2 US citizens kidnapped in Mexico repatriated to US: State Department

WASHINGTON

The State Department said Tuesday that two of four Americans who survived a kidnapping in Mexico have been repatriated to the US.

It came with the assistance of Mexican border officials, spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Earlier, a Mexican governor said one of the two found alive was injured, while two were found dead.

"We are in the process of working to repatriate the remains of the two Americans who were killed," said Price.

"It was fully confirmed by the Prosecutor's Office: of the four, two of them are dead, one injured and one alive," Tamaulipas Governor Americo Villarreal Anaya said Tuesday in a telephone call with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at a news conference.

Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and their friend Eric, a group of friends from South Carolina, had traveled to Mexico for medical reasons when they were shot and kidnapped.

Video footage showed the group driving through Matamoros in a white vehicle with license plates from the state of North Carolina when unidentified gunmen opened fire before taking the Americans from the scene.

Matamoros, in the state of Tamaulipas, is located at the southernmost tip of the US state of Texas near the Gulf coast. According to the US government, hundreds of thousands of Americans cross the border into Mexico each year to receive medical treatment.

The State Department has recommended that Americans not travel to the state because of crime, kidnappings and violent conflict between armed groups fighting for territory.