south carolina tourist killed in mexico

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American tourists killed after being kidnapped in mexico id’d as shaeed woodard and zindell brown.

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LAKE CITY, S.C. —The two Americans who were found dead in Mexico after  being kidnapped at gunpoint  during a terrifying shootout between rival cartel gangs were identified Tuesday as Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown.

Woodard and Brown had traveled from South Carolina to Mexico with Latavia “Tay” McGee and Eric James Williams so McGee, a mother of six, could undergo a tummy tuck procedure, relatives said.

But shortly after the foursome crossed the border Friday into the crime-ridden city of Matamoros, located in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, realized they were lost.

The group couldn’t find the doctor’s office where McGee, 33, was due for surgery that Friday,  CNN reported , and poor cell service in the region made it harder for them to communicate with the doctor’s office.

While trying to sort out their location, the four became caught in the middle of a violent cartel showdown.

Four US citizens from South Carolina were abducted in Matamoros

• Gulf Cartel apologizes, turns over 5 members tied to Americans’ deadly kidnapping
• Mexico kidnapping survivor saw friends ‘killed right in front of him’: cousin
• Friend of kidnapped Americans reveals how she dodged Mexico ordeal

Harrowing video of the shootout shows the moment the group was forced into the back of a pickup truck in broad daylight after being shot at.

Tamaulipas state chief prosecutor Irving Barrios said he believes the deadly ambush was a result of “confusion, not a direct attack.”

Matamoros’ sinister reputation for ruthless organized crime had led to initial speculation that the abduction was drug-related, but a source close to the investigation told the Dallas Morning News on Monday that the Americans may have been mistaken for Haitian smugglers.

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McGee and Williams survived the attack  and were rushed Tuesday to Brownsville, Texas, in a convoy of ambulances and SUVs escorted by Mexican military Humvees and national guard trucks with mounted .50-caliber machine guns.

Williams was shot in the left leg but the wound was not life-threatening, Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal said. McGee survived the ordeal without physical injuries. 

Local authorities will examine the bodies of Woodard and Brown before they are repatriated to the US, the governor added.

The tourists were found in a shack in a rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Tecolote, on the way to the Gulf coast known as “Bagdad Beach,” Barrios said.

A photo of McGee taken shortly after she was rescued shows her covered in dirt with no shoes, with a traumatized look on her face.

Villarreal said they were being guarded by a man who has been arrested.

He added that the abducted Americans had been moved around by their captors, and at one point were taken to a medical clinic “to create confusion and avoid efforts to rescue them.”

McGee and Woodard were first cousins, their aunt Retha Darby told The Post from her home in South Carolina on Tuesday before news broke of Woodard’s death. 

She said her niece had told her about the medical procedure.

“She came by and visit me. She said, ‘I’m gonna be going to get surgery.’ I said, ‘Surgery on what?’ She said tummy tuck. She said, ‘My tummy getting too big.’ That was about a week ago,” Darby recalled of her last conversation with her 33-year-old niece.

“I didn’t know where she was going. I thought it was somewhere local.”

Darby, 72, is recovering from a stroke and is mostly confined to her Lake City home with a nurse. She said she shares a close bond with her niece, who regularly comes to visit her.

“She’s nice to me and everybody I know,” Darby said of McGee, noting that she is a good mom whose children adore her.

“She liked to dress well. Nice clothes. Hair fixed. Her face all done up,” she said.

Darby said she last spoke to her nephew, Woodard, “a couple weeks ago.”

“I try to keep him doing the right thing, but I can’t do so much because I can’t get around so much,” she explained tearfully. “I wish I could help them.”

Robert Williams said the news that his brother Eric survived the kidnapping was “quite a relief.”

“I look forward to seeing him again and actually being able to talk to him,” he said.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said he wants “to see accountability for the violence that has been inflicted on these Americans that tragically led to the death of two of them.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration is “working with Mexican officials to learn more and to have all Americans returned to the United States.”

“President Biden has been kept updated on this incident,” she said. “We extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, meanwhile, criticized the US media for its coverage of the ordeal. “It’s not like that when they kill Mexicans in the United States,” he said of the press. “They go quiet like mummies.”

The kidnapping comes as Republican politicians have called for a more comprehensive response to cartel violence in northern Mexico that sometimes spills across the border.

US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Monday he wants to “put Mexico on notice,” and plans to introduce legislation that would classify some Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

The move would allow the US to use military force against cartels.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said López Obrador is “being held hostage” by cartels.

“It’s pretty close at this stage to a failed narco-state. They can use violence and oceans of cash to corrupt the government. The government has no will, and it doesn’t have the ability to deal with the cartels,” he told Fox News.

Barr said Mexican authorities should “stand aside” and let US forces take over if they won’t tackle the cartels head-on. 

Additional reporting by Jesse O’Neill

With Post wires

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How a Missed Tummy Tuck in Mexico Led to a Deadly Kidnapping

Latavia McGee is one of many Americans who have sought cosmetic surgery south of the border. She and three friends met gunfire and a chaotic abduction that left two of them dead.

Eric Williams and Latavia McGee survived four days of captivity in the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, and made several escape attempts. Their friends Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard were killed. Credit... Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times

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By Jacey Fortin

• Published April 17, 2023 Updated April 19, 2023

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Within minutes of riding into Mexico in a rented white minivan last month, Latavia McGee knew that she was lost.

She and three of her closest friends — close enough that she called them brothers — had driven from South Carolina to Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas so that she could get a tummy tuck procedure. It was a journey she had made once before, as part of a wave of American women seeking cosmetic surgery across the border.

But this time, she was running late, had no phone service and had veered off course, Ms. McGee recalled in a recent interview. She was struggling to remember where the clinic was supposed to be.

Also in the wayward van were Zindell Brown, Shaeed Woodard and Eric Williams, old companions with whom she had grown up in South Carolina. That morning in Mexico, they had been enjoying one another’s company, Ms. McGee said, as Mr. Brown, the best Spanish speaker of the four, asked strangers for directions.

Then gunshots rang out, and the friends found themselves caught in the crossfire of a Mexican cartel. Mr. Brown 28, and Mr. Woodard, 33, would be killed, and Ms. McGee, 34, and Mr. Williams, 38, would spend four days in captivity , with the dead bodies of their friends beside them.

The deadly encounter drew international attention, highlighting the relentless violence that the Mexican government has failed to contain and bringing Republican criticism of the Biden administration for not doing enough to confront cartels across the border. Though the episode is still being investigated, officials have said that they believed the friends were taken by mistake: criminals in Mexico do not usually target Americans . Two days after Ms. McGee and Mr. Williams were released, five bound men were found by the Mexican authorities with a letter, purportedly from a powerful cartel, blaming them for the attack on the Americans.

The two survivors are only now beginning to speak publicly about their ordeal, as they continue to cope with the physical and emotional aftermath, which has left Mr. Williams using a wheelchair. In an interview with The New York Times, they described confused captors and gutsy escape attempts before they were released, and they provided more details about what drew them to Mexico.

