LaTavia Washington McGee and Eric Williams never expected to find themselves in the hands of a ruthless drug cartel when they traveled to Mexico for a vacation. But that’s exactly what happened when they were kidnapped by armed men who demanded a ransom of $1 million for their release.
The couple, who are both from Atlanta, Georgia, shared their story with CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview. They described how they endured torture, threats, and constant fear for their lives during their 10-day ordeal. The nightmare began on March 25, when the couple arrived in Cancun for a week-long getaway. They rented a car and drove to Tulum, a popular tourist destination on the Caribbean coast. They checked into a hotel and planned to explore the nearby Mayan ruins and cenotes.
The next day, they decided to drive to Coba, another archaeological site about an hour away from Tulum. They followed the directions on their GPS, but soon realized they had taken a wrong turn. Describing that scary moment LaTavia Washington McGee said, “we turned down this little side road, because we were going to see if that led us to the destination, and then we were going to turn around. Then we heard a car beep the horn, and pull around us. Zindell was in the backseat, and he said don’t stop. He saw a gun”.
Eric Williams continued the scary recount of events saying “we drove through a few street corners until we got back on the main street, and that’s when a gang of shooting started. Zindell was shot, they jumped out to run, and they were gunned down. They were at Tay window beating on it with a little gun, probably a nine millimeter, and I jumped out the driver side, that’s when I was shot in both legs.
Latavia continued, “he was on the ground for maybe like 10 minutes, after they took everything from us. Then I guess whoever told them to just go ahead, and bring us with them. That’s when they loaded us on the back of the truck”.
LaTavia Washington McGee Claims Cartel Tried to Make Her Have Sex with Her Brother
Perhaps one of the most shocking revelations came when Anderson Cooper asked them if the cartel threatened them with sexual violence. In response to the question LaTavia Washington claimed they tried making her have sex with her brother. In their own words they said, “they tried to make us have sex with each other. I told them we were brother and sister, and the she was pregnant. They was like what are ya’ll? We said brothers and sisters. Then they was like have sex with each other”.
The video below has the full story.
It’s easy to see that they are still very traumatized from the situation, as anyone who went through something like that would be. From a mental standpoint they may never recover fully after that ordeal. It’s sad that it all started by taking one wrong turn.
I don’t know about you, but I would never think about vacationing in Mexico after knowing what they went through. The beautiful scenery just doesn’t seem worth the risk anymore.
