4 Bodies Found in River Near Mexico Border

Four bodies and what may be a bundle of marijuana were found in the New River near an area known to be a crossing point for drug smugglers, authorities said.

An employee of the Imperial County Public Works Department noticed an unusually foul odor coming from the badly polluted river and spotted the bodies Saturday afternoon about a mile north of the border between California and Mexico.

The first, that of a man wearing blue jeans, was recovered later that day. The other bodies, which also appeared to be male, were recovered early Sunday, said Tony Rouhotas Sr., commander of the sheriff’s Underwater Recovery Team.

“The bodies were very badly decomposed,” Rouhotas said. “It’s very unusual to find this many people together. The length of time they were in the water is extremely hard to tell because the bodies decompose three to five times faster because of the toxic water conditions.”

The New River, one of North America’s most polluted waterways, runs north from Mexico.

“We have no idea how they got there,” Assistant County Sheriff Michael Hackett said Saturday. “They don’t appear to be bound or gagged. At this time we don’t know whether they went in voluntarily and drowned or were murdered or dumped.”

Autopsies were to be performed Tuesday.