Ms. McGee, who lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C., first had cosmetic surgery in Matamoros about two years ago, she said, and was returning for another procedure. She saw it as a form of self care after having six children. “It wasn’t that I was self-conscious, because I always thought I was beautiful,” she said. “I wanted to do it, so I saved my money, and I went.”

While her path across the border was risky, it was also well worn. Experts who track the practice known as medical tourism say that tens of thousands of U.S. residents, most of them women, make the trip every year in search of body-sculpting operations that are cheaper than what they can find at home. Despite the experience of Ms. McGee and her companions, the trend shows no sign of slowing.

Cross-border medicine

Cartel violence is distressingly common in Tamaulipas, one of six Mexican states that the State Department warns Americans to avoid because of crime. Even so, women cross the border from Brownsville, Texas, every day to visit clinics in Matamoros offering liposuction and cosmetic procedures known as tummy tucks and Brazilian butt lifts.

About 1.2 million Americans traveled to Mexico in 2019 to save money on medical procedures, according to Patients Beyond Borders, a group that offers guidance on health care options abroad. The organization estimates that cosmetic procedures account for about 15 percent of all medical travel from the United States.

Jasmine Wilson, 28, of Washington, D.C., went to Mexico last October for body shaping surgery that might have cost her $20,000 domestically, she said. In Mexico, the procedures came to only about one-quarter of that price. In the months since, she has used TikTok to promote the work of her surgeon, whom she found through a Facebook group.

Ms. Wilson said larger women often have a hard time obtaining cosmetic procedures in the United States. “A lot of plus-sized women don’t even know that they can get plastic surgery,” she said, “because they get turned down.”

Some cosmetic surgeons consider it too risky to operate on patients who have high body mass indexes. But compared with their American counterparts, surgeons in Mexico appear to be more likely to accept those patients, said David G. Vequist IV, founder of the Center for Medical Tourism Research at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Americans with limited access to health care, a category in which people of color are overrepresented, are also more likely to travel for procedures abroad, he said, pointing to a 2016 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For many patients who undergo butt lifts and related procedures, complications like blood clots or embolisms, which can be fatal, are a bigger concern than the cartels. Even a normal recovery involves bruising, bleeding and painful swelling, which has led to a homegrown system of postoperative recovery houses arising along the border.

Roxanne Flores has crossed into Matamoros hundreds of times, she said. She underwent cosmetic surgery in Mexico years ago, and now rents a house in Brownsville where women can pay to stay before and after their operations.

“I’ve never, ever been caught up in something” while driving women to Tamaulipas and back, she said, adding that Ms. McGee might have looked out of place in Matamoros because she was in a car with three men.

Like many other medical tourists, Ms. McGee prepared for her first surgical trip by sifting through social media platforms where women had recommended doctors and shared photos of their figures before and after procedures.

A friend recommended the same doctor that Ms. Wilson had visited. “I was kind of scared,” Ms. McGee said this week about her first procedure in Mexico two years ago, because she knew that complications were possible. But she was happy with the results, and decided to go back again for a tummy tuck.

‘All I could do was cry’

After roaming through Matamoros with her friends on the day of her appointment last month, Ms. McGee was ready to head back to Brownsville when a car cut them off.

From the back seat of the van, Mr. Brown insisted that he had seen a gun, and he urged his friends to flee, Ms. McGee recalled. Mr. Williams, who was driving, said he did his best to escape as shots rang out, throwing his arm across Ms. McGee in the passenger seat to try to protect her.

Someone on the street died in the shooting; news outlets identified her as Areli Pablo Servando , a 33-year old Mexican woman.

In the violent, noisy blur, each of the four friends either tried to run from the minivan or was pulled from it, Mr. Williams and Ms. McGee recalled. Then, in a moment that was captured in a bystander’s video and shared widely on social media, the four were loaded into the bed of a white pickup truck.

As the truck began to pull away from the scene of the shooting, Ms. McGee was the only one of the four who had not suffered a major injury. She and Mr. Williams, who had been shot in the legs but remained conscious, decided that she should try to escape and find help. So she jumped, she said, and ran toward a fence with a gate. But the gate was locked, and the fence was too high to climb over.

The assailants forced her back into the truck and beat her, she said. The four Americans were then taken somewhere and accosted by more men with guns, who threatened them and asked them if they were in the drug trade.

“No,” Ms. McGee recalled answering. “We came for surgery.”

Confusion seemed to creep in as their captors consulted with one another. Some of the assailants told Ms. McGee that she would be released, she said. Still, the threats and beatings continued.

The four were taken to a sort of clinic, where Ms. McGee said she saw that both Mr. Brown and Mr. Woodard appeared to be lifeless. “All I could see was their heads and the dreads hanging off the bed,” she said. “And all I could do was cry.”

Mr. Williams — who by then had been stripped — said his injured legs were hastily stitched up. The two survivors and their dead friends’ bodies were moved again, to a place where they were surrounded by about a dozen other captives who looked as though they had been badly beaten.

The surviving friends languished there for about two days, Ms. McGee said. They prayed together and took turns feeling hopeless, each asking the other to relay loving messages to their spouses and children.

‘I’ll never be OK’

Eventually, they were driven to yet another location, where Ms. McGee again tried to escape, they said. She managed to grab the phone of a guard who seemed to be incapacitated, and dialed 911 repeatedly. Each time, she said nothing to the operator, she said, for fear that the cartel might be listening. But she hoped that the police would come if she kept dialing.

Her last attempt to flee came after she spotted an empty vehicle outside the place where they were being held. Finding the keys inside, she hauled Mr. Williams into the vehicle with her and hit the accelerator. Rough terrain slowed her down, she said, and then she was spotted; bullets flew again. She was taken back to the room with the bodies.

Not long after that, the police arrived. According to the Mexican authorities, Ms. McGee, Mr. Williams and their slain friends were found on the morning of March 7 in a wooden shed surrounded by farmland on the edge of Matamoros. A couple of hours later, the two survivors were in the custody of U.S. officials.

The full story of what happened to them in Mexico remains unclear, and many details of their account could not be verified.

Since the kidnapping, Mr. Williams has undergone surgery to repair his legs and is unsure when he will be able to walk again. He and Ms. McGee are grieving the loss of their friends, whom they described as supportive and sweet.

“I’ll never be the same,” Ms. McGee said. “I’ll never be OK.”

Sometimes, Ms. McGee’s phone still brings her notifications from the cosmetic surgery groups she joined years ago on social media, where women continue to post about their plans for procedures in Mexico.

Ellen Gabler contributed reporting.

Audio produced bt Tally Abecassis .

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What we know about the 4 Carolinians kidnapped in Mexico

Four Americans who traveled to Mexico last week to seek medical care got caught in a deadly shootout and were kidnapped by heavily armed men who threw them in the back of a pickup truck, officials from both countries said Monday.

The four were traveling Friday in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. They came under fire shortly after entering the city of Matamoros from Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of Texas near the Gulf coast, the FBI said in a statement Sunday.

The kidnapping victims were identified as Zindell Brown, Eric James Williams and cousins Latavia “Tay” McGee and Shaeed Woodard, according to ABC News .

