Orlando police say ‘evidence observed during the autopsy all point to suicide’
The hanging death of Yolna Lubrin last week has family members and community advocates furious and demanding answers from local leaders and law enforcement.
Lubrin, 31, who went by the name Yo-Yo, was found hanging from a tree in her yard last Thursday. She was cut down by Orlando police officers, according to the police department.
Though the investigation is ongoing and an official autopsy hasn’t been released, police say early signs point to “suicide” and not foul play.
“Although her cause of death is still being investigated and will ultimately be decided by the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office, the deceased individual’s documented history of mental illness, witness statements, cellular communications from Ms. Lubrin, and the physical evidence observed during the autopsy all point to suicide,” OPD wrote in an email to the Orlando Sentinel .
A crowd of about 60 people gathered outside city hall Tuesday night chanting “justice for Yo-Yo,” who was described as “brilliant, amazing, and loud.”
“My sister is an African-American woman. Why is she getting swept under the rug?” her sister, Naomi Lubrin, asked those at the rally. “She was brilliant, she was amazing, she was laughter, but most of all she was loud.”
Naomi asked the rallygoers to be “loud” like her sister and continue pushing investigators for more answers.
“It is not right that my mother has to bury her 30-year-old daughter,” the sister said. “It’s not right that I have to stand before you right now and be away from my family just so we can have justice for my sister.”
Miles Mulrain, the CEO of local nonprofit Let Your Voice Be Heard, wrote on Facebook the day after Lubrin’s death that police were extraordinarily quick to call it suicide.
“They are immediately ruling it as a suicide, but finding any Black person hanging from a tree in 2023 requires more investigation no matter what,” Mulrain wrote. “Especially in this case because there are too many unanswered questions and not enough proof.
“This is not the first time or the first time in a while this has happened in Orlando. Just in 2020 we were asking the same questions about Nevan Baker, who was found hanging in a tree in a very suspicious way for it to be a suicide.”
Police said there are no physical injuries to Lubrin, other than the ligature marks on her neck.