Vanesa Campos died 17 August was a trans sex worker and an undocumented migrant from Peru living in Paris. She was 36 when she was murdered at the Bois de Boulogne during the night of 16 to 17 August Her murder occurred after she resisted a group of men armed with a gun stolen from a police officer. Ten suspects, nine Egyptians and a Syrian, including at least two minors, were arrested between August and January in France and Germany.
The prosecutors seeks to charge nine men for the murder. On January 30, , two of them were sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment for organised murder, and the others were sentenced to three to six years' imprisonment. She was forced to leave her home as her parents did not understand her gender identity. They both left their villages to go and live in the capital, [ 2 ] Lima. In , after Argentina passed a law allowing citizens to change their civil status upon a simple declaration, Karen and Vanesa Campos left for Buenos Aires.
She settled in Paris without legal immigration papers with the goal to earn enough money to buy a house for her isolated and widowed mother. The murder of Vanesa Campos happened in a context of increasing criminality in the Bois de Boulogne. After all, we were just a bunch of hookers. Who cares about us? Vanesa Campos then implemented the use of an alert signal for dangerous situation and handed out tear gas canisters [ 1 ] to her fellow prostitutes.
She hired a bodyguard, himself an undocumented worker, who on August 14, , managed to scare off one of the gangers; the latter, on the same night, broke into a police vehicle and stole a gun [ 1 ] [ 7 ] other sources place the theft on August 9 [ 8 ] [ 5 ]. On August 16, , about 11pm, the Egyptians came back in numbers and attacked the bodyguard.
They went at her fiercely and unrelentingly using utility knives, sticks, and a handgun, [ 9 ] they then fled the scene in a car. A small memorial was set in the Bois de Boulogne to pay tribute to her memory.
