Heartbreaking Image Shows Dog Patiently Waiting Outside Murdered Mexican Journalists Home

This heartbreaking image shows a dog patiently waiting on the doorstep for its owner to return, not knowing that the murdered Mexican journalist will never come home.

The dog, reportedly named Chato, belonged to murdered Mexican journalist Lourdes Maldonado Lopez, who was gunned down in her car in the Las Villas neighbourhood where she lived, in the city Tijuana, in the Mexican state of Baja California, on the border with the US state of California, at around 7pm on Sunday, 23rd January.

The Mexican journalist, who reportedly used to take in stray cats and dogs and who had just won a lawsuit for unfair dismissal from a broadcaster owned by the former governor of the state of Baja California, was murdered after saying that she feared for her life.

She is the second journalist to be murdered in the state in less than a week and the third to be murdered in Mexico this year. She reportedly took in Chato just a few months ago.

Maldonado, who had been registered in the State Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists and Human Rights Defenders since 2021, had successfully sued the news organisation Primer Sistema de Noticias, which is owned by former Baja California state governor Jaime Bonilla, 71, for unfair dismissal after she was fired several years ago.

She reportedly won her court case on 19th January.

She had also said at a press conference with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2020 that she feared for her life.

Journalist Lourdes Maldonado when she warned three years ago that she feared for her life at a press conference. (Newsflash)

She said: “I come here to ask for support and labour justice, because I even fear for my life.”

Maldonado was found dead by responding emergency workers, who were called after witnesses heard gunshots.

The neighbours had also found it suspicious that her car had been stationary with the engine on for around 40 minutes.

She was found dead in a red, sedan-type car, which had a broken window on the driver’s side, which was caused by bullets.

Police are currently investigating the murder. No suspects had been arrested at the time of writing.

It is currently unclear what will become of Chato.

The crime scene where journalist Lourdes Maldonado was murdered in Mexico in January 2022. (Newsflash)