The La Mixteca, Mexico resident was leaving an abusive relationship and planned to join her three children living in the U.S., ages 2, 5 and 10, according to two members of a Los Angeles County nonprofit that aids and advocates for indigenous communities. Her 14-year-old lives with her grandmother in Mexico. Santa Barbara court documents show the alleged abuse went back as far as 2012. "We really don't know what happened," said Odilia Romero, co-founder and executive director of the organization, Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO). "All we know is that she was running for her life, and now she's dead." Ramírez Pérez's death has hit Romero hard because she sees people in similarly desperate circumstances regularly. Migrants wanting to get into the U.S. will pay human smugglers – known as "coyotes" – thousands to sneak them across the border.