The survivors -- Williams and McGee -- have returned to the U.S., their families said.

Mexican governor: Missing Americans found; 2 dead; 1 wounded; 1 unharmed

Americans kidnapped in Mexico: 2 found dead, 2 alive, reports say

“All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI said. The bureau offered a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the arrest of the kidnappers.

On Tuesday, Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal announced the four had been found -- two were found dead, one was hurt, and one was unharmed, he said. Here is what we know about them.

Zindell Brown

Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, said she has been in contact with the FBI and local officials after learning that her younger brother, Zindell Brown, is one of the four victims.

“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” she said in a phone interview. “To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”

Zalandria Brown said her brother, who lives in Myrtle Beach, and two friends had accompanied a third friend who was going to Mexico for a tummy tuck surgery. A doctor who advertises such surgeries in Matamoros did not answer calls seeking comment.

Brown said the group was extremely close and they all made the trip in part to help split up the driving duties. They were aware of the dangers in Mexico, she added, and her brother had expressed some misgivings.

“Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,’” Brown said.

Eric Williams

Robert Williams said in a telephone interview that his brother, 38-year-old Eric Williams, was among the kidnapped Americans. The brothers are from South Carolina but now live in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina, he said.

Williams described his brother as “easygoing” and “fun-spirited.”

He didn’t know his brother was traveling to Mexico until after the abduction hit the news. But from looking at his brother’s Facebook posts, he thinks his brother did not consider the trip dangerous.

“He thought it would be fun,” Williams said. He hadn’t heard anything about his brother’s whereabouts, he said.

Gov. Villarreal said the wounded American, Eric Williams, had been shot in the left leg and the wound was not life threatening. The survivors were taken to Valley Regional Medical Center with an FBI escort, the Brownsville Herald reported . A spokesperson for the hospital referred all inquiries to the FBI.

Latavia “Tay” McGee

According to ABC News , McGee is a mother of five who traveled from South Carolina for a cosmetic medical procedure. A relative of Zindell Brown said Monday that it was for a tummy tuck surgery from a doctor in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, where Friday’s kidnapping took place.

McGee’s mother, Barbara Burgess, told ABC News the FBI came to her home on Tuesday to notify her that her daughter was alive. She said she “had to hold my heart” when she got the news.

McGee spoke to her mother from a Texas hospital on Tuesday, Burgess said McGee confirmed she had no major injuries.

Shaeed Woodard

Woodard and McGee were cousins, ABC News reports . Channel 9 is working to learn more about him.

Video of kidnapping

A video posted to social media Friday showed men with assault rifles and tan body armor 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. At least one person appeared to lift his head from the pavement before being dragged to the truck.

The scene 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.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday that “there was a confrontation between groups, and they were detained,” without offering details. He originally said the four Americans came to Mexico to buy medications.

Tamaulipas’ chief prosecutor, Irving Barrios, told reporters that a Mexican woman died in Friday’s shootings. He did not specify whether she was killed in the same gunfight where the kidnapping took place.

A woman driving in Matamoros who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal said she witnessed what appeared to be the shooting and abduction.

The white minivan was hit by another vehicle near an intersection, then gunfire rang out, the woman said. Another SUV rolled up, and several armed men hopped out.

“All of a sudden they (the gunmen) were in front of us,” she said. “I entered a state of shock, nobody honked their horn, nobody moved. Everybody must have been thinking the same thing, ‘If we move they will see us, or they might shoot us.’”

She said the gunmen forced a woman, who was able to walk, into the back of a pickup. Another person was carried to the truck but could still move his head.

“The other two they dragged across the pavement, we don’t know if they were alive or dead,” she said.

Mexican authorities arrived minutes later.

Zindell Brown’s family asked people to share any relevant information with local authorities. O’dell William Brown, his father, said the family is still searching for answers.

“I don’t know which way to go right now,” he said. “We don’t know what’s what.”

Violence in Matamoros

Shootouts in Matamoros were so bad on Friday that the U.S. Consulate issued an alert about the danger and local authorities warned people to shelter in place. It was not immediately clear how the abductions may have been connected to that violence.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in a statement Monday the Americans were kidnapped at gunpoint and an “innocent” Mexican citizen died in the attack. He said various U.S. justice agencies were working with their Mexican counterparts to recover the missing persons.

President Joe Biden had been informed of the situation, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. She declined to answer other questions, citing privacy concerns.

Victims of violence in Matamoros and other large border cities of Tamaulipas often go uncounted because the cartels have a history taking bodies of their own with them. Local media often avoid reporting on such episodes out of safety concerns, creating an information vacuum.

The State Department warns U.S. citizens not to travel to Tamaulipas. However U.S. citizens who live in Brownsville or elsewhere in Texas frequently cross to visit family, attend medical appointments or shop. It’s also a crossing point for people traveling deeper into Mexico.

As the headquarters of the Gulf cartel, Matamoros was once relatively calm. For years, a night out in the city was part of the “two-nation vacation” for spring breakers flocking to Texas’ South Padre Island.

But increased cartel violence over the past 10 to 15 years frightened away much of that business. Sometimes U.S. citizens are swept up in the fighting.

Three U.S. siblings disappeared near Matamoros in October 2014 while visiting their father and were later found shot to death and burned. Their parents said they had been abducted by men dressed in police gear identifying themselves as “Hercules,” a tactical security unit in the city.

(WATCH BELOW: 4 Americans in van with NC plates kidnapped in northern Mexico, officials say)

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How a trip to Mexico for cosmetic surgery turned deadly for US quartet

Deaths of two of four Americans kidnapped in Matamoros place spotlight on cartels’ impunity – and on medical tourism

L atavia “Tay” Washington McGee had scheduled an abdominal operation that many mothers have, and she chose to have the operation done in Mexico , where medical costs are cheaper – and where she had previously gone for other cosmetic procedures.

A cousin and a couple of friends joined her to share the 1,400-mile drive from her home town of Lake City, South Carolina , to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, just south of the US-Mexico frontier.

They arrived in the border city on 3 March, but never made it to the clinic. Members of a violent drug cartel that controls the area mistook the group of Americans as rival traffickers, killed two of them, and kidnapped McGee and one of her friends.

McGee and Eric Williams were rescued within days, and the bodies of her cousin Shaeed Woodard and friend Zindell Brown were later repatriated. On Thursday, five men who allegedly carried out the attack were dumped on a Matamoros street, along with a a surreal letter of apology purportedly from the Gulf cartel.

“We ask the public to be calm,” the letter said in Spanish. “We are committed that the mistakes caused by indiscipline won’t be repeated, and that those responsible pay, no matter who they are.”

The episode prompted calls from prominent conservative American politicians legislation to allow the US military to intervene in Mexico – though the traffickers often arm themselves with guns bought in the US.

It had left many Mexicans puzzled at why this particular case was apparently resolved so quickly in a country where more than 100,000 people are missing and most crimes go unpunished.

And it cast international attention on US medical tourism, in which Americans travel abroad for healthcare they can’t afford at home.

