Gabriel Trujillo GoFundMe raises more than $50,000 as missing UC Berkeley student found murdered in Mexico

As of June 30, 2023, the family and friends of UC Berkeley student Gabriel Trujillo have raised over $50,000 for his funeral arrangements. The fundraiser had a goal of 35,000.

According to the GoFundMe page, Gabriel Trujillo was murdered on June 19, while conducting PhD research in Sonora, Mexico.

Trigger warning: This article concerns a homicide, the reader's discretion is advised

According to Eastsider LA, Gabriel Trujillo was fatally shot seven times by an unidentified suspect during his research trip. The case remains under investigation, and no further details have been released about the circumstances, or any potential motives behind the slaying. At the time of his death, Trujillo was engaged to be married to fellow UC Berkeley student Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos.

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All there is to know about Gabriel Trujillo

The victim's family noted that he was born in Mesa, Arizona, before his family moved to Fenton, Michigan, when he was 8 years old. A keen botanist, Trujillo would eventually pursue a PhD in UC Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology.

In 2019, he met his fiancee, Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos, while he was a first-year PhD student.

Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos said that prior to Gabriel Trujillo's death, he had told her he was going to collect plants for his research in Sonora, Mexico. He was staying at an Air BnB, which he was supposed to go back to at the end of the day. When Trujillo stopped responding to his fiancee's messages, she called up the Air BnB and discovered that he had never returned.

Concerned for Trujillo's well-being, Cruz-de Hoyos travelled down to Mexico. On June 22, Mexican authorities found the deceased botanist in his car. Cruz-de Hoyos added that his vehicle was hours away from where it was supposed to be.

According to his fiancee, the botany excursion had held significant importance for Trujillo. The murder victim reportedly had Opata and Nahua ancestry. As a result, the trip was supposed to be a way for him to connect to his indigenous roots.

She wrote on his GoFundMe page:

"Gabriel was and is beyond what words can express. He was brilliant, genuine, talented, adventurous, brave, generous, and above all unfailingly kind and loving to everyone."

The statement continued:

"He was a son, brother, cherished family member, fiancé, and friend. He was a deeply spiritual Danzante and was reconnecting to his Indigenous Opata and Nahua ancestry."

In preparation for the marriage, Trujillo's fiancee's family had bought the couple a home in Mariposa, Central California. Due to the victim's ancestry, his family and friends are holding a Danza Azteca Ceremony. The date of the funeral has not yet been disclosed.