An Orlando woman was found hanging from a tree in a residential backyard. A month later, her family is still left with unanswered questions.
On Sept. 28, Yolna Lubrin, 31, was found dead in an unidentified person’s backyard, according to The Chicago Defender. Though the Orlando County medical examiner is still investigating her cause of death, the Orlando Police Department has officially ruled her death a suicide. However, Lubrin’s family is questioning the mysterious circumstances surrounding their loved one’s death, calling for a deeper investigation into the events leading to her demise and into the person whose property she was found on.
The Orlando Police Department released a statement regarding the situation, saying, “While all death investigations are predicated upon the existence of trauma to the body to determine a criminal act, our investigation has thus far not revealed any physical injuries other than the ligature marks on the neck caused by the hanging.”
However, the victim’s sister, Naomi Yubrin, alleged this was false.
“My sister, Yolna Ruth Lubrin, did not commit suicide,” she said at a press conference on Oct. 4. “No one has been able to stand and say, ‘Hey, let’s have a conversation with the family to get a different narrative.’ No one has been empathetic of our needs.”
According to USA Today, Naomi listed several reasons she believed her sister was killed.
The woman’s family also believes that her body was positioned in a manner that did not indicate suicide.
“She’s able to push her hand up and touch the house, literally. So she can stand up,” her sister expressed. A second video by the same man who recorded Yolna’s body showed her car had been vandalized.
Naomi claimed that the two men who released the videos lived in a unit behind where her sibling’s corpse was discovered, yet both men failed to notify police or emergency services. Witnesses in the nearby area reported hearing a woman’s voice before Lubrin was found hanging.
Pastor Carl Soto, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Restoration Inc., also spoke at the press conference. “She didn’t put herself there. Someone had to have put her there,” he said. “Investigate all individuals who lived or occupied the home where Ms. Lubrin’s body was found.”
Three years earlier, in Oct. 2020, a Black man named Nevan Baker was found hanging from a tree by the same police department, according to USA Today. His death was also classified as a suicide. Baker’s death sparked nationwide outrage, with civil rights activist and attorney Ben Crump pressing for further investigation.
Baker’s mother, Sharonda James, also disagreed with the police department’s ruling and noted injuries on her son’s face, inconsistent with suicide.
“We’re not going to let this go; the community is not going to let this go,” she told the newspaper.
RELATED CONTENT: ORLANDO, FLORIDA POLICE OFFICERS FORCE 2 BLACK CYCLISTS TO CRAWL WHILE BEING WRONGFULLY DETAINED