By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office deputies have recovered the bodies of two more persons believed to have entered the country illegally.
VVSO Lt. Gina Garcia, who heads the sheriff’s office’s criminal investigations division, told the 830 Times in a recent interview the most recent recovery was June 24.
On that date, she said, sheriff’s office personnel recovered a body from a ranch in eastern Val Verde County, north of Del Rio and close to the intersection of U.S. Highways 277 and 377.
“The deputies went out to the Trash Rack Ranch north of Del Rio and about two miles south of Highway 377. We made entrance to the area through 377,” Garcia said.
Unlike other bodies, which are often found by Border Patrol agents or other law enforcers patrolling in the brush or along riverbanks, the call the sheriff’s office received alerting them came from a relative of the individual.
“We received an emergency call from . . . a male subject who was left behind by his coyote (smuggler) and the group he was walking with, but they sent the coordinates of where they had left the man to the man’s son, who is a U.S. citizen and lives in Dallas.
“The son drove to the area from his home in Dallas, parked his truck and began to hike. We received a 9-1-1 call, the son calling, desperate, that he had found his father, still alive – barely – but that he could not go farther with him. He said his father was just too weak to walk,” Garcia said.
She said a helicopter was immediately dispatched to the area in an attempt to locate the two men.
“When we went out there, we were able to drive onto the ranch until we got to a dead end in the road, and we hiked about 200 yards into the brush and were able to find them,” Garcia said.
Tragically, the older man had died by the time help arrived.
Garcia said an autopsy has been ordered and the man’s body has been transported to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office in Laredo.
Garcia said the man, who is believed to be about 42 years old, is a citizen of Mexico.
Garcia said the man’s son was brought to the sheriff’s office for an interview.
“We talked to him . . . He was very up-front with us, very cooperative. He is in the reserves and what he told us was that his father was making a surprise visit to Dallas because he (the son) was getting a promotion, and that when he got his father’s distress call, he drove all night to get here,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the man called his mother, who had remained in Mexico, from the sheriff’s office before driving back to his home in Dallas.
“It was very sad. He had to help carry his own father’s body out,” Garcia said.
Sheriff’s office personnel also recovered a set of human remain on June 18.
Garcia said VVSO Sgt. Mario Vargas was the responding officer.
“The original call came in the middle of the night of June 17 going into June 18. Ultimately, we made the decision that it was unsafe for our personnel to be out there because the coordinates we were given showed that it was going to be a lot of terrain to walk through, and no vehicle could get through it. Even our ATVs would be useless. We would have to walk,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the location of the body was some ways off the Rio Grande past Comstock.
“Border Patrol had to bring their air boat, and then they had to travel by boat and then still hike about half a mile from the river,” Garcia said.
Garcia said Vargas and the Border Patrol waited for daylight, then trekked to the area where the body was located.
“They found remains of what we believe was someone who entered the country illegally. The ID cards found around the body and in a backpack with the body indicated the body was that of a woman,” Garcia said.
She said the identification cards found with the body showed the woman was a citizen of Mexico.
She said the information was turned over to the justice of the peace, who then ordered an autopsy. The remains were transported to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office in Laredo.
Garcia said the body did not exhibit any obvious signs of foul play.
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