U.S. authorities are searching for a woman and child whom they say abandoned the body of a seven-year-old Indian girl.
Border Patrol agents on the southern border believe the girl died Wednesday after human smugglers forced her and others to cross the border illegally in a remote section of the Arizona-Mexico border, according to Customs and Border Protection.
“This is a senseless death driven by cartels who are profiting from putting lives at risk,” said Tucson Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal said in a statement. “Our sympathies are with this little girl and her family,”
Agents from the Tucson region took two Indian women into custody earlier this week who told them a woman and two children who had traveled with them got separated while crossing. The group began its trek across the border early in the morning and the high temperature for Wednesday was 108 degrees, according to the agency.
The agency said it deployed aircraft and helicopters from the National Guard and their own Air and Marine Operations team, and called in the elite Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue Unit as well as agents from other parts of the state, federal land agents, and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff’s department officials found the child’s body. Border Patrol agents said they found two sets of footprints that indicated the woman and other child walked back to Mexico.
Smugglers likely used a Mexican highway that runs parallel to the border to get the group of five close before telling them where to cross and letting them go.
Border Patrol did not indicate if authorities know who the victim’s parents are or if the Indian embassy in Washington had been notified of the girl’s death.
