A friend of the four Americans kidnapped in Mexico has revealed that she traveled to the US border with them and nearly faced the same fate — but ultimately stayed behind because she forgot to bring her identification to leave the country.
Cheryl Orange and her four friends drove from South Carolina to Texas on Thursday with plans to cross the border into Mexico, where Latavia “Tay” McGee planned to undergo a tummy tuck in Matamoros.
But Orange remained in Brownsville, Texas, where she stayed at a motel while the others drove their rented minivan into Mexico about 8 a.m. Friday.
She later told police she was forced to stay behind because she forgot to bring her identification.
McGee, Eric James Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown are believed to have gotten lost on their way to the clinic — and were ambushed and shot at by rival drug cartels who reportedly mistook them for Haitian drug smugglers.
People comfort each other at Word of God Ministries in Scranton, SC, after a vigil for the victims of the Mexico drug cartel kidnappings. APChilling footage showed McGee, a mom of six, being forced into the flatbed of a pickup truck by gunmen while the motionless bodies of two men were loaded into the truck.
“She simply went for a cosmetic surgery, and that’s it. That’s all, and this happened to them,” Orange told the Associated Press in a text.
She told Texas authorities that she had everyone’s luggage but had been unable to reach them, the AP reported, citing a police report.
The four friends were shot at by drug cartels in the crime-plagued city of Matamoros who apparently mistook them for Haitian smugglers. AP
Latavia “Tay” McGee and Eric James Williams, who was shot in the leg, were rescued after days in captivity and whisked back to Texas. ABC News“She tried calling their cellphones but they sound turned off,” according to the report, which said Orange was given a phone number to follow up with police on Monday if she hadn’t heard from her pals by then.
Four US citizens from South Carolina were abducted in Matamoros
A Brownsville police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the news outlet Wednesday.
The tourists were discovered Tuesday inside a shed in a rural area near Matamoros called Ejido Tecolote, on the way to the Gulf coast known as “Bagdad Beach,” according to Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica.
Woodard and Brown were killed during the terrifying abduction. McGee and Williams, who was shot in the leg, were rescued after days in captivity and whisked back across the border to Texas.
With Post wires
