3 Illegal Alien Sisters Die in Desert Trek

Three sisters from central Mexico who tried to cross a 70-mile stretch of desert in 112-degree heat were found dead from dehydration and exposure, Border Patrol officials in El Centro reported.

A Border Patrol spokesman said the three women from Guanajuato state, Mexico, were found Sunday within a mile of each other about 15 miles east of Borrego Springs.

Manuel Cazares, deputy chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector, said Thursday that the sisters tried to make the crossing with nine other family members and close friends. The group had only five gallons of water to share among them--”less than a half-gallon each,” Cazares said.

Authorities were alerted after a boy in the group reached a ranch looking for water. Cazares said patrol agents backtracked to find survivors and found the bodies of the three women who had lagged behind.

Trying to Reach Indio

Cazares said the sisters’ brother told authorities that the group was trying to reach Indio, 70 miles north of the border. They made it about halfway, the agent said.

The victims were identified as Isidra Olivares-Ortiz de Negrete, 35; Audelia Olivares-Ortiz de Martinez, 25, and Balbina Olivares-Ortiz de Pacheco, 30. Two of the sisters had children.

The nine survivors were examined by a physician and returned to Mexicali, he said.

The deaths bring to eight the number of illegal aliens who have died in 1985 of thirst and exposure trying to cross the desert in Imperial County, Cazares said. “We have saved about a dozen others,” he said.