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Americans kidnapped in Mexico: 2 found dead, 2 alive, reports say

By Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Kidnapped Americans A member of the Mexican security forces stands next to a white minivan with North Carolina plates and several bullet holes, at the crime scene where gunmen kidnapped four U.S. citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas, Friday, March 3, 2023. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the four Americans were going to buy medicine and were caught in the crossfire between two armed groups after they had entered Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, on Friday. (AP Photo) (STR/AP)
By Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

A Mexican official said Tuesday that two of the four Americans who were kidnapped after traveling to the country last week have been found dead, according to The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal.

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One of the survivors, Latavia “Tay” McGee, was found unharmed, according to the Journal. The other survivor, identified as Eric James Williams, was found alive but with a “major wound” to his left leg, the newspaper reported.

Family members earlier identified the Americans kidnapped on Friday as South Carolinians McGee, Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, according to ABC News. McGee and Woodard are cousins while Brown and Williams are friends, the news network reported.

On Tuesday, Mexican officials said the Americans who survived the kidnapping had been turned over to U.S. authorities at the international bridge to Brownsville, Texas, the AP reported. They were taken to a hospital in the U.S. around 11 a.m., according to The Monitor.

“We send our condolences to the relatives of the victims, their friends, to the people of the U.S., to the government of the U.S.,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday, the Journal reported. “Of course we lament what happens in our country, and especially this.”

Americans kidnapped in Mexico identified; one had gone there for cosmetic surgery

The FBI earlier asked for help finding the Americans, who were kidnapped in Matamoros shortly after traveling to Mexico on Friday. Officials said that gunmen fired on their van, which had North Carolina license plates, and grabbed them before putting them into another vehicle and driving away. Authorities said a Mexican citizen was also killed in the confrontation.

Four Americans kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico; FBI posts reward for information

The Americans were found Tuesday in the village of Tecolote, about 15 miles from Matamoros, The Washington Post reported. Mexican security secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said a suspect has been detained, according to the newspaper.

McGee’s mother, Barbara Burgess, told ABC News that her daughter went to Mexico for a cosmetic medical procedure. Zalandria Brown, Zindell Brown’s older sister, told the AP that her brother traveled to Mexico to accompany a friend who was having a tummy tuck surgery.

“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” Zalandria Brown told the AP after the kidnappings.

The State Department warns Americans not to travel to Tamaulipas “due to crime and kidnapping.”

©2023 Cox Media Group

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