Authorities in Texas have discovered a seventh body connected to a suspected human smuggling operation after six illegal aliens were found dead inside a Union Pacific railcar in Laredo.
The latest victim was found Monday afternoon along railroad tracks in Bexar County near San Antonio, broadening an investigation that began after the six bodies were discovered Sunday at the Union Pacific Railyard in North Laredo.
Investigators believe the deceased man was traveling with the same group found inside the shipping container. Authorities have not publicly identified him, but officials said he was carrying a Mexican voter registration card.
Officials suspect the victims died from hyperthermia after enduring extreme heat inside the sealed railcar. Authorities estimated temperatures inside the container may have reached between 120 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit. On Saturday, temperatures in San Antonio climbed to nearly 90 degrees.
The investigation began after a relative living out of state received frantic text messages Saturday from a woman trapped inside the railcar. According to authorities, the woman wrote that the container was becoming “very, very hot” and that the people inside were in distress.
San Antonio police attempted to locate the train after receiving the information, but were directed to the wrong location and did not find the railcar. Investigators now believe the woman who sent the messages was among those later found dead in Laredo.
Webb County Medical Examiner Dr. Corinne Stern has identified five of the six victims recovered Sunday: a 14-year-old Honduran boy, a 24-year-old Honduran man, a 29-year-old Mexican woman, a 45-year-old Mexican man, and a 56-year-old Mexican man.
Stern said the 29-year-old woman’s death was caused by hyperthermia. Although examinations for the remaining victims are still pending, Stern said it is highly probable that hyperthermia caused the deaths of the entire group. She told the Associated Press the illegal aliens may have suffered inside the container for nearly eight hours.
Authorities said the train originated in Del Rio, near the U.S.-Mexico border. Electronic sensors designed to alert railroad officials when a container door opens were triggered multiple times during the trip, including in Del Rio, Laredo, and San Antonio.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said investigators believe smugglers, commonly referred to as coyotes, may have opened the railcar from the outside during the journey.
“Those cars can’t be opened from the inside. (…) We think it was a coyote who opened the door from the outside,” Salazar said during a Monday press conference, El País 50 reported.
Officials said the seventh body was discovered after railroad police and federal agents began patrolling tracks in the San Antonio area following the weekend sensor alerts.
“The fact that a sensor hit from here indicates someone opened that from outside,” a Bexar County spokesperson told Fox 4 KDFW. “Our belief at this point is that it was most likely smugglers that opened it from the outside at some point discovered this body and then, for whatever reason, dumped him out to avoid accountability.”
Federal authorities are investigating the case as a possible human trafficking operation. Homeland Security Investigations, the Laredo Police Department, and the Texas Rangers are involved in the inquiry.
The corridor between Laredo and San Antonio has long been used by smugglers transporting illegal aliens deeper into Texas and other parts of the country. The region was also the site of a deadly 2022 smuggling tragedy in which more than 50 illegal aliens died inside a sweltering tractor-trailer traveling from Laredo to San Antonio.
Migration across the southern border continues to carry significant risks, including exposure to extreme heat and exploitation by human traffickers. The International Organization for Migration reported in April that at least 414 illegal aliens died or disappeared in the Americas during 2025, with roughly 41% occurring along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Authorities are asking anyone who may have witnessed suspicious activity near the railroad tracks on Saturday to contact the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
