(Update:Β 03/07/23)
(AP) β Two surviving Americans are back on U.S. soil after a deadly Mexico kidnapping. They were taken to a Texas hospital for treatment.
According to Mexican President AndrΓ©s Manuel LΓ³pez Obrador, two of the four Americans who were kidnapped have been found dead.
The American citizens were shot at by unidentified gunmen after they crossed into Matamoros, in a white minivan with North Carolina plates on Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said.
The gunmen fled the scene with the four U.S. citizens after placing them into another vehicle.
The four Americans were identified as Zindell Brown, Eric James Williams and cousins Latavia βTayβ McGee and Shaeed Woodard.
Original Story
MEXICO CITY (AP) β Two U.S. citizens missing since their violent abduction last week in the northern Mexican border city of Matamoros have been found dead and two others are alive, the stateβs governor said Tuesday.
Tamaulipas Gov. AmΓ©rico Villarreal said that one of the surviving U.S. citizens was wounded and the other was not.
The FBI had reported Sunday that it was searching with Mexican authorities for the missing Americans, who had been kidnapped Friday.Β A relative of one of them said Monday that they hadΒ traveled together from South Carolina so one of them could get a tummy tuck from a Matamoros doctor.
Shortly after entering Mexico Friday they were caught in the crossfire of rival cartel groups. A video showed them being loaded into the back of a pickup truck by gunmen.
Villarreal confirmed the deaths by phone during a morning news conference by Mexican President AndrΓ©s Manuel LΓ³pez Obrador, saying details about the four abducted Americans had been confirmed by prosecutors.
βOf 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,” Villarreal said
The governor did not share any additional details about where or how they were found.
Mexican officials said a Mexican woman also had died in Fridays’ crossfire.
The incident illustrates the terror that has prevailed for years in Matamoros, a city dominated by factions of the powerful Gulf drug cartel who often fight among themselves. Amid the violence, thousands of Mexicans have disappeared in Tamaulipas state alone.
