ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

World

    • Americans' fun road trip to Mexico became days of horror

    Share
    LAKE CITY, S.C. -

    It was supposed to be a fun road trip to Mexico, a post-pandemic adventure for a group of childhood friends.

    One was treating herself to cosmetic surgery after having six children. It was a 34th birthday celebration for another.

    They rented a white van in South Carolina and set out on the nearly 22-hour trip, shooting silly videos and driving straight through to Brownsville, on the tip of Texas.

    "Good morning, America!" Eric Williams said into the camera in the early morning hours after the all-night drive. "Mexico, here we come."

    But once they got to Mexico, the trip took a terrible turn. Two members of the group would never make it home, victims of the ruthless Gulf cartel, a drug gang tied to brutal killings and kidnappings in the violent border city of Matamoros, a city of a half-million people that has long been a stronghold of the powerful cartel.

    There could hardly be a worse border town to pick for a fun adventure.

    It all started when Latavia McGee booked the cosmetic surgery with a doctor she'd been to before, in 2021. Dr. Roberto Chavez Medina's advertisements on Facebook and TikTok have a strong following among American women.

    It's a common story -- people often leave the U.S. for all sorts of medical treatment; costs in Mexico can be less than half what someone would pay in the United States.

    McGee's appointment was within days of her cousin Shaeed Woodard's 34th birthday. Friends Zindell Brown and Cheryl Orange rounded out the group of five, most of whom had grown up together in Lake City, South Carolina, a town of fewer than 6,000 people.

    Once they got to the border, they rented rooms at a Motel 6 off the highway in Brownsville, a lush town with a high poverty rate on the Rio Grande where parrots squawk from palm trees.

    The friends set out early Friday to cross an international bridge that spans the two countries, thinking they were headed to see the doctor right on the other side. Orange stayed at the motel in Brownsville because she forgot to bring her ID to cross the border.

    "They went to drop her off and was supposed to be back within 15 minutes," Orange said.

    But the clinic had moved to a new location several blocks away.

    It's not clear what happened next: perhaps the group got lost. The Mexican state of Tamaulipas is the subject of a U.S. State Department warning to avoid travel because of violent crime and kidnappings, but the friends may not have known -- Williams' mother said she didn't think her son had ever been out of the U.S.

    Hours passed, and on the U.S. side of the border, Orange contacted the Brownsville police, concerned something bad had happened.

    Her worst fears would come to pass.

    Just a few miles across the border, around midday, a vehicle crashed into the group's van. Several men with tactical vests and assault rifles arrived in another vehicle and surrounded them, according to Mexican police reports. Shots rang out.

    Brown and Woodard were hit by bullets and appeared to have died immediately. Williams was shot in the leg.

    Video on social media showed men forcing McGee into the bed of a pickup truck, then going back to drag a wounded Williams and the bodies of their two friends across the road and into the truck as onlookers in traffic sat in their cars eerily silent. One witness said no one wanted to draw the gunmen's attention.

    The truck barreled off. A Mexican woman who had been hit by a stray bullet, 33-year-old Areli Pablo Servando, was left to die on the street.

    When Mexican authorities arrived on the scene, they found Social Security cards and credit cards belonging to the group of friends inside the van, marked by a bullet hole in the driver's side window. The U.S. consulate, only blocks away, issued an alert, warning its employees to avoid the area until further notice because of a deadly shooting downtown.

    The doctor at the clinic later told investigators he thought it was strange his patient hadn't shown up for the procedure, which can run up to $3,000, but his office had only communicated with her electronically. The clinic was about a four-minute drive from where their van had crashed.

    The crash would be the start of some of the most terrifying days of the surviving friends' lives.

    The cartel members drove them from place to place around the city in a harrowing ride, stopping shortly after the shooting at a medical clinic.

    A doctor told investigators that two men with assault rifles burst in through a back door and threatened to kill staff if they didn't treat a wounded person with them. The gunmen and their hostages stayed three hours at the clinic and then left, according to Mexican investigative documents viewed by The Associated Press.

    Orange was worried, stuck on the other side of the border at the Motel 6 with no clue what had happened. On Saturday morning, she spoke to a Brownsville officer at the motel. Within an hour, a detective was assigned to the case and shortly after that Brownsville police handed it off to the FBI.

    On Sunday, the FBI reported their disappearances and offered a $50,000 reward for their return and the arrest of the kidnappers, and U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said U.S. officials contacted President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador directly to ask for help in locating the missing Americans.

    Back home, their family and friends in the United States watched the video of their capture in horror and prayed. The wait, the silence, became unbearable.

    "I just want them to come home," Zalandria Brown, Zindell Brown's older sister, said Monday night. "Dead or alive, just bring them home."

    Jerry Wallace, Williams' cousin, couldn't eat or sleep.

    "It's really something just trying to just wait and hear what's going on and not hearing nothing," Wallace said..

