Border Patrol finds 4 bodies in Sunland Park desert as death toll rises

Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times
Updated ·1 min read
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U.S. Border Patrol agents found four bodies in the desert surrounding Sunland Park, New Mexico, among about 20 lives lost in the area in just over a month.

As day-after-day of 100-degree heat continues to blanket the Borderland, deaths in the desert are being discovered every few days in the border migrant smuggling zone in New Mexico, just west of El Paso.

The Sunland Park Fire Department said on X that the bodies found on Monday, June 1, were located in the desert between the 5600 block of McNutt Road and Bi-National Avenue, which is near the Santa Teresa border crossing on the U.S.-Mexico border.

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The Sunland Park Fire Department assists the U.S. Border Patrol and Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office with the recovery of a body in the desert in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on June 25, 2024.
The Sunland Park Fire Department assists the U.S. Border Patrol and Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office with the recovery of a body in the desert in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on June 25, 2024.

The deaths are under investigation by the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office, the Sunland Park Police Department and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator.

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Four bodies were found by the U.S. Border Patrol on Monday, July 1, 2024, in the desert in Sunland Park, New Mexico, between McNutt Road on the north and Bi-National Avenue near the Santa Teresa port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border, seen here on a Google map.
Four bodies were found by the U.S. Border Patrol on Monday, July 1, 2024, in the desert in Sunland Park, New Mexico, between McNutt Road on the north and Bi-National Avenue near the Santa Teresa port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border, seen here on a Google map.

The identities of the deceased have not been disclosed, but they were likely undocumented migrants, who have been known to perish due to heat stroke after getting disoriented and lost in the desert after crossing the border wall.

There have been about 20 deaths in the Sunland Park area since the end of May, according to a rough estimate of reported cases, including three people who died in the Rio Grande on June 25 at the edge of Texas and New Mexico.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: US Border Patrol finds 4 bodies as New Mexico desert death toll grows