By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office deputies Monday recovered the body of an African man from the Rio Grande.
VVSO Lt. Gina Garcia, who heads the sheriff’s office criminal investigations division, said the sheriff’s office was notified in the morning about a body in the Rio Grande.
“The U.S. Border Patrol notified us that the body was located off Guyler Lane through the Moody Ranch, but we couldn’t get to the body that way, so we had to go through the Star Ranch, get on a (Border Patrol) boat and recover the deceased individual,” Garcia told the 830 Times Friday.
Garcia said the Border Patrol’s boat operators ferried sheriff’s office investigators to the site on the river where the body was located.
“We recovered a male subject, age 33, out of Senegal, in Africa,” Garcia said.
Senegal is a small country located on the westernmost tip of Africa.
Garcia said the man’s identity was determined because he was still carrying a backpack, in which identification cards were found. She said those identification cards were sent with the body to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office in Laredo, which conducts autopsies for Val Verde County.
“We’re still waiting on an autopsy report,” she said.
Garcia said notification of the man’s next-of-kin would be conducted through the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Garcia said the body exhibited no obvious signs of foul play, though she added it appeared the man’s body had been in the water for some time.
Garcia said the sheriff’s office was notified about another body in the Rio Grande on Dec. 10.
“We were notified in the morning hours and told the body was in the Rio Grande close to the weir dam upstream of the Del Rio International Bridge,” Garcia said.
“Ultimately when deputies and investigators got to the river, we saw that the body was on the Mexico side of the river, so authorities from Ciudad Acuña got in the river and recovered the individual,” she added.
Garcia said sheriff’s office personnel stood by on the U.S. side until it was determined that officials in Mexico had recovered the body.
“Once they took the body, we were done. There was no further action taken on our side,” Garcia said.
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez said the Senegalese man represents the 13th death of an immigrant in the Rio Grande in Val Verde County this year.
“My count shows four deaths because of the elements, nine auto-related and 13 likely drownings,” Martinez said.
—
Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
