According to U.S. authorities, two sisters from Texas and a friend who crossed into Mexico last month to sell clothing at a flea market are still missing in Mexico.
The last week’s abduction of four Americans in Mexico that was caught on camera drew a tonne of media attention and was quickly solved.
But the whereabouts of the three women, who haven’t been heard from in about two weeks, are still unknown, and there hasn’t been much media attention.
The FBI confirmed on Friday that it is aware of the disappearance of two sisters and their friend from Peitas, a small border town in Texas close to McAllen.
Their families have contacted the Mexican authorities, who are looking into their disappearance, according to Peitas Police Chief Roel Bermea.
Beyond that, authorities from the United States and Mexico haven’t provided much information regarding their search for Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53, Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios, 47, Marina Perez Rios, 48, and their friend.
The incident is in sharp contrast to the uproar in the government and media over the kidnapping of four Americans who were travelling to Mexico for cosmetic surgery.
They were apprehended during a shootout between drug cartels in the border city of Matamoros, and footage showed them being driven away in a pickup truck.
Tuesday saw the discovery of the two survivors in a wooden shack not far from the Gulf coast.
According to Bermea, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that the three women entered Mexico on Friday, February 24.
Peitas is only a couple hundred feet away.
According to the police chief, one of the women’s husband had a phone conversation with her while she was travelling in Mexico, but he became worried when he couldn’t get through to her after that.
“Since he couldn’t make contact over that weekend, he came in that Monday and reported it to us,” Bermea said. The three women haven’t been heard from since.
The women, according to Bermea, were driving to a flea market in the city of Montemorelos, in the state of Nuevo Leon, in a green Chevy Silverado from the mid-1990s.
From the border, it takes about three hours to get there. According to representatives of the state prosecutor’s office, an investigation into the women’s disappearance has been ongoing since Monday.
Teams of Mexican soldiers and members of the National Guard participated in the extensive search this week for the four kidnapped Americans.
However, the majority of the 112,000 missing Mexicans are only being sought after by their desperate family members.
The situation is so bad that authorities aren’t even able to identify the tens of thousands of bodies that have been found due to a lack of manpower, equipment, and training.
