The Cameron County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the deaths of two unidentified men that appeared to have been killed execution style.
Authorities said both men had gunshot wounds to their heads and that their legs and hands were bound with rope. There was tape over their mouths and black T-shirts over their heads.
“They (T-shirts) were tied over their heads. It appears to be execution style. It appears to be organized criminal activity,” said Mary Esther Sorola, Cameron County justice of the peace Precinct 2, Place 3, who pronounced the men dead.
It’s unknown if the men are Mexican nationals or U.S. citizens.
The sheriff’s department received a call at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday about two men sleeping on the side of the road, Sheriff Eric Garza said. When the deputies arrived at the scene – off of old Port Isabel Road – they found the victims.
Garza said authorities believe the men were killed at another location and that their bodies were dumped at the location.
Garza said one of the men appears to be in his 30s and the other one in his teens. Neither one had identification on them. The sheriff said it’s believed the men had not been dead that long since investigators were able to move the fingers of the victims to get fingerprints. “They weren’t there that long. We are thinking they were there a couple of hours,” Garza said.
Because their fingerprints were not in the data system, investigators were going to use facial recognition to see if they could be identified that way.
Garza added that he has contacted the Mexican Consulate to make them aware of the situation.
Sorola said she was called out to the scene at about 3:05 p.m. Upon inspecting the victims, she said one appeared to have suffered two gunshot wounds to the head while the other had been shot once in the head.
“It did seem fresh. It didn’t appear that they had been there that long,” she said.
Garza said anyone with information pertaining to the men’s death to contact the Cameron County Sheriff’s Department Crime Stoppers hotline at (956) 350-5551.
