Body of suspected illegal immigrant found by ranch hand (Arizona Daily Star)

Body of suspected illegal immigrant found by ranch hand

By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 05.27.2008

A ranch hand found the body of a woman who officials suspect had died while crossing the border illegally on Monday night in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson.

At about 6 p.m. Monday about one mile east of milepost 16 on Arizona 286, a man working on a ranch discovered the body of an adult woman, said Rob Daniels, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. He reported it to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

They called the Border Patrol, which sent agents on all terrain vehicles to the area, he said. Officials from the Pima County Medical Examiner’s office also went and conducted an initial exam that indicated that she had died about a week ago from exposure to the elements, Daniels said.

They didn’t find any identification on or near the body and don’t know her name, age or where she is from.

From Jan. 1 through April, Southern Arizona medical examiners have handled the bodies of 44 illegal border crossers, compared to 57 at the same time the previous year, information from the Arizona Daily Star’s border death database shows.