By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Over the past three weeks, Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office personnel have recovered three bodies believed to be the remains of persons who entered the country illegally.
“On July 12, we picked up the body of a man who we believe was an illegal entrant, as his body was found floating in the Rio Grande,” said VVSO Lt. Gina Garcia, who heads the sheriff’s office criminal investigations division.
Garcia said the sheriff’s office was notified about the dead man about 10:30 a.m. on July 12.
She said sheriff’s office deputies were dispatched to a gate in the border fence off Rio Grande Road south of the Del Rio city limits.
“That’s where we entered, and we were directed to the boat ramp (on the Rio Grande) and ultimately U.S. Border Patrol took us to the body’s location in one of their air boats,” Garcia said.
She said the body was recovered from the river about three miles downstream from the Del Rio International Bridge.
Identification found on the body indicated the man was a citizen of Mexico who had been born in 1965.
Garcia said U.S. Border Patrol agents patrolling the river discovered the body. She said the body had no signs of foul play and was sent to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office in Laredo for an autopsy.
Garcia said the Mexican consulate in Del Rio was notified and said she believes the man died while attempting to cross the river illegally.
The second body was recovered on July 20.
“Border Patrol agents received a call sometime in the evening of July 19th about someone off of Ranch to Market Road 1024, about 12 miles in, and ultimately we entered the Gray Ranch, which is off RM 1024 and found a deceased female, possibly a citizen of Mexico,” Garcia said.
The area where the woman’s body was found is northwest of Comstock in central Val Verde County.
Garcia said although no identifying information was found on the body, the woman is believed to be young, less than 21 years old.
She said there were no obvious signs of foul play on the body, which has also been sent to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
Garcia said it is her understanding that someone in the group with whom the woman was traveling called for assistance when they left her behind.
“The sad reality is that if they can’t keep up with the group being smuggled, they just leave them … just leave them behind,” VVSO Chief Deputy Waylon Bullard said of the incident.
The most recent body was recovered July 27, Garcia said.
“Our patrol division received a phone call between noon and 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in reference to an unattended death, possibly an illegal immigrant, out on Pumpville Road near mile marker 464,” Garcia said.
Pumpville Road is Ranch to Market Road 1865 in far western Val Verde County.
She said patrol deputies went to the scene and assisted in clearing the call, as investigators were working on a recent murder in the Cienegas Terrace area of the county.
The body found was that of a man, she said. Identification found near the body indicated he was a citizen of Honduras.
“He had an ID, but we don’t have confirmation yet that this was the individual on the ID,” Garcia said.
Garcia said deputies found no obvious signs of foul play, and the body has been sent to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
Garcia said Border Patrol agents received the initial call about the body, went to the site, located the body and called the sheriff’s office.
The three bodies found in the past three weeks bring to 17 the number of dead persons believed to have been immigrants found in the county so far this year, Garcia said.
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