The tummy-tuck surgery sought by McGee generally aims to remove excess skin from the abdomen and tighten the muscles in that part of the body. It is the fourth-most common cosmetic procedure, according to a 2022 report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons .

It is particularly popular as part of the beauty regimens for Black Americans, mothers and people in their 30s, the society said. All those descriptors match McGee, 33, the mother of six children between the ages of six and 18.But in the US, the procedure alone typically costs more than $6,100. Adding in anesthesia, medication and the operating room, the total cost for a tummy tuck – which is considered major surgery – can balloon to around $20,000.

That’s the point where many Americans start exploring traveling abroad. The CDC warns against such medical tourism, saying infection and post-procedure complications are possible depending on the destination and facility.

Dr Michael Omidi, a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles, told the Guardian that US providers usually won’t work with patients who travelled abroad to be operated on and then suffered complications – for fear of becoming liable for the entire procedure.

Yet the fact is other countries can offer substantial savings to US patients willing to assume the risks.

In early 2020, Americans could on average save 40% to 60% by having major surgery done in Mexico, according to a report from the consumer watchdog Patients Beyond Borders. Those figures have only increased amid US inflation and spiralling insurance companies’ deductibles, co-pays and exclusions, said the group’s chief executive officer, Josef Woodman.

Potential clients can minimize the risks by seeking out certified providers in certain resort areas, larger border cities like Tijuana, and the country’s capital, Mexico City, Woodman said.

Woodman said that though it was not possible to identify every Mexican community with providers capable of consistently providing a good outcome, his group does know of several.

“Unfortunately,” he added, “Matamoros isn’t among them.”

Furthermore, the US state department had admonished Americans against traveling there, citing the organized crime and violence in the region.

Riding in a white minivan, McGee, Williams, Woodard and Brown – described by loved ones as fiercely close to each other – crossed into Matamoros from Brownsville, Texas, during the day on 3 March.

As the four friends drove through the city, looking for the clinic, their white minivan suddenly came under gunfire from heavily armed men in body armor, who pursued them in a pickup truck.

Woodard and Brown were killed, as was Arely Servando, a 33-year-old Mexican church worker standing on the street a block and a half away.

Williams was shot in the legs but survived. McGee was physically unharmed, but – along with her companions – was dragged into the back of the attackers’ truck at gunpoint.

For four days, the group’s fate was unknown. US federal agents offered a reward of $50,000, and then on Tuesday, Mexican authorities announced they had found McGee and Williams – plus the bodies of Woodard and Brown – in a wooden shack in a rural area 15 miles east of Matamoros.

Police arrested a man guarding the Americans, who investigators suspect were mistaken for rival traffickers. On Thursday, the five men apparently dumped on a Matamoros street by the Gulf cartel itself were arrested on charges of aggravated kidnapping and homicide.

In South Carolina, McGee’s mother, Barbara Burgess, told ABC News that her daughter’s rescue was evidence for her that “there is a God”. But, Burgess added , her daughter was devastated at seeing two of the people she loved as they “died in front of her”.

Williams’s wife Michelle, said she had no idea her husband was going to Mexico, but told the South Carolina news outlet WBTW she had an overwhelming “sense of relief” that he was expected to make a full recovery after undergoing surgery for the bullet wounds to his legs.

But she added: “My heart is breaking for the other two families that don’t get to say the same.”

Brown’s sister, Zalandria, told the Associated Press that her brother had only joined his friends reluctantly after repeatedly warning them against the trip.

“Zindell [was] like my shadow,” she told CNN . “He [was] like my son … my hipbone.”

Separately, according to CNN , Woodard’s father told reporters his son would’ve turned 34 on Thursday. “I’ve tried to make sense out of it and tried to be strong about it,” he said. “It just was a senseless crime.”

The South Carolina senator Republican Lindsey Graham called for legislation to classify Mexican drug cartels as terrorists, and threatened to “unleash the fury and the might of the United States.”

He made no mention that much of the violence in Mexico – which has stringent gun restrictions – is fuelled by drug sales within the United States and perpetrated with guns bought legally in the US before being smuggled across the border. Graham has repeatedly voted against substantial gun control measures in the US.

Such double standards only fuel a weary sense of outrage among Mexicans distraught at the violence and impunity dogging their country.

Thousands of Mexicans are kidnapped in their country annually, and authorities rarely try to rescue them or arrest those responsible. Some are eventually returned after payment of a ransom; many simply disappear without trace.

In this case, a taskforce involving the Mexican military, national guard and state police swung into action.

A video on Twitter posted by the Tamaulipas businessman Roberto Lee captured the reaction of many south of the border.

“It makes us feel like we need to be citizens of another country for our government to care about us,” said Lee. “We learned one thing – that the government can produce results, but it’s not producing them for Matamoros.”

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New Details of Night Shanquella Robinson Was Killed Revealed in Documents Submitted to President Biden

Shanquella Robinson, 25, was vacationing at a luxury resort in Cabo San Lucas with six others when she was killed, reports say

Digital News Writer, PEOPLE

Nearly five months after North Carolina woman Shanquella Robinson was allegedly beaten to death while on a Mexican getaway with a group of people, her family's attorneys are demanding President Joe Biden put pressure on authorities to make an arrest.

Attorneys Ben Crump and Sue-Ann Robinson, who are representing Robinson's family, sent a letter to Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for "swift diplomatic intervention" on the victim's behalf, according to a press release.

In October 2022, Robinson, 25, was vacationing at a luxury resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with six others when she was killed, according to reports.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE' s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Her travel mates allegedly insisted she died of alcohol poisoning , but an autopsy conducted by Mexican authorities showed that her death was caused by violence — specifically, "atlas and medullary dislocation," according to the autopsy.

"In our letter to President Biden and Secretary Blinken, we clearly stated that one of two things needs to happen: either the U.S. extradites Shanquella's killer to Mexico or the U.S. takes jurisdiction of the case and her killer is prosecuted here," Crump said, per the release. "Inaction is not acceptable in this case. Shanquella's family deserves swift justice for her death."

The letter states attorney Sue-Ann Robinson went on a "fact-finding mission" in Mexico where she met with local authorities to discuss the case.

According to Crump and Sue-Ann Robinson, the letter to Biden and Blinken was accompanied by witness statements, Shanquella's autopsy and field reports conducted by local authorities.

Included among these witness statements is an account submitted to authorities in Mexico from an employee at the resort where Robinson stayed.

"She seemed to not fit in with others," the employee statement said, referring to Robinson's demeanor before she joined her travel mates for dinner. "When I introduced myself, she did not greet me or smile. She was indifferent, nothing to do with the atmosphere of celebration. She was out of place at that party."

According to WCNC-TV , the letter also identifies a murder suspect.

Previously, Mexican authorities said they were waiting on the U.S. to extradite an unnamed person who was allegedly involved in Robinson's death before they could move forward with their investigation, per WBTV-TV .

According to The Charlotte Observer , a video appears to show Shanquella being physically assaulted by another woman in a hotel room.

At least two others were present at the time of the alleged beating, ABC News reports.

The State Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

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With 2 Americans dead in Matamoros, a cartel-scarred Mexican border town wonders what's next

Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, an immigrant advocate who works in Matamoros, was stunned to hear about a violent attack in the Mexican border town last week. 

