Two Out of Four Kidnapped Americans Found Dead, One Wounded, Mexican Authorities Say

Mexican authorities said on Tuesday that two of the four US citizens who had been kidnapped by armed men in the border city of Matamoros on Friday had been found dead.

"Two of them are dead, one person is injured and the other is alive," Américo Villarreal Anaya, the governor of Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, told reporters. He did not say which were alive or dead, or give any other details about finding them.

Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams crossed the border from Brownsville, Texas, on Friday, and quickly came under weapons fire. The four were a tight-knit group of friends who drove from South Carolina so McGee could receive a medical procedure.

According to the FBI, they were mistaken for Haitian drug smugglers by a Mexican cartel, who kidnapped them after attacking their minivan. The bureau has put out a $50,000 reward for information leading to their return and to the arrest of those responsible. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that his "whole government is working” on finding them.

The US State Department has issued a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for US citizens thinking of going to Tamaulipas, warning of the dangers posed by crime and kidnapping.