3 Texas women missing after traveling to Mexico to sell clothes at a flea market

Two sisters from a Texas border city and a friend seemingly disappeared after they traveled last month to Mexico, where they hoped to sell clothes at a flea market, according to the FBI.

Maritza Trinidad Perez Rios, 47, Marina Perez Rios, 48 and their friend, Dora Alicia Cervantes Saenz, 53 — all from Peñitas, Tex. near McAllen — have not been heard from since they crossed the border on Feb. 24, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Peñitas Police Chief Roel Bermea said they were traveling at the time in a mid-1990s green Chevy Silverado to a flea market in the city of Montemorelos, in Nuevo Leon state. It’s about a three-hour drive from the border.

Their families have since been in touch with Mexican authorities, who are investigating their disappearance.

The husband of one of the missing women told investigators he spoke to his wife by phone while she was traveling, the police chief said, but he grew concerned when he couldn’t reach her afterward.

“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.”

Officials at the state prosecutor’s office said they have also been investigating since Monday.

News of their disappearance comes just more than a week after four Americans — Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, and Eric Williams — were kidnapped at gunpoint in Matamoros, in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas. McGee was scheduled to undergo a tummy tuck procedure in the border city on March 3, but the group was attacked and abducted by armed men in bulletproof vests.

All four victims were discovered on Tuesday in a house just outside Matamoros, near the Gulf of Mexico, though authorities suspect they were held at several locations before that.

Both Woodard and Brown were dead by the time rescuers arrived while Williams was suffering from several gunshot wounds. McGee was not physically harmed in the violence.

With News Wire Services