2 Americans Are Dead And 2 Are Back Home After Violent Mexico Kidnapping
Two of the four Americans who were kidnapped March 3 in Mexico survived the violent attack, but the other two are dead, CBS News reports, citing information from Mexican and U.S. authorities.
Hours after they were found on Tuesday (March 7), ambulances and SUVs transported the survivors to an international bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border near Brownsville, Texas.
Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal said that one of the survivors was wounded, but didn’t identify which one.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said officials were working out the process of repatriating the remains of the two victims who died.
The four victims were identified by CBS News as Latavia "Tay" McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Eric James Williams and Zindell Brown. Mexican officials didn’t immediately identify which of them survived and who died.
McGee’s mother, Barbara Burgess, told ABC News that her daughter was going to Mexico from South Carolina for a cosmetic medical procedure, a trip she urged McGee not to make.
The Americans, driving a white minivan in Matamoros, Mexico, got caught in crossfire between two groups. A video circulating on social media purports to show the moment they were kidnapped.
They were found in a joint search operation, the attorney general in Tamaulipas said, without adding more details. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that one person was in custody in connection with the abduction.
"The investigation is in its earliest days. I understand we may have more to share from the FBI at the appropriate time,” Price stated.
A cousin of Woodward and McGee, Corsica Cameron, told ABC News that the family needs answers.
"We still don't know anything. It's heartbreaking," she said, adding that the family is still trying to figure out how much they should share with McGee’s five children.
"We don't know what to tell them," Cameron said.