The attack itself wasn't shocking. What surprised her were the victims: four people from the United States.

"This is a common occurrence. It happens all the time," she said as she crossed into Mexico from Brownsville, Texas, which she does each day to run a nonprofit for migrant aid.

"But it's usually aimed at asylum-seekers," she said, "not anyone else."   

The attack and Tuesday's announcement that two Americans had been found and two others were dead – all of them missing since an apparently brazen daylight attack on Friday – have stunned the region despite its deep history of smuggling and cartel violence.  

At the same time, the attacks highlight the way similar abductions, killings or other violence can plague the community but draw little public outcry when they involve Mexicans or migrants. And with details about the Americans' deadly venture still scarce, it was unclear how either law enforcement or regular travel could be affected by the case going forward.  

Brendon Tucker lived and worked in Matamoros in 2019 helping asylum-seekers through an advocacy agency. When a cartel group disapproved of his activities, he said, he   was warned twice through a third person to cease his interactions with migrants. He later left Matamoros and today works as a project manager for Global Response Medicine in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. 

To have cartel gunmen shoot and kidnap Americans without provocation seems like a departure from their modus operandi, Tucker said. More likely scenario: The cartels mistook the four Americans for other people, he said. 

"I would be absolutely blown away if they were targeted on purpose," Tucker said. Cartels "are going to do everything in their power not to put their foot in the ant pile that is the United States government. ... There is no way for a cartel to have done this for it to be beneficial to them."

Federal investigators believe the group was mistakenly targeted and there was nothing to indicate they were in Mexico for any other purpose than a medical procedure, a person familiar with the investigation said. An official statement called the case only "an ongoing criminal investigation."  

Zalandria Brown of Florence, South Carolina, said authorities told her her younger brother, Zindell Brown, 28, was among the four Americans in the case.

“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” Brown told The Associated Press. “To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable."

Four Americans in Mexico 

Video posted to social media Friday showed men with assault rifles and tan body armor loading four people into the bed of a white pickup in broad daylight. News photos from the scene showed Mexican security forces around a white minivan with North Carolina plates. 

But it was this week that the apparent identities of the people involved became clear. 

Brown said the four had traveled together from South Carolina so one of them could get a tummy tuck from a doctor in Matamoros.

Mexican officials said Friday's attack and abduction happened just 2½ hours after the group crossed the border for a medical appointment.

Tamaulipas state Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said the victims were found Tuesday around 8 a.m. in a house outside Matamoros.

One of the surviving U.S. citizens was found wounded and the other was unharmed, Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal said after confirming two Americans died. A suspect who was standing guard over them has been arrested.

Barrios Mojica said no ransom had been demanded.

Both survivors were returned to the United States on Tuesday, in a convoy of ambulances and SUVs that was escorted by Mexican military Humvees and National Guard trucks with mounted machine guns.  

Many Americans visit

The State Department lists Tamaulipas as a Level 4, Do Not Travel destination. But Americans still cross the border overland – to visit extended families that straddle or for less expensive medical care.

Charlene D’Cruz, an immigration attorney in Brownsville who works with asylum-seekers and travels frequently to Matamoros, said it's not uncommon for U.S. citizens to travel to Matamoros for medical procedures ranging from dental work to cancer treatment to cosmetic surgery and cheaper prescriptions. The treatments are often offered at a fraction of U.S. costs, she said.

One place in particular, the Centro Medico Internacional, houses doctors specializing in an array of specialties, said D'Cruz, who traveled there last year for a respiratory exam. The new case has made her and others postpone future trips, she said. 

"This is brutal," D'Cruz said. "It's horrible."

For people who live on the Mexican side of the border, the situation may be different. 

Advocates have been warning for years that migrants were being kidnapped, extorted and killed in north Mexican border towns such as Matamoros, Reynosa and Nueva Laredo as they waited their turn to seek asylum in the United States. But rarely did that violence extend to U.S. citizens, they said. Cartels would prefer not to draw U.S. attention to their illicit activities.  

People working with migrants in Tamaulipas, though, say migrants must pay the cartel to transit the state and for permission to attempt crossings of the Rio Grande into the United States. Some say migrants in Matamoros are extorted by the cartel to be allowed free movement.

“You pay a fee, and they give you a code … and then they check your code,” said Abraham Barberi, a U.S.-citizen pastor operating a migrant shelter in Matamoros. “It’s a one-time deal.” 

Kidnappings difficult to quantify 

Duncan Wood, vice president of the Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank, and senior adviser to the Mexico Institute, said cartels and criminal groups may target migrants or wealthy people  but tend to avoid everyday U.S. citizens because of the attention such cases carry.

Even though Matamoros is in Tamaulipas , which the U.S. State Department says travelers should avoid because of the danger of kidnapping and other crimes, he said it was possible the Americans were mistaken for rivals or migrants. 

“If they were, in fact, going over for medical tourism, which happens all the time, then generally they would have been left alone by Mexican organized crime,” he said. 

Wood, who spent 17 years living in Mexico and has studied the country for nearly three decades, said he knows the pain such incidents can cause. When he was a professor, he said, several of his students were kidnapped for ransom. 

The overall prevalence of kidnappings is difficult to accurately quantify, he said. Many aren’t reported including when families believe police can’t effectively investigate or kept quiet when a kidnapped wealthy executive is freed after paying a private ransom.

Along with high-profile cases, there are what's known as “express kidnappings” in Mexico, he said, when assailants hold a person in a car until they can withdraw cash from an ATM over two days before they are dropped off.

Today, partly because of clashes among rival cartels over disputed territory in Tamaulipas and criminals who prey on migrants trying to cross the border, it’s a place he avoids.

 “I would not go into Matamoros,” he said. “It's just not safe.”

Wood said the abductions probably will add fuel to the combustible U.S. political debate over border security and how to address Mexican drug cartels. 

Already this week, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called on the Biden administration to ramp up pressure on Mexican drug cartels.

Is Mexico safe overall?

Security analysts say many parts of the country are safe for tourists, such as Mexico City and major beach destinations such as Los Cabos and Cancún. But large swaths of Mexico fall under the control of cartels.

“There are many Mexicos,” said Falko Ernst, senior Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group. “You have to pay attention to which one you’re going to.”

Last August , the State Department issued an updated travel advisory for Americans visiting Mexico, including new state-level advice and information on "kidnapping risk," and cited an "increased risk of crime and kidnapping" in certain areas of Mexico. 

Laura Calderon, program director of Justice in Mexico, a research initiative at the University of San Diego, said kidnappings in Mexico dipped during the COVID-19 pandemic in part because cartels had to spend more time finding ways to transport drugs.

But conflict has flared in Tamaulipas over the past 15 years as the incumbent Gulf Cartel – founded in Matamoros – fragmented, starting with its notoriously violent armed wing, Los Zetas.  Analysts say factions of the Gulf Cartel are fighting over the crime territory in Matamoros, which is coveted as a corridor for drug smuggling.

