North Mexican governor, prosecutor confirm three missing Americans found dead
MATAMOROS, MEXICO — The governor and chief prosecutor for a northern Mexico border state confirmed on Thursday that three Texans missing for more than two weeks were found dead near Matamoros a day earlier.
The father of the three, Pedro Alvarado, identified them from photographs of the bodies showing tattoos, Tamaulipas state Attorney General Ismael Quintanilla Acosta told Radio Formula. Clothing found with the bodies near the border city also matched that of the three siblings from Progreso, Texas, who disappeared with a Mexican friend.
Parents of the missing youths have said witnesses reported they were seized on Oct. 13 by men dressed in police gear.
In a country riveted by the case of 43 students missing more than a month at the hands of police in southern Mexico, Tamaulipas’ governor promised swift action in this case.
“We will apply the full force of the law and zero tolerance,’’ Gov. Egidio Torre Cantu said, lamenting the death of three Americans and a Mexican citizen even though their identities had not been officially confirmed by DNA.
Authorities said late Wednesday it could take 24 to 48 hours for DNA tests to determine if the bodies were those of Erica Alvarado Rivera, 26, and brothers, Alex, 22, and Jose Angel, 21, who were last seen in El Control, a small town near the Texas border west of Matamoros.
They had been visiting their father in Mexico and disappeared along with 32-year-old Jose Guadalupe Castaneda Benitez, Erica Alvarado’s boyfriend.
“They were good kids,’’ an aunt, Nohemi Gonzalez, said while the family waited for official confirmation. “I don’t know why they did that to them.’’
The three Alvarado siblings share their mother’s modest brick home on a quiet street in Progreso less than three miles from the Texas-Mexico border. Erica, who has four children between the ages of 3 and 9, had been scheduled to begin studying to become a nursing assistant next month.
Brothers Jose Angel and Alex should have been in Missouri by now. They had been scheduled to make their annual pilgrimage as migrant farm workers more than a week ago, Gonzalez said.