Body of 7-year-old girl from India found in Arizona desert
Jun 14, 2019, 11:30 AM | Updated: 3:15 pm
(Getty Images Photo/Joe Raedle via Newsmakers)
(Getty Images Photo/Joe Raedle via Newsmakers)
PHOENIX — The body of a 7-year-old girl from India was found in the southern Arizona desert Wednesday morning.
The girl had been traveling with four people dropped near the U.S.-Mexico border by human smugglers, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection press release.
Tucson Sector agents said two women from India told them they had become separated from a woman and her two children in the group.
Agents took the women into custody, searched the area and found the girl’s remains 17 miles west of Lukeville.
A deceased child, believed to be a seven-year-old citizen of India, was discovered 17 miles west of Lukeville by U.S. Border Patrol yesterday morning. Bi-national search for anyone associated continues. @CBP #TucsonSector Details: https://t.co/tQAxifezk5 pic.twitter.com/XBJkDpJH02
— CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) June 13, 2019
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department recovered the remains, the release said.
CBP said the mother and her 8-year-old daughter were located Thursday night and were hospitalized for dehydration.
According to the release, the area where the girl was found is a “rugged desert wilderness” with few roads and resources. The high temperature for the day was 108 degrees.
“Our sympathies are with this little girl and her family,” Tucson Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal said in the release.
“This is a senseless death driven by cartels who are profiting from putting lives at risk.”