Wrong place, wrong time

American visitors who experience violence in Mexico, whether it’s cartel crossfire near a resort or crime along the U.S. border, are most often in the wrong place at the wrong time, said Adam Gonzales, CEO of security consultants Hyperion Services , which has worked on kidnapping cases in Mexico.

Across the globe, an estimated 200 to 300 Americans are kidnapped overseas each year, according to the nonprofit group Hostage U.S ., which aids families of kidnapping victims.

Lorenzo Ortiz, a pastor based in Laredo, Texas, has been sheltering migrants in Nuevo Laredo for years. He has an unspoken agreement with the area's cartels, whose leaders allow him to shuttle and shelter asylum-seekers so long as it doesn't interfere with their criminal activities, he said. 

Last year, armed men kidnapped Ortiz, a U.S. citizen, at gunpoint and held him in a safe house for 24 hours. He was abruptly released the next day. He later learned that several other criminal groups had pressured his captors to release him because they didn't want the U.S. government targeting them. 

"Cartels don't usually target U.S. citizens," he said. "Something weird happened there."

Contributing: David Agren

Chris Kenning and Rick Jervis are national correspondents. Reach them at [email protected] and [email protected], and on Twitter  @chris_kenning , @MrRJervis.  

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3 people from south carolina among americans kidnapped in mexico.

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Three people from South Carolina are among four Americans who traveled to Mexico last week to seek health care and got caught in a deadly drug-related shootout and were kidnapped, officials from both countries said Monday.

(Video above: Family of those kidnapped speak)

The four were traveling Friday in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. They came under fire shortly after entering the city of Matamoros from Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of Texas near the Gulf coast, the FBI said in a statement Sunday.

“All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI said.

An innocent Mexican bystander was also killed in the encounter, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said.

The bureau is offering a $50,000 reward for the victims’ return and the arrest of the kidnappers.

South Carolina connection:

Latavia "Tay" Washington McGee, 33, drove to Mexico with Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and their friend Eric for the procedure but she never made it to her doctor's appointment on Friday, her mother Barbara Burgess told CNN.

On Sunday, Burgess said she was informed by the FBI that her daughter had been kidnapped and was in danger. "They said if she calls me to call them," she said.

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Investigators believe the Americans were mistakenly targeted by a Mexican cartel that likely mistook them for Haitian drug smugglers, a U.S. official familiar with the ongoing investigation tells CNN.

The U.S. citizens have no concerning criminal history that has been identified by investigators, the source said.

The group of friends, who were bonded "like glue," grew up together in South Carolina, Brown's sister Zalandria Brown told CNN. She added, that she and her bother are also close. "Zindell is like my shadow, he's like my son, he's like my hip bone. We're just tight like that."

This was the second time Washington McGee, a mother of six children, had gone to Mexico for a medical procedure, her mother said. About two to three years ago, Burgess said, her daughter traveled to the country for a surgery.

Mexico has become a popular destination for "medical tourism," attracting travelers who may be seeking cheaper alternatives or medical treatments that are unapproved or unavailable in the U.S. But the CDC warns the growing trend can carry dangerous risks depending on the destination and facility, including infection and possible post-procedure complications.

Receipts found in the group's vehicle also indicated the Americans were in Mexico for medical procedures, a U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday that the group had crossed the border to "buy medicines" and assured the "whole government" is working to resolve the case.

Federal and local Mexican authorities are participating in the effort to locate the missing Americans, Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said Monday.

The White House and U.S. State Department are "closely following" the case, spokespeople said in briefings Monday.

"These sorts of attacks are unacceptable. Our thoughts are with the families of these individuals and we stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday, adding that the State and Homeland Security departments are coordinating with Mexican authorities.

"We will continue to coordinate with Mexico and push them to bring those responsible to justice," Jean-Pierre said.

CNN has reached out to the FBI, the Tamaulipas Secretary of Public Security's office and the Mexican Attorney General's Office for more information.

'We don't know if she is dead or alive':

Washington McGee's aunt, Mary McFadden, told CNN that when the family hadn't heard from the group of friends by Sunday, they began searching online for any news related to their travel destination. Then, the family saw a video McFadden described as showing her niece being kidnapped.

"We recognized her and her blonde hair," McFadden said. She said she also recognized her niece's clothing from a live video Washington McGee had posted to Facebook earlier Friday.

"This happened in plain daylight. We don't know if she is dead or alive. The last picture we saw, she was walking alive," McFadden said.

"She is a mother and we need her to come back here for her kids," she said, adding that Washington McGee's children range in age from 6 to 18 years old.

A video obtained by CNN shows a woman and other unidentified people being roughly loaded into a white pickup truck. CNN has confirmed the video matches the incident but has not independently confirmed it is the four Americans shown in the video.

The video shows the woman being pulled or pushed onto the bed of the truck by two unidentified people as a third visibly armed man watches. The three men then appear to drag at least two limp people onto the truck bed, the video shows.

Additionally, photos obtained by CNN appear to show fragments of the scene where the situation occurred, including the car believed to have been driven by the Americans crashed with another vehicle before they were taken at gunpoint from the scene.

The U.S. citizens were driving a white minivan with North Carolina plates, according to the FBI in San Antonio.

The FBI would not confirm the authenticity of the photos, but CNN has geolocated the images and confirmed their authenticity with a U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation.

The photos also show a woman looking at and then sitting next to three people lying on the ground outside a white minivan. All the doors of the van are open. It is unclear whether the four people in the photos are the U.S. citizens.

The woman then appears to have been loaded onto the bed of a white pickup truck, beside which several people can be seen lying on the street, the photos show.

One photo shows that an ambulance arrived, but it's unclear if medical attention was being provided.

Search for missing Americans and investigation underway:

Investigators trying to locate the U.S. citizens and identify those involved in the alleged kidnapping have been working to gather surveillance footage, collect ballistics and fingerprint evidence, take biological samples for genetic profiles and process the vehicles involved, Tamaulipas officials said.

A joint task force of federal and state agencies has been created for "processing all the information related to the case" and maintaining constant communication with U.S. officials, Barrios Mojica, the Tamaulipas Attorney General, said.

"Given the presumption that they are American citizens, a line of direct communication was established with U.S. authorities to exchange information and dedicated to locating them. These communications are being carried out at the highest level between the State Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the United States Embassy in Mexico," Barrios Mojica said.

The FBI is also requesting the public's help in finding the Americans and identifying anyone involved in the incident. The agency announced a $50,000 reward for the return of the victims and the arrest of those responsible.

Ongoing violence has plagued some Mexican cities as they become the backdrop of organized crime and drug trafficking operations, which the country's government has been battling since at least 2006.

Matamoros, a city in the state of Tamaulipas, has a population of more than 500,000 people and is located just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. The city has recently been the site of a large encampment of asylum-seeking migrants hoping to cross into the U.S.

The U.S. State Department has issued a "Level 4: Do Not Travel" advisory for U.S. citizens thinking of going to Tamaulipas, citing crime and kidnapping.

"Criminal groups target public and private passenger buses, as well as private automobiles traveling through Tamaulipas, often taking passengers and demanding ransom payments," the State Department advisory says.

