A Colorado mother of three living as an expatriate in Ecuador with her family has been shot dead during a violent home invasion at her idyllic farm.
Francesca Williams was at her farm in the village of Vilacamba on May 20 with her husband, Michael, three teenage daughters and father when a group of men made their way onto the property, her family told news station KDVR this week in an interview.
Michael said he was standing outside when he was hit, possibly with a brick, causing him to collapse to the ground.
His father-in-law, John, who suffers from several medical conditions, including emphysema and dementia, was stabbed multiple times.
Francesca was hanging laundry outside when she saw her father being attacked and tried to step in, according to her adoptive mother, Marianna Bacilla, speaking to NBC San Diego.
“She came down to save him, and I guess they started shooting at her,” Bacilla said.
The mom of three suffered a gunshot wound to the back and died.
The Williamses’ daughters were not physically harmed by the robbers.
Her daughter Rachel, who witnessed part of the attack, offered an account of what happened.
“I saw my grandpa on the floor with a strange man to the right, then I saw another man with my mom and she was scrambling after him, basically fighting him off,” the girl said. “Then I saw two sparks of a gun and heard gunshots.”
Rachel shut the door to the house, but she said the intruders forced their way inside and asked her in Spanish where the “large aunt” was, leading the teen to believe that the deadly home invasion may have been a case of mistaken identity.
“They were asking where the ‘large aunt’ was and that doesn’t match anyone who’s ever even been on our property,” Rachel said.
The men then tied up Michael Williams and proceeded to ransack the house, stealing anything of value, including computers and iPads, before fleeing.
Michael and his children later rushed Francesca to a hospital, but she could not be saved.
Her adoptive mother has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for the family. So far, more than $28,000 has been donated.
Bacilla wrote in the description that Francesca grew up in Poway, California, and attended the University of California-San Diego, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in linguistics.
She was fluent in French, Spanish and Lithuanian, worked as a translator and illustrator, and had published her first book.
“In the small town of Vilcabamba, Ecuador, Francesca’s family lived on a small farm they were building themselves, raising chickens, goats, horses, pigs, ducks and guinea fowl, working toward a goal of sustainable farming. It was their humble Shangri-La,” Bacilla wrote.
The Williamses have faced many challenges while living in Ecuador, according to a fundraiser that Francesca herself had launched back in 2020 seeking financial help.
She described at length how she was struggling to pay for her disabled parents’ medical care and find doctors for her youngest daughter, Renee, who suffers from a rare genetic condition that stunts growth and development.
At the same time, Francesca said she had contracted a dangerous tropical parasitic infection, writing ominously: “I always thought I’d care for my parents until the very end. It never occurred to me I might end before them!”
The woman’s deteriorating condition forced her to temporarily return to the US to seek life-saving treatment for her infection, but the family apparently later returned to Ecuador to resume their life on the farm.
“Ecuador is where Francesca felt most safe ironically,” Michael said. “Quite possibly if we stayed in the United States she would still be with us and nothing would have befallen her or my family.”
The surviving members of the Williams family are planning to return to Colorado, where they still own a home — and where Francesca will be laid to rest next to her birth mother, who died in 2021.
