Two Texas sisters and a friend are missing in Mexico after crossing the border last month to sell clothes at a flea market, US authorities said on Friday.
The kidnapping of four Americans in Mexico that was caught on camera last week sparked an avalanche of attention and was solved within days. But the fate of the three women, who have not been heard from for about two weeks, remains a mystery and has received relatively little publicity.
The FBI said Friday it knew two sisters from Peñitas, a small Texas border town near McAllen, and their friend were missing. Peñitas Police Chief Roel Bermea said their families are in contact with Mexican authorities, who are investigating their disappearance.
Beyond that, U.S. and Mexican officials haven’t said much about their pursuit of 47-year-old Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios; Marina Perez Rios, 48; and their friend, Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53.
The episode contrasts sharply with the government and media frenzy over the kidnapping of four Americans on a road trip to Mexico for plastic surgery. They were caught in a shootout with a drug cartel in the border town of Matamoros, and video showed them being transported in a van. The two survivors were found Tuesday in a wooden cabin near the Gulf Coast.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the three women entered Mexico on Feb. 24, a Friday, according to Bermea. Peñitas is a few hundred meters from the Rio Grande River.
The husband of one of the women spoke to her by phone while she was traveling in Mexico, the police chief said, but grew concerned when he was unable to reach her afterwards.
“As he couldn’t establish contact over the weekend, he came on Monday and reported it to us,” Bermea said. The three women have not been heard from since.
Bermea said the women were traveling in a mid-1990s green Chevy Silverado to a flea market in the town of Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon state. It’s about a three hour drive from the border. Officials from the district attorney’s office said they had been investigating the women’s disappearance since Monday.
This week’s massive search for the four kidnapped Americans involved squads of Mexican soldiers and National Guard troops. But for most of the 112,000 Mexicans missing nationwide, the only ones looking for them are their desperate loved ones.
Authorities are also short on manpower, equipment and training – things are so bad that authorities are unable to even identify the tens of thousands of bodies that have been recovered.
