According to the family of the hostages, the four Americans who were abducted by highly armed men in Matamoros, Mexico, had gone there for cosmetic surgery.
According to the sister of one of them, one of them was scheduled to have a stomach tuck in a border town to remove belly fat.
Zalandria Brown, speaking about her brother Zindell, told AP that it was “simply unbelievable” to witness a member of your family being pushed into the back of a truck and dragged.
A woman from Mexico lost her life in the tragedy.
The FBI has offered a reward of $50,000 (£42,000) for the Americans’ safe return.
According to CNN, the other members of the group are Latavia McGee, a mother of six, Shaeed Woodard, and Eric James Williams.
They were traveling in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates through Matamoros, a city of 500,000 people right across the border from Brownsville, Texas, when unidentified assailants opened fire, according to the FBI.
They may be seen being loaded onto a pickup vehicle in a video. While others are carried to the truck while appearing to be unconscious, one is manhandled aboard it.