Border Patrol agents found the remains of five bodies in the desert west of Tucson, Arizona about a week ago. The skeletal remains appear to be homicide victims and they could've been in the desert for as long as a year.
The remains were found 12 miles northwest of Sells, on the Tohono O'odham Reservation in Arizona, an area often used by smugglers. They were covered with rocks, sand and a tarp. After a preliminary examination, Pima County Chief Medical Examiner, Gregory Hess said trauma to the bones indicated that the five had either been bludgeoned or shot to death.
"We are treating it as a likely homicide. However, we don't know how those injuries were inflicted yet, and whether or not those injuries were blunt force injuries that caused the bones to be traumatized or were gunshot injuries," explained Hess, adding that he thinks bodies might have been in the desert for a year before being discovered.
"We believe that they are the remains of five foreign nationals who were killed either there or somewhere else and put in that location," he said, explaining later that they're not sure of the gender of the victims. "We can't determine if they are all males yet," but most of the remains appear to be adults, although an age range can't immediately be determined. "We're trying to sort it out. It's going to take us some time."
Hess also explained that based on their clothing, they were probably not U.S. citizens, and personal effects, including currency, found with the remains were "consistent" with them being from "Mexico or Central America, or somewhere else."
Tribal police said the five deaths were being categorized as suspicious based on conditions at the scene in the desert, which is often used as a smuggling corridor for human and drug smugglers from Mexico, and while deaths are not uncommon among border crossers, they are most likely caused by heat exposure in the summer months.
Tohono O'odham Police Chief Joseph Delgado said the investigation was continuing and no other information was immediately available.
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