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Two of four Americans who went missing on Friday in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas are alive, and two are dead, the state governor said Tuesday on a call with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during a news conference.
ABC News reported the four people kidnapped were Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, and Eric James Williams.
Separately, a Mexican official told Reuters on Tuesday that two men had been found dead. The woman and another man were alive, safe and in the hands of authorities, the official said.
Tamaulipas Governor Americo Villarreal told Lopez Obrador on the call that one of the survivors was injured.
The four Americans were in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates when they entered Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico said.
The gunmen fired on the passengers shortly after their vehicle crossed into Mexico and then herded them into another vehicle before fleeing the scene. Video from the scene showed one person being loaded into the back of the truck and others being carried or dragged along the ground.
“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” Zalandria Brown, sister of Zindell Brown, told the Associated Press on Monday. She said that the group was traveling to Mexico for one of the members of the party to get a tummy tuck, and that her brother had been hesitant to go.
An innocent Mexican was also killed in the incident, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in a statement.
Lopez Obrador said one person was in custody in relation to the kidnapping.
Copyright 2023 Thomson/Reuters. Additions and edits for FISM News by Michael Cardinal.