Cops probe foul play in shock drowning of beauty queen
Foul play is being investigated in the drowning of a bodybuilder beauty queen while on holiday.
Luz Maria Barrera Agaton had been talking with family and friends at a hotel pool in Mexico when most of them went to bed just after midnight on Sunday.
Luz was eventually left alone in the pool at the Coco Resort & Villas Hotel in Motul, near Cancun.
When she did not make it back to her room, family and friends went searching — finding her lifeless body at the bottom of the pool.
Police are now investigating possible links to the 36-year-old's death and a threatening banners hung outside the gym she owned and ran in Merida just two weeks earlier.
Luz destroyed the signs. In 2017, while dating ex-state prosecutor Chiri Roberto, she and her partner were threatened by thugs. Luz Maria Barrera Agaton was a successful bodybuilder. Credit: Supplied
And in 2023, her gym was the scene of a tragic death when a barbell fell on top of a young man, allegedly because of a trainer's carelessness.
Luz, who was the vice president of the Yucatecan Association of Bodybuilding and Fitness, was crowned fitness champion at the 2017 Mister Mexico bodybuilding contest.
She also won the female bikini category at the Mr Olympia Amateur competition in Spain.
Yucatecan president Evangelina Cim Mezquita paid tribute to Luz in a Facebook post.
'Sometimes it's impossible to understand why certain things happen,' she said.
'We will miss you. Your boundless joy, your simple manner.
'May God comfort your entire family.'
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She said Patterson gave differing accounts of events over separate interviews. Day 20: Homicide detective Stephen Eppingstall, who oversaw the investigation, took the stand. The jury was shown footage of Patterson's interview with police. During the interview, she denied having ever foraged for mushrooms and said she loved her former parents-in-law. Day 21: The court was shown Patterson's Woolworths shops in the lead up to the lunch and medical records from 2021, which indicated she had concerns about ovarian cancer. The court also heard phone data records show her primary sim card was removed from a Samsung a23 and put into a Nokia while police were searching her house on 5 August 2023. Day 22: Detective Eppingstall was cross-examined by Patterson's defence team. The court heard police budgets determined the analysis of Patterson's phone. The court was also shown various receipts - including for cash payments at Koonwarra Transfer Station - as well as messages Patterson sent to Facebook friends and her former parents-in-law. Day 23: The defence resumed cross-examination of detective Eppingstall. The court was shown messages between Patterson and her former parents-in-law in early and late 2022, in which Don and Gail inquired about Patterson's health and she showed concern about them catching Covid. The court was also shown a Mother's Day message exchange between Gail and Patterson, in which she described her as the 'best mother-in-law' anyone could ask for. WEEK SIX Day 24: The defence wrapped up cross-examination of detective Eppingstall. Patterson took the stand and told the court about what her life was like in July 2023. She also explained how she met her estranged husband, Simon, and described key moments from their first few years of marriage. She also said trouble with communication was the root cause of their marital issues. Day 25: Patterson told the court about her issues with binge eating, child support discussions with her estranged husband, and how she used her inheritance. She explained she was converted to Christianity by Simon and claimed she had never told a Facebook friend that she was an atheist. She also spoke about her issues with hospitals, fondness for mushrooms and dehydrating food, and her history of foraging for wild mushrooms. She told the jury she accepted that death cap mushrooms were in lunch she served at her Leongatha home and that she was 'ashamed' of messages she had sent to her Facebook friends about her former parents-in-law. Day 26: Patterson spoke about the days after the lunch, claiming she pulled over to got to the toilet in bushland because she had diarrhoea. She said she wiped, put the tissues in a dog poo bag, and CCTV footage of her entering a BP toilet for mere seconds showed her disposing of the admitted to carrying out three out of four factory resets on one of her phones. She said she performed the last one, while her phone was in police custody, to see if detectives were 'silly enough' to leave it connected to the internet. She also said she changed her phone number in the days after the lunch because she didn't want Simon to contact her. Patterson said it wasn't until a conversation with Simon in the hospital about the food dehydrator that she began to think her foraged mushrooms may have been responsible for the poisonings. She said she then became 'scared' as child protection workers were now involved and so she lied to public health officers and dumped the dehydrator. Day 27: The prosecution began cross-examination of Patterson. She denied lying to her lunch guests about having cancer, saying she wasn't 'that specific'. She was also questioned about foraging, child support, photos found on her devices, and conversations she had with Facebook friends. Day 28: Under cross-examination, Patterson denied sending aggressive messages to Don and Gail as well as the suggestion that she was 'two-faced' about her relationship with her former parents-in-law by sending expletive-filled messages about them to her Facebook friends. She also told the jury she could not remember conducting iNaturalist searches on her computer. You can catch up on the details from the last blog here:
