MEXICO CITY -- An American female student was reported missing Friday in northern Mexico after she failed to meet her boyfriend as they had arranged, the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros said.
The woman, whose name was withheld, is the third American college student to be reporting missing in the area this week, U.S. Consul Donald Wells said in a telephone interview from Matamoros. A male student has been missing since Tuesday and another male student was found in a hospital recovering from drinking too much.
This is the first time the U.S. Consulate across the border from Brownsville, Texas, has received reports of missing college students on spring break, Wells said.
'We never had kids on spring break reported missing before,' Wells said. More than 350,000 students cross the border each year visit Mexico during spring break, he said.
Mark Kilroy, 21, who attends the University of Texas in Austin, was last seen Tuesday.
'He couldn't have just disappeared,' Wells said. 'He's blond and really looks like a gringo, but so far we've had no luck and no clue finding him.'
A friend of Kilroy's, Bill Hudleson, reported him missing when he failed to meet his friends Tuesday night.
'There's no indication of a confrontation or violence in any of the cases,' Wells said.
U.S. customs officials and Mexican state and federal police were investigating and Kilroy's father has offered a $5,000 reward for anyone who knows the whereabouts of his son.
The female student was reported missing about 1 a.m. Friday to Mexican police by her boyfriend after she failed to meet him at a designated spot Thursday night. The police notified the Consulate but there have been no leads in her case, Wells said.
'One kid was missing since last midnight,' Wells said. 'His wallet was found on the street and we later tracked him down in a Brownsville hospital where he was recuperating from being real drunk, so drunk that he couldn't remember how he got across the border to the hospital,' he said.
Wells, who withheld the male student's name, said, 'His mother didn't even know he was in Mexico.'
'We've had kids arrested for drunkness before and just last week two had spent the night in jail for indecency,' Wells said.