    The next day, the agony of not knowing ended, but with the news came more heartache.

    An anonymous tipster reported sighting armed men and people in blindfolds at a shabby, orange shack with blue trim and a corrugated metal roof in a tiny rural community known as Ejido Tecolote, on the outskirts of Matamoros. A white pickup parked outside matched the one the Americans had been loaded into March 3, according to the Mexican investigative documents.

    The shack was near Playa Bagdad -- or "Bagdad Beach," a remote strip of sand where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico that has been known as a drop-off point for U.S.-bound smuggled goods since the U.S. Civil War.

    Mexican authorities, following the lead, drove the dirt roads searching. Then they heard shouts and the word: "Help!" That led them to the shack, where they found McGee and Williams blindfolded inside. They were being held next to the of bodies their friends, who had been wrapped in blankets and plastic bags, according to the Mexican investigative documents.

    A 24-year-old man in a tactical vest who was guarding them darted out the back door, only to be quickly apprehended.

    The two Americans were rushed to a Brownsville hospital.

    Robert Williams, Eric's brother, said he couldn't wait to tell him "how glad I am that he made it through and that I love him." His 11-year-old son was overjoyed.

    On Thursday, as two of the friends' bodies were returned to the U.S. in hearses, calls grew for action to be taken to crush the Gulf cartel. The cartel's Scorpions faction apologized in a letter and announced it had handed over five members who were responsible for the abductions of innocent Americans. The letter was obtained by the AP through a Tamaulipas state law enforcement official.

    Woodard's father said he was speechless.

    "I've just been trying to make sense out of it for a whole week. Just restless, couldn't sleep, couldn't eat. It's just crazy to see your own child taken from you in such a way, in a violent way like that," James Woodard told reporters. "He didn't deserve it."

    Orange was speechless too. She said Friday in a voice text to an AP reporter that she and her friends who survived the attack are not ready to talk about their ill-fated trip.

    "We just want to begin to recover," she said.

    ------

    Watson reported from San Diego and Pena reported from Ciudad Victoria. Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

    CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

    BREAKING

    BREAKING

    Police say three people were injured after an individual armed with a knife entered a Montreal-area Islamic cultural centre Friday afternoon.

    Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

    The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

    BREAKING

    BREAKING

    A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.

    An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

    Canada

    • The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.

    • For the last seven-and-half months, Toronto resident Heather McArthur has been living out what she describes as her 'worst nightmare.' On Feb. 7, her then three-year-old son Jacob along with his father Loc Phu 'Jay' Le departed for what was supposed to be a week-long visit to Vietnam to celebrate the Lunar New Year with family, McArthur says.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      Michael Ford, Ontario's minister of citizenship and multiculturalism, says he is taking a leave of absence from cabinet to prioritize his health.

    • Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.

    • Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

    World

    Politics

    Health

    • A Nova Scotia woman has applied for a medically assisted death, saying after years of battling to receive out-of-country surgery for an illness that causes 'indescribable' pain, she struggles to maintain the will to live.

    Sci-Tech

    Entertainment

    • Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

    • It will be the last show for longtime children's TV star Ron (Buck Shot) Barge as a memorial is held Friday in Calgary.

    Business

    Lifestyle

    Sports

    • Agreement in principle has been reached to build a new NHL arena at LeBreton Flats has been reached between the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission (NCC), the two sides announced Friday.

    • F1 star Max Verstappen punished over bad word

      Formula One points leader Max Verstappen was ordered to 'accomplish some work of public interest' after uttering an inappropriate word Thursday at the news conference ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.

    • The Winnipeg Jets have some huge holes to fill on both offence and defence this season.

    Autos

    Local Spotlight

    Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

    They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

    A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

    Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

    The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

    It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

    A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

    David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

    • New Democrat Leader David Eby has launched his British Columbia election campaign a day early, making the key battle ground of Surrey his first stop.

    • The seats from a stolen e-bike that was customized for a Surrey, B.C., child with complex health needs have been recovered – but the bike itself has yet to be found.

    • Thousands of protesters are expected to march into downtown Vancouver on Friday, demanding more action from their government to address the growing climate crisis.

    • Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      Michael Ford, Ontario's minister of citizenship and multiculturalism, says he is taking a leave of absence from cabinet to prioritize his health.

    • The Ford government is considering restricting Ontario municipalities from installing new bike lanes that would require the removal of lanes of traffic, a source confirms to CTV News Toronto.

    • It will be the last show for longtime children's TV star Ron (Buck Shot) Barge as a memorial is held Friday in Calgary.

    • China's ongoing ban on Canadian beef appears to have no end in sight, making it a textbook example of the uncertainty Canadian exporters continue to face in that market.

    • Alberta Health Services says an E. coli outbreak at a daycare in Blackfalds has ended.

