Amiga informed the police of Americans kidnapped in Mexico

LAKE CITY, SC (AP) — The desperate attempt to rescue four Americans held captive in Mexico, a kidnapping in which two died, occurred after a fifth person traveling with the group contacted police when the others weren’t. did not return to the United States as planned.

Cheryl Orange, who did not enter Mexico with the others, told The Associated Press in a text that her three friends were supposed to return within 15 minutes of dropping her date Latavia McGee off on their cosmetic surgery appointment on Friday. in the Mexican town of Matamoros, on the Texas border.

Orange stayed at a motel in Brownsville, Texas, and said he grew worried over time and hadn’t heard from the rest of the group.

On Thursday, the five friends took a road trip in a rented van from South Carolina to the southern tip of Texas, according to a police report based on Orange’s statement. Four of them left around 8 a.m. Friday for Mexico.

Orange’s statements and report offer the most detailed picture to date of what happened before the abduction. McGee and another friend returned to a US hospital on Tuesday after Mexican authorities rescued them and found the bodies of their two other friends in a wooden cabin outside Matamoros. A Mexican woman was also killed in the attack in that town.

Orange told police she didn’t cross the border because she didn’t have her ID. Contacted by the AP, Orange said she couldn’t speak as she was waiting for a call from McGee, who was due out of the hospital. The other injured American, Eric Williams, was also receiving medical treatment for a gunshot wound to the leg.

Americans Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard were killed in the attack.

Orange confirmed in a text message that they had gone on a trip to accompany McGee for cosmetic surgery.

“She had just had plastic surgery, that’s all. That’s it and it happened to them,” Orange said.

Mexican authorities said the group was shot and crushed the van shortly after arriving in Matamoros on Friday as organized crime members prowled the streets.

The Americans were placed in a van. Mexican authorities launched a desperate search as the cartel moved them from place to place, including transferring them to a clinic, “to confuse and impede rescue efforts”, Américo Villarreal said. , governor of the state of Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located. located.

Orange told authorities in Brownsville that she had everyone’s luggage but was unable to contact them, according to the police report.

“He tried to call their cell phones, but they were muffled,” according to the report.

The document says an agent provided Orange with a phone number for the international bridge in the area and recommended that he contact criminal investigators on Monday in case he still hadn’t heard from his friends.

A spokesperson for the Brownsville Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CNN was the first outlet to report on the police report.

It is unclear how the FBI, which is leading the investigation on the US side, received the first report of the kidnapping. A spokeswoman for the agency had no comment on Wednesday.

Mexican authorities found the group on Tuesday in a wooden cabin – guarded by a man who was arrested – on the El Tecolote ejido, east of Matamoros, heading for a part of the Gulf of Mexico known as the name of Playa Bagdad, according to the Attorney General. of Tamaulipas, Irving Barrios.

A GoFundMe page set up by Brown’s family says loved ones hope the “beloved son, brother, uncle and friend” will get “the sendoff he deserves.”

Family members of the group say the four formed a close friendship growing up together in Lake City, South Carolina, a community of fewer than 6,000 people in the Pee Dee region of the state. Some relatives said they spent agonizing days waiting to find out if their loved ones had survived.

Lake City authorities called on the community to provide support to the families of the victims, and Mayor Yamekia Robinson sent them his “deepest condolences.”

“We ask each of you, your friends, churches and communities across the country, to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we, the City of Lake City, and families mourn the loss and move through this tragic together. incident,” Robinson said in a statement released Wednesday.

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Bleiberg reported from Dallas and Watson from San Diego. Associated Press writer Acacia Coronado contributed to this report from Austin, Texas.