Watch CBS News

Woman suspected of kidnapping and killing girl is beaten to death by mob in Mexican tourist city

Updated on: March 29, 2024 / 7:47 AM EDT / CBS/AP

A mob in the Mexican tourist city of Taxco brutally beat a woman to death Thursday because she was suspected of kidnapping and killing a young girl, rampaging just hours before the city's famous Holy Week procession.

The mob formed after an 8-year-old girl disappeared Wednesday. Her body was found on a road on the outskirts of the city early Thursday. Security camera footage appeared to show a woman and a man loading a bundle, which may have been the girl's body, into a taxi.

The mob surrounded the woman's house Thursday, threatening to drag her out. Police took the woman into the bed of a police pickup truck, but then stood by - apparently intimidated by the crowd - as members of the mob dragged her out of the truck and down onto the street where they stomped, kicked and pummeled her until she lay, partly stripped and motionless.

Police then picked her up and took her away, leaving the pavement stained with blood. The Guerrero state prosecutors' office later confirmed the woman died of her injuries.

"This is the result of the bad government we have," said a member of the mob, who gave her name as Andrea but refused to give her last name. "This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened," she said, referring to the murder of the girl, "but this is the first time the people have done something."

"We are fed up," she said. "This time it was an 8-year-old girl."

The mayor of Taxco, Mario Figueroa, said he shared residents' outrage over the killing. Figueroa said a total of three people beaten by the mob - the woman and two men - had been taken away by police. Video from the scene suggested they had also been beaten, though The Associated Press witnessed only the beating of the woman.

The state prosecutors' office said the two men were hospitalized. There was no immediate information on their condition.

In a statement issued soon after the event, Figueroa complained he did not get any help from the state government for his small, outnumbered municipal police force.

"Unfortunately, up to now we have not received any help or answers," Figueroa said.

The Good Friday eve religious procession, which dates back centuries in the old silver-mining town, went off as planned Thursday night.

People crowded Taxco's colonial streets to watch hooded men walking while whipping themselves or carrying heavy bundles of thorns across their bare shoulders in penitence to emulate the suffering of Jesus Christ carrying the cross.

But the earlier flash of violence cast a pall over the already solemn procession, which draws thousands to the small town.

Many participants wore small white ribbons of mourning.

"I never thought that in a touristic place like Taxco we would experience a lynching," said Felipa Lagunas, a local elementary school teacher. "I saw it as something distant, in places far from civilization ... I never imagined that my community would experience this on such a special day."

Mob attacks in rural Mexico are common. In 2018, two men were torched by an angry crowd in the central state of Puebla, and the next day a man and woman were dragged from their vehicle, beaten and set afire in the neighboring state of Hidalgo.

But Taxco and other cities in Guerrero state have been particularly prone to violence.

In late January, Taxco endured a days-long strike by private taxi and van drivers who suffered threats from one of several drug gangs fighting for control of the area. The situation was so bad that police had to give people rides in the back of their patrol vehicles.

Around the same time, the bullet-ridden bodies of two detectives were found on the outskirts of Taxco. Local media said their bodies showed signs of torture.

In February, Figueroa's own bulletproof car was shot up by gunmen on motorcycles.

In Taxco and throughout Guerrero state, drug cartels and gangs routinely prey on the local population, demanding protection payments from store owners, taxi and bus drivers. They kill those who refuse to pay.

Cartel violence in Guerrero has continued unabated this year.

In February, investigators in Guerrero said they confirmed the contents of a grisly drug cartel video showing gunmen shooting, kicking and burning the corpses of their enemies. Prosecutors said they had reached the remote scene of the crime in the mountain township of Totolapan and  found five charred bodies .  

In January, an alleged  cartel attack in Guerrero  killed at least six people and injured 13 others.

The U.S. State Department urges Americans not to travel to Guerrero, citing widespread crime and violence. "Armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero," the U.S. advisory says . "Members of these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travelers."

Residents said they have had enough, even though the violence may further affect tourism.

"We know the town lives off of Holy Week (tourism) and that this is going to mess it up. There will be a lot of people who won't want to come anymore," said Andrea, the woman who was in the mob. "We make our living off tourism, but we cannot continue to allow them to do these things to us."

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Mob in Mexico beats kidnapping suspect to death hours before Holy Week procession

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A mob in Taxco beat a woman to death because she was suspected of kidnapping and killing a young girl, rampaging just hours before the Mexican tourist city’s famous Holy Week procession.

The 8-year-old girl disappeared Wednesday. Her body was found on a road on the outskirts of Taxco early Thursday. Security camera video appeared to show a woman and a man loading a bundle, which may have been the girl’s body, into a taxi.

A mob surrounded the woman’s house Thursday, threatening to drag her out. Officers took the woman into the bed of a police pickup truck but then stood by — apparently intimidated by the crowd — as members of the mob dragged her out of the truck and onto the street, where they stomped, kicked and pummeled her until she lay partly stripped and motionless.

Police then took her away, leaving the pavement stained with blood.

The Guerrero state prosecutors’ office later confirmed that the woman died from her injuries.

“This is the result of the bad government we have,” said a member of the mob, Andrea, who refused to give her last name. “This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened,” she said, referring to the murder of the girl, “but this is the first time the people have done something.”

“We are fed up,” she added. “This time it was an 8-year-old girl.”

The mayor of Taxco, Mario Figueroa, said he shared residents’ outrage over the killing.

Figueroa said three people beaten by the mob — the woman, as well as two men — had been taken away by police. Video from the scene suggests that the men had also been beaten, although the Associated Press witnessed only the beating of the woman.

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The state prosecutors’ office said the two men had been hospitalized. There was no immediate information on their condition.

In a statement issued soon after the killing, Figueroa complained that he did not receive help from the state government for his small, outnumbered municipal police force.

“Unfortunately, up to now, we have not received any help or answers,” Figueroa said.

Taxco’s Good Friday eve religious procession, which dates back centuries in the silver-mining town, went on as planned Thursday night.

People crowded Taxco’s colonial streets to watch hooded men whipping themselves or carrying heavy bundles of thorns across their bare shoulders to emulate the suffering of Jesus Christ carrying the cross.

But the earlier flash of violence cast a pall over the already solemn procession, which draws thousands to the small town.

Many participants wore white ribbons of mourning.

“I never thought that in a touristic place like Taxco we would experience a lynching,” said Felipa Lagunas, a local elementary school teacher. “I saw it as something distant, in places far from civilization. ... I never imagined that my community would experience this on such a special day.”

Mob attacks in rural Mexico are not uncommon.

In 2018, two men were torched by an angry crowd in the central state of Puebla, and the next day a man and woman were dragged from their vehicle, beaten and set afire in the neighboring state of Hidalgo.

But Taxco and other cities in Guerrero state have been particularly prone to violence.

In late January, Taxco endured a days-long strike by private taxi and van drivers who suffered threats from one of several drug gangs that are fighting for control of the area. The situation was so bad that police had to give people rides in the back of their patrol vehicles.

