Desert heat claims 5 lives over weekend Associated Press
May. 23, 2005 06:30 AM
TUCSON - Five suspected undocumented immigrants who died from heat exposure were found over the weekend, their bodies scattered from Yuma County to east of Tucson.
Illegal border crossers are facing near-record temperatures through Tuesday. Sunday topped out at 109 degrees in Tucson, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Meyer.
Those scorching temperatures have U.S. Border Patrol officials worried.
"With this heat coming in, it doesn't look good, but we'll do the best we can," said Joe Brigman, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma sector, where 14 deaths have been recorded since the beginning of the federal fiscal year Oct. 1.
Agents discovered the bodies of two young women crossing the border along the Barry Goldwater Range.
In separate incidents on Saturday, Border Patrol agents were alerted to the deaths by the women's husbands, who came searching for assistance.
The Yuma County Sheriff's Office identified the women as 18-year-old Viridiana Herrera-Aguilar of Tlachichuca, Puebla, Mexico, and 24-year-old Marcela Cruz-Gonzalez, whose home town was was not disclosed.