AP
- A friend of the four kidnapped Americans in Mexico traveled all the way to Texas with the group.
- But the woman told police she stayed behind at a hotel in Texas because she didn't have her ID.
- Four American friends were abducted last week by armed men after crossing the border in Mexico.
A friend of the four Americans shot at and kidnapped by gunmen in Northern Mexico in a deadly encounter traveled all the way to Texas with the group but didn't cross the border into Mexico with them because she did not have her identification.
Cheryl Orange traveled with pals Eric Williams, Zindell Brown, Latavia McGee, and Shaeed Woodard in a rented white minivan from South Carolina to the southern edge of Texas last week, Orange told authorities, according to a police report obtained by Insider.
Orange told police that she never crossed into Matamoros, Mexico, a town near the Rio Grande and the southern US border with Brownsville, Texas, with her friends on Friday morning because she left behind her ID.
That allowed Orange to ultimately avoid the terrifying abduction that left Woodard and Brown dead.
Orange hung back at a Motel 6 in Brownsville, Texas. She told The Associated Press in a text message that three of her pals were supposed to return within 15 minutes after they dropped off McGee for cosmetic surgery in Matamoros.
Family members have told news outlets that McGee planned to get a tummy-tuck procedure in Matamoros.
"She simply went for a cosmetic surgery, and that's it. That's all, and this happened to them," Orange told the AP.
Orange's four friends were ambushed after driving the minivan into Matamoros, the FBI has said.
"Shortly after crossing into Mexico, unidentified gunmen fired upon the passengers in the vehicle," the FBI said, adding that the four Americans were then "placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men."
Orange said she grew alarmed after hours passed and she did not hear from her pals, so she eventually alerted the police, according to the AP.
Woodard and Brown were later found dead, while Williams and McGee were found alive on Tuesday.
Officers with the Brownsville Police Department in Texas were called on Saturday at 12:40 p.m. local time to a local Motel 6 where Orange had been staying. Police said in their report that Orange "appeared to be worried and nervous" at the time.
Orange told authorities that her friends left the motel at 8 a.m. on Friday for Matamoros where McGee was supposed to get a surgery, according to the police report.
"She stated that she has not heard from them since," said the police report, which noted that Orange "tried calling their cell phones," but the sound was "turned off."
Orange told police that McGee is the sister of Williams and Woodard.
Brown's sister, Zalandria Brown, previously told the AP that her brother was worried about crossing the border.
"Zindell kept saying, 'We shouldn't go down,'" the sister told the news outlet in a phone interview.
Meanwhile, Williams' wife, Michelle Williams, told WBTW that she had no clue her husband was headed to Mexico.