Two sisters from a Texas border town and a friend apparently went missing after they traveled to Mexico last month, where they hoped to sell clothes at a flea market, according to the FBI.
Maritza Trinidad Pérez Ríos, 47, Marina Pérez Ríos, 48, and her friend, Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, all from Peñitas, Texas, near McAllen. has not been heard of since they crossed the border on February 24, according to the US Customs and Border Protection.
Penitas Police Chief Roel Bermea said they were traveling in a green mid-1990s Chevy Silverado at the time to a flea market in the Nuevo León state town of Montemorelos. It is about a three hour drive from the border.
Since then, their families have been in contact with the Mexican authorities, who are investigating their disappearance.
The husband of one of the missing women told investigators that he spoke to his wife on the phone while she was traveling, the police chief said, but grew concerned when he was unable to reach her afterwards.
“Since he couldn’t make contact over that weekend, he came over that Monday and told us,” Bermea said. “The three women have not been heard from since.”
Officials with the state attorney’s office said they have also been investigating since Monday.
News of his disappearance comes just over a week after four Americans—Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, and Eric Williams—were kidnapped at gunpoint in Matamoros, in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas. McGee was scheduled to undergo a tummy tuck in the border town on March 3, but the group was attacked and kidnapped by armed men in bulletproof vests.
The four victims were discovered Tuesday in a house on the outskirts of Matamoros, near the Gulf of Mexico, although authorities suspect they were detained at various locations before that.
Both Woodard and Brown were dead when rescuers arrived, while Williams suffered multiple gunshot wounds. McGee was not physically harmed in the violence.
with cable news services
