Two of the four Americans kidnapped in Mexico while traveling to the country for a healthcare operation have been found dead.
According to the Associated Press, the other two Americans have been found alive, with one wounded.
The survivors have been taken to the border near Brownsville, Texas. Authorities have not said where the bodies of the deceased have been taken.
On Sunday, the FBI announced it was looking for the missing Americans who had traveled together from South Carolina. One of the Americans was trying to get a “tummy tuck” from a Matamoros doctor, but Friday, after entering the country, the group was caught in a cartel shootout near the border.
Witnesses say the white minivan they were driving was hit by another car near an intersection, and then gunfire began.
A video showed the group being loaded into a truck by armed men.
“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” Zalandria Brown, the sister of one of the Americans kidnapped, said of the video. “To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”
It’s unclear if Brown’s brother, Zindell, was one of the Americans found dead. Authorities have not released names.
An eyewitness at the scene told reporters that several gunmen forced a woman, who was able to walk, into the truck. Men carried another man who appeared to be moving his head, and she said, “the other two they dragged across the pavement.”
Authorities said the U.S. citizens were found in a rural area east of Matamoros.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said one suspect was in custody.
“Those responsible will be found and they are going to be punished,” he said.
Mexican officials also reported that a Mexican woman was also killed in Friday’s crossfire.
Photo courtesy: ©Juanjo Jaramillo/Unsplash
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
