The story of LaTavia McGee and the three men who accompanied her to Mexico for a tummy tuck procedure is continuing to make headlines nearly one week after the group was kidnapped by the Gulf Cartel. A new report claims that McGee, her cousin Shaeed Woodard, along with their friends Zindell Brown, Eric James Williams, and Cheryl Orange traveled from South Carolina to Texas before they were set to cross the border from Brownsville into Mexico.
Orange reportedly stayed behind in a motel because she had forgotten her ID, prompting the remaining four to continue their trip to Matamoros where McGee was scheduled to undergo her surgery. On their way to the clinic, however, they ended up getting lost and came into contact with the Gulf Cartel who is believed to have shot at their minivan after mistaking them for Haitian drug smugglers. Woodard and Brown were killed during the attack while McGee and Williams were captured and tortured for three days before being rescued by officials.
Here’s the alleged video of 4 Americans being dragged in the street by Mexican cartel members and kidnapped
Why anybody still travels to Mexico is beyond me
Unless they kneeled during the Nat’l Anthem, Joe Biden won’t care about saving them
pic.twitter.com/DNkPyyGEPn— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) March 6, 2023
RELATED: Suspect Arrested In Mexico Cartel Kidnapping Of Four Americans After Two Were Confirmed Dead
But in a recent interview with WBTW, Michelle, who is the wife of Williams, says that her husband had never even disclosed to her that he was planning of making a trip across the border. “I didn’t know that he was traveling to Mexico. I just knew he was going somewhere to help two friends,” she said.
According to the Daily Mail, Williams was lucky to survive the ordeal after being shot in the leg and held hostage with McGee until Tuesday. “I didn’t hear from him after Friday,” Williams’ wife added. “I texted him back immediately. He didn’t respond. He didn’t respond to our son either, so I’m going to assume that’s when they were ambushed.”
Part of the kidnapping later surfaced in video footage posted on social media where one of the victims is seen being tossed onto a pickup truck while another person’s body is seen laying on the floor. It’s said that Brown and Woodard died shortly after the ambush from the countless bullets that were shot at their minivan after crossing the border.
This wasn’t the first time McGee had traveled to Mexico for a medical procedure, as her mother Barbara Burgess told CNN how her daughter had previously gone to the country for surgery about three years ago.
While the mom didn’t make anything of McGee’s decision to make the trip again, considering she was being accompanied by a group of friends, she was stunned when the FBI called her two days after the kidnapping to inform her that her daughter had been abducted and had yet to be found.
“When I reached out to the doctor’s office they told me that Latavia had reached out to them to ask them for directions because she was lost,” a friend who remained anonymous continued telling the news outlet that. “They sent me a screenshot of the messages and they said they sent her the address and asked her if she was using a GPS.”