Published: 07.02.2007

Officials recover three bodies from desert
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The summer heat wave continues to take its toll on illegal border crossers trying to traverse the Arizona desert.

Officials found three bodies Friday through Monday and have now discovered 15 bodies in the past 18 days.

Temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees daily in that span, and eclipsed 106 each of the past six days.

In the first incident, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Border Patrol agents found the body of a 30-year-old Mexican woman half a mile north of Arivaca Road and nine miles east of Arizona 286, said Jesus Rodriguez, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. A rancher from the Marley Cattle Company called to report a deceased woman at that location, he said.

Agents arrived to find the deceased woman's sister and a family friend sitting with her, Rodriguez said. The Pima County Sheriff's Department took custody of the body and the Border Patrol took the two survivors, he said.

Then, on Saturday at 1:30 a.m., about 95 miles southeast of Tucson near Montezuma Pass in the Coronado National Monument, Border Patrol agents found the body of Marta Yolanda Gonzalez-Pineda, 34, of Jalapa, Guatemala, said Carol Capas, a Cochise County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.

The dead woman's sister, Angela Gonzalez-Pineda, told officers treating her for dehydration that she carried her sister for some time after she started complaining of stomach and knee pains, Capas said. Between 8 and 9 p.m., she left her unconscious sister behind to go get help, she said. The surviving sister was turned over to the Border Patrol, Capas said.

And early Monday, officials discovered the skeletal remains of a suspected illegal entrant about 35 miles southeast of Tucson near the Batamote Ranch north of Arivaca Road area, Rodriguez said. Due to the advanced stage of decomposition, officials were unable to determine the person's sex or age.

Since the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1, agents in the Tucson Sector have found at least 113 bodies. The agency reported having found 109 bodies through June 26 but declined to provide an updated number Monday.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/190156