Honduras investigates possible third victim immigrant found dead in wagon in Texas
Forensic authorities investigating whether another Honduran died due to extreme heat inside the train
The Honduran authorities are investigating a third national immigrant who could have died inside a freight car in the city border ad of Laredo, Texas, reported this Wednesday by the director of Consular Affairs of the Chancellery of Tegucigalpa, Flabia Zamora.
“On May 12, we received information from the forensic medical authorities of Laredo through our Consulate General in McAllen, where they reported to us the death of seven migrants within a train car in Laredo. Inside these seven migrants there were two Hondurans, who were fully identified by fingerprints by forensic medicine,” said Zamora on social networks.
He added that “there is currently a third party who is presumed to be Honduran and who is in the investigation process. This is Josué Zerón Valdez, the third victim who we were confirming that is a Honduran,” he stressed.
The official pointed out that the two victims are the boy Nelson David Portillo, fourteen years old, who was originally from La Masica , department of Atlántida, in the Honduran Caribbean, and Denis Anariba, 25 years old, natural from El Negrito, department of Yoro (north).
He also said that the Secretary of Foreign Relations maintains communication with the minor's mother, who “is in Mexico and has confirmed stated that “he would be repatriated to Honduras once the authorities of Laredo determine that the action of return to the country can proceed.”
Regarding the body of Denis Anariba, “we have established communication with his wife, who has informed us that he will not be repatriated to Honduras,” Zamora emphasized.
“The preliminary forensic medicine report determines that the cause of death was due to heat stroke due to being under extreme temperatures inside the car,” he added.
United States forensic authorities confirmed on Tuesday that the six people found dead inside a freight train car in the border city of Laredo were Mexican and Honduran nationalities.
The remains of a seventh person, who could be the third Honduran, were later found at another site nearby.
According to Webb County Medical Examiner Corinne Stern, it is “very likely” that excess heat was the cause of death for “the entire group.”
The deceased were identified as two Hondurans, a 24 year-old man and a 14 year-old young man, and four Mexicans gray hair, among them a 29 year-old woman, a 45 year-old and another 56-year-old, said Corinne Stern, in a statement.