LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A South Texas medical examiner believes heat stroke may have led to the death of six people thought to be immigrants who were found Sunday afternoon inside a boxcar at a Union Pacific rail yard near the Mexico border in Laredo, Texas.
The people were found Sunday as workers were inspecting one of the cars, said Jose Baeza, a spokesperson for the Laredo Police Department.
Police and fire crews arrived at the scene shortly afterward. They confirmed that there were six people dead, five men and one woman, Baeza told reporters.
Dr. Corinne Stern, the Webb County Medical Examiner, is conducting autopsies and completed one for a 29-year-old Mexican woman who died of hyperthermia, or heat stroke. “I’ve ruled that an accidental death,” she said. “I believe that the remaining individuals probably all succumbed to heat stroke as well, but their exams are not completed at this time, so I will not rule on their cause and manner yet.”