South Carolina woman stopped from crossing border with four friends kidnapped ... trends now
A fifth person who is believed to have been travelling with four U.S. citizens who were kidnapped in Mexico was stopped at the border because she didn't have photo ID.
Latavia 'Tay' McGee traveled to Mexico with friends Eric Williams, Zindell Brown and her cousin Shaeed Woodard for a budget tummy tuck.
The group were caught in gang crossfire and abducted by notorious criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization Gulf Cartel as they drove around Matamoros on Friday. Brown and Woodard did not survive the harrowing ordeal.
The fifth passenger, yet to be identified, was allegedly unable to cross the border because she lacked the proper documents, a local outlet reported.
A fifth person who is believed to have been travelling with four U.S. citizens (pictured) who were kidnapped in Mexico was stopped at the border because she didn't have photo ID
Brown and Woodard's bodies were repatriated to the U.S. on Wednesday, McGee's mother, Barbara Burgess spoke to CNN and said that she was horrified to see her daughter kidnapped and wants justice.
'She was doing ok I talked to her last night,' Burgess explained after speaking to her daughter for the first time since the abduction.
'They were driving through and a van came up and hit them. That van just started shooting at the car, shooting inside the van or whatever.
'[Latavia] said the others started running and they got shot at the same time - Shaheed and Zindell - they all got shot at the same time and she watched them die.'
Burgess said watching her daughter 'thrown into the truck like trash' in video footage which emerged from the ordeal was heartbreaking.
'When I saw them throw my daughter up on that truck - they like - threw them up like trash on that truck and I didn't like it and I wanted to get to her,' she said.
When rescued - McGee was seen barefoot and covered in dirt - the trauma of the incident evident on her face.
She survived the ordeal with Williams who was shot in the left leg, according to Mexican officials, the others did not survive.
Burgess said that she was like a mother to Woodard and 'would do anything for him.'
'His mother had passed away when he was like 15 and I've had him ever since,' she said to the broadcaster.
'Latavia was in the house too, so she saw him as a brother, but he's her cousin and my son. I miss him, I love him and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him.'
McGee's daughter said few words to the broadcaster and was equally shocked by the kidnapping.
'I was just thinking why did they get kidnapped,' she said.
The four had traveled to Mexico so McGee could undergo the cosmetic medical procedure when they were caught in crossfire between two gangs on March 3.
Mexican officials said they believe the incident could have been a case of 'mistaken identity' and could be connected to the notorious 'Gulf Cartel' who are prominent in the region.
'She's alive. I talked to her. The nurse at the hospital called and let me talk to her,' said Burgess.
'She was crying. I asked her how she was doing. She doing okay.
'She was crying because her brother got killed and she watched him die. She watched two of them die. They died in front of her.'
Family members of Brown revealed that he had been reluctant to travel south of the border.
McGee traveled to Mexico with friends Williams and Brown as well as her cousin Woodard for a budget tummy tuck
The group were caught in gang crossfire and abducted by notorious criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization Gulf Cartel as they drove around Matamoros on Friday
Lativa 'Tay' McGee was found uninjured after she, her cousin and two friends were kidnapped. The mother-of-six was seen without shoes after surviving the tragic incident along with friend Eric Williams who was shot in the left leg
McGee (pictured) was seen in the back of an ambulance before being transported to Texas after the brutal kidnapping that officials believe was a case of 'mistaken identity'
McGee was seen wiping her eyes with a tissue as Williams - who was shot in the left leg, but also survived the ordeal - was treated in the back of the emergency vehicle
'Zindell kept saying, 'We shouldn't go down,' Brown's sister Zalandria said in a phone interview with AP.
Zalandria, who lives in Florence, SC, said his death has been 'like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from.'
'To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable,' she added.
At least one person has been arrested in connection with the incident and the surviving Americans were taken to the border near Brownsville, Texas, in a convoy of Mexican ambulances and SUVs on Tuesday.
They were then delivered to U.S. consulate officials.
Williams, who survived with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to his legs, had not told his wife Michelle that he'd been traveling outside of the country.
'I didn't know that he was traveling to Mexico,' she told WBTW. 'I just knew he was going somewhere to help two friends.'
She said she had
