A young woman killed by her partner in the United States is laid to rest in Santiago de Cuba

Yannelis de la Caridad Casales Antón, the young Cuban woman who was killed in March by her partner in Jacksonville, Florida, was mourned this Thursday at the funeral home in her hometown, Santiago de Cuba, amid the grief of family and friends who came to bid her farewell since dawn.

The young woman's body was displayed in a closed casket due to the severity of her injuries, to the extent that, as recounted by a close acquaintance quoted by journalist Yosmany Mayeta on his Facebook profile, “she was in very bad condition” when they tried to style and make up her hair.

The young woman will be buried in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, near her family's home, while friends and neighbors attended the wake to support her loved ones, who are deeply devastated.

Initially, her family was uncertain about whether to bury her on the outskirts of the city or to change her coffin, as the sarcophagus brought from abroad did not fit in a Cuban vault, Mayeta explained.

Finally, the body was placed in a locally produced coffin to be buried in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, the closest to his family's home, where friends and neighbors gathered at the wake to support their loved ones, who were deeply devastated.

The crime has caused a shock both in the Cuban community of Jacksonville and in Cuba, where cases of femicide and gender-based violence continue to accumulate without a structural response that guarantees protection or full justice for the victims.

Casales, 30 years old, was brutally murdered on March 30 in a domestic violence incident that occurred in the city of Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida.

His partner, Carlos Yordanis Aldana, 38 years old, was arrested that same day as the main suspect, after being found injured in the vicinity of the crime scene.

In the apartment where they lived, the police found Yannelis's lifeless body with multiple stab wounds, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

The murder occurred in the early hours of the morning, around 3:20 a.m., as confirmed by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO).

The victim was located thanks to the trail of blood that the agents followed from where Aldana was found to inside the apartment.

After weeks of efforts and a campaign on GoFundMe to cover the costs of repatriating her body, her family was able to bring her to Cuba to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her homeland.

Frequently asked questions about the feminicide of Yannelis de la Caridad Casales Antón