Authorities are investigating the accident to determine if excessive speed or distracted driving contributed to the collision.
Yanin Campos, who competed on two seasons of MasterChef Mexico and found success as a TikTok influencer and local TV personality, died Monday from injuries sustained in a car crash. She was 38.
Campos’ brother, Raúl Campos, announced the news on Facebook. “To family and friends. We inform and mourn the death of my sister Yanin Campos,” he wrote in Spanish.
The former culinary competitor died after driving into a parked vehicle on Saturday in her hometown of Chihuahua, the Mexican Secretariat of Public Security told local newspaper El Financiero. Following the crash around 6:30 a.m., Campos was rushed to a hospital and later died as a result of her injuries.
El Financiero also reported that authorities are investigating whether the accident was caused by excessive speed or distracted driving.
Campos began her career as a nurse, and hosted the local Chihuahua TV show La tertulia. Upon the show’s conclusion, she auditioned for MasterChef Mexico and competed on its fourth overall season in 2018. She ultimately placed sixth, and returned the following year for the show’s “La Revancha” season alongside other former competitors. In her second outing on the show, Campos placed 11th.
Campos launched her TikTok account in 2020, and had just under 100,000 followers at the time of her death.
Willi Velázquez, who competed against Campos during both of her MasterChef seasons, paid tribute to his late costar in an Instagram post containing an old video of the two competitors singing together on a bus.
“This memory from 2018 just appeared on my cloud,” he wrote in Spanish. “Such sad news for all of us who knew Yan… My deepest condolences to her entire family. Rest in peace.”
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Ismael Zhu, who won MasterChef Mexico in 2018, commented his condolences on Velázquez’s post, also in Spanish. “She will be missed,” he wrote.
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