poisoning or suicide as this young woman’s cause of death.

For now, law enforcement hasn’t released many details about the case. For instance, there haven’t been any notifications to the public as to the motivation of the killing. Based on what has been released about this story, it would seem that the attack was planned.

This had me asking myself, “What kind of friends were these people?” I think it’s fair to say these weren’t true friends. I saw video footage of Shanquella’s mother discussing her daughter. She was shocked and couldn’t understand why anyone would attack her daughter or why no one intervened.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like she will be getting any answers any time soon. Mexican law enforcement has started their own investigation into the matter. This story is highly disturbing. This young woman could easily have been our daughter or friendly neighbor. We take trips or have dinner with our friends and think nothing of it. They smile at us and are usually there for us when we need to talk to someone. I just wonder if Shanquella Robinson felt like Julius Ceasar when he was murdered by Marcus Brutus, a man whom he considered a loyal friend. There’s an old saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. Sometimes it can be nearly impossible to decide who to keep closest.

Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and an avid reader. Contact him through his website at www.themarcabe.com or through Facebook: www.Facebook.com/themarcabe or his twitter account @themarcabe. Marc also has a podcast called Catch my Killer where he interviews family members seeking justice for their murdered loved ones. You can listen at www.catchmykiller.com.