The three US citizens were born of the same parent and grew up in grew up in Progreso, Texas. They disapeared on October 13 on their return from trip to visit their father in El Control. CNN reports:
Their bodies were found last week. Each was bound at their hands and feet, the Tamaulipas State Attorney General’s Office said, and each had a gunshot wound to the head. A fourth victim, Jose Castaneda, met the same fate. Castaneda was Erica’s boyfriend, her family said.
All four were killed the same day they disappeared, a spokesman for the State Attorney General’s Office said, without elaborating.
Some witnesses told investigators that the armed men who confronted and took the youths belonged to a new security force known as “Grupo Hercules,” State Attorney General Ismael Quintanilla Acosta told reporters.
Grupo Hercules was created one month before the disappearance of the youths. It is touted as an elite security force under the direction of the mayor of Matamoros, 37-year-old Leticia Salazar.
