Renato López

Origins

He was born in 1983 in Mexico City, but at an early age his family took him to the United States, where he lived in Miami, Los Angeles and New York. As a result, he spoke both Spanish and English fluently. From the age of 6, he modeled and performed in commercials. Renato was the brother of Swedish singer Denise Lopez., Sebastian "DjZeb" López, Samantha López, Arturo Everitt (photographer in Los Angeles) and Tiana Del Castillo. He had been in a seven year relationship with Alexandra Ivanisevic, a fashion blogger and Swedish transplant to Mexico City.

Career

He was a guitarist for the rock band The Prom Kings and previously hosted music shows on Mun2, such as El show and Vivo. López had an homonymous TV show on Telehit which started on March 14, 2011. After leaving Telehit, on August 2012, he joined E! Entertainment to host the show Zona Trendy.

In 2012 he appeared in the Mexican film El Cielo En Tu Mirada.

He wrote songs for Mexican pop stars such as "Si pudiera" for Paty Cantú and Fuego con fuego for Gloria Trevi. He also starred in Trevi's music video Vestida de azúcar and had a small music production company in Los Angeles and a music studio in Mexico City.

He was hosting the TV shows E! Latin News on E! Latinoamérica, and MxDiseña on Canal Sony México, at the time of his death. In 2016, he costarred in Juanes' video Fuego as well as the Mexican film Macho, which was playing in Mexican cinemas at the time of his death.

Death

The day before the bodies of López and his publicist (Omar Girón Juárez) were found, they had driven to the affluent suburban area of Zona Esmeralda, Atizapán in the northwestern part of Greater Mexico City and an area that is teeming with regional drug cartels. A man named Carlos Morales had invited them to either a casting or a meeting about a PR campaign, and arranged to pick them up and drive them to another location where the casting or meeting was supposedly to take place. Morales is now identified as a suspect in the investigation. Around 5:30 P.M., Girón emailed Morales, stating that the area looked lonely and dangerous. That was the last anyone heard from Girón or López. López's and Girón's bodies were found with gunshot wounds, inside a car, in Santa María Mazatla, a rural village in the Jilotzingo municipality, about 15 km west of Zona Esmeralda.

Motives

Authorities have concluded that the assassins were targeting López specifically, as there was no evidence of robbery, nor kidnapping and López was shot 13 times; and believe the assassins may be members of drug gangs from the area. The local police reported a shootout in the area the previous night; however, the authorities do not have a definitive conclusion as to what happened.

On December 10, 2016, newspapers reported that the State of Mexico prosecutor stated that the assassination motive may have been an "emotional revenge", related to an as-yet unknown woman.

Reaction

Celebrities such as Juanes, Gloria Trevi, Bárbara Mori, Miguel Rodarte, Aislinn Derbez, Manolo Cardona, Aracely Arámbula and Dulce María lamented López's death on social media. Some friends of López tattooed the word "Taco" on the ring finger of their right hands in his memory, as he had such a tattoo, referring to his love for the Mexican food dish.

Speculation

In the days following López's death, there was much speculation about the motives. For example, Televisa journalist Denise Maerker theorized that the motive for López's murder was not drug-related but rather because López may have had an affair with the wife of one of the assassins, as there were some "messages" in the investigation relating to that theme. TV Noticias featured a witness who claimed that López had been acting as a drug dealer, and that he had not paid his wholesaler, the son of a main narco, enough. The same witness said that López was a "great guy", but would "go crazy at parties without regard for the consequences of his behavior".