Daniela Barragán, Whose Phone Was Found Burned, Died In the Iztapalapa Explosion At 19: Last Comments From Her Boyfriend

Daniela Barragán was 19 years old and a student at UNAM. Her cell phone, found in the rubble after an explosion in Iztapalapa, alerted her family. Her boyfriend shared on social media the anguishing search process and the painful confirmation of her death.

The explosion of a gas tanker in Iztapalapa on September 10, 2025, left a scene hard to forget: burned bodies, dense smoke, screams, and chaos. Among the objects that appeared scattered in the area, one stood out for its emotional charge: a burnt mobile phone that, against all odds, was still ringing.

That call let rescuers know that it belonged to Ana Daniela Barragán Ramírez, a 19-year-old student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. What began as an attempt to find her alive ended in a heartbreaking confirmation of her death.

Daniela's case mobilized thousands of people on social media, who shared her photo, name, and story. Her partner, Bryan Ramos, was one of the most active voices in this search. From the first moments he shared messages, updates, and requests for help, until he received the worst news.

The Call From the Burned Cell Phone

The first clue to Ana Daniela's whereabouts came from an object that, though visibly damaged, still worked. The young woman's cell phone continued to receive calls while it remained in the rubble, inside a burned backpack.

Francisco Bucio, a member of Mexico City Civil Protection, was the one who answered the phone. "Her father, Mr. Raymundo Barragan, has already spoken to me. We will find out where she is, and I will get back to you," Bucio explained to Daniela's mother.

She, without fully understanding what was happening, received details that only increased her anguish. "There was an incident, the cell phone is next to her belongings, university credentials. There are several injured, but we don't know where she is yet," Bucio told her.

The first call had been from the girl's father. Bucio answered: "The phone is half burned, but at least he was able to pick up. He promised to go to Morelos Hospital, close to the scene, to verify if Ana Daniela was hospitalized there.

In that same call, Bucio asked for the father's number to keep him updated. Later, he also contacted the girl's mother, to whom he repeated the information and explained that there were more people injured and that they had not yet identified her daughter among them.

Her Boyfriend’s Tireless Search, Shared on Social Media

While rescue and hospital care operations were being carried out, Bryan Ramos, Daniela's partner, was actively searching for her. Through his social networks, he was informing step by step what they knew, what they suspected, and what they were investigating on their own.

In one of his first publications, he alerted: "DEAR FRIENDS, MY GIRLFRIEND IS MISSING. Her last known location was on Calzada General Ignacio Zaragoza (where the tanker accident occurred). Can you help me spread the word to find her?".

In desperation, he invited users to massively share photos of the young woman, calling on the authorities to take action in response to the disappearance.

Shortly after, when her name did not show on official lists, he wrote: "It is 2:15 in the afternoon and we still haven't found Dani's whereabouts [...] a DNA test is being carried out to find out if Rubén Leñero's female is her."

In the same publication, he urged people not to share fake news if it did not come from his accounts.

In addition to the updates, he also tried to stop possible fraud. He denied an alleged collection from outside the family: "DEAR FRIENDS, THEY ARE PROFITING FROM THIS TRAGIC EVENT [...] DON'T LET YOURSELVES BE FOOLED".

The tragic outcome

The confirmation of Ana Daniela's death came after almost 36 hours of searching. Her body, initially registered as that of an unidentified 25-year-old woman, was subjected to a DNA test.

She was first admitted to Hospital General Iztapalapa as an unidentified patient and was later transferred to Hospital General Rubén Leñero. It was there that her family awaited the genetic identification results. Meanwhile, the student's name was not listed among the preliminary lists of the injured.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico issued an obituary in which they regretted the student's "sensitive death." Daniela was a student at FES Cuautitlán and was 19 years old.

The Post Her Boyfriend Dedicated to Her on Facebook

After confirming the identity of the body, Bryan posted a farewell message that moved thousands. There, he shared the personal dimension of his loss. "I will always carry you in my soul, because you not only made my days happy, you made my life happy," he titled the post.

"Today I didn’t just lose my best friend, I lost my future wife, the future mother of my little ones (as she used to call them 🥺). I lost my life partner. I never knew what it was to love so intensely until I met you. In a month we were going to get engaged, and now I will live with the pain of knowing I will never see you in a white dress as we dreamed. I will love you always, my sweet little mouse, in this life and all the lives I have left. Rest in peace, my baby.", read the heartfelt farewell.

Her Boyfriend’s Last Statements

In later interviews, Bryan shared how he lived the moments of uncertainty and the search without clear answers. In a television interview, he called the authorities' work in locating his girlfriend "deficient".

He also expressed his frustration at the lack of certainty in the process: "These situations shouldn't even happen in this country. You leave your house to go to work, to school, to the gym, and you don't know if you're going to come back alive. I think it's a regrettable situation."

Despite the pain, he acknowledged how important it was to have found her body, even if it wasn’t as they had expected: "Thank God, we found her. Anyway, we already know where her body is. We would have wanted the circumstances to be different, but life is giving us this test."

Finally, he reflected on how Daniela would have wanted to be remembered: "She wouldn’t have wanted us to cry. She always said that crying could be good sometimes, but when someone was looking out for you from above, there was no need to cry. It wasn’t something negative—it was actually a blessing from God."

The story of Ana Daniela Barragan Ramirez was marked by the pain of a sudden loss and by the constant effort of her family and her partner to find her. From the phone that kept ringing to the farewell message shared on social media, every detail showed a relentless effort to ensure she wasn’t alone in the midst of chaos. Her name has now joined the stories of humanity that arise from tragedy.