Six found dead in boxcar in Mexico-U.S. border town

Police in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday found six people dead inside a railway boxcar, spokesman Joe Baeza told local news outlet 24/7 Laredo. The group included six men and one woman, he said, without providing details on their ages or nationalities. A railway employee discovered the group during an inspection at the Port Laredo Terminal, one of the busiest land ports between the United States and Mexico. Police did not find any living people in the car, Baeza said.

Union Pacific railroad said in a statement to WORLD Monday that it was saddened by the incident and was working closely with law enforcement to investigate.

The investigation was in its early stages, and police did not yet know whether the boxcar had been northbound or southbound, Baeza said Sunday. Laredo Police had encountered people hidden in boxcars several times before, sometimes because they banged on the walls asking for help, he said.

Authorities would likely perform autopsies on the victims to determine their cause of death, Baeza said. Spring weather in Laredo has been hot—for example, reaching 97 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday afternoon.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on charges against a Texas man for a shooting in Washington, D.C.