AP
Federal agents are investigating the deaths of six people thought to be immigrants found inside a shipping container at a Union Pacific rail yard near the border with Mexico in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday as a “potential human smuggling event.”A Union Pacific employee found the bodies of six people inside a shipping container on Sunday afternoon, Laredo Police Department public information officer Jose Baeza said. Webb County medical examiner Corinne Stern is conducting autopsies and completed one for a 29-year-old Mexican woman who died of hyperthermia, or heat stroke.
Border Patrol agents sail down the Rio Grande on Monday after six bodies were found on Sunday in a container in Laredo, Texas.
Photo: Reuters
“I’ve ruled that an accidental death,” she said, adding that she believed the others also died from heat stroke, but could not rule on their cause of death until she completes their autopsies. Stern estimates it took up to eight hours for the people to succumb to illness.
“Based on my examination on the scene and what I know of from the investigation, I really believe they were dead in less than eight hours,” Stern said. Stern found identification cards and phones that indicate the deceased might be from Mexico and Honduras, but fingerprints were taken and shared with US Border Patrol to help confirm their identities and nationalities through the Missing Alien Program. The medical examiner’s office also contacted the Mexican consulate after identifying the woman. Homeland Security Investigations in a statement said that it is “investigating this case as a potential human smuggling event with assistance from the Laredo Police Department and Texas Rangers.”“This was a horrific scene,” Stern said, adding that immigrant deaths are a common occurrence in the 10-county region her office covers.“This spring has been busier than it was this time last year,” the medical examiner said. Border encounters dropped toward the end of the administration of former US president Joe Biden and reached record low numbers under the second administration of US President Donald Trump. About 40 people were encountered daily in March crossing illegally by US Border Patrol agents in Laredo, making it the third-busiest sector among nine along the southern border, agency statistics showed. The travel history of the shipping container was not known, and the criminal investigation has not yet determined why the people who died did not climb out of the container.“Union Pacific is saddened by this incident and is working closely with law enforcement to investigate,” the rail company said in a statement.