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On the Media

Among Many Victims in Mexico, There Was One Who Never Existed

On the Media

WNYC Studios

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4.68.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2017

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The efforts to rescue a 12-year-old girl from rubble in Mexico captivated people around the world. But she never existed at all.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The death toll from the September 19th earthquake in Mexico is over 340.

0:08.9

Rescue efforts are ongoing, with crews sifting through the rubble by hand.

0:14.2

But one rescue attempt, if you can call it that, got a lot of attention for what didn't happen

0:19.8

and what it reveals about how Mexico

0:22.0

is coping with the impact of the magnitude 7.1 earthquake and its many aftershocks. Last week,

0:30.2

in the first couple days after it struck, media in Mexico and around the world focused on the

0:36.7

story of Frida Sophia.

0:39.5

There's a little girl. She says her name is Frida and that there's two more children near her.

0:44.0

Cruz frantically dig through the rubble, making contact with the young girl still alive.

0:48.4

The incredible effort to free her and her classmate.

0:50.8

Cruz's unable to pull her out at this point, but they have been able to get her

0:54.2

water and oxygen. And there were details about where the 12-year-old girl was and what she was saying,

1:01.2

about how someone saw her fingers wiggling amid the debris. But finally, officials said there was

1:08.4

no Frida Sophia waiting to be rescued, and there never was.

1:13.2

Rodrigo Servantes is the Mexico City Bureau Chief for KJZZ,

1:18.6

and he's been reporting from rescue sites in the city and following the mystery of Frida Sophia.

1:25.7

You started here some specific descriptions of a girl who is trapped under the Rebsomen School debris,

1:33.3

that she was texting her mother, that she was talking to some of the rescuers.

1:38.3

As the story starts to evolve and Televisa gets exclusive access, a few steps away from this building. That's when we hear

1:46.6

the name Frida Sophia, given by one of the people in charge of the area from the Mexican Navy.

1:54.4

Uh-huh. You mentioned Televisa had exclusive access. You and the other reporters had to stand,

2:00.3

what, a block away?

...

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