Americans’ fun road trip to Mexico became days of horror

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…