Around the same time, the bullet-ridden bodies of two detectives were found on the outskirts of Taxco. Reports in local media said the bodies showed signs of torture.

In February, Figueroa’s own bulletproof car was shot up by gunmen on motorcycles.

In Taxco and throughout Guerrero state, drug cartels and gangs routinely prey on the population, demanding protection payments from store owners and taxi and bus drivers. They kill those who refuse to pay.

Residents have said they have had enough. They took matters into their own hands despite knowing that the violence may further hurt tourism to the city.

“We know the town lives off of Holy Week [tourism] and that this is going to mess it up. There will be a lot of people who won’t want to come anymore,” said Andrea, the woman who was in the mob. “We make our living off tourism, but we cannot continue to allow them to do these things to us.”

Pesce writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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Mob beats to death suspected kidnapper in Mexico hours before Holy Week procession

TAXCO, Mexico — A mob in the Mexican tourist city of Taxco brutally beat a woman to death Thursday because she was suspected of kidnapping and killing a young girl, rampaging just hours before the city’s famous Holy Week procession.

The mob formed after an 8-year-old girl disappeared Wednesday. Her body was found on a road on the outskirts of the city early Thursday. Security camera footage appeared to show a woman and a man loading a bundle, which may have been the girl’s body, into a taxi.

The mob surrounded the woman’s house Thursday, threatening to drag her out. Police took the woman into the bed of a police pickup truck, but then stood by — apparently intimidated by the crowd — as members of the mob dragged her out of the truck and down onto the street where they stomped, kicked and pummeled her until she lay, partly stripped and motionless.

Police then picked her up and took her away, leaving the pavement stained with blood. The Guerrero state prosecutors’ office later confirmed the woman died of her injuries.

“This is the result of the bad government we have,” said a member of the mob, who gave her name as Andrea but refused to give her last name. “This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened,” she said, referring to the murder of the girl, “but this is the first time the people have done something.”

“We are fed up,” she said. “This time it was an 8-year-old girl.”

The mayor of Taxco, Mario Figueroa, said he shared residents’ outrage over the killing. Figueroa said a total of three people beaten by the mob — the woman and two men — had been taken away by police. Video from the scene suggested they had also been beaten, though The Associated Press witnessed only the beating of the woman.

The state prosecutors’ office said the two men were hospitalized. There was no immediate information on their condition.

In a statement issued soon after the event, Figueroa complained he did not get any help from the state government for his small, outnumbered municipal police force.

“Unfortunately, up to now we have not received any help or answers,” Figueroa said.

The Good Friday eve religious procession, which dates back centuries in the old silver-mining town, went off as planned Thursday night.

People crowded Taxco’s colonial streets to watch hooded men walking while whipping themselves or carrying heavy bundles of thorns across their bare shoulders in penitence to emulate the suffering of Jesus Christ carrying the cross.

But the earlier flash of violence cast a pall over the already solemn procession, which draws thousands to the small town.

Many participants wore small white ribbons of mourning.

“I never thought that in a touristic place like Taxco we would experience a lynching,” said Felipa Lagunas, a local elementary school teacher. “I saw it as something distant, in places far from civilization ... I never imagined that my community would experience this on such a special day.”

Mob attacks in rural Mexico are common . In 2018, two men were torched by an angry crowd in the central state of Puebla, and the next day a man and woman were dragged from their vehicle, beaten and set afire in the neighboring state of Hidalgo.

But Taxco and other cities in Guerrero state have been particularly prone to violence.

In late January, Taxco  endured a days-long strike  by private taxi and van drivers who suffered threats from one of several drug gangs fighting for control of the area. The situation was so bad that police had to give people rides in the back of their patrol vehicles.

Around the same time, the bullet-ridden bodies of two detectives were found on the outskirts of Taxco. Local media said their bodies showed signs of torture.

In February, Figueroa’s own bulletproof car was shot up by gunmen on motorcycles.

In Taxco and throughout Guerrero state, drug cartels and gangs routinely  prey on the local population, demanding protection payments from store owners, taxi and bus drivers.  They kill those who refuse to pay.

Residents said they have had enough, even though the violence may further affect tourism.

“We know the town lives off of Holy Week (tourism) and that this is going to mess it up. There will be a lot of people who won’t want to come anymore,” said Andrea, the woman who was in the mob. “We make our living off tourism, but we cannot continue to allow them to do these things to us.”

The Associated Press

Two SC Army National Guard soldiers identified in deadly Upstate crash

UNION, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The U.S. South Carolina Army National Guard said two teens killed in a crash in Union have been identified as two soldiers.

South Carolina Highway Patrol said the crash took place Jonesville Lockhart Highway or Highway 9 around 4:10 p.m. on March 16 . A sedan was traveling south and a pickup truck was traveling north when they collided head-on.

The drivers of both vehicles were taken to the hospital for treatment, but the passenger in the sedan died at the scene.

The Union County Coroner identified the passenger as Carol Santiago.

The National Guard said was a human resources specialist assigned to the 228th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade. Her awards and decorations include the Army Service Ribbon. She was from Lancaster.

Officials said Spc. Kristal Lopez, the driver of Santiago’s car, passed away a week later on March 23 at Spartanburg Regional.

Lopez was a paralegal specialist assigned to the 228th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade. She was also from Lancaster.

Both of the victims were just 19 years old.

“The South Carolina National Guard is in mourning today. We have lost not one but two of our family members with Spc. Kristal Lopez’s passing. There is no way to reconcile such a loss,” said the National Guard. “Please keep the Lopez and Santiago families in your thoughts and prayers.” said Maj. Gen. Van McCarty, adjutant general, South Carolina.”

The incident is still under investigation, additional information will be provided as it becomes available.

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Former college quarterback rescued after being stranded at sea for 12 hours on kayak: VIDEO

GRAYTON BEACH, Fla. -- Kayaker Chris Smelley was spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard after being stranded at sea for 12 hours with no phone or life jacket.

The dramatic rescue, in the middle of the ocean, was caught on camera.

"I was pretty much in survival mode, just threw my hands into the air and screamed," Smelley said.

The 37-year-old, with one hand on a fishing pole and the other waving for help, was unable to paddle back to land.

SEE ALSO | Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers rescue woman from burning building | Video

Rescue crews in the sky up above geared up before rappelling by rope from a helicopter into the Gulf of Mexico and swimming toward Smelley, who was about 2 miles off the shore of Grayton Beach, Florida.

"It's not often that these things turn out the way this one did. Unfortunately, when someone goes out without a life vest, and, you know, on a kayak, they potentially might come off the kayak and try to swim to shore, and they don't have anything to keep them afloat," said Walton County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Jeremy Fisher.

Smelley, an experienced kayaker and former quarterback for the South Carolina Gamecocks, had set out on his kayaking trip on Thursday morning. High winds made it impossible for him to get to safety.

"I was still moving backwards, so the wind was just quite too strong," Smelley said.

Smelley's family reported him missing, prompting that frantic search effort.

"I feel very blessed. And, you know, felt very, I felt covered in prayer and loved and just thankful to God that it that it turned out, with a good outcome," Smelley said.

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