Seventh body found near Laredo rail yard deaths as probe widens

A seventh body turned up Monday along railroad tracks in southwest Bexar County, about 150 miles north of the Laredo rail yard where six people were found dead inside a Union Pacific boxcar, widening a case investigators now view as a likely human-smuggling operation that moved along a freight corridor already central to border commerce.

The body was discovered near Macdona and the 9600 block of Wolf Road after Union Pacific Railroad Police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents followed up on the Laredo deaths, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said. The person has not been identified. In Laredo, the six victims were found Sunday afternoon inside a cargo train boxcar during a routine inspection just after 3:30 p.m., and investigators said there were no survivors.

The Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office identified two of the dead as a 29-year-old Mexican woman and a 27-year-old man from Honduras. Two other male victims were identified as Mexican nationals, and one of the dead was a 14-year-old boy. Dr. Corinne Stern said hyperthermia was determined to be the cause of death for five of the six victims and was likely the cause of death for all six, pending completion of the remaining autopsies. Identification cards and cellphones led investigators to believe some of the victims came from Mexico and Honduras, and the medical examiner’s office is working with the Mexican consulate to notify families.

Salazar said investigators believe the train originated in Del Rio, where a door was open and people were able to load in before the train split, with half heading to Houston and half to Laredo. The Department of Homeland Security is investigating the case as a potential human smuggling event, underscoring how cargo systems can be exploited across long distances before law enforcement detects the danger.

Union Pacific said it was saddened by the incident and was cooperating with law enforcement. Laredo Mayor Victor D. Treviño called the deaths a reminder of the humanitarian challenges along the border, where the city also serves as a major trade hub. Laredo accounts for roughly 62% of Texas land-port trade, about $340 billion in 2024, making the rail and freight network there both economically vital and vulnerable to abuse.

The case comes a little more than a year after two smugglers were convicted in the 2022 Quintana Road tragedy, the deadliest human-smuggling attempt in U.S. history, a reminder that despite prior prosecutions, the same routes and systems continue to fail the people forced into them.