Two US citizens kidnapped in Mexico have been found dead while two others have been found alive, local officials have confirmed. Intelligence units from Mexico and the US including the FBI, Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) and the Mexican Navy (Marina) had been hunting for the group since they were kidnapped shortly after entering the city of Matamoros.
Américo Villarreal, the governor of Tamaulipas state, has confirmed two dead bodies, a wounded victim and another who is still alive have been found by officials. The condition of the two surviving victims is not yet known.
Villarreal made the announcement during a morning press conference with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. According to the Mirror, he said: "Of the four, two of them are dead, one person is wounded and the other is alive and right now the ambulances and the rest of the security personnel are going for them for give the corresponding support."
It is believed one of the four Americans had traveled to the country for a stomach operation. Family and friends of Latavia 'Tay' McGee told how she had crossed the border on Wednesday for a tummy tuck.
She was joined by her cousin Shaeed Woodard, and friends Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams. The friends wanted to split the driving responsibilities as they travelled from their homes in South Carolina to Mexico for Latavia's surgery.
In a statement on Sunday, the FBI confirmed the four had been travelling in a white minivan when they came under fire shortly after entering the city of Matamoros from Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of Texas near the Gulf coast.
"All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men," the FBI said.
Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, said she has been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning her younger brother, Zindell Brown, is one of the four victims.
She said: "This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from. To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable."
A video posted to social media Friday showed men with assault rifles and tan body armour loading the four people into the bed of a white pickup in broad daylight. One was alive and sitting up, but the others seemed either dead or wounded.
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