Missing ID kept pal safe in US

A friend of the four Americans kidnapped in Mexico has revealed that she traveled to the US border with them and nearly faced the same fate — but ultimately stayed behind because she forgot to bring her identification to leave the country.

Cheryl Orange and her four friends drove from South Carolina to Texas last Thursday with plans to cross the border into Mexico, where Latavia “Tay” McGee planned to undergo a tummy tuck in Matamoros.

But Orange remained in Brownsville, Texas, where she stayed at a motel while the others drove their rented minivan into Mexico about 8 a.m. Friday.

She later told police she was forced to stay behind because she forgot to bring her identification.

McGee, Eric James Williams, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown are believed to have gotten lost on their way to the clinic and were ambushed and shot at by rival drug cartels who reportedly mistook them for Haitian drug smugglers.

Chilling footage showed McGee, a mother of six, being forced into the flatbed of a pickup truck by gunmen while the bodies of two men were loaded into the truck.

“She simply went for a cosmetic surgery, and that’s it. That’s all, and this happened to them,” Orange told The Associated Press in a text.

Orange told Texas authorities that she had everyone’s luggage but had been unable to reach them, the AP reported, citing a police report.

“She tried calling their cellphones but they sound turned off,” according to the report, which said Orange was given a phone number to follow up with police on Monday if she hadn’t heard from her pals by then.

A Brownsville police spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the AP.