    • Agreement in principle has been reached to build a new NHL arena at LeBreton Flats has been reached between the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission (NCC), the two sides announced Friday.

    • Maplewood Secondary School is scheduled to open Monday after receiving a permit Friday morning allowing 50 per cent of the building to be occupied.

    • Police in western Quebec say a driver has been arrested after almost crashing into a school bus near La Pêche Friday morning.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      Police say three people were injured after an individual armed with a knife entered a Montreal-area Islamic cultural centre Friday afternoon.

    • A new garden and microforest, years in the making, have been inaugurated at John Abbott College in Montreal.

    • The Montreal couple from Mexico and their three children facing deportation have received a temporary residence permit.

    • Mounties say there was an increased police presence in the Emerald Hills area of Sherwood Park on Friday morning as officers searched for a man who is wanted by police.

    • There are plenty of fun happenings in Edmonton this weekend. It's time to savour that last little bit of the summer season before the leaves really start coming down.

    • Alberta Health Services says an E. coli outbreak at a daycare in Blackfalds has ended.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.

    • A Nova Scotia woman has applied for a medically assisted death, saying after years of battling to receive out-of-country surgery for an illness that causes 'indescribable' pain, she struggles to maintain the will to live.

    • A black bear that was tranquilized in a park in Dartmouth, N.S., has been released back into the wild, according to the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (DNRR).

    • The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

    • A Manitoba veterinary clinic has two new ways of figuring out what’s causing a horse to be lame.

    • Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

    • Arguments between UR Pride and the Government of Saskatchewan on the Parents’ Bill of Rights will be moving ahead to the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan beginning on Monday, Sept. 23.

    • Driving into the tunnels of Nutrien's Rocanville mine, the largest potash mine in the world by production volume, feels like driving down a lonely highway in the middle of the night.

    • Levels of hydrogen sulfide gas are being monitored at Brantford Collegiate Institute after a leak in their geothermal system.

    • Ontario police say they have arrested four members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (MC) and seized a number of firearms after an alleged assault and robbery in Hamilton in July.

    • The second-degree murder trial of Thomas Hamp is being adjourned until December so an expert witness central to the trial can testify.

    • A 69-year-old woman from Outlook, Saskatchewan is dead and three people are injured after a truck and SUV collided on Highway 15 on Thursday.

    • A gym teacher at a private Christian school in Saskatoon has been charged. Terra MacEwan, 44, is charged with assault with a weapon. A Saskatoon mother who spoke with CTV News says her autistic son was MacEwan's victim.

    • Emergency crews in northern Ontario found the bodies of four people inside a home where a fire broke out Thursday night.

    • Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

    • A 26-year-old driver from Surrey, B.C., has been charged with three counts of criminal negligence in a crash that killed two youths in northern Ontario last year.

    • The Elgin Community Health Hub, operated by the Thames Valley Family Health Team, is accepting new patients to a model where doctors are rarely seen.

    • Members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and supportetrs greatly outnumbered the people attending a '1 Million March 4 Children' event along Central Avenue.

    • Today, the 71 year old is marking 50 years a paramedic. He said he never aspired to move into management or a desk job, he enjoys being on the road, helping patients too much.

    • Two men from Barrie have been charged after a deadly shooting at a park in Keswick on Wednesday.

    • Provincial police are investigating vandalism in Huntsville after the "senseless destruction" of flower displays along Main Street East.

    • A 17-year-old from Markham is facing serious charges after an August 11 shooting at a party in Caledon.

    • Windsor police say a 25-year-old mother has been charged with the drowning death of her 5-year-old child in the family’s backyard pool.

    • There is no threats to public safety following an incident involving a gun at a local high school.

    • A LaSalle couple has won $1 million after buying a ticket for the Aug. 13 LottoMax draw.

    • New Democrat Leader David Eby has launched his British Columbia election campaign a day early, making the key battle ground of Surrey his first stop.

    • The Old Man Lake wildfire near Sooke is the only one currently burning on Vancouver Island. It’s a region of the province that this year saw a drastic drop in blazes in the backcountry.

    • The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council (NTC) has declared a state of emergency in all 14 of its member First Nations due to a mental health and opioid crisis.

    • A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.

    • The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.

    • Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls – including one that gave birth to 10 puppies – from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.

    • A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.

    • A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.

    • Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.

    • A 26-year-old driver from Surrey, B.C., has been charged with three counts of criminal negligence in a crash that killed two youths in northern Ontario last year.

    • Ontario Provincial Police say three suspects from southern Ontario have been charged and drugs worth $300,000 have been seized following a traffic stop Sept. 16.

    • A Brampton driver, 27, was charged this week when northern Ontario police stopped the SUV he was driving on Highway 17 after a reported shooting and found more than $100,000 in cash.

    N.L.

    Shopping Trends

    The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.

    Stay Connected
    Follow CTV News