Overview
- Six people found dead Sunday in a sealed boxcar in Laredo were ruled to have died from heatstroke hours earlier, officials said at a Thursday briefing.
- Investigators say the freight train left Long Beach on May 7 and the group was loaded into the car in Del Rio on Saturday before the train passed through San Antonio to Laredo.
- A relative received a desperate text Saturday reporting entrapment and extreme heat, and railroad door sensors later showed openings in Del Rio, San Antonio and Laredo that now guide the timeline.
- Homeland Security Investigations is leading the smuggling probe, and a Del Rio woman, Mayra Huerta, faces a federal harboring charge in a related case that does not accuse her of causing the deaths.
- Authorities identified five victims, including a 14-year-old from Honduras, notified families with help from Mexican consular officials, and continue to review a seventh death found Monday along tracks near San Antonio.