2 local women drown in Mexico on vacation

MANSFIELD, Mass. (WHDH) -- Two women from Mansfield were killed in Cancun when they were pulled under water by a strong tide.

A heartbroken Jeff Batta is still trying to understand how his 53-year-old wife Donna, a mother of three older kids, was swept out to sea during a vacation in Mexico.

“It’s just completely surreal. You get a phone call at 2:45 in the morning, your wife’s on vacation, you know, girl’s weekend getaway and you can’t even process the words that they tell you,” he said.

Batta and her good friend Gail Binmore, a mother of two teens, went out for a swim in the ocean Tuesday night when authorities say a wave carried them away from shore. The two drowned in a rip current.

Binmore's former husband, who remained good friends with her, is stunned.

“Tremendous tragedy for both my children, their family, the Batta family. She was a wonderful woman,” said Joe Doherty, Binmore’s ex-husband.

Binmore’s son Brent, a freshman at Clemson, was notified by campus police that his mother had died.

“I was woken up by a police officer and he was the one that informed me. It was a little shocking,” said Brent Doherty.

“It just sounds like a terrible, terrible tragedy. I just hope it doesn’t happen to another family,” said Jeff Batta.

Both families said the outpouring of support from residents around town has